United States Marshal Eugene J. Corcoran

With a larger-than-life role model focusing his attention, young Eugene Corcoran, growing up on Long Island, progressed through St. Joseph Grammar School in Ronkonkoma, St. John the Baptist High in West Islip, Suffolk County Community College, and SUNY Empire State College, where he received his Bachelor’s degree. He eventually earned a Master’s in Public Administration at Marist College, where the program centered on police studies. Well after his career was underway he also graduated from the FBI National Academy at Quantico, Virginia.

In 1978 Marshal Corcoran began a 21 year career in the New York State Police. His rise there was swift, making sergeant in 1983, investigator in 1985, lieutenant in 1989, and captain in 1993. It was as a result of his finishing in the top 8 on the lieutenant’s exam that he was sent to Quantico. There he experienced his first sustained contact with federal agencies, as he studied under an academic regimen that emphasized interagency cooperation – what the Marshal calls a "synergistic" approach to law enforcement.

The State Police provided him a smorgasbord of law enforcement experience. Assigned to Long Island early in his career, he was later detailed to the Violent Felony Warrant Squad headquartered at the 50th precinct in Riverdale – but which worked all five boroughs in close cooperation with the NYPD. Then in 1989 he went from the mean streets to a maze of trees, as he was transferred to Troop B in Lake Placid, with jurisdiction over the five Adirondack counties of St. Lawrence, Clinton, Franklin, Essex and Hamilton, near the Canadian border. The North Country was beautiful, Corcoran recalls, and it also gave him diplomatic experience in working with a culture he had not previously encountered. The Akwasasne Mohawk Reservation is located on the border near Messena. The validity of federal or New York Jurisdiction is an issue among many Native Americans there, making for what the Marshal calls an "interesting dynamic" – especially in an area where cigarette smuggling is a major problem. Intense use of Marshal’s negotiating skills was required in 1990, when a Vermont National Guard helicopter was downed by gunfire from within a Native American encampment called Ganienkeh, injuring a medial doctor with shrapnel. Corcoran negotiated with Native Americans to be allowed to conduct an investigation on the reservation and to retrieve the chopper. Working with the FBI, his team was able to identify and issue arrest warrants for several suspects (some of whom fled to Canada) on the condition that no force would be used by New York or U.S. agents.

After a year in the North Country, the future Marshal transferred to the World Trade Center in 1991. Those buildings every day hosted as many people as the entire population of Lake Placid. Working out of a 57the floor office, Corcoran provided State Police support help to a variety of agencies, including the New York Attorney General’s Office, the New York County District Attorney and even the Governor of New York (then Mario Cuomo), for whom he conducted background investigations.

Corcoran’s wife and three children had always remained on Long Island - since he had planned his North Country sojourn to be brief - but after two years in Manhattan, a suburban opening occurred, allowing him to be even closer to home. He left the World Trade Center - just a few months before its first bombing.

But far from a more placid existence, his new venue led to his involvement in two infamous cases.

Joel Rifkind

One began on June 28, 1993, when two young State Troopers under the command of Lt. Corcoran tried to stop a vehicle for a traffic violation. The car sped away and a high speed chase ensued. When the troopers finally apprehended the car and its driver, they found the decomposing remains of a female. So began the Joel Rifkind investigation, the biggest serial murder case in the history on New York. Corcoran assembled and ran a task force form Troop L headquarters in Farmingdale, working with several police departments in the region with open homicide cases. Many were brought to closure as 17 female victims were located and eventually identified. Rifkind was convicted of murder in 1994. Additional convictions followed.

TWA Flight 800

The second infamous case was the crash of TWA flight 800 on July 17, 1996. By this time Captain Corcoran was the State Police Suffolk County Zone commander. The aircraft plunged into the water off the coast of Southampton, and quickly became a recovery operation because there were no survivors. The State Police provided scuba divers who scoured the seabed in more than 500 dives, under the supervision of the Navy, to recover human remains and aircraft wreckage. Corcoran’s operation also included transportation and security for delivery of parts to the Calverton site, where the plane was being reconstructed. Most painfully, he supervised transportation for family members from their hotels to medical examining offices and to the memorials that followed.

Between these two human caused traumas was an enormous fire, apparently not the result of human intervention, which decimated more than 5,000 acres on both sides of Sunrise Highway. It began on the morning of August 24, 1995, and soon exploded into such fierceness that Captain Corcoran activated the State Emergency Disaster Plan. Setting up his Command Post at Sunrise Highway, his operation was so successful that no one perished despite the enormity of the blaze.

Professional life on Long Island did have its more pleasant details of Corcoran, however. Chief among them was supervising security for the annual U.S. Open Golf Tournament at Shinnecock Hills Golf Club. Corcoran does concede to be somewhat of a golfer himself but laments, "It’s a humbling game. It keeps your ego in check."

MTA Police Department

After a generation of service with the New York State Police, the stars aligned to lure him to another arm of law enforcement. The Metropolitan Transportation Authority had recently merged its Long Island Railroad and Metro North Railroad police departments, and it chose James D. O’Donnell – formerly of the State Police – as its chief. O’Donnell reached back into his old agency to appoint Corcoran as deputy chief of the new MTA Police Department, overseeing security for the busiest commuter railroads in the country. In his new position, Deputy Chief Corcoran’s most central concern was the security of Grand Central and Penn Stations. Hew was in his Madison Avenue office when the 9/11 attacks occurred, and again he put an emergency plan into effect. This time the deputy chief brought all available personnel into the city for 12 hour tours of duty to protect the two major depots and also at Ground Zero and One Police Plaza, which was the communications hub. But turning to first things first, Corcoran enabled the trains to funnel thousands of people out of town by assuring the safety of the stations, tracks and tunnels.

The new Marshal is proud of his accomplishments. Reflecting upon the opportunities that have come his way, he says, "In law enforcement, you get to see everything up close and personal." But his style is to be a team player, who credits all his successes to the street cops, scuba divers, and other hands-on personnel who, he believes, really deserve the recognition.

Shortly after 9/11, when Corcoran learned the Marshal’s position would be available, he decided to go for it. It was a 4 year Presidential appointment requiring Senate confirmation. He applied, gained the support of Governor Pataki, among others, and was easily confirmed. His old colleagues at the MTA Police Department were sorry to lose him, as they demonstrated by hosting a farewell dinner in his honor on May 14, 2003.

For the new Marshal there is something old and something new. He returns to his old vocation of tracking down fugitives – largely career criminals. His office is part of the Regional Fugitive Task Force, which also operates from Manhattan and several New Jersey locations. There is a terrorism nexus as well. Corcoran’s office is part of the Joint Terrorism Task Force, to which several deputies are assigned. Consequently, he is vigilant for fugitives having any association with terrorism, or with any country fostering it.

What is new is his work for the judiciary, the major focus of his office. Providing courtroom security, assuring that incarcerated individuals are in their proper courtroom for appearances, protecting the Brooklyn and Central Islip courthouses, are always at the top of his daily agenda. Every morning he reviews the court calendars to assure nothing untoward is developing.

Corcoran is impressed with the professionalism of the judges. Dealing with lawyers and judges, is, he says, "A little different from the street atmosphere. Certainly different from the [Bronx] 42nd Precinct."

Clearly, there will be no Fort Apaches in the Eastern District for the next four years.

Historical Listing of United States Marshals for the Eastern District of New York