HERO’S CASE IS CLOSED
NYPD vet retires
There were so many murders in John Mullins’ Brooklyn precinct when he became a detective in 1991 that he and his colleagues worked nearly around the clock.
Mullins, 52, grew up in Lindenhurst, LI, his career inspired by watching TV detectives solving crimes.
“TV didn’t tell the whole story,” he said at his retirement walkout Friday from the 75th Precinct, where he had worked since 1986.
Mullins investigated some of the city’s most horrific slayings — including the copycat Zodiac killings of 19901993, the brutal rape and murder of 24yearold master’s student Imette St. Guillen in 2006, and the murder of Officer Peter Figoski, which left his four daughters without their beloved dad.
But it’s the volume of homicides that stands out. In 1993, he and his colleagues in the East New York precinct dealt with 129 murders, the most in the city. That precinct still leads the city in homicides — though last year it was down to 17.
The biggest change in his job over the years is technology like DNA and ready information from computers. “When I became a detective, we didn’t even have beepers,” he said
But what hasn’t changed is what happens when a suspect is brought into the precinct interview room.
“It’s still just you and him in the room and you’ve got to get him to confess,” he said.
Mullins is a master at that, superiors said. “When people get into the box they would just confess to him like Father Flanagan,” one said.
“The best day” of his career was when he got his detective shield in 1991, Mullins said. The worst were Sept. 11 and the death of Figoski, who had worked in the “sevenfive” more than 20 years.
Four cops he knew, including a former partner, died in the terror attacks.
The arrest of suspects in the slaying of Figoski was “bittersweet,” Mullins said: “You’re never going to bring back the officer, but at least you and the family know that the person responsible for this is going to jail for the rest of their lives.”
Mullins has some regrets about retiring. “I’ll miss the people I worked with. I’ll miss the laughs,” he said. “But it’s just time to go.”