Who’s Who In The Zoo: A Story of Corruption, Crooks and Killers

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Author: Ben Robertson

Number of Pages: 248

Confronting and at times terrifying, this is a first-hand account of Domenico ‘Mick’ Cacciola’s life as a Licensing, Special Branch and CIB detective over four decades. From making the arrest in Australia’s first televised siege (the hijacking of the Seaworld helicopter) to being ordered to pick up the police commissioner’s mother from the races while on duty, Cacciola has done – and seen – it all. He held a gun to the head of a mafia hitman sent to kill him and grasped desperately as a woman trying to suicide off a bridge slipped from his fingers. Who’s Who in the Zoo captures the colour and grit of policing in Brisbane’s Fortitude Valley, which in its heyday was the sleazy epicentre of illegal gambling and prostitution. This gripping read shows the devastating personal toll that battling corruption and crime took on an officer in an era when the bad guys and the good guys were more often than not on the same side. Always an honest cop, Cacciola was told by the Rat Pack to turn a blind eye to the gambling and prostitution rife in the Valley. He did as he was told, for a while anyway . . . Praise for The Second Father ‘A true story, it reads like a crime thriller.’ The Sydney Morning Herald ‘Ugly, appalling and utterly fascinating. This isn’t cops and robbers so much as cops and cops.’ The Age