{"id":706249,"date":"2026-01-03T20:36:43","date_gmt":"2026-01-03T17:36:43","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/exclusive-i-think-im-going-to-die-today-said-nypd-cop-before-chase\/"},"modified":"2026-01-03T20:36:43","modified_gmt":"2026-01-03T17:36:43","slug":"exclusive-i-think-im-going-to-die-today-said-nypd-cop-before-chase","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/exclusive-i-think-im-going-to-die-today-said-nypd-cop-before-chase\/","title":{"rendered":"Exclusive | &#8216;I think I&#8217;m going to die today,&#8217; said NYPD cop before chase"},"content":{"rendered":"<div id=\"ez-toc-container\" class=\"ez-toc-v2_0_85 counter-hierarchy ez-toc-counter ez-toc-custom ez-toc-container-direction\">\n<p class=\"ez-toc-title\" style=\"cursor:inherit\">Table of Contents<\/p>\n<label for=\"ez-toc-cssicon-toggle-item-6a40e8e117272\" class=\"ez-toc-cssicon-toggle-label\"><span class=\"\"><span class=\"eztoc-hide\" style=\"display:none;\">Toggle<\/span><span class=\"ez-toc-icon-toggle-span\"><svg style=\"fill: #dd3333;color:#dd3333\" xmlns=\"http:\/\/www.w3.org\/2000\/svg\" class=\"list-377408\" width=\"20px\" height=\"20px\" viewBox=\"0 0 24 24\" fill=\"none\"><path d=\"M6 6H4v2h2V6zm14 0H8v2h12V6zM4 11h2v2H4v-2zm16 0H8v2h12v-2zM4 16h2v2H4v-2zm16 0H8v2h12v-2z\" fill=\"currentColor\"><\/path><\/svg><svg style=\"fill: #dd3333;color:#dd3333\" class=\"arrow-unsorted-368013\" xmlns=\"http:\/\/www.w3.org\/2000\/svg\" width=\"10px\" height=\"10px\" viewBox=\"0 0 24 24\" version=\"1.2\" baseProfile=\"tiny\"><path d=\"M18.2 9.3l-6.2-6.3-6.2 6.3c-.2.2-.3.4-.3.7s.1.5.3.7c.2.2.4.3.7.3h11c.3 0 .5-.1.7-.3.2-.2.3-.5.3-.7s-.1-.5-.3-.7zM5.8 14.7l6.2 6.3 6.2-6.3c.2-.2.3-.5.3-.7s-.1-.5-.3-.7c-.2-.2-.4-.3-.7-.3h-11c-.3 0-.5.1-.7.3-.2.2-.3.5-.3.7s.1.5.3.7z\"\/><\/svg><\/span><\/span><\/label><input type=\"checkbox\"  id=\"ez-toc-cssicon-toggle-item-6a40e8e117272\" checked aria-label=\"Toggle\" \/><nav><ul class='ez-toc-list ez-toc-list-level-1 ' ><li class='ez-toc-page-1 ez-toc-heading-level-1'><a class=\"ez-toc-link ez-toc-heading-1\" href=\"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/exclusive-i-think-im-going-to-die-today-said-nypd-cop-before-chase\/#%E2%80%9CExclusive_%E2%80%98I_think_Im_going_to_die_today_said_NYPD_cop_before_chase%E2%80%9D\" >&#8220;Exclusive | &#8216;I think I&#8217;m going to die today,&#8217; said NYPD cop before chase&#8221;<\/a><\/li><\/ul><\/nav><\/div>\n<h1><span class=\"ez-toc-section\" id=\"%E2%80%9CExclusive_%E2%80%98I_think_Im_going_to_die_today_said_NYPD_cop_before_chase%E2%80%9D\"><\/span>&#8220;Exclusive | &#8216;I think I&#8217;m going to die today,&#8217; said NYPD cop before chase&#8221;<span class=\"ez-toc-section-end\"><\/span><\/h1>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/nypost.com\/wp-content%2Fuploads%2Fsites%2F2%2F2026%2F01%2F118078580.jpg?quality%3D90%26strip%3Dall\" \/><\/p>\n<div>\n<p>In his real life, retired NYPD Detective Randy Jurgensen busted cop killers, drug dealers and street corner  goons \u2014 but in his reel life he was the guy who whacked the godfather\u2019s first born.<\/p>\n<p>During his storied two-decade career with New York\u2019s Finest and beyond, Jurgensen, 92, worked on more than 40 Hollywood films and television shows \u2014 from playing a cop in \u201cThe French Connection,\u201d a wiseguy in \u201cDonnie Brasco\u201d and a killer in \u201cThe Godfather.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI really became known as the man who shot Sonny Corleone at the toll booth and I\u2019m on the poster,\u201d he told The Post ahead of being honored by the Detectives Endowment Association on Jan. 13 in Manhattan. \u201cI machine-gunned him. That\u2019s how I came into show business.\u201d<\/p>\n<figure class=\"nyp-slideshow-modal-image wp-block-image aligncenter size-large\"><figcaption>Gene Hackman played Popeye Doyle in \u201cThe French Connection,\u201d which retired Detective Randy Jurgensen (second from left) had a role in. <span class=\"credit\">\u00a920thCentFox\/Courtesy Everett Collection<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>It all started in the 1960s with a call from his boyhood friend, NYPD Detective Sonny Grosso, who told him to come to the East River to meet \u201cFrench Connection\u201d director William Friedkin.<\/p>\n<p>The director wanted Jurgensen to help make actors Gene Hackman and Roy Scheider into detectives to add realism to the 1971 Academy Award-winning movie, which was based on a true story about a major heroin bust involving real life Detectives Eddie Egan and Grosso.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cMy job was to take them from the reel world that they lived in and bring them into the real world that I lived in \u2013 and they came with me,\u201d he said.\u00a0<\/p>\n<aside class=\"single__inline-module aligncenter wp-block-nypost-editor-primary-tag\">\n<\/aside>\n<p>He taught them how to break down doors, frisk people and handle \u201cshooting galleries\u201d among other things.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI made them narcotics detectives,\u201d he said. \u201cThat took weeks and weeks.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>At one point, Friedkin asked Jurgensen to ride in the Pontiac LeMans\u2019 passenger seat during the movie\u2019s iconic chase scene and operate a camera that was attached to the front bumper.<\/p>\n<figure class=\"nyp-slideshow-modal-image wp-block-image aligncenter size-large\"><figcaption>Roy Scheider and Randy Jurgensen in the 1977 film \u201cSorcerer.\u201d <span class=\"credit\">\u00a9Universal\/Courtesy Everett Collection<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<figure class=\"nyp-slideshow-modal-image wp-block-image aligncenter size-large\"><figcaption>Randy Jurgensen received a Purple Heart for his service in Korea. <span class=\"credit\">Christopher Sadowski<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>Knowing the thrilling stunt would involve the car speeding along the street like a bat out of hell, Jurgensen said he suggested the patrolmen monitoring the filming grab a cup of joe.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI went to the police officers and I told them \u2018The van over there, the coffee is hot. It\u2019s real good,\u2019\u201d Jurgensen recalled. \u201cAnd the six or seven of them walked away.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Jurgensen then climbed into the muscle car\u2019s passenger seat, with Friedkin in the back seat and a stunt man driving the car.<\/p>\n<p>The cameraman pleaded to get into the car, too, but the director told him no because he had a family \u2013 a danger Jurgensen was well aware of.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI sort of said to myself, \u2018I think today I\u2019m going to die,&#8217;\u201d recalled the decorated detective, who served as a U.S. Army paratrooper in the Korean War.<\/p>\n<figure class=\"nyp-slideshow-modal-image wp-block-image aligncenter size-large\"><figcaption>The Al Pacino movie \u201cCruising\u201d was based on a case Jurgensen (second from left) investigated about gay men being killed on the Lower East Side in the 1970s. <span class=\"credit\">\u00a9United Artists\/Courtesy Everett Collection<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<figure class=\"nyp-slideshow-modal-image wp-block-image aligncenter size-large\"><figcaption>Randy Jurgensen (left) pointing a gun in the \u201cFrench Connection\u201d in 1971. <span class=\"credit\">Alamy Stock Photo<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>The muscle car did 65 mph for 19 blocks tracing the elevated B\/D subway tracks on 86th Street in Bensonhurst, Brooklyn, to make the famous six-minute scene, \u201ccareening off a city bus\u201d and losing a side mirror at one point, he said. There were no lights or sirens, despite some\u00a0 reports, Jurgensen said.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cNow, we turn the car around and \u2026 and Billy says, \u2018Let\u2019s do it again,\u2019\u201d he recalled. \u201cI heard click click, click click. I said, \u2018We\u2019re out.\u2019 Billy said \u2018So what?\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n<p>During the filming, Jurgensen became close friends with Hackman, who played Jimmy \u201cPopeye\u201d Doyle.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThere\u2019s a line in the \u2018French Connection\u2019 where Roy Scheider comes up to him with a cup of coffee when they\u2019re standing outside freezing and says \u2018Here\u2019s vino,\u2019\u201d Jurgensen recalled. \u201cAnd Gene says, \u2018Pour it in your ear.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n<figure class=\"nyp-slideshow-modal-image wp-block-image aligncenter size-large\"><figcaption>Al Pacino and Randy Jurgensen in the 1980 movie \u201cCruising.\u201d <span class=\"credit\">\u00a9United Artists\/Courtesy Everett Collection<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>That line became a running joke between Jurgensen and Hackman throughout their friendship and up to the Oscar winner\u2019s death last year.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Jurgensen said he realized the actor was slipping when he confused Jurgensen with Grosso at a book signing a few years ago. Grosso had died in 2020.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI knew that there was a problem because he wrote a book and he was in New York City and I stood online and I had a cup of coffee and when I got to him I said, \u2018Here, Gene, here\u2019s your vino,\u201d Jurgensen recalled. \u201cHe laughed and then he began to call me Sonny. I knew right there something was wrong.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The hard-nosed detective said he still can\u2019t shake one real life case \u2014 the April 20, 1972, murder of Police Officer Phillip Cardillo, who was lured to Nation of Islam mosque No. 7 in Harlem by a bogus call of an officer in need of assistance.<\/p>\n<p>Once inside, the officers were overpowered by mosque members and one of them fired a gun and struck Cardillo. At the time, worshippers said that the cops interrupted their prayers with their guns drawn.<\/p>\n<p>When the bosses arrived, \u201cThey told all the white cops to leave,\u201d he said.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>They also let the witnesses leave without interviewing them and didn\u2019t secure the crime scene, he said. As a result, there weren\u2019t ballistics or photographs from the scene.<\/p>\n<p>Jurgensen stepped in as the lead investigator on the racially charged case in the NYPD\u2019s 28 Precinct, but he didn\u2019t have the support of then-Mayor John Lindsay, the police commissioner and other city leaders, he said.<\/p>\n<figure class=\"nyp-slideshow-modal-image wp-block-image aligncenter size-large\"><figcaption>Jurgensen in front of Mosque 7 in Harlem\u2019s 28 Precinct where NYPD Officer Phillip Cardillo was shot and killed.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>\u201cI found at one point that I was the only one looking for the person who shot Phil Cardillo,\u201d Jurgensen said.<\/p>\n<p>But with the help of FBI agent Joseph Pistone, who was the basis for the 1997 mob movie \u201cDonnie Brasco,\u201d the detective found a sole witness.<\/p>\n<p>The witness was a mosque member who said he saw another member named Louis 17X Dupree shoot Cardillo to death. Jurgensen arrested Dupree but had to live with the witness for two years in Upstate safehouses to protect him.<\/p>\n<p>But when the trial h<a href=\"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/category\/download-scripts-themes-apps\/\" data-internallinksmanager029f6b8e52c=\"9\" title=\"Download Scripts &amp; Themes &amp; Apps\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">app<\/a>ened, the suspect was acquitted.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThat case took a lot out of me,\u201d said the detective, who is making a documentary called \u201cReel Cop\u201d with\u00a0Samuelson Studios.<\/p>\n<p>In 1975, Jurgensen went to San Francisco and arrested the killers of Patrolmen Joseph Piagentini and Waverly Jones, who were shot by members of the Black Liberation Army in an ambush but the city, which was having a fiscal crisis, didn\u2019t have the money to bring them back.<\/p>\n<p>Luckily, one of the detectives on the West Coast had a cousin who was an airline pilot.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe had a meeting and he said, \u2018Put the bastards on this flight, I\u2019m the captain,\u2019\u201d Jurgensen revealed to The Post. \u201cThat\u2019s how we brought the cop killers back.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The DEA said it would be presenting Jurgensen with an award at the event later this\u00a0month.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cHe never strayed from the mission, always honoring his oath to protect, to serve and to honor,\u201d DEA President Scott Munro said. \u201cWe salute him.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<blockquote><p><strong><span style=\"color: #ff6600;\">If you liked the article, do not forget to share it with your friends. 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During his storied two-decade career with New&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fifu_image_url":"","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[70897],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-706249","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/706249","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=706249"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/706249\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=706249"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=706249"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=706249"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}