By LEONARD GREENE
Posted: 4:31 am
October 9, 2008
"Life on Mars" features an NYPD detective who seemingly travels back to 1973 New York City. Here are some of the most sensational crimes New York's Finest were dealing with at that time:
DAWN OF THE DON
Jimmy McBratney is shot and killed after fighting with three Gambino crime family capos posing as detectives. The reported triggerman, a 32-year-old John Gotti, would rise through the ranks to become the mob boss.
KILLER ON THE RUN
Black Panther activist JoAnne Chesimard, one of six suspects in the ambush of four NYC police officers, was pulled over by the NJ State Police. She got into a shootout that resulted in the death of one of the troopers. Chesimard spent 6 12 years in prison before escaping in 1979 and moving to Cuba.
CROOKED COP
In February, nearly 400pounds of narcotics from the NYPD property clerk were signed out in the name of a single detective, Joseph Nunziata, whose death months earlier was ruled a suicide.Some of the drugs were confiscated in the 1962 "French Connection" case.
ORIGINAL MOMSTER
An appeals court overturned the conviction of Alice Crimmins, who was accused of murdering her 4- year-old girl and 5-year-old boy in 1965. A judge wrote that the reversal was mandatory because the case had been flawed by the conduct of some jurors. Crimmins was retried and convicted of manslaughter.
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