Circle of Six is the true story of what is perhaps the most notorious
case in the history of the New York Police Department. It details Randy
Jurgensen's determined effort to bring to justice the murderer of
Patrolman Phillip Cardillo, who was shot and killed inside Harlem's
Mosque #7 in 1972, in the midst of an allout assault on the NYPD from
the Black Liberation Army. The New York of this era was a place not
unlike the Wild West, in which cops and criminals shot it out on a daily
basis.
Despite the mayhem on the streets and the Machiavellian corridors of
Mayor Lindsay's City Hall, Detective Jurgensen singlehandedly took on
the Black Liberation Army, the Nation of Islam, NYPD brass, and City
Hall, capturing Cardillo's killer, Lewis 17X Dupree. He broke the case
with an unlikely accomplice, Foster 2X Thomas, a member of the Nation of
Islam who became Jurgensen's witness. The relationship they formed
during the time before trial gave each of the two men a greater
perspective of the two sides in the street war and changed them forever.
In the end, Jurgensen had to settle for a conviction on other charges,
and Dupree served a number of years. The murder case is still officially
unsolved. In 2006 the NYPD reopened the case, and it is once again an
active investigation with full media attention.
The book has received acclaim from current New York City Police
Commissioner Ray Kelly, as well as former Commissioner William Bratton.
