Retired NYPD Detective Sergeant
MIKE
CODELLA
Undercover Investigator · Author of Alphaville
Twenty years spent chasing the truth through the darkest streets of New York.
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Undercover Investigator · Author of Alphaville
Twenty years spent chasing the truth through the darkest streets of New York.
Michael Codella spent twenty years with the New York City Police Department, ultimately retiring in 2003 as a Detective Sergeant.
His career moved through some of the city's most demanding investigative assignments - the DEA, the Secret Service Task Force, the Special Frauds Squad, the Missing Persons Squad, and Operation 8. Much of it was spent working undercover, inside criminal environments where the difference between detective and criminal could never be obvious to the people around him.
He worked narcotics and organized crime. He investigated violent offenders and missing children. He pursued cases that took him deep into the underbelly of the world most New Yorkers never saw.
Two accounts from twenty years on the job - one street-level war against a heroin empire, one lifelong pursuit of the cases that never fully closed.
New York, 1988. Heroin ruled Alphabet City, and somewhere inside the chaos was the man controlling the neighborhood's supply. Mike Codella was determined to find him. With Bruce Bennett. Published by St. Martin's Press.
Some cases end when the suspect is arrested. Others don't. A detective's pursuit of answers through missing children, predators, organized crime, and the questions that have haunted New York for decades.
New York City thought it had seen the worst of its nightmare when David Berkowitz was arrested in August 1977. But nearly two years later, on May 25, 1979, a young boy disappeared in SoHo. Decades later, an NYPD investigator named Mike Codella received a lead that would take him into a far darker world than anyone could have imagined.
Former NYPD Sergeant and author of The Evil That Walked New York, Mike Codella spent years pursuing the truth behind a series of crimes that appeared unrelated on the surface - but increasingly seemed to point toward something far more disturbing.
In his new book, Codella takes readers inside one of the darkest investigations of his career, revealing a hidden New York populated by alleged satanic cults, ruthless 1% motorcycle gangs, powerful and influential figures, child predators, and disturbing allegations of ritualistic violence and human sacrifice.
Among the most unsettling discoveries was information involving Daniel Carleton Gajdusek, a Nobel Prize–winning scientist who was later convicted of child sexual abuse. His case raised troubling questions for Codella about the people who can move through society with extraordinary prestige and influence while disturbing allegations surround them.
Codella does not present his story as proof of a single grand conspiracy. Instead, he describes what he personally encountered as an investigator: the suspects, informants, witnesses, evidence, leads, dead ends, institutional resistance, and unanswered questions.
As Codella followed those leads, he found himself confronting something he had encountered before but rarely seen at such a level - the presence of what he could only describe as true evil. He also encountered departmental politics, resistance, and circumstances that left him questioning whether some investigative avenues had been deliberately abandoned or simply lost in the failures of the system.
The deeper Codella went, the more difficult it became to dismiss the possibility that some of New York's most horrifying crimes might not have been isolated acts of individual evil, but fragments of a much larger and more sinister puzzle.
The Evil That Walked New York is more than a conventional true-crime story. It is an insider's account of an NYPD investigator who followed evidence into places most people never knew existed - and who continued asking questions long after the official investigations had ended.
Mike Codella on NYPD work, undercover investigations, organized crime, and the darker questions surrounding some of New York's most notorious cases.
Subscribe for full interviews, case breakdowns, and behind-the-badge stories from twenty years undercover.
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Available for interviews, podcasts, and speaking engagements. Have a show and want Mike on it?
Book MikeMike Codella's first book, Alphaville: New York, 1988: Welcome to Heroin City, took readers inside one of the most dangerous and notorious chapters in New York City's history. Drawing on his experiences as an NYPD undercover narcotics cop, the book chronicled his investigation into the heroin trade that had transformed Alphabet City into one of Manhattan's most violent neighborhoods.
The story's cinematic quality quickly attracted attention from the entertainment industry. Alphaville was optioned for film, by both Tribeca Productions and Showtime, opening the door for Codella to become involved not only as an author, but as a consultant and creative participant in developing his experiences for television and film.
What began with Alphaville ultimately led Codella into the world of television development, where he discovered that the cases he had lived through as a detective contained the elements of compelling drama: undercover operations, organized crime, missing children, violent predators, corruption, betrayal, and the psychological toll of spending years inside worlds where trust could mean the difference between life and death.
Over the years, Mike has been involved with several television and film projects. His firsthand experience provides an unusual perspective during the development process - not simply as someone telling stories about police work, but as someone who actually lived it.
Today, Codella continues to work on several television projects based on some of the most intriguing and disturbing cases of his career. These projects draw upon his experiences as an NYPD detective while allowing the freedom to explore the characters, mysteries, and unanswered questions that surrounded those investigations.
For Codella, the transition from detective to author and television creator has been a natural extension of the same pursuit that defined his police career:
Interested in booking Mike for a podcast, interview, documentary, or speaking engagement? Reach out directly or send a message.
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Following his retirement from the NYPD, Mike Codella devoted himself to another lifelong passion - Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu. A longtime student of legendary world champion Renzo Gracie, Mike, a 5th Degree Black Belt under Renzo Gracie, began teaching in 2004 and founded Codella Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu Academy in 2005.
What began as a small academy has grown into the largest training center on Staten Island, serving adults, children and competitive athletes. Codella Academy offers Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu, Muay Thai, boxing, wrestling and MMA, with an emphasis on technical excellence, practical self-defense, discipline and personal development.
For Mike, teaching Jiu-Jitsu is about more than fighting. It is about building confidence, character, resilience and the ability to remain calm under pressure - principles that served him throughout his career as an NYPD detective and continue to guide his students today.
Some cases are closed. Some cases are forgotten. And some refuse to stay buried.