NEW YORK
New York Times
By SAM ROBERTS
OCT. 2, 2015
Joseph Coffey, a New York City detective who took the confession of the serial killer known as Son of Sam, arrested John J. Gotti three times, trailed a minor mobster from Little Italy to Germany in a case that implicated the Vatican Bank, and danced with Nancy Reagan at the Waldorf one night when he was assigned to guard her, died on Sunday at his home in Levittown, N.Y. He was 77.
The cause was complications of a heart condition, his wife, Susan Elise Coffey, said.
“He was instinctive, he understood people and when you were in his cross hairs he knew everything about you,” said Jerry Schmetterer, who collaborated with Mr. Coffey on “The Coffey Files: One Cop’s War Against the Mob,” which was published in 1992. …
Eavesdropping on a wiretapped conversation during an investigation into an attempted mob takeover of the Playboy Club in Manhattan, Sergeant Coffey overheard a minor mobster, Vincent Rizzo, mysteriously arrange a mission to Munich, but not through the usual organized-crime-connected travel agency.
His suspicions took him to Germany, where he persuaded United States Army intelligence officers to plant a bug in a hotel room. There Mr. Rizzo and two confederates detailed the transfer of counterfeit and stolen securities through the Vatican Bank.
The case ultimately led to charges against an archbishop who was the bank’s president.
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