Three Chicago Police Officers

Editor's Note: One of the police officers is former USMC

Police-Writers.com is a website that lists state and local police officers who have written books. The website added three Chicago Police Department authors: Jerry Ardolino, Edward Burke and Terry Hillard.

Jerry Ardolino graduated the Chicago Police Department Academy in 1973. He attended Chicago City College on a U.S. Department of Justice grant studying Behavioral Science and Law and graduated the nationally recognized combined Police Science/Criminology Program of the Chicago Police Department Training Division and Northwestern University. He served approximately five years on the Chicago Police Department. While on the job, he became a firearms and ammunition dealer; as well as a leather goods manufacturer.

He is the author of Extreme Cop: Chicago PD. According to his book description, Extreme Cop, “is the true story of Jerry Ardolino, the wildest, most violent cop in the history of the Chicago Police Department and that would mean: in the history of the world. Jerry Ardolino is the book’s author and it is the first true, full-length on-going story about the Chicago Police written by an insider. It has never been done before. Jerry Ardolino was a star-carrying member of that horde of hard-edged cops; the largest and deadliest “gang” in Chicago or anyplace else. The gang in midnight-blue leather police jackets who had the tools and the talent that enabled them to become known throughout the world, as the most violent, corrupt, out-of-control and; toughest police force ever to stalk the streets.”

Edward Burke, attorney and long-time Chicago alderman, is co-author of End of Watch, a history of Chicago police officers killed in the line of duty. In 1968, at the age of 25, Edward Burke took leave from the Chicago Police Department to replace his deceased father as the Democratic Committeeman in the 14th District. In 1969, Edward Burke was elected to the 14th Ward Alderman’s Seat in Chicago.

According to the Fraternal Order of Police, Chicago Lodge 7, “ End of Watch: Chicago Police Killed in the Line of Duty 1853-2006 by Edward M. Burke and Thomas J. O’Gorman examines the remarkable sacrifice of 526 sworn officers of the Chicago Police Department. Throughout the book’s 300+ pages and more than 600 photographs, there are detailed narratives of each officer and the circumstances involved in their deaths. The book traces the heroic history of Chicago’s finest with accounts of each episode drawn from municipal records, police files, contemporaneous newspapers, court documents and ground breaking research.”

Terry Hillard enlisted in the U.S. Marine Corps in 1963, served 13 months in Vietnam and received four medals and a Presidential Unit Citation. In 1968, he entered the Chicago Police Department Training Academy and served as a police officer in several districts as well as a specialist in the Gang Crimes Unit. In 1975, he was seriously wounded after being shot twice while apprehending a suspect who had shot four suburban police officers. Terry Hillard’s law enforcement career with the Chicago Police Department reached zenith when he was Superintendent. He retired in 2003. He is the co-author of his biography, Chicago Police: An Inside View - the Story of Superintendent Terry G. Hillard.

Police-Writers.com now hosts 584 police officers (representing 246 police departments) and their 1225 books in six categories, there are also listings of United States federal law enforcement employees turned authors, international police officers who have written books and civilian police personnel who have written books.