This NYC detective badge was apparently given by Eddie 'Popeye' Egan to a film industry colleague of Johnny Morris' in the early 1970s. Eddie Egan and his partner Sonny Grosso with their team of NYC police detectives seized a record amount of heroin in 1961 and broke up an organised crime ring in the process. Their exploits became the subject of Robin Moore's book and the subsequent film The French Connection. Egan and his partner even had small roles in the film, Egan as Hackman's supervisor, Lt. Walt Simonson. Egan and Grosso were also technical advisors on the film.