Retired New York City Detective Thomas J. Cavanagh Jr. the inspiration for the TV series “Kojak” died of lung disease yesterday in Margate, Fla. He was 82.
Nicknamed the “Velvet Whip” for his ability to extract a confession out of a suspect, Cavanagh like the character played by Telly Savalas was a powerfully built but gentle man who fancied expensive clothes and bucked his bosses.
Cavanagh, however, had all his hair.
The pilot for the Kojak series, “The Marcus-Nelson Murders,” was based on a sensational case Cavanagh cracked, the 1963 murders of Janice Wylie and Emily Hoffert of Manhattan.
The lawman exonerated the initial suspect and then wheedled a confession out of the real killer.
The case led New York State to abandon the death penalty and provided fodder for the Supreme Court’s decision requiring cops to warn people of their rights when arrested.
Cavanagh, who became a private eye after retiring from the NYPD in 1976, is survived by five children, a brother, two sisters and seven grandchildren.
