I had two strikes against me.
I was a federal agent And I was a ‘girl.’
JO SUE KAUFMAN
A documentary film series about Jo Sue Kaufman, the pioneering undercover street agent who led dramatic raids on the most violent criminals on the East Coast.
“My life is on the line. Other people's lives were on the line. I’m trying to get a gun off the street, put a drug dealer in jail.
This is what I was born to do.”
JO SUE
Jo Gun: The Girl in the Iron Pipeline is a five-part documentary series framed around the life story of a nice Jewish girl who fell in love with law enforcement.
Jo Sue Kaufman broke the glass ceiling for women working undercover. Alone. On the street. She fought her way up the ranks and got hundreds of guns off the street. She put dozens of dangerous thugs behind bars. But she paid a huge personal price. She grew isolated. She was traumatized. She attempted suicide.
These five pressure-cooker episodes unfold chronologically starting from Jo Sue’s first major case on the gritty back streets of Asbury Park, NJ where she led one of the largest raids in state history. She was 25 years old.
Her beat extended to Camden, Sugar Hill in Harlem and to North Philly -- the destinations for illegal guns in the Iron Pipeline. Jo Sue intercepted those guns. She protected us while we slept.
But it was a constant battle with Jo Sue’s male superior officers.
“The murder case was over. I went back to my office to find another memo from the Special Agent in Charge. He labelled me an unproductive agent; said I didn’t add to the productivity of the office. I wasn’t making firearm cases. He was trying to build a case against me. I was pissed.”
Jo Gun will tell the story of the deep emotional and psychological traumas that nearly killed Jo Sue Kaufman.
“I’m now playing three roles; a Federal agent, a make-believe drug buyer and a ‘normal’ daughter to my father. The professional life had to stay out of the personal life. That was becoming a harder line to keep.”
