Johnny Broderick

Personal life

In 1931 Broderick was 5 feet 10 inches tall, weighed 170 pounds, and "dresses like Beau Brummel." He neither smoked nor drank, worked out at a gymnasium every day, and kept in top physical condition.

At the time of his demotion in 1934 he was described as having an affluent lifestyle. Though drawing a salary of $4,000 a year, cut to $3,000 as a result of the demotion, he drove a Cadillac, dressed expensively and owned a home in Jackson Heights, Queens. During his days as a detective, Broderick enjoyed listening to his wife play the piano and was described by his New York Times obituary as fond of "monogrammed, cream-colored silk underwear" and that off-duty he was "the gentlest of men." The film, which was to star Robert Ryan, was never made, and plans to have a television series or musical made about his life persisted through 1959, but did not come to pass.

Legacy

The brutal methods used by Broderick and other officers were sanctioned by the police department during their era and praised as "fearless." Beginning in the 1960s, however, New York police sought to curb that kind of conduct. Training programs were established teaching officers to observe the civil rights of suspects and the public. By the 1980s, it was feared that the pendulum had shifted back toward brutality, as complaints of assaults by police climbed. Broderick was cited by The New York Times in 1985 as an exemplar of the old methods of policing.

At the time of his death in 1966, Walter Henning, an assistant chief inspector and a colleague of Broderick's, called him a "man of his time," and said that "under restrictions today, he'd have a difficult time doing the things he did." But during Prohibition, he said, "when these people [gangsters] went in and out of court it was like a revolving door, they had rather be locked up than to meet Johnny."