The credit belongs to those who are actually in the arena...if they fail, fail while doing greatly, so that their place shall never be with those cold, timid souls who know neither victory nor defeat.
–Theodore Roosevelt
True to their word, the rank and file, certain members of the service assigned to One PP, and the PBA—spearheaded by past and present administrations—called for and received an investigation into the Phil Cardillo murder and subsequent police investigation. This Special Prosecutor's Inquiry, presided over by the one time ADA homicide bureau chief, John F. Keenan, found that the NYPD's own investigation of the Phil Cardillo murder was curtailed in deference to fears of civil unrest in the black community, and that certain police officials had been derelict in their duty, committing inexcusable failures to follow elementary detective procedures. This grand jury investigation, in furtherance, stated: political figures had impeded the homicide investigation. The grand jury, however, could not recommend removal or disciplinary action against these officials because all of the principal actors in this transaction were no longer in office. The jury asserted that it had heard ninety-five witnesses but that there were persistent lapses of memory among high-ranking officials. There was a concerted and orchestrated effort by members and former members of the police department to impede the murder investigation and the jury's own inquiry. Out of those ninety-five witnesses, I was not called in to testify.
Vito Navarra was transferred to the Brooklyn South Detective Bureau, where he was promoted twice, to the rank of detective first grade, retiring after his twentieth year of duty.
John Van Lindt and Jim Harmon left the Manhattan DA's office, successfully transitioning into private practice in the New York area.
Foster 2X Thomas and Loretta Harris, after a short stint in the Federal Witness Protection Program, quietly reentered New York and reestablished themselves in the Nation of Islam in Mosque Number 7.
Louis Farrakhan married Elijah Muhammad's daughter in Chicago. Shortly after Muhammad's death, he became the controversial head imam to the entire Nation of Islam in Chicago, Illinois, where he remains to this day.
Lewis 17X Dupree continued living a duplicitous life as a part-time Black Muslim, part-time criminal entrepreneur. At one point, I received information that he had set himself up as a narcotics distributor, with a route that stretched as far south as North Carolina. After passing this intelligence on to the Queens Narcotics Bureau, a case was developed and enhanced on him. He was subsequently arrested by the FBI in North Carolina on drug-trafficking charges, where he was convicted and sentenced to fifteen years in federal prison. During his trial, and after his conviction, I repeatedly sent him letters in an earnest attempt to give him the opportunity to put closure to the murder of Phil Cardillo. Dupree, who had by then changed his name to Khalid Ali, understood that double jeopardy—he could not be tried twice for the same crime—was in play. He agreed to talk with Jim Harmon and myself with the guarantee that he not be sent to the Georgia correctional facility where he was set to serve out his sentence. The day before he was to meet with us, we received a call from a Nation of Islam lawyer, stating that Khalid—Dupree—had a change of heart, declining our offer to talk and deal. He remains in Georgia State Penitentiary.
Joy Cardillo, represented by Jack Haugh and Jim Harmon, sued the New York City Police Department in a wrongful death suit purported upon her husband, Phil Cardillo. Rather than face a lengthy, expensive, and detrimental civil trial, the NYPD offered her a one-million-dollar settlement. She declined, took the NYPD to trial, and won, thus exonerating her husband of any malfeasance or wrongdoing. She was awarded four million dollars in damages.
At the end of my sixtieth day of suspension, I was officially retired from the NYPD. After numerous calls to the personnel section, trying to secure my pistol carry permit, I was told there was no record that I had ever worked for the New York City Police Department. I had been successfully erased from the databases and memory of the job. I immediately drove to the Hawthorne Police Barracks in Westchester County, New York, where I applied for and received a New York State pistol permit. Within the year, I received an order from the police department that I was going to be awarded the highest citation available for my work in the Cardillo case. I respectfully asked for my name to be removed from that order. I refused the citation. Through my continued unofficial—working relationship—with the FBI I learned that my name has come up numerous times on wiretaps suggesting that there is still a collectible bounty of 50,000 dollars on my head. This has led me to lead a life of anonymity, living out of a post office box in an undisclosed location.