McLean, VA (May 13, 2025) - Around 3:30 a.m. on February 26, 1988, a 22-year-old New York City police officer named Edward “Eddie” Byrne was sitting alone in his marked patrol car guarding the witness in a drug case. That’s when a car drove up. Two men got out of the car, while two others acted as lookouts. When one of the men knocked on the passenger-side window of Eddie’s patrol car, his accomplice shot the young officer in the head five times. The four killers were apprehended within a week of the murder. They were convicted of the crime and all four were sentenced to 25 years to life in prison. One of the killers, in a videotaped confession, that was played at the trial, provided graphic details of the crime. He told how the killers had bragged of the murder afterwards and said that the hit was ordered by a jailed drug dealer named Howard “Pappy” Mason, the leader of their gang. Mason wanted to send a symbolic message that the criminals, not the police, were ruling the city. But the plan backfired. Politicians and the citizens of New York City—and the nation—heard a different message. They rightly viewed Eddie’s assassination as an act of total disrespect for the rule of law and for those who enforce those laws. There would be no more intimidation. Instead, the cowardly murder of Eddie Byrne galvanized the city and the nation, and became the turning point in the nation’s war on drugs.
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