I worked in the Precinct where he lived and died. I remember the Dakota apartment house as having a very friendly doorman who would let me use his locker room to write affidavits for the tickets I gave to cars and people.

He also would keep an eagle eye out for my Sergeant and give me a heads up if he was around.

Many years later my Sergeant was my Captain and I was now a Lieutenant. He was still a very decent guy.

I tend to remember the good things about me career as a cop and I have long ago forgotten most of the bad but I can still recall the smell of a really ripe DOA.

If you have never experienced it ask a Vietnam Vet or a WWII vet if you can still find any around. The stink of death gets into your pores and lingers for days.

If you want to experience it....take a piece of cheap meat and put it in a garbage can and let it ripen for about 5 days in the sun. After it gets nice ripe and has a coating of maggots all over it open the can and take a deep whiff.

Just think of having to spend 8 hours with a human who smelt like that in a small hotel room. Imagine having to go back to that same room with the same body for 3 days in a row. Those kinds of things happened to rookie cops in the days when I was a rookie.

The ME's office was not in any big rush to pick up a body that was not out in the open displayed to the public. A body in a SRO (Single Room Occupancy) hotel was really low on the priority list.

As a rookie I could count on DOA's and Psycho escorts as a regular item on my menue when I was not FLYING to another precinct to cover an embassy or whatever. It is a wonder more of us did not quit when we first started out.

07 Speedmstr, Long Tors, bags, sissy bar and rack, windshield, engine bars, 2 ww lights, 2 fast eddy stickers and a .45 ACP.