Frank Serpico
Francesco Vincent Frank Serpico is a retired ItalianAmerican New York Police Department officer, known for whistleblowing on police corruption in the late 1960s and early 1970s, an act that prompted Mayor John V. Lindsay to appoint the landmark Knapp Commission to investigate the NYPD. Much of Serpicos fame came after the release of the 1973 film Serpico, which was based on the book by Peter Maas and which starred Al Pacino in the title role, for which Pacino was nominated for an Oscar.
Serpico was born in Brooklyn in 1936, the youngest child of Vincenzo and Maria Giovanna Serpico, Italian immigrants from Marigliano, Naples. At the age of 17, he enlisted in the United States Army and was stationed for two years in South Korea as an infantryman. He then worked as a parttime private investigator and a youth counselor while attending Brooklyn College.
Source: Wikipedia