James D. O'Neil

James Donald O'Neil was born on the fourth of July, 1936, to James S. and Elsie C. O'Neil. Raised in Ridgewood, Brooklyn, he enlisted in the Navy in 1953, during the Korean War. For the next four years, James served as a radar man and navigator on a Destroyer Escort, the U.S.S. Darby. After his discharge he spent five years in retail management before signing on to the NYPD in 1963. He was first assigned to the elite Tactical Patrol Force, also known as the “ass-kicking squad”, and cut his teeth during the New York City riots of the mid-60s. In 1965 he married the love of his life, Margaret Anne “Peggy” O'Neil. The couple moved to Long Island where they would raise all five of their children.

Upon being promoted to the rank of Detective in 1966, he went first to the 73rd Precinct Detective Squad in Brownsville, NY, and then, six years later, to the Brooklyn North Robbery Squad. It was here that James and his team broke the notorious “Black Liberation Army” case, identifying key members of a group involved in bank robbery and the execution of police officers throughout the United States. After his promotion to Sergeant and a brief return to uniform, he continued in investigative work, spending time as the boss and lead investigator of the Harlem Homicide Task Force during the Harlem Drug Wars. He went on to working as a detective supervisor for the Manhattan North Senior Citizen Robbery Unit (SCRU). Under his watch, this became the most successful investigative unit in the country. While on the force he also earned a dual degree in Criminal Justice and Behavioral Sciences from the New York Institute of Technology.

After retiring from the NYPD in 1984, James briefly helped his wife to run a Pro-Portion Food franchise, and also worked security in Brunswick Hospital, fully retiring in 2002. He had always considered the possibility of writing a book based on his life, and finally did so in 2009, when he published A Cop's Tale – NYPD: The Violent Years, written with Mel Fazzino. At the time of his passing, he was beginning work on a second book.

James was known by many names over the course of his life. To his numerous friends, he was “Jim,” “the Duke” or “O.J.”; to those he dealt with on the job, “Sergeant O'Neil”; to his neighbors, “Mr. O'Neil”; to his children, “Dad”; and to his grandchildren, “Papa”. But however they came to know him and by whatever name they called him, everyone whose life he touched remembered him. They remembered him for his warm heart and deep love for his family and friends; they remembered him for his charm and humor, shown in his fondness for telling jokes and recounting his days in the NYPD; they remembered him for his intelligence, manifesting itself through an interest in subjects as diverse as geology and art history, as well as in the quick thinking and analytical skills that served him so well as a detective. Above all, everyone who met him remembered his fighting spirit, a spirit full of courage and strength of will; he always struggled to protect those who were vulnerable, from the elderly victims he encountered during his years in the SCRU to his many children and grandchildren. Jim kept this fighting spirit to the very end, as anyone who visited him during his last weeks could see. Suffering from a rare blood disorder, he clung to life tenaciously and never complained about his pain. He died as he lived – with dignity, with courage, and surrounded by friends and family.

James Donald O'Neil died on April 17, 2012, and is survived by his wife, Margaret; his sisters, Maureen Budington and Kathleen Heinz; his five children – James, Michael, Peggy, Kevin, and Brian; and fourteen of his fifteen grandchildren. In lieu of gifts, his family requests that those who can please donate money, blood, and platelets to the New York Blood Bank.