Killer with a Badge [Paperback]

Chuck Hustmyre (Author)

Book Description

Series: Berkley True Crime | Publication Date: November 2, 2004

The shocking true story of a cop-on-cop killing.

On March 4th, 1995, a New Orleans police officer shot a fellow off-duty cop and two innocent bystanders at a Vietnamese restaurant. She then responded to their call for help, as though she knew nothing of what had transpired. This is the story of her rise through the corrupted ranks, her crime, and her capture.

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Chuck Hustmyre is a retired federal agent with more than 20 years of law enforcement experience. He is now a full-time investigative reporter and crime writer and has written more than 600 magazine and newspaper articles as well as the true crime book An Act of Kindness and the novel House of the Rising Sun. --This text refers to an alternate Paperback edition.

Product Details

• Paperback: 352 pages
• Publisher: Berkley (November 2, 2004)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0425199940
• ISBN-13: 978-0425199947
• Product Dimensions: 6.7 x 4 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 7.2 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (16 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #680,152 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

I grew up in Baton Rouge, Louisiana and spent 20 years in law enforcement, the last 13 or so in New Orleans. I'm a retired federal agent, but I have always had a passion for writing. I started my first novel in junior high. I didn't finish that one, so I started another one in high school. I didn't finish that one either.

In college I was only an average (perhaps slightly below average) English student, but one assignment involved finishing a short story that stopped in the middle. I remember the story was about a family on a trip and their car had a flat tire in the middle of nowhere. I thought the set up called for some action, so I had escaped convicts hiding out near the family's broken down car. The prisoners attacked the father as he was changing the tire, and he beat them to death with a tire iron. I thought I would surely get an "F" on the assignment. I didn't think the teacher was looking for Conan the Barbarian meets Ward Clever.

To my utter astonishment I got an "A" on the paper.

Then life, kids, and police work got in the way of writing and I didn't pick it up again until the mid-1990s when I got hurt at work and was home recuperating. I wrote -- and finished this time -- a novel. I got an agent but he couldn't sell it. So I wrote another one, HOUSE OF THE RISING SUN, and sold it to a small publisher. After that I turned to nonfiction. I wrote several magazine articles, the first of which was about a shootout I was in, and then I wrote two nonfiction books for Penguin: KILLER WITH A BADGE and AN ACT OF KINDNESS.

Currently, I'm back working in fiction. My agent is shopping one novel around and I'm working on another. An old writing axiom is to "write what you know," so I write about cops and crime.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

22 of 23 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars EXTREMELY ACCURATE IN DETAIL AND MOOD, January 28, 2005

By 

Ginger, New Orleans "ginger6040" (New Orleans, LA United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Killer with a Badge (Paperback)

I live not only in New Orleans, but close to this incident. The victims are now my neighbors. I know most of the people involved. I was stunned at the care this author took to accurately relay the facts of this case, without unduly dramatizing anything. He perfectly described New Orleans East - the atmosphere - the lingo our natives use - and it makes the story real to me. I was worried since I was so close to the people and the event (I had coffee with the first 2 officers on the scene prior to the incident) I would be annoyed at the author's creative liberty. He did no such thing. He got to the heart of the NOPD at that time, to the individual police officers. And believe me, this is a real review, from a real person, with no tie to this book. (Unlike, possibly, the 'I bought 10 copies as gifts' reviewer). I tried to email the author to relay my thoughts (and memories of the characters in the book) and was unable to locate his email address.

Very impressive.

9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Fascinating, December 15, 2004

By 

P. Michel (Kenner, LA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Killer with a Badge (Paperback)

I live in New Orleans and remember when this crime happened. I am also a big true crime reader. The author did a fine job in telling this story. Antoinette is one of the most cold hearted killers I have ever read about. I could not put this book down.
I highly recommend this book!

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars True Crime Must Read, October 30, 2009

By 

Dan Bogaty "Mr. Congeniality" - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)   

This review is from: KILLER WITH A BADGE (Paperback)

Chuck Hustmyre, a retired ATF agent, is unusual among law enforcement professionals in that he is also an excellent writer. In KILLER WITH A BADGE, he has written a fast paced, thorough, and highly compelling true crime book about the mass murders in a New Orleans Vietnamese restaurant of two of the owners' children, Ha and Cuong Vu, and New Orleans Police Officer Ronnie Williams by seriously mentally ill New Orleans Police Officer Antoinette Frank and her younger felon boyfriend Rogers LaCaze.
Hustmyre not only reports the practically minute by minute action of the 24 hour period following the killings from crime scene to interviews to arrests, but he also weaves in the telling history of Frank's abysmal job performance on the force for the previous year as well as succinct summaries of both Franks' and LaCaze's trials.
Franks' childhood and young adulthood are discussed in sufficient detail that the reader begins to understand that something had been wrong with her for a long time, and one of the main stories here is that Frank, a woman who failed numerous NOPD psychological tests and interviews and who was deemed emotionally unsuitable for police work, was hired anyway by a force that ignored its own recommendations.

The only problem I had with the book - and it's minor - is that the only picture of Frank is grainy and it's hard to tell what she looks like. This would seem to be relatively simple and should have been better.
But KILLER WITH A BADGE is a fast paced, intense and outstanding book. Unreservedly recommended