Brooklyn Native has Lived and Written a Remarkable Life as a Deep Undercover Boston Police Officer

Anyone who has lived the life of a police officer is going to have some pretty good stories to tell. Even so, the recountings may only be as good as the storyteller. But Ernie Lijoi got a pretty good sense he could retell a tale from the police reports he wrote over the 27 years he served in the Massachusetts State Police. “One lawyer said to me that your reports read like a book. They are enjoyable to read,” conveyed Lijoi, and the Port Charlotte retiree, who spent almost two decades as a deep cover operative, didn’t let those literary skills go to waste when his career ended in 1993.

“I think that’s what gave me the idea,” said the author of 11 books, several screenplays in development and two Netflix TV episodes that are based his experiences.

The first part of his story began after he was honorably discharged from the air force in 1964 and moved to Massachusetts with his new bride. He had various jobs in support of his family, but real job security came when one of his brothers-in-law took the police department test. “That’s not a bad idea,” the Brooklyn native thought. “So I went down and took the test. I scored and got accepted.”

He remembers the $140 per week salary and loving being part of the newly created Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority Police in Quincy. So in the course of doing business, Lijoi developed an interest in narcotics because of the devastating impact he witnessed on the beat. “The public doesn’t really see it the way we do, because we see it constantly,” he asserted.

In fact, Lijoi took up the study at Northeastern and eventually graduated with a Criminal Justice and Psychology degree in 1976. His real education began, though, when an undercover opportunity arose in 1977.

Lijoi made an arrest for the Quincy Police, and after handing off the collar to Boston PD, he got a call a few weeks later to play a part in their ongoing case. “They wanted me to go undercover for thirty days,” said Lijoi.

BPD gave him a new identity, a car, and a criminal record, and once his wife signed off, the father of two assumed the risk. “I went in and a week later, I had the guy they wanted,” he recalled.

Nonetheless, BPD asked him to finish the tour, and the novice did such a good job that his superiors told him it would be crazy to come out. “So 18 years later, I was still Eddie Pannoni,” the 80 year old joked.

A drug dealer and gun runner, the deep cover identity required time to gain the trust of the criminal conglomerate. “Once I was followed,” he said, and diverted from going home to his actual family.

Those first few months were very difficult on his wife, and ultimately, federal agencies gave him some office space to do his police work. They also gave him an apartment to cement his cover story, and for the times he didn’t come home, his two sons had no clue. They only found out when the first book came out

But either way, the risk was all his. “Criminals wouldn’t want me hurting their families,” he said. “They’re not going to hurt my family.”

In other words, Lijoi assures that criminals are not as vicious as the media and movies portray. Still, he did have to talk a .44 magnum out of his face once, and the fallout from the defining moment of his career sounds as Hollywood as it gets.

After 183 people were arrested from Maine to Florida and two banks were taken down, the organization in question had a deadly response. “Five men were killed because of my investigation,” Lijoi said. “One was thought to be my informant, and I was on the list.”

The killing took place at a weekly card game, and his force chose not to wait. “We went after them, instead of them coming after us,” Lijoi said.

Remarkably, he wasn’t met in court with the vitriol that we might expect. “Most of them came over to me, and said, ‘at least you did it honestly and the right way,’” he said.

The respect has actually given way to appreciation for those that still remain. They thank him for getting them off out of the business, and happy ending or not, The Preyers documented all the details in 2015.

But the war stories were mostly put to rest, and it was a misstep that reanimated them. “I knocked over a box of my old reports in the garage. So it immediately came to my mind that,” he recalled, ‘I’m going to write a book about all this stuff.”

Soon after, he became acquainted with a writer named Larry Matthews, and together, they wrote Street Business. Published in 2009 by Argus Publishing and available on Amazon, Lijoi enlisted the writer again. But Matthews knew talent when he saw it and assured Lijoi that he had the goods to go solo as a writer.

The second career cascade also got the attention of another undercover officer/author. Joe Pistone (or Donnie Brasco) contacted Ernie, and as a result, Lijoi provided his experiences and narration for two episodes of the Netflix series, Deep Undercover.

Lijoi would then take the audio visual cue, and he’s hoping to take his adapted screenplay for The Preyers to the big screen. A producer, director and a bunch of actors in place, the retiree has only one more component to bring into focus. Currently in negotiation for funding, he expressed the first fact of filmmaking. “All I need is money,” said Lijoi

Poetry also among his published talents, the stories are obviously out there in abundance, and as expected, the names and places are changed. But that’s not necessarily to protect the innocent. Lijoi doesn’t feel its his place to reveal to younger family members what their father’s and grandfather’s did to become incarcerated. “I never mention anyone’s name for that reason,” Lijoi stated.

However, all the recanting of the criminal downfall of others must have him still flirting with disaster. “They think people are chased their entire lives. They’re not. That’s the media hyping things up,” he said. “If they wanted me dead, I would have been dead 25 years ago - not now, nobody cares anymore.”

Of course, his fans probably don’t agree, and as he’s pushing a new 12 episode tv show called The Butcher of Boston, the story seems far from over.

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