Randy Jurgensen was born and raised in New York City. He served in the U.S. Army as a Paratrooper and Green Beret. Randy received numerous medals for his military duty, including three Bronze Stars; and the Purple Heart. After returning from his military service in Korea, he joined the New York Police Department. During his tenure with the NYPD, Randy worked as an undercover Narcotics Detective and a homicide detective in Harlem. During his Harlem years, the murder of Police Officer Philip Cardillo became the catalyst for one of the largest scandals in the history of the NYPD.

Randy Jurgensen, along with his co-author Robert Cea (retired NYPD), give an account of the scandal in “Circle of Six: The True Story of New York's Most Notorious Cop-Killer and the Cop Who Risked Everything to Catch Him.”  According to the book, ‘On Friday, April 14, 1972, the police were summoned to Mosque Number 7 in Harlem, led at the time by the Nation of Islam's Louis Farrakhan, for a ten-thirteen: officer in need of help. The turn of events after this police officer distress call has become perhaps the most legendary story in NYPD history. Police entered the Mosque and a conflict occurred, leaving Office Cardillo dead; and, the city on the brink of a full-scale riot. Sensing a potential crisis and conflict with the Nation of Islam and the Black Liberation Army, New York City Mayor John Lindsay, Commissioner Benjamin Ward, and Congressman Charles Rangel acquiesced to the city's black leaders and ordered the police out of the Mosque.

Subsequently, the details of Officer Cardillo's murder and the events of what happened at the Mosque were covered up and an investigation was never truly launched until NYPD detective Randy Jurgensen began his own investigation. For four years, he would not rest, taking on the Mayor, his superiors in the NYPD, the Nation of Islam, and seemingly at times, the entire city of New York, before he could affect an arrest. His investigation revealed the tragic and shameful story of the political scandal and cover-up that rocked the NYPD and the Nation of Islam.