The Soul of a Cop [Paperback]

Paul Ragonese (Author), Berry Stainback (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: December 1992

The most decorated cop in New York City describes his experiences out on his beat, encountering killers, drug dealers, and others and putting his life on the line. Reprint.

Editorial Reviews

From Library Journal

The story of Ragonese's 17 years with the New York Police Department reads like parts of Harvey Rachlin's The Making of a Cop ( LJ 2/1/91), Anthony Schiano's Solo: Self-Portrait of an Undercover Cop ( LJ 1/15/74), and Mark Baker's classic Cops: Their Lives in Their Own Words ( LJ 8/85). His is an exuberant tale of police training, camaraderie, and life on the job--from foot patrol to bomb squad to anti-terrorism to elite anti-crime. It was while working Emergency Services in 1985 that Ragonese added to New York City folklore by attending to a woman pinned dangerously under a crane. The medal he got for that episode was just one of many; promotion, however, was harder to come by. Ragonese speaks openly about this and other dissatisfactions, adding depth to his "as told to" account. For popular criminal justice collections.
-Janice Dunham, John Jay Coll. Lib., New York
Copyright 1991 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From Kirkus Reviews

By 1987, when Ragonese retired from the NYPD after 17 years of service, he'd won over 100 awards, making him the city's most- decorated cop. He won't win another for writing--even with the help of old-hand Stainback (Snake, 1986, etc.)--but his no-frills memoir does deliver plenty of action and a few sharp opinions. What Ragonese doesn't deliver on is the promise of the title. The soul of this cop is plumbed only uniform-deep (a typical reflective passage: ``Like most cops, I've gotten a bang out of arresting bad guys, but it would be nothing like I knew I'd feel rescuing good guys''). What we get instead is a fast-moving stream of the author's exploits, beginning with his most celebrated, keeping alive a woman trapped beneath a toppled construction crane in 1985. A flashback to his working-class Brooklyn boyhood follows, then a tracing of a glittering career in three divisions of the NYPD: an anticrime unit, where Ragonese caught bank robbers, shot a felon, and bucked for a detective's gold shield; EMS, where he grappled with ``jumpers,'' shot a crippled horse, helped a man crushed by a subway train to die with dignity, and finally got his gold shield; and the bomb squad, where he made two discoveries ``I've never been able to reveal publicly until now''--that, at Staten Island's infamous Willowbrook mental institution, he found (and was forced to cover up) a ``chamber of horrors'' strewn with body parts, and that he witnessed the NYPD using its Bronx firing range as a toxic-waste dump. The criticism of the NYPD implicit in both revelations is shadowed throughout, from bald accusations (``The NYPD has always denied that cops have to meet a quota of traffic summonses. That's a lie'') to gripes about office politics and potshots at fellow (pseudonymous) officers, adding spice to an otherwise straightforward chronicle. Meat and potatoes for hard-core cop fans. (Sixteen pages of b&w photos--not seen.) -- Copyright ©1991, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Product Details

• Paperback
• Publisher: St Martins Mass Market Paper (December 1992)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0312928165
• ISBN-13: 978-0312928162
• Product Dimensions: 6.7 x 4.2 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 5.6 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,552,461 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars One of the best "Cop" books I ever read., June 23, 2000

By 

Curtis J. George (Centreville, Maryland) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Soul of a Cop (Paperback)

If you ever wondered what it would be like to be in law enforcement this is the book for you. This is the autobiography of Paul Ragonese one of the most decorated cops in America. As a New York City Police officer, and later detective, he won the medal of valor five times and in 1986 was nominated "Cop of the Year". You may remember him as the host of the television show "Crimestoppers".

This books show you the highs an lows of being a police officer in the big apple. Once you strat reading you will not want to put the book down. When I finished it I wanted even more.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Exhilirating, I couldn't put it down.., June 15, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: The Soul of a Cop (Paperback)

I loved this book. I have always been interested in police work, and this book brought it all to life right in front of my eyes. P. Ragonese was a fine Officer, and all of his duties deserved to be put in such a manner, Thank you Paul for giving us a close-up look of the real world..

5.0 out of 5 stars Top Book of a Top Cop, January 9, 2012

By 

Deborah Yamaguchi (Mililani, HI United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Soul of a Cop (Paperback)

I cried and laughed throughout The Soul of a Cop by Paul Ragonese and Berry Stainback. You cannot beat real life stories. It's seems so unbelievable but truth is truly stranger than fiction. I appreciate this book because Ragonese did not get a free ride to attain his awards. He was just a man who decided to pursue the career that matched his passion and that passion propelled him to persevere through harassment, overlooked promotions, serious injuries and low pay. He touched a lot of lives but suffered a lot along the way. He's a hero as a cop, father, neighbor, and a man who loves his family and his fellow man and who was tough enough to prove it. A very easy read and highly recommended. This is the kind of biographies kids in school should be reading.