“Donna Gentile was a working prostitute in the City of San Diego, California. As a former SDPD officer and Vice Detective myself, I am all too familiar with the sex-for-money business in my home town. I am also very familiar with how The San Diego Police Department had a habit of throwing fine officers under the bus for simply not being what we used to call “fair-haired boys”.
Such was the case with the author, Larry Avrech. This gritty tale of how the San Diego Police Department conducted and egregiously mishandled Internal Affairs investigations revolves around the victim of a gruesome homicide that had many in the department pointing fingers at each other.
Gentile had a way of dragging officers into her world in an effort to benefit herself. She had a habit of attaching herself to several officers and supervisors, participating in off-duty activities that normally would be cause for termination of those officers involved. She gamed the system to the max. Avrech had the misfortune of crossing paths with her. When he became aware of serious breaches of policy, ethics and just plain common sense — all of which are germane to being an honorable police officer — he made the mistake of assuming the department would back him as he pointed out the more serious of these offenses. Instead, he was hounded, threatened and ultimately terminated for his efforts; guilty only of not being a “fair-haired boy”.
Avrech subsequently became a successful private investigator, as did many former officers — myself included — who had treadmarks on our backs, and ultimately linked several serial murders together helping close several cases including that of Donna Gentile.
“Who Killed Donna Gentile?” is a well-written and excellently documented procedural that provides an honest look into the world of a police department operating at times on the wrong side of common decency. I highly recommend it.”
Joe Coyle Former SDPD officer and Vice Detective retired sergeant, National City Police Department
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Benyomin Ellegant
This is wonderfully written “page turner” of a book the truth of which is meticulously documented. It is a record of how a good cop, Officer Avrech, was terminated from the San Diego police force because he was suspected of consorting with a prostitute ‘though he’d never done so. A cabal of higher-ups in the force not only saw to it that Avrech never got a fair hearing but conducted a series of covert “dirty tricks” against him which cost him his wife, his kids, his source of income and his reputation. They did so because, they themselves, were using Avrech as a fall-guy to cover up their own misdeeds. Things got even worse for him when the prostitute over which this charade was about turned up dead.
In this true story, Officer Avrech tells how, in his effort to clear his name, he solves the mystery of who killed this prostitute and works with a newly forming task force to find the perpetrators behind myriad serial murders while decreasing the frequency of serial killings.
This book is a must read for law enforcement personnel and laymen as well, who care to delve into the heart of what law enforcement is like.
It has plenty of realistic action in it and personally, I’d like to see it made into a movie. I’m honored to know the author of this book personally. He’s a real mentch (authentic person).
Benyomin Ellegant
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