BADGES OF TRUSTAND TREACHERY

Almost two decades among the dead and the dangerous.

For almost two decades, Robert Kalvitz worked homicide in East Cleveland — one of the most violent square miles in America during the 1980s and early '90s. He investigated close to ninety homicides — among them the case that led to the first arrest of Anthony Sowell, years before that name became synonymous with one of Ohio's darkest crimes, and the murder of Cleveland doo-wop singer Robert "Bocky" DiPasquale of Bocky and the Visions — along with hundreds of other violent felonies: rapes, stabbings, shootings, and the full weight of what people survive and don't. He built a career on the belief that the badge meant something.

Then the department he served turned on him.

Badges of Trust and Treachery is Kalvitz's own account of a career spent facing killers, corruption, and the wreckage both leave behind — and of the case he never saw coming, brought not by a criminal, but by his own. It is the story of what happens when the system a man trusted for a lifetime decides he is disposable, and what it costs to fight back.

About the author

THEN

Robert P. Kalvitz

EAST CLEVELAND POLICE DEPT. · RETIRED

Robert P. Kalvitz grew up around family members like his cousin, alleged organized-crime figure Richard "Dicky" Viccarone — and broke that generational path to become a decorated detective respected in both worlds. He spent almost two decades investigating close to ninety homicides and hundreds of other violent felonies in East Cleveland, Ohio, during one of the most violent periods in the city's history. After retiring from the force, he spent several years in Tortorici, a small town in Sicily's Nebrodi Mountains long associated with the Mafia clan that carries the town's name — reconnecting with his Italian heritage and finding a rare peace there — before returning home to nearly lose his life at the hands of the very brothers in blue he'd once called his own. Badges of Trust and Treachery is his first book.

EAST CLEVELAND CITY LIMITS