The Passage
Memoir of a Boston Undercover Cop in the '60s
by
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The intermittent flashes from the strobe flicked off her frail body, seemingly locking it into a thousand positions of brilliantly displayed animated movements. The florescent posters beat synchronously with each illuminated seizure, contributing to the demonic effect that permeated this small room. She struck the image of a wounded chickadee flipping over and over on one wing. Suddenly she held her hand between her legs and discharged a wretched scream. Christopher lost it. He slowly rose to his feet, his progress measured in rapidly escalating lighted intervals, and stood there looking helplessly down at his friend. He was frozen. Perhaps it was a combination of my state hospital and police training, call it what you wish, but I instinctively swung into action. This time I would need to be a blend of cop, psychiatric aide and exorcist! I shouted to the kid in the front of the store to turn everything off, switch on the regular lights and to call an ambulance.
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About the Book
Journey with the author through the labyrinth of Boston’s once infamous Combat Zone - a four block area of concentrated crime, vice and pathos. Peer into the murky world and inner workings of organized crime - prostitution, gaming, pornography and bookmaking. Trace the rudimentary beginnings of his undercover personality known as Mike Russo, whose persona would last a decade. Mike Russo would evolve from a flat unidimensional ‘observe and report’ investigator into a fully immersed and developed character - a free floating, socially conscious, intellectual type with strong feelings against the war in Vietnam and a propensity towards political radicalism. Traits sorely needed for the specialized intelligence gathering that would enable the cops to stay one step ahead of the disruptive elements of the social protest era being violently played out in the streets of Boston and Cambridge. In the end the author would collide with his pseudo-self forcing him to confront his own conscience and choose, not between right from wrong - but right from right. This book ends on a soul-searching and highly dramatic note! He lived this life.
About the Author
An informative and impressionistic account of one Boston Police Department undercover cop’s experiences in the 1960s era. Time travel with ‘Mike Russo’ through the underbelly of Organized Crime played out against the back drop of Boston’s once infamous Combat Zone -to the kaleidoscopic and oft violent world of Social Protest. His pseudo life was destined to span a decade. Phil Vitti retired from the Command Staff of the Boston Police Department on Jan 2, 2003 after 38 years of service. He also served as a Senior Lecturer at University College, Northeastern University. He lives in Wakefield, Massachusetts