Looking back on September 11, 2001, Joseph F. King, Ph.D., a former Supervisory Special Agent with U.S. Customs and former Associate Professor in the Department of Law, Police Science, and Criminal Justice Administration at John Jay, can’t help but think about the tremendous loss of life. “The World Trade Center area was like its own city,” says King, who at the time of the attacks was working in U.S. Customs, headquartered in 6 World Trade Center, one of the smaller buildings surrounding the twin towers. “There were so many shops on the basement level of the towers. Practically anything you needed was there. We had restaurants, coffee shops, a shoemaker, the barber, and even a tailor. There were so many people in those buildings, so many who died.”
Remembering the Morning
Having worked at the World Trade Center complex for nearly 28 years, King had established a routine on his workdays, starting the day off with a workout at the gym located at 3 World Trade Center, the Marriott Hotel. “I would arrive around 7:00 a.m. every morning and I would always see the same group of guys. Over the years I got to know them on a first-name basis. They were all good guys, all Cantor Fitzgerald employees. They would normally be done working out by 7:30 a.m.,” he says, noting that on the morning of 9/11 he didn’t make it to the gym. “I had an early meeting with an informant over in Brooklyn, so I got to the building later than I normally would, but my understanding is that the Cantor Fitzgerald guys left the gym at their usual time and made their way to have breakfast at Windows of the World in the North Tower. Unfortunately, I never saw those guys again. They all died that day.”
“Looking up at the towers you could see the crash sites, the fire and smoke, and the people jumping. It’s the one thing that stays with me most and keeps me up at night. Seeing people jump out of the buildings to avoid being burned to death.” —Joseph King
Evacuating the Site
King had just sat down at his desk expecting to start paperwork, when the first plane hit the North Tower. “After the 1993 bombing of the World Trade Center, we had an evacuation plan in place. So, when the first plane hit, we didn’t know what it was, we thought it was a fire drill and evacuated. We went to the lobby of the World Financial Center building, which was across the street, and that’s when the second plane hit. It was then that we knew it wasn’t an accident; we were being attacked. My boss told us, ‘Run! Run for your lives. If you’ve got a car, drive north. Just get out of here!’” remembers King. Making his way through the site, he could clearly see and hear the horror playing out all around him. “Looking up at the towers you could see the crash sites, the fire and smoke, and the people jumping. It’s the one thing that stays with me most and keeps me up at night. Seeing people jump out of the buildings to avoid being burned to death. From the ground you just heard the noise and the splatter.”
Participating in the Recovery
In the hours following the towers collapse, agencies on the ground began regrouping, setting up new command centers, and directing rescue and recovery operations from new and safe locations. King and his squad made their way to the U.S. Customs secondary office where they began to brainstorm on how to locate missing colleagues. “There were four or five squads from our agency still out there, but there was nothing we could do. In that moment we decided to connect with our missing colleagues’ wives or partners. We asked them, ‘Have you heard from them? Do you know if they were going into work today? Did you talk to them after the last plane hit?’ The whole experience was just gut-wrenching.”
Over the course of the next few days, groups of rescue and recovery workers began making their way back to the World Trade Center site, now being referred to as ground zero. It was there that the search for the victims and missing began. “I remember that as we went through the site, we would find limbs and body parts, a hand, an arm or foot. The memory of that stays with you.” Along with recovering the victims at the site, there was also a need to recover vital government materials. For King, who oversaw black-market weapons trafficking and terrorism, that meant returning to the mostly destroyed U.S. Customs office at 6 World Trade Center. “When the North Tower fell, part of it fell into our building, creating a gaping hole at the center. But we had to find a way into the building to retrieve ammunition, guns, and millions of dollars in seized currency needed as evidence for court cases,” says King. “Somehow we found a way.”
“We can’t cubbyhole terrorism. We can’t say that this group usually attacks using car bombs and so all they’ll ever do is use car bombs. We need to be ready for anything.” —Joseph King
Teaching at John Jay
Two years after 9/11, and on the cusp of retirement, King began teaching at John Jay—a second career that lasted for 18 years. “During my time with U.S. Customs I had acquired my master’s and doctorate degree. When I was due to retire, Gerry Lynch, then President of John Jay College, asked me to come on board to teach.” In his classes, King hoped to teach the next generation of public servants about what it means to be of service to your community, city, and country, but he also stressed the importance of understanding that criminal acts and terrorism aren’t a fixed notion. “We can’t cubbyhole terrorism. We can’t say that this group usually attacks using car bombs and so all they’ll ever do is use car bombs. We need to be ready for anything because if we aren’t, we’re going to get hurt again,” says King. “I always told my students, when it comes to crime, whether its organized crime or terrorism, we have to expect the unexpected and be ready for it.”
