Bill Larkin, a forty-year resident of Horne Tooke Road, was born in Manhattan to John and Mary Larkin of County Galway, Ireland. As a young child, the family moved to the Kingsbridge section of the Bronx. After graduating Cardinal Hayes High School in 1956, he served in the United States Army for two years, stationed north of Paris. Returning to the states, he served in the New York Army National Guard where he rose to second lieutenant. When he met his future wife Eileen in 1962, he was working on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange for Mabon and Company. By the time they were married in 1965, he had already made a complete life change by becoming a New York City policeman. The newlyweds moved to the Riverdale section of the Bronx and their family grew to three children: Billy; Stephen amd Aimee. In 1971, they moved to their current home in Palisades and in 1974, welcomed baby number four, Brian.

Bill retired in 1999 after thirty five years on the force. Early in his career, he worked in a number of detective units, most notably the Special Victims and Narcotics Divisions in Brooklyn, Manhattan and the Bronx. This laid the groundwork for his becoming the commanding officer of the Detective Squad of the 45th Precinct, commonly known as the “four-five.” His reign lasted fourteen years, the longest any homicide detective has served.

The sprawling precinct ran from the border of Westchester down to Throgs Neck, taking in the vast wooded Pelham Bay Park area that had miles of secluded shoreline. These remote areas made the “four-five” notorious for being the dumping ground for victims that had been murdered elsewhere. Larkin had estimated that there were one hundred such cases, mostly during the cityʼs drug wars in the 1980s and early 1990s. This kept him very busy because police procedure is such that the precinct where a body is found is the unit responsible for investigating the case, regardless of where the victim had been killed.

In the June 24, 1999 New York Daily News article entitled Good Cop Calls It Quits – Top Detective Hailed as “Mayor” by Many that announced his retirement, the reporter described how Larkin would be remembered as the consummate detective boss, the kind of leader who knew all the local bad guys, including a number of mobsters who made their homes within the precinctʼs boundaries.” He was well-known and respected on the beat and was considered the “mayor” in many of the communities he watched over, from Schuylerville to City Island, where he frequently patrolled by fishing boat on his off-hours. As far as his philosophy, Larkin was quoted “be fair to the people under you and know the neighborhood. Try to help people with a problem and assist anybody you can.”

An avid fisherman, he enjoyed fishing as much as he could once retired and he loved to get away with Eileen and his family to their second home in the Adirondacks. He graduated St. Thomas Aquinas in Orangeburg and during retirement taught at Iona College.

At the Mass at Our Lady of the Sacred Heart Church in Tappan, to a sanctuary overflowing with family and friends, Father Dwyer gave a personal and heartfelt tribute filled with colorful anecdotes about Bill, adding that Bill came to Mass every week and always sat in the back row. Bill is survived by Eileen, his wife of forty six years, their four children, his grandson Joseph and his brother John. In lieu of flowers, the family suggests donations in his name to one of the following organizations: Detective Endowment Association, 26 Thomas Street, New York, NY 10007, Attn: Widows and Children Fund Adirondack Mountain Club, 814 Goggins Road, Lake George, NY 12845, or 518-668-4447 Hi-Tor Animal Care Center, 65 Firemanʼs Memorial Drive, Pomona, NY 10970, or 845-354-7900.