He's the NYPD's oldest retired private investigator, still plays harmonica, and remembers the day he met famed bank robber Willie Sutton, who happened to be half-naked.
Howard Buck, who turned 100 in July, joined the police force in 1948 after serving four years aboard the USS Mississippi in the Pacific during World War II. He retired from the NYPD in 1978 after 30 years of service.
“It was a great experience,” Bach told The Post about his career with the NYPD.
“Howard Buck fought for our country in the war and then proudly served this city as a detective with the NYPD,” said Detectives Association President Scott Munroe. “We salute him on what would have been his 100th birthday and wish this crime-fighter a long and healthy life for many years to come.”
DEA (Drug Enforcement Administration) Honorable Bach received a eulogy for his life of service last month at Northport Veterans Affairs Medical Center on Long Island.
Bach was born on July 4, 1924, a time when Prohibition was still in effect and the Big Apple hosted its first Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade.
He grew up in a house on stilts at Springfield Docks in Queens, at what is now John F. Kennedy International Airport.
Dennis A. Clark
By age 8, Bach was a strong swimmer and even rescued a drowning child. When the child's father thanked him by giving him a boat, Bach wrote “PD” on it, standing for the police department he dreamed of joining someday.
“He always wanted to be a police officer,” his daughter Karen Clinton, 73, said proudly.
Bach and his wife, Dolores, had three sons and three daughters. Two of his sons served in the U.S. Army in Vietnam and returned home, only to die. Clinton said Bach's third son, a former federal agent, and his daughters were taking care of their father.
Dennis A. Clark
Bach was repeatedly commended by the police department for his police work, in letters kept by his daughter.
In a photo dated Dec. 13, 1948, Mr. Bach is shown celebrating his arrest of an armed robber who had attacked and robbed the owner of a Brooklyn hardware store after hearing the robber's cries for help and cornering him.
“This is truly excellent work and your care, prudence and strict adherence to your duties deserve the highest praise,” wrote then-Police Commissioner Arthur Wallander.
“He made so many arrests as a foot patrol officer that within six months he was appointed detective,” his daughter said.
Bach told The Washington Post that he has helped solve countless cases, including one in Queens where a man killed a woman in her basement and threw her body into a furnace.
“We got him there,” Bach said, “we got a confession, and he went to prison.”
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And he'll always remember meeting Sutton, the most notorious bank robber in American history, who robbed dozens of banks during a 40-year career of crime and even escaped from prison. 3 times.
When asked why he robbed banks, Sutton famously replied, “Because that's where the money is.”
Bach's partners arrested Sutton in Brooklyn in 1952.
Courtesy of Howard Buck
He was out at the store and couldn't grab the collar, but when he returned to Precinct 78 he was confronted by the robbers. Sutton had just been strip-searched.
“They took him into a back room and he had no pants on and he asked me, 'Can I put some pants on please?'” Bach recalled.
Bach removed the handcuffs and said, “Sure, Willie, go ahead.”
“He was a very good man. A very kind man,” Bach recalled. “He would never kill anyone or anything like that.”
Bach said he was proud of his years of service.
“I found my calling,” he says. “It seemed like a good job, and it turned out to be a good job.”
