He wrote the book on murder

Throughout the international law enforcement community, retired NYPD Lieutenant Commander Vernon Geberth is known as the “Godfather of Homicide” and “the cop who wrote the book on murder.” 

Over the course of his stellar career, which began with his appointment to the NYPD in 1965, he personally investigated, supervised, assessed or consulted on over 8,000 death cases nationwide. As the commander of the Bronx Homicide Task Force, his unit averaged 400 murder investigations a year.

Geberth was the longtime primary instructor at the NYPD’s fabled homicide training course and in fact had written not one but several books on all aspects of murder investigations. Among the titles of his 10 textbooks are “Practical Homicide Investigation Checklist and Field Guide,” “Practical Homicide Investigation: Tactics, Procedures, and Forensic Techniques” and “Sex-Related Homicide and Death Investigations and Autoerotic Deaths: Practical Forensic and Investigative Perspectives” with co-author forensic pathologist Amy Sauvageau.

Geberth spent his childhood in Mt. Vernon, where he developed his fierce work ethic. He served as an altar boy who once traipsed through a blizzard on foot to get to church on time, and worked as a newspaper delivery boy and lifeguard. He was also a Boy Scout and a bugle player for the VFW. 

For as long as he can remember, Geberth’s primary goal was to join the NYPD. To that end, he got himself appointed to the New York World’s Fair Police Department as a wide-eyed 21-year-old in 1964. The provisional department was composed of retired NYPD superior officers who told the young, ambitious Geberth “not to screw up” because he might get on the real job when his name came up.  

Geberth was sworn into the NYPD in April 1965. Before he established himself as one of the nation’s leading authorities on homicide, he was a street cop, compiling a dizzying array of experiences. These included his tenure as a young officer in the NYPD’s legendary Tactical Patrol Force (TPF), an elite and incorruptible unit specifically created in 1959 to augment precinct personnel in crime-ridden communities and maintain crowd control during the violent protests of the late 1960s.

Vernon Geberth as an NYPD tactical patrol officer. He would become an authority on homicide investigations techniques. Courtesy of Vernon Geberth

“I absolutely loved the spit and polish of the TPF,” said the now 81-year-old Geberth. “It was one of the only units you didn’t need a hook to get into. It was filled with gung-ho cops dedicated to doing good police work. It was like being in the Green Berets as opposed to the regular Army. In my opinion, it was the best unit the NYPD ever put together.”  

In April 1971, Geberth was in his personal car returning from court on his day off when he witnessed three mobsters abduct a diamond merchant on a Little Italy street corner. He engaged the kidnappers in a high-speed car chase that ended with a shootout and the merchant’s rescue. One suspect was arrested at the scene. The other two, one of whom was wounded by Geberth, managed to escape, and were never apprehended.

About six years later, Geberth was contacted by a friend in the Intelligence Division who was monitoring an organized crime wiretap. According to written accounts, the subject of the wire, a still relatively unknown up and coming mobster named John Gotti, “alluded to his near capture by some crazy cop with a siren in his personal car that chased him and his partners through Little Italy after a jewelry heist. He couldn’t believe the balls of this maniac.”  

Geberth was promoted in 1971 and returned to TPF as a squad sergeant, before moving into the Organized Crime Control Bureau’s Special Investigations Unit and onto Manhattan North Narcotics.

He was ultimately assigned to the 7th Homicide Division in the South Bronx. Comprising six square miles covering just four precincts, the unit handled up to 225 homicides a year.

“I was like a kid in a candy shop,” said Geberth. “I was fascinated with the work. I learned from the A team of investigators and began going to the library on my days off to learn all I could about gathering forensic evidence and investigating all aspects of homicides. I created checklists, which would later be the nucleus of my first book. There was no Google then and everything was on index catalog cards.”

After being assigned to two Bronx detective squads, Geberth was eventually promoted to lieutenant commander of Bronx Homicide, which he describes as the “epitome of my career.”

“I got better and better at understanding the psychology associated with murder and the follow-up investigation,” said Geberth. “It was my passion.”

Geberth headed up the investigation involving Larry Davis, a suspect in multiple homicides who shot and wounded six police officers who came to question him in November 1986. Davis managed to escape from the scene of the shooting but was captured after a 17-day manhunt. The politically charged case caused an abundance of internecine squabbles so Geberth chose to retire on a high note after Davis’s apprehension.

'Working for God'

Since then, Geberth has conducted worldwide seminars, consulted with police agencies around the globe, and is a charter member of many associations and commissions, including the International Homicide Investigators Association, the United States Association of Professional Investigators and the New York State Governor’s Commission on Domestic Violence Fatalities.

He has served on the faculties of Mercy College, John Jay College of Criminal Justice, the University of Delaware and Northwestern University. In addition, Geberth has consulted with state and federal agencies and major media outlets on many serial killers, including Dennis Rader, who was known as the BTK Killer for Bind, Torture and Kill. Rader, a dogcatcher and compliance officer in Park City, Kansas, murdered at least 10 people between 1974 and 1991.

Geberth discussed tactics with Chief of Detectives Robert Colangelo during the manhunt for a suspect in multiple homicides.

Among the many other subjects assessed by Geberth was John Robinson, a prolific con man and first known serial killer to use the Internet to lure a minimum of seven lonely women into his web of deceit in the Midwest, and the cannibalistic Jeffrey Dahmer, who killed at least 17 men in Milwaukee between 1978 and 1991.  

Geberth insists he is not responsible for the moniker “Godfather of Homicide,” saying he was christened with it while discussing a serial killer case on Fox News.

Geberth has been married to his wife Laura for 60 years, and they are the parents of four children and grandparents to 14. One son, Vernon, retired from the NYPD as a detective assigned to the Joint Terrorist Task Force. Another son, Robert, retired as an Investigator with the New York State Police.

One of Geberth’s favorite mantras is that homicide investigators are the “good guys” and “we work for God,” which he maintains to this day.

“Law enforcement is an honorable and noble profession,” said Geberth. “Police officers, like military officers, priests and ministers have a calling. A calling or vocation that often transcends their own careers and personal life. We, in homicide, have a mission. Our mission is to bring justice to the deceased and their surviving family. If that’s not God’s work, I don’t know what is.”