THE BULLDOG DETECTIVE

An informative biography of an effective, little-known New York City police detective who ran the early Secret Service before it became the agency to protect presidents.

Simon, the author of The Alphabet Bomber and Lone Wolf Terrorism, unearths the fascinating story of a determined and, by most accounts, incorruptible detective who garnered national fame for his ability to take down counterfeiters, Mafia members, and terrorists. Born to working-class parents, William Flynn (1867-1928) toiled as a jack-of-all-trades before joining the Secret Service in 1897. “After years of persistence,” writes the author, “he was finally on the career path he’d dreamed about as a child.” The service was then focused on tracking counterfeiters, who were rampant at the time. “I think it was the romance of the counterfeiter’s life that made me lean toward this branch of criminology,” Flynn wrote. After Flynn brought down the “Sausage Man,” who was passing counterfeit $5 bills at butcher shops, and cracked the notorious Morello–Lupo counterfeiting ring, Mayor William J. Gaynor tagged him to become second deputy commissioner of the NYPD. He radically reorganized the structure of the department to mirror rigorous Scotland Yard standards. Appointed to run the national Secret Service just as World War I broke out, he remained largely in New York City, where he targeted German saboteurs. Eventually, notes Simon, he became disenchanted by the bureaucracy, and he left the force in 1917. For two years, he ran the incipient FBI, then called the Bureau of Investigation, but he could not solve the Wall Street bombing of 1919, got caught up in the Palmer raids (led by a young J. Edgar Hoover), and left the BI to start his own detective agency. His detective magazine, Flynn’s, delineating his many exploits, was hugely popular even after his death.

A terrific feat of research that unearths a valiant crime fighter.