I just read that retired Detective 1st Grade John Reilly died on October 16th. Reilly worked for the NYPD from 1955 – 1974. I never met him, we only emailed, but he helped me a lot with New York Police Department history when I was writing The Restless Sleep. The last time we emailed he told me that he was working on a book about old Police Department station houses. I don’t have a picture of him so I’m putting up one of the pictures from his collection. This is of the site of original 9th Precinct, 79 1st Avenue, around 1939. I got it from Police NY where there are many other photographs from his collection.

I learned from retired sergeant Mike Bosak’s daily email that Reilly was the one who worked with Boask researching every member of the Police Department who ever died in the line of duty so that they could be added to the memorial wall at Battery Park.

As an amateur historian, and mostly as a fellow human being who appreciates the effort to make sure that people and their contributions to the world are not forgotten, thank you for your service and your contributions, John Reilly. And may you rest in peace.