Josephine Susan Kaufman is now 71 and a stoic, determined woman.
She’s kind, but not grandmotherly. She’s a cop. Always a cop. She lives by the motto to “protect and serve.”
Jo Sue grew up in a tight-knit Jewish community in north Jersey.
Her father worked in the tough Garment District in NYC. Her grandmother was a suffragette
Jo Sue wanted to be a cop at age 5. As a teenager she broke her first barrier – convincing the local ambulance service to let her hop on board. She loved racing to the scene. She could deal with the trauma… and the dead bodies.
In 1977, Jo Sue was one of the first women hired by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms (ATF).
Issued a .38 handgun and a badge, she went through rigorous training and reported to the Trenton office. Jo Sue wasn’t about to settle for a desk job. She wanted to get out on the streets, working undercover.
She got her chance in Asbury Park over the objections of a local police chief.
“Let’s get something straight,” he said. “I’m a male chauvinist, I have a big ego and I don’t like outside agencies in my town.”
I said, “I see your chauvinism and your big ego and I am going to be in your town.”
Jo Sue’s work would eventually take her to the violent streets of Camden, NJ, Manhattan and North Philadelphia. She drank and played pool in mafia-controlled bars in Atlantic City and worked her way into the Pagan Motorcycle Club. She infiltrated the hyper-violent Spangler Posse and the militant New Zulu Nation.
And the pressure was building.
“I was starting to disassociate myself from the violence, the danger, the murders. How do you talk to any ‘normal’ person about this?”
JO SUE IS READY TO SHARE HER STORY FOR THE FIRST TIME.
