Interview · moment 3 of 12
Becoming a Decoy Cop and Detective
from Least Likely Cop · #114
Audio-only archive episode — no video to seek.
4 minGuest
Bo details his path from beat cop to decoy cop (getting mugged and stabbed hundreds of times as bait) to homicide detective, describing the violent, drug-ridden New York of the 1970s and his growing reputation and respect among criminals.
- 6:55Tim made several hundred thousand a year doing private security details, stuffing unreported cash in his socks and spending it on vacations to Marbella and Paris.
- 7:25People assumed he was on the take, but he was actually just working side gigs while underpaid as a cop.
- 7:43Growing up in Ozone Park surrounded by mobsters like John Gotti and Ralphie Scopo, Bo Diddle never intended to become a cop.
- 8:12His strict German-Italian father beat him with a belt when he missed curfew, which kept him from ending up with airport hijackers.
- 8:57One Saturday hanging on the corner, friends mentioned they were taking a cop test at John Adams High School, so he went and scored a 99 despite thinking it was a moron test.
- 9:22After working brutal construction jobs—including as a connector on the original World Trade Center towers—he watched four people die falling through elevator shafts.
- 9:47At 19, seeing weathered 30-year-old construction workers who looked 50, he decided to try the police force instead of continuing ironwork.
- 10:20Tim had always hated bullies despite being a short guy who had to sleep on the floor to reach five foot eight.
World Trade CenterJohn GottiOzone ParkJohn Adams High SchoolCatania, SicilyKennedy airport