How Serpico ended up in a ‘cult-like’ group in Wales
His life story as a corruption-busting New York cop was famously turned into an Oscarnominated role for Al Pacino. But Frank Serpico’s journey also took an unexpected path into Wales, as Mari Jones reports...
ASMALL town in Denbighshire became an unlikely refuge for a legendary New York detective, who fled from his homeland after disclosing police corruption on an industrial scale.
Frank Serpico’s story was made into a multi-Oscar-nominated film starring Al Pacino. It became one of the seminal movies of the 1970s.
Serpico, who is now in his 80s, was an idealistic uniformed cop in the New York Police Department during the early 1960s.
He refused to accept any bribes that were offered his way. He was the ultimate counter-culture detective, sporting long hair and sandals and living in Greenwich Village.
And it was there one of his first links to Wales was formed. His local, the White Horse Tavern, had been frequented by Welsh poet Dylan Thomas.
In 1970 he talked to the New York Times, drawing national attention to the problem of police corruption.
The formation of the Knapp Commission happened because of Serpico.
Things came to a head on February 3, 1971, in Brooklyn, when Serpico was shot in the face while taking part in a drug bust – in an incident which was widely thought to have been a set-up.
His fellow officers didn’t bother calling for an ambulance or come to his aid when he called for help.
He says that while he was lying in a pool of blood he had an out-of-body experience and heard a voice telling him: “It’s all lies”.
It was because of this that he disappeared to Europe, buying a farm in the Netherlands. On selling it, he put the proceeds towards buying a former workhouse in Corwen.
It was there he joined a spiritualist group that he now describes as being “cult-like”.
“You have to understand I was pretty vulnerable at the time,” said Serpico, who spoke to the website North Wales Live from his cabin in the woods in upstate New York.
“These people whom I met at a spiritual festival in London were very softly spoken and gracious, and when they reached out to me – and after all I had been through in New York – I fell for it.”
The group bought the workhouse, with a lot of the money coming from Serpico’s own funds. Along with other volunteers, he helped renovate the building.
The group grew their own vegetables and took courses in natural healing, the environment and selfreliance skills.
The building was renamed Orissor College.
Although he eventually grew disillusioned with the group, Serpico says he enjoyed his time in Wales.
He said: “We had good intentions establishing Orissor College. I sunk into it – and unfortunately lost – all my money.
“I loved Corwen and its pubs. The locals were really receptive to what we were trying to do.
“I liked the area’s purity. I loved the trees, the ocean and the mountains, and I felt it was very unspoilt. I have always longed to go back.”
One of his fondest memories of his time in Denbighshire was to help host a group of children from the Basque area of Spain who were attending the Llangollen International Musical Eisteddfod.
A newspaper clipping still exists of Serpico attending the Eisteddfod with the Basque group.
He added: “It was obviously totally different to New York and that’s what I liked about living in Corwen, and I’m very pleased to hear it hasn’t apparently changed that much.”
Serpico said he didn’t live in fear of his former NYPD colleagues tracking him down to Corwen.
He explained: “You can’t let fear rule your life, it’s not worth a thing if you do that.
“I’m still the black sheep of the NYPD, and was expected to bleed to death the night I got shot.”
He added: “I don’t see my former colleagues – probably most of them are dead by now.”
So what did he make of Al Pacino’s famous portrayal of him?
“I think he’s a good actor but he overacted in the movie. Sometimes it was embarrassing to watch him,” said Serpico.
“I didn’t like it that the director Sidney Lumet used a black actor as the burglar in the scene where the police start shooting at both of us, because in reality the burglar was white.
“There was also a scene where the cops stick someone’s head down a toilet, that also didn’t happen, but Sidney Lumet the director told me it happened to the father of his wife, who happened to be the singer Lena Horne.”
He continued: “But to be fair, Pacino did get the emotional side of what I had to put up with, and I got along with him very well.”
Serpico said his cabin in the woods is a peaceful place to live and says he’s “not so good with crowds” any more.
But age doesn’t seem to have mellowed this former firebrand cop, as he talks of corruption within the ranks of lawmakers in his locality, and describes how humans have “raped” the Earth.
When talking about his past he says he doesn’t like being called a whistleblower, as he believes it has “negative connotations”.
He said: “I see myself more of a lamp-lighter, because if you flood a room with light, all the cockroaches run to the woodwork.”