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Alphaville 1988: Crime, Punishment and the Battle for New York City's Lower East Side
A raw, gritty memoir—part true-life cop thriller, part unputdownable history of a storied time and place—that will grip you by the throat until the explosive end
Alphabet City in 1988 burned with heroin, radicalism, and anti-police sentiment. Working as a plainclothes narcotics cop in the most high-voltage neighborhood in Manhattan, Detective Sergeant Mike Codella earned the nickname "Rambo" from the local dealers, as well as a $50,000 bounty on his head. The son of a cop who grew up in a mob neighborhood in Brooklyn, Codella understood the unwritten laws of the shadowy businesses that ruled the streets. He knew that the further east you got from the relative safety of 5th Avenue, Washington Square Park and NYU, the deeper you entered the sea of human misery, greed, addiction, violence and all the things that come with an illegal retail drug trade run wild. With his partner, Gio, Codella made it his personal mission to put away Davie Blue Eyes—a stone cold murderer and the head of Alphabet City's heroin supply chain. Despite the hell they endured—all the beatings and gunshots, the footchases and close calls—Codella and Gio always saw Alphabet City the same way: worth saving.
Alphaville, Codella's riveting, no-holds-barred memoir, resurrects the vicious streets that Davie Blue Eyes owned, and tells the story of how Codella bagged the so-called Forty Thieves that surrounded Davie, slowly working his way to the head of the snake one scale at a time. With the blistering narrative spirit of The French Connection, the insights of a seasoned insider, and a relentless voice that reads like the city's own, Alphaville is at once the story of a dedicated New York cop, and of New York City itself.
Alphabet City in 1988 burned with heroin, radicalism, and anti-police sentiment. Working as a plainclothes narcotics cop in the most high-voltage neighborhood in Manhattan, Detective Sergeant Mike Codella earned the nickname "Rambo" from the local dealers, as well as a $50,000 bounty on his head. The son of a cop who grew up in a mob neighborhood in Brooklyn, Codella understood the unwritten laws of the shadowy businesses that ruled the streets. He knew that the further east you got from the relative safety of 5th Avenue, Washington Square Park and NYU, the deeper you entered the sea of human misery, greed, addiction, violence and all the things that come with an illegal retail drug trade run wild. With his partner, Gio, Codella made it his personal mission to put away Davie Blue Eyes—a stone cold murderer and the head of Alphabet City's heroin supply chain. Despite the hell they endured—all the beatings and gunshots, the footchases and close calls—Codella and Gio always saw Alphabet City the same way: worth saving.
Alphaville, Codella's riveting, no-holds-barred memoir, resurrects the vicious streets that Davie Blue Eyes owned, and tells the story of how Codella bagged the so-called Forty Thieves that surrounded Davie, slowly working his way to the head of the snake one scale at a time. With the blistering narrative spirit of The French Connection, the insights of a seasoned insider, and a relentless voice that reads like the city's own, Alphaville is at once the story of a dedicated New York cop, and of New York City itself.
304 pages, Kindle Edition
First published November 9, 2010
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 51 reviews
February 4, 2025
Welcome to Alphabet City, Manhattan's most crime-ridden neighbourhood with murder, rape and violence hitting record levels the streets, fuelled by a drug problem that's got the city by the throat. It was into this vision of hell that Mike Codella and his partner Gio stepped in 1988, two plainclothes narcs expected just to pull a few street arrests to keep statistics looking good, and try to get out alive. But Mike had his eyes on something bigger. Davey Blue Eyes: local kingpin, drug lord and stone cold murderer. Just one drawback - no one even knew what he looked like. Fascinating, brutal and told with a furious, even poetic energy.
Alphaville stands shoulder to shoulder with other modern true crime classics such as Serpico, The French Connection, Wiseguy, or David Simon's Homicide.
The author sets about shaking the tree, arresting low level crimes, getting more and more info on Davey's gang and rattling his cage, which he does, but as powerful, gritty, shocking this book is it still is hard work, astonishing detail, honest, but so many characters, personalities, so many stories, so many names, sometimes slow and talky it becomes hard work to read. Yes detail incredible and powerful, but tough going.
Three stars
Alphaville stands shoulder to shoulder with other modern true crime classics such as Serpico, The French Connection, Wiseguy, or David Simon's Homicide.
The author sets about shaking the tree, arresting low level crimes, getting more and more info on Davey's gang and rattling his cage, which he does, but as powerful, gritty, shocking this book is it still is hard work, astonishing detail, honest, but so many characters, personalities, so many stories, so many names, sometimes slow and talky it becomes hard work to read. Yes detail incredible and powerful, but tough going.
Three stars
July 20, 2011
I really wasn't that crazy about this book on a number of different levels, but the author's voice is just so engaging and enjoyable that I couldn't help but like it anyway. My main problem with it was the jumping around in time and space. This was mostly intentional, telling a sort of "weave" story of Codella's hardboiled upbringing in Canarsie in a neighborhood of wiseguys and cops, crossed with the edgy world of Alphabet City in the '80s. However, at times it lapsed into that thing that cop-memoirs do. It would lay down undocumented and at times mildly ludicrous vignettes intended to drive home to us how awful and outrageous life on the streets was. It's not that I don't think that stuff happened, but cop memoirs often relate stories that are provided without reference to actual names or cases...which make them seem like hearsay garbage that cops sling around in the locker room.
On the other hand, the author's freshness in admitting the many times he crossed the line and violated procedure (and probably civil rights) in the interest of getting a conviction is really illuminating. I'm thoroughly sympathetic to the fact that a cop on the street trying to shut down the drug trade is basically crippled by the bureaucratic procedure and the courts. But I can't get behind the flippant disregard shown for the rights of the accused in cases of suspected drug dealing after the Reagan-era "asset confiscation" laws were passed. The author portrays these laws as only being used when the accused was obviously a drug dealer..."everyone knew it." That's fine for the author's conscience, but the next time one of my conservative friends lectures me about Obamacare and the constitution, maybe I'll ask them to defend the extrajudicial confiscation of individual property as championed by that conservative god of "individual rights," Ronald McReagan. It's not that I think these guys weren't scumbags...but how exactly does extrajudicial asset confiscation add up to due process under the Constitution? Or...I'm sorry, is it possible that this was a way to confiscate underprivileged douchebags' assets so that the confiscating authorities could use that money to buy new toys, and figure that they were too screwed up on drugs to get a lawyer and try to get their money/Mercedes/bling back? That's screwed up. Clear violation of due process, and fairly offensive how it's presented here given that the author admirably stays away from racism and anti-poor prejudice otherwise. That's remarkably true even though he does take a lot of liberty with the rights of the accused. But that's a whole 'nother argument, one in which I come down more on the side of Codella than on the extrajudicial asset confiscation.
That little nitpick aside, Codella did kick lots of ass, and these were not nice guys he was smacking upside the head. The millieu of the heroin epidemic of the 1980s was intoxicating. I love that Codella was on the street enough to see what was really happening, which just about completely eluded the media of the time and since. In the middle of crack hysteria, crack was largely irrelevant in the long-term disintegration of American cities -- heroin was the drug doing far more damage. Codella's views on the two are absolutely invaluable.
On the other hand, the author's freshness in admitting the many times he crossed the line and violated procedure (and probably civil rights) in the interest of getting a conviction is really illuminating. I'm thoroughly sympathetic to the fact that a cop on the street trying to shut down the drug trade is basically crippled by the bureaucratic procedure and the courts. But I can't get behind the flippant disregard shown for the rights of the accused in cases of suspected drug dealing after the Reagan-era "asset confiscation" laws were passed. The author portrays these laws as only being used when the accused was obviously a drug dealer..."everyone knew it." That's fine for the author's conscience, but the next time one of my conservative friends lectures me about Obamacare and the constitution, maybe I'll ask them to defend the extrajudicial confiscation of individual property as championed by that conservative god of "individual rights," Ronald McReagan. It's not that I think these guys weren't scumbags...but how exactly does extrajudicial asset confiscation add up to due process under the Constitution? Or...I'm sorry, is it possible that this was a way to confiscate underprivileged douchebags' assets so that the confiscating authorities could use that money to buy new toys, and figure that they were too screwed up on drugs to get a lawyer and try to get their money/Mercedes/bling back? That's screwed up. Clear violation of due process, and fairly offensive how it's presented here given that the author admirably stays away from racism and anti-poor prejudice otherwise. That's remarkably true even though he does take a lot of liberty with the rights of the accused. But that's a whole 'nother argument, one in which I come down more on the side of Codella than on the extrajudicial asset confiscation.
That little nitpick aside, Codella did kick lots of ass, and these were not nice guys he was smacking upside the head. The millieu of the heroin epidemic of the 1980s was intoxicating. I love that Codella was on the street enough to see what was really happening, which just about completely eluded the media of the time and since. In the middle of crack hysteria, crack was largely irrelevant in the long-term disintegration of American cities -- heroin was the drug doing far more damage. Codella's views on the two are absolutely invaluable.
May 15, 2011
I really enjoyed reading this fast paced true crime biography. Alphaville focuses on the history of Michael Codella, an NYPD housing officer, who took on major drug traffickers in the 1980's Alphabet City, a subsection of the Lower East Side.
In between bits of true life criminal incidents, Codella shares history about the mafia, drug trafficking and pharmaceutical drugs in America. He also paints a clear picture of life on the Lower East Side (LES) for addicts, dealers and the every day working person.
He also gives great descriptions of what life is like on the force and how he came to be a police offer.
What I enjoyed reading the most were the vignettes of actual incidents and also the colorful cast of characters.
Great book. I can totally see this being made into a movie.
In between bits of true life criminal incidents, Codella shares history about the mafia, drug trafficking and pharmaceutical drugs in America. He also paints a clear picture of life on the Lower East Side (LES) for addicts, dealers and the every day working person.
He also gives great descriptions of what life is like on the force and how he came to be a police offer.
What I enjoyed reading the most were the vignettes of actual incidents and also the colorful cast of characters.
Great book. I can totally see this being made into a movie.
September 15, 2014
Bit of a real-life version of The Shield here, though Michael Codella seems significantly less evil than Vic Mackey. You've got a Brooklyn-hardened, fight-loving cop who "plays by his own rules," often with IA trying to jam him up seven ways to Sunday, but "damn it, he gets results." Again, literally. Interesting (if poorly/oddly punctuated) glimpse into a time when Manhattan was much more John Carpenter-ish—these days you don't have to be a millionaire to live in Alphabet City, but it doesn't hurt—I was fascinated by how openly the author discussed how he often "bent the rules" i.e. broke the fucking law. Though, true to his personal code, he got dealers and suppliers off the streets and had fun doing it. Would make a solid Showtime miniseries, or an interesting Terrence Malick meditation on violence and cities and whatever.
July 26, 2011
Excellent memoir about a police officer in the 80s attempting to take down a heroin ring in Alphabet City. It's a well-structured book, reading at times like a crime novel as you follow the drama of the author's attempts to move beyond street-level busts and arrest the guys in charge. But these sections are also intersticed with the author's personal story of growing up in NYC and becoming a cop and info on the history of the drug trade in NYC. The book uses dialogue to good effect and is really evocative of Alphabet City at that particular time, putting the reader into the streets as the cops and dealers battle it out. An interesting and enjoyable read.
March 5, 2013
Tons of gritty realism, some fascinating history surrounding the region of Alphabet City, New York as well as the origins of the popular rise in Heroin use. Those are the points which made this hold my attention and kept me turning the pages.
What disappointed me slightly was that there was no firm conclusion, no further details on what happened to Mike Codella following the events in the book and a slightly irritating and utterly redundant use of alternating chapters describing the rise of Codella's career with those describing his pursuit of the criminal known as Davey Blue Eyes.
A good read but easy to see why others may not think so.
What disappointed me slightly was that there was no firm conclusion, no further details on what happened to Mike Codella following the events in the book and a slightly irritating and utterly redundant use of alternating chapters describing the rise of Codella's career with those describing his pursuit of the criminal known as Davey Blue Eyes.
A good read but easy to see why others may not think so.
April 19, 2011
The language gets a little rough at times, but it's a very interesting account of policing in NY in the 80's/90's. It's a stark reminder of how bad crime was, before NY finally got a mayor who had the will to fight back.
As a measure of how much things have changed, I re watched "Escape from New York", which seemed chillingly real back in the 80's and totally hokey now (although being 25 years older might play a part in that).
As a measure of how much things have changed, I re watched "Escape from New York", which seemed chillingly real back in the 80's and totally hokey now (although being 25 years older might play a part in that).
September 14, 2014
Very interesting and well written book about a turbulent time and place that I called home. I liked all the background stories and history that led the mid-eighties heroine epidemic. However, it does make it seem as if Rambo never left the Avenue D projects. I remember having drinks at Vazac's with a friend who was an undercover housing cop in those same projects and wondering / hoping that no one he was investigating would turn up.
March 24, 2019
The book works on two level. First, it's an action-packed cops and robbers story based in a time and place that was so corrupt, violent, and seedy that it truly boggles the imagination.
Second, you can learn a lot about the history of the Mafia and the drug trade, particularly heroin. May not seem like a subject you want to spend time on, but the history of heroin and the heroin trade is actually pretty fascinating, I came to realize after reading this.
Second, you can learn a lot about the history of the Mafia and the drug trade, particularly heroin. May not seem like a subject you want to spend time on, but the history of heroin and the heroin trade is actually pretty fascinating, I came to realize after reading this.
March 26, 2011
Yet another gritty book about the New York drug trade in the 1980s, Alphaville is interesting, but a bit dated; most of the bad guys are probably dead by now, and the cops all retired. Still, it's an insider's look at big-city police work and worth a read on a day when the library or B&N have nothing better to offer.
June 10, 2021
Well this is a memoir so you have to take it all with a grain of salt, I give the author a lot of credit for writing an entertaining book and I do appreciate the history lessons, I do however have something to say to him: No sir, the end does not justify the means, that's why we have laws.
August 29, 2014
Not high literature but for people who like to read about the drug trade in the 80's and 90's or cop memoirs - really enjoyable.
November 7, 2025
“New York, 1988: Welcome to Heroin City” is blazoned across the cover of this nonfiction expose and historical background paper on dope in the big town written with vigor and a sense of undisputed superiority by a former cop entrusted to battle drugs and druggies and a journalist. Alphaville could make a good John Carpenter movie. Has it already?
November 2, 2021
have my issues with some of Codella's attitudes myself, particularly his enthusiasm for looking at some of those under his purview sans humanity. There is almost a kind of workplace affection and respect implied between cop and thug in a few scenes. Yet every one of them remain one dimensional except for those who are one dimensional victims.
No personal life is spoken of until a woman from his department turns up described as super hot and who has spurned advances of all other police. Yet the one she gets with the author she's throwing herself at him hungrily because, she says, she likes bad boys.
He also makes his government job as a calling while not really going into the government's role for developing the drug pipeline I guess to fund the fun and game they don't want to leave a money trail.
While I actually did like the book, it's difficult to turn away from the fact the ambition here is to pull back the curtain and show what TV gets wrong while coming off like a cop's well polished ego driven ode to himself.
The writer clearly approves the moniker given to him by the street, "Rambo." I'm not sure that's so flattering. How many guys in life have you heard get called Rambo who wasn't a collosal douche bag?
Yeah the guy comes off a jerk and he references movies a little more often you really want from a guy supposedky pulling back the curtain. This story is clearly filtered through the Hollywood lens even for the guy who apparently lived it.
No personal life is spoken of until a woman from his department turns up described as super hot and who has spurned advances of all other police. Yet the one she gets with the author she's throwing herself at him hungrily because, she says, she likes bad boys.
He also makes his government job as a calling while not really going into the government's role for developing the drug pipeline I guess to fund the fun and game they don't want to leave a money trail.
While I actually did like the book, it's difficult to turn away from the fact the ambition here is to pull back the curtain and show what TV gets wrong while coming off like a cop's well polished ego driven ode to himself.
The writer clearly approves the moniker given to him by the street, "Rambo." I'm not sure that's so flattering. How many guys in life have you heard get called Rambo who wasn't a collosal douche bag?
Yeah the guy comes off a jerk and he references movies a little more often you really want from a guy supposedky pulling back the curtain. This story is clearly filtered through the Hollywood lens even for the guy who apparently lived it.
January 20, 2011
A memoir of sorts, by a NYC police detective--nicknamed Rambo--who grew up in Canarsie (a neighborhood where mobbed-up families lived in harmony with cop families), joined the force, worked for the housing police in Coney Island, then, where and when the bulk of Alphaville takes place, on the Lower East Side in the mid- to late-1980s, specifically the Riis and Wald projects along Avenue D, a true World Capital of heroin dealing and consumption. More a collection of cop stories--sometimes funny, sometimes gross, sometimes suspenseful, sometimes annoyingly self-serving--than a cohesive narrative, Alphaville definitely hits the nostalgia-for-the-gritty-old-city button early and often, and if you think you'd enjoy reading a crime- and junkie-ridden portrait of the town in the '70s and '80s, then you will probably be as entertained while reading this as I was, but also frustrated by the lack of any real insight into or fresh perspective on this well-traveled landscape.
March 10, 2011
This book written is about the heroin trade in Alphabet City in the 1980s. It was impossible to book this book down even though it was in equal parts horrifying, annoying, heart-breaking and, occasionally, hysterically funny. Mike Codella is the cop who wrote this, and he and his partner, Gio, (according to him) practically took on the pimps, dealers and hookers themselves while bending every rule the NYPD has. I'm not sure if this book is supposed to make me feel better about cops or drug dealers, but it manages to humanize both groups. This is a clear example of nothing is black or white because there are good guy drug dealers and seriously bad guy cops -- and it seems at times that Codella is one of the latter.
January 28, 2023
Codella's "Alphaville" is perhaps the most gripping, gritty, and above all realistic portrayal of proactive policing that I have encountered. He is by no means a superhero, perfect officer, or perfect man, and there lies the beauty in his story. Codella comes across as a guy who relishes the childlike joy that comes from catching bad guys and seeks to replicate that wherever or whenever he can, even if it's achieved by occasionally dubious methods.
Found this one deep in the bowels of the Strand bookstore in NYC and I'm so glad that I did. I will no doubt revisit this one later on down the road.
Found this one deep in the bowels of the Strand bookstore in NYC and I'm so glad that I did. I will no doubt revisit this one later on down the road.
November 3, 2013
Totally loved it. I love NYC but I didn't move here until 1996, so I'm always a little jealous of the memories people have who grew up and lived here during the grittier times - reading about those days is a way of sharing in the past that I missed.
Michael Codella writes in a very exciting way and often with some laugh out loud humor, and really brings parts of NYC's past to life. There is some incorrect grammar but I think the editor chose to leave it in to keep a realistic conversational style that goes with the way he really talks.
Michael Codella writes in a very exciting way and often with some laugh out loud humor, and really brings parts of NYC's past to life. There is some incorrect grammar but I think the editor chose to leave it in to keep a realistic conversational style that goes with the way he really talks.
April 9, 2011
Meandering biography slash history of the New York drug trade, with occasional reader-friendly mafia anecdotes and Goodfellas references? Or self-serving narrative of a retired cop known as "Rambo" (aka "John Stu") who recounts busting perps and saving damsels on the Lower East Side, while walking all over the rules to get things done? At least in fiction these guys face consequences for their choices.
November 13, 2014
Great read. This is a gritty memoir of Alphabet City in the 80s. The author was a plain clothes NYC policeman, who eventually worked with the DEA. Having lived on the Lower East Side during those years, I can tell you this is the read deal. Visiting there today you could never imagine what it was like 25 years ago. My only criticism of the book was that I wish he would have included more about the Thompkins Square riots.
December 12, 2015
Alphaville 1988: Crime, Punishment and the Battle for New York City's Lower East Side by Michael Codella and Bruce Bennett (St. Martin's Press 2010) (363.2092). A front line account of the drug war on the streets of the Lower East Side of Manhattan. Uniformed and undercover police officers seek to outflank street hustlers who deal in $10 bags of heroin or crack from the 1980's through the present day. My rating: 7/10, finished 5/5/15.
June 10, 2017
Great book. Exciting, edgy, gritty! The author puts it all out there which brings us all in! The best cop book I've ever read, although it's not fair to call this just a "cop" book because it's so much more. Mobsters, cops, a New York story, and a touch of history. The author, Mike Codella lead an interesting life. I'd love to read a part II
December 17, 2021
Being from the rural South, I've always been intrigued by the goings-on of the "big city," particularly NYC. This story is a great peek behind the blue curtain into the heyday of Mafia and drugs in the 80s, but also includes a lot of historical reference and understanding how these things came to be to begin with. Great read.
January 30, 2011
This is another book I listened to on my iPod. It was a great listen - narrated with a true-life Brooklyn accent - and an inside look into policing the Lower East Side's Alphabet City in the 1980s. Great characters, well-described. I enjoyed this book.
April 27, 2011
Repetitive, yet still interesting, mostly because I grew up in NYC during the period that the author is writing about. Not in one of the projects but I was certainly aware of them, and I hung out a little bit in the Lower East Side and Tompkins Square Park before it got cleaned up and gentrified.
January 11, 2014
Best read in a long time
I would recommend this book to anyone who wants to know about police work in a big city. They guys put their lives on the line everyday. they usually don't get a thank you. I want to say thank you.
I would recommend this book to anyone who wants to know about police work in a big city. They guys put their lives on the line everyday. they usually don't get a thank you. I want to say thank you.
June 5, 2016
I wanted to give this book more stars but the arrogance,the sweeping generalizations of other officers wouldn't allow it. I know law enforcement,and this guy is a special case. Did he do good , hell yeah, did he alienate sure did.
August 16, 2011
Hello New York City, 1980s!!! Totally digging this, the crime, the grime, the place I shoulda been....
September 18, 2011
This book is a winner. A great look at the 80's Lower East Side heroin trade through the eyes of one of the cops that was on the scene. Well-written and honest. I could read ten of these.
July 11, 2014
Fast paced, entertaining read detailing New York City's drug war in the 1980s, centered around the Lower East Side and two narcotics cops.
Displaying 1 - 30 of 51 reviews