90 Church

Inside America's Notorious First Narcotics Squad

By: Agent Dean Unkefer

Narrated by: Keith Szarabajka

Mad Men meets The Wire in this gripping true-crime memoir by a former agent at the Federal Bureau of Narcotics in 1960s New York.

Before Nixon famously declared a "war on drugs", there was the Federal Bureau of Narcotics.

New York City, mid-1960s. The war in Vietnam was on the nation's tongue - but so was something else. Clandestine and chaotic but equally ruthless, the agents of the bureau were feared by the Mafia, dealers, pimps, prostitutes - anyone who did his or her business on the streets. With few rules and almost no oversight, the battle-hardened agents of the bureau were often more vicious than the criminals they chased.

Agent Dean Unkefer was a naïve kid with notions of justice and fair play when he joined up. But all that quickly changed once he got thrown into the lion's den of 90 Church, the headquarters of the Federal Bureau of Narcotics, where he was shocked to see the agents he revered were often more like thugs than lawmen.

When he finally got the chance to prove his mettle by going undercover in the field, the lines became increasingly blurred. As he spiraled into the hell of addiction and watched his life become a complex balancing act of lies and half truths, he began to wonder what side he was really on.

90 Church is both the unbelievable memoir of one man's confrontation with the dark corners of the human experience and a fascinating window into a little-known time in American history. Learn the story of the agents who make the DEA look like choirboys.

©2013 Dean Unkefer (P)2015 Blackstone Audio, Inc.

Greatness

I’m a truck driver and listen to a lot of Audio books. The best so far

Wow! Just wow!

As much as the details of this story were shocking, I really loved this book. Riveting...and kept me glued to it.

AMAZING!!!

this book will keep you hooked from the first word until the last. simply amazing

Maybe a combination of Goodfellas and Keystone Cop

The book starts with a warning from the publisher that what is written in this book could not be verified or confirmed (presumably because nothing was written down and/or everyone involved is dead or in witness protection). But they did make the author pinkie-swear that it is all true. Unfortunately many of the stories are too outlandish to believe as non-fiction even accounting for the haze of drugs and time.

This seemed to be written by a high school boy - he does all the drugs to fit in, drinks all the drinks to drown his sorrows, and all the ladies can't live without him. And then every problem gets wrapped up with a nice little bow. In a shoot-first world everyone dies except the author and his two friends. But they aren't even friends because at every turn they seem to betray him, except they don't it was just part of an ingenious plan in which he is the stooge. Meanwhile, anyone that actually trusted him were killed by some mistake of his or outright turned over to the criminal element for torture and death. And never mind his poor wife at home who he can't stop thinking about. Even while in bed with a crime family heiress or other flavor of the week. But it's all okay because he did it all in the name of the war against drugs. Then the government disbands the group and the only one that didn't know what was going on gets promoted.

Very disappointing book.

the majority of the book read like poorly written fiction. Although, there was likely some sprinklings of truth in the book, it was overshadowed by farcical characters, events, and dialog. It's unfortunate, because there was probably a good story to tell about the FBN in NYC.