Retired NYPD detective coproduces a Bronx tale

Bob Mladinich was leafing through old photos at a friend’s Port Jefferson office recently, musing about how he missed his broken nose. The black-and-white pictures were of his fight debut back in college, a lark that ended when a hard left sent him to the canvas face first. The result was a busted appendage that he was forced to fix years later because of sinus and headache problems.

“I wish I still had that,” he said. “I liked the look.”

This may seem like an odd wish, but a busted schnoz isn’t such a bad thing in the 65-year-old Long Island native’s present line of work as a part-time actor and private investigator. Those occupations are just the latest in a series of wide-ranging adventures that have included getting a degree in journalism, investigating crimes as a New York City police detective, writing four true-crime books, earning a license as a clinical social worker and becoming the confidant of one of the country’s most chilling serial killers, Joel Rifkin.

What excites Mladinich these days is a turn as a screenwriter and movie producer.

“To be in your 60s and find something that brings this much joy is a blessing,” he said.

Actually, it is hard to tell when Mladinich is excited about anything. In person, he projects an unnerving calmness and moves his 6-foot-5, 300-pound frame with the methodical grace of a freight train. That’s probably why all of his minor acting roles so far have involved him playing the “heavy,” which he also did in “Mott Haven: Cash for Keys,” now on various streaming services (see box).

The movie was made with Mladinich’s writer-producer partner and lifelong friend, Michael Domino; the two grew up together in Melville. It concerns a down-on-his-heels radio mogul who finds redemption fighting gentrification in a Bronx neighborhood.

In one of the scenes, Mladinich leans over an apartment dweller the greedy landlord wants ejected and growls, “Leave … while the going's good.”

His one experience in a major movie was in Martin Scorsese’s “The Irishman” where he briefly appears as a double-crossing bodyguard strolling out of a barbershop so his lathered-up boss can get whacked.

Domino, 64, summed up his friend’s cinematic appeal. “He’s a thug,” he said.

Stalled journalism career

Back to the nose. The reason it took a beating was because of Mladinich’s original goal of becoming a journalist. Enrolled in journalism school at SUNY Brockport, he worked sports and offered to train alongside an up-and-coming fighter for a story. The day of the fight, the heavyweight on the second card didn’t show. Mladinich asked for the spot. He had been training for only a month and had no illusions about his talent level, but he did like the challenge.

He came out swinging and had a successful first round. The second was another story.

“I was landing some pretty good shots,” Mladinich said, “but I noticed the other guy kept coming.”

That was when his opponent smashed his nose and sent him to the canvas. He got up, but the ref stopped the fight.

“I finished on my feet,” he said.

He had two other pro fights, but he lost both.

He graduated from Brockport in 1980, but his journalism dreams evaporated when he couldn’t land a newspaper job. After a few years of freelancing, he joined the NYPD. It was a dangerous era. Two officers were killed one night in his territory in upper Manhattan. He had a few close calls himself. One happened when he was part of an arrest team at a crack house. After the police broke in the door, he was put in charge of keeping the drop on three suspects seated on a couch. Guns had been found in the house and one of the occupants kept reaching into his pocket despite being repeatedly warned. Later, they discovered he was unarmed and simply hoping to get rid of the drugs in his pocket.

“I didn’t pull the trigger,” Mladinich said. “I’ve always been glad about that.”

Robert Boyce, retired NYPD chief of detectives and a consultant for ABC News and Oxygen’s “New York Homicide,” laughed when asked how well he knew Mladinich.

“Are you kidding me,” he said. “I used to box that monster.”

The two met at the police academy, became sparring partners and have been friends for nearly 40 years. He described Mladinich as an “excellent” detective with an unusual ability to empathize with people from all walks of life. That is one of the reasons “Father Bob” — as he was nicknamed — was sometimes called in to elicit a confession from a criminal.

“The third-degree stuff doesn’t really work,” Boyce said. “What does work is developing some kind of bond with them. How else do you think he was able to talk to Joel Rifkin?”

Handy contacts

One of New York’s most infamous serial killers, Rifkin spoke openly to Mladinich, who wrote a book about his life in 2001. In “From the Mouth of the Monster,” the East Meadow man recounted the slaying and casual dismemberment of some of his 17 female victims.

Strangely, the two had been friends once. Rifkin also went to SUNY Brockport, was a photographer and a good one, Mladinich thought. They covered a fight that turned into a crowd melee, then sold the story and pictures to local newspapers making them journalism department celebrities. He was disappointed to learn Rifkin dropped out of school and stunned years later to read the guy he thought “didn’t have a dangerous bone in his body” was a serial killer.

Recalling their interviews, Mladinich said, “He told me things that made my skin crawl.”

After retiring from 20 years of police work as a detective second-grade, Mladinich became a private investigator and later a clinical social worker specializing in presentencing research to help courts determine jail time for those convicted of a crime. (He was also widowed and divorced, has three children and lives in Manhattan.) Talking to inmates had more of a softening than a hardening effect on him, he said, especially after he learned about their often-tortured childhoods.

“I try to see the good in people,” he said.

His contacts with the underworld have come in handy. When the makers of “The Irishman” wanted to get advice from a real hit man, Mladinich reached out to a former contract killer from the Colombo crime family he knew who had served 10 years in prison. The man had changed and was remorseful about his past, Mladinich said. He was hired as an on-set adviser.

Getting good reviews

The complexity of human nature is one reason he and Domino decided to get into movies.

The two had stayed in touch over the years. Both liked writing. When Domino came up with a script called “The Expediter,” a coming-of-age story about a troubled youth, they decided to make it themselves. Over a matter of months, they gathered actors and technicians and began filming on locations on Long Island and in the city. They learned the movie business from the ground up, fetching food for the crew, running to the store for props and generally doing movie scut work.

“It was guerrilla filmmaking at its finest,” Mladinich said.

The project won an award in a Buffalo film festival for best supporting actress. Excited by the experience, Domino, who had formed his own film company, came up with the idea for the “Mott Haven” movie. After finishing the script, the two traveled to Los Angeles, where they snagged Robert Davi, a veteran actor, for the lead. His credits included a bit in the movie “Die Hard,” a role as a James Bond villain and an ongoing spot as a special agent in the NBC-TV series “Profiler.”

Once again, Mladinich donned his thug persona as an intimidator for the landlord, played by Chuck Zito, the actual former head of the New York City Chapter of the Hells Angels. The hero, Davi, isn’t fazed when the landlord shows up to threaten the residents at their meeting. Davi tells him to get out, then nods toward Mladinich, “And take your walrus with you.”

Released in 2020, the film garnered good reviews in several film festivals, including winning best drama at the Chandler Film Festival in Arizona. This attracted agents and soon it was picked up by Amazon and Vudu.

Mladinich and Domino have high hopes for another movie they just finished. This one has an A-list actor who plays a deluded gangster. They plan to release it this year but are keeping mum about it for now since it is still in the editing stage.

Whether this will be their “breakthrough” film remains to be seen.

That’s OK with Mladinich.

Some of his friends have retired to Florida, but he’s having too much fun.

“It’s never too late for another incarnation,” he said.