Legendary Detective Honored with Police Combat Cross

August 27, 2024

Long-retired NYPD Detective Randy Jurgensen was awarded the police department’s second-highest honor, the Police Combat Cross, during a small, solemn ceremony on Aug. 22, more than five-and-a-half decades after the renowned cop’s extraordinary act of heroism.

Police Commissioner Edward A. Caban presented the overdue medal to the 90-year-old in front of Jurgensen’s relatives, department executives, and union representatives gathered in the Theodore Roosevelt Room, adjacent to the commissioner’s headquarters office.

“Randy, just know that I’m humbled to stand here along with your extended NYPD family,” Commissioner Caban said. “Fifty-six years ago, you did what we ask every single officer to do every single day: You went out there, no regard for your own safety. We have a mantra on our job—‘never forget’—one that applies to our line-of-duty families, one that applies to officers like you. God bless.”

NYPD Commissioner Caban (right) told Jurgensen that the police department "never forgets" its fallen heroes or the officers who bring cop killers to justice.

Already an accomplished undercover officer and Manhattan North homicide investigator, Jurgensen was off-duty on Oct. 7, 1968, enjoying the scenery inside one of Manhattan’s most popular celebrity nightclubs of the time, Arthur, on East 54th Street between Third and Lexington avenues, when he heard a terrible commotion outside.

As Jurgensen, 34, drew his gun and ran into the back alleyway to probe the disturbance, he heard someone scream that a cop was getting beaten nearby. Then gunfire rang out.

Jurgensen quickly came upon Patrolman John Varecha of the 18th Precinct, who lay bloodied, shot, and mortally wounded on the road. Varecha had stopped a vehicle for running a red light when the two men inside got out and began to physically fight the uniformed police officer. Ultimately, Varecha was shot four times at point-blank range. He was able to return fire, but missed the suspects, who fled on foot.

As Varecha lay dying in his arms, Jurgensen ordered onlookers to call the police. He then chased after the assailants, one of whom turned and shot at the pursuing Jurgensen, grazing him on the neck. But Jurgensen caught up with the gunman, briefly fighting with him between two parked cars. Jurgensen held the first man for responding officers, before using one of their patrol car radios to broadcast a description of the second man, who was captured later that night.

Varecha, a 25-year-old from Island Park on Long Island, had just 10 months on the job. At the time of his murder, his killers, both 27-year-old Brooklyn residents, were out on bail for two other shootings.

Both criminals were convicted of Varecha’s murder and sentenced to 25 years to life. One was released on parole in 1999; the other escaped in 1978 after bribing two state prison guards to take him to his girlfriend’s hotel room. He was recaptured in a house outside San Francisco in 1981, nearly three years later. After he was returned to New York and faced additional charges related to the escape, he was paroled in 2011.

Following the tragic episode involving Patrolman Varecha, Jurgensen went on to lead the NYPD’s investigation into the murder of Patrolman Phillip Cardillo in 1972. Cardillo and other officers—including Jurgensen—responded to what turned out to be a phony report of an officer down inside a Harlem mosque near the corner of West 116th Street and Lenox Avenue. During the melee, Cardillo was fatally shot with his own gun.

In Jurgensen’s book, “Circle of Six,” he lambasted the city’s political process that, he writes, intentionally derailed the case. About four years after the ordeal, the one person arrested during the investigation was acquitted. Officially, the case remains unsolved.

Jurgensen was also an actor, producer, and technical consultant in the television and film industry, and had roles in several iconic movies, including “The French Connection,” “Superman,” “Fort Apache, the Bronx,” and “Donnie Brasco.”

NYPD Detective Randy Jurgensen (far left) and fellow film actor Gene Hackman (second from right, in hat) joke around on the set of the 1971 New York City-based crime thriller "The French Connection."

At the recent medal ceremony at One Police Plaza, Jurgensen was recognized for performing a heroic act while engaging with an armed adversary under circumstances of imminent personal hazard. Selflessly, he chose to share the honor with Varecha—and every NYPD officer killed in the line of duty throughout the department’s history.

“On that night, and now, I’m thinking of Patrolman John Varecha, who lost his life while doing what he swore to do: his duty,” Jurgensen said, his voice quivering. “And there’s a wall downstairs, where there are a number of heroes (listed). I, personally, know four or five of them. John Varecha is in damn good company down there. Commissioner, God bless us all.”

Jurgensen leaves his mark on the NYPD, again, this time by signing the command log in the police commissioner's office.