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'Real Housewives of New Jersey': Danielle Staub's past revealed in book?
by Vicki Hyman/The Star-Ledger
Wednesday May 27, 2009, 4:41 PM
BRAVODanielle Staub

The "Real Housewives of New Jersey" are gunning for Danielle Staub, and their ammunition is an out-of-print book called "Cop Without a Badge." It tells many tales about one Beverly Merrill, a long-legged brunette stripper who by her own estimation had slept with about a thousand men by the time she settled down with the book's hero, felon turned informant Kevin Maher.

The book also details Merrill's criminal past: A few moments after meeting the undergarments-averse Merrill at a Miami drug party, Maher is told that Merrill is out on $10,000 bail.

Apparently, Merrill was partying with a drug dealer who had kidnapped a rich kid who owed him $25,000. The dealer beat the kid up, starved him, then called the kid's father for ransom. The police busted them and charged Merrill with extortion, kidnapping and possession, but Maher, with his law enforcement connections, helped her work out a deal in which she pleaded guilty to extortion. She got five years' probation, according to the book.

Maher, who is married, leaves his wife and marries Merrill (but couldn't be bothered to divorce his first wife first). They settle in Elmwood Park and try to have a baby before Maher realizes Merrill is "not mother material." Merrill finds work dancing under the name Danielle at Satin Dolls in Hackensack -- we're guessing that Kipps got the location wrong; Satin Dolls, the stand-in for the Bada-Bing in "The Sopranos," is in nearby Lodi. (There's the inevitable "Sopranos" connection!) Maher discovers Merrill is cheating on him and eventually leaves her.

How trustworthy is the book? Well, the Amazon.com reviews include a few negative missives from Maher's family members. Here's our favorite:

"Hey Kevin: I've been speaking with your Uncle Lawrence and Uncle Ron, this entire book is a fabrication and you know it. You are a rat in every sense of the word. Your own sister won't speak to you, your Uncles want to have a "word" with you, (guess thats why you wont tell us where in jersey you are you rat fink) your cousins Donnie & Al would like a word with you as well, your Uncle Paddy, God rest his soul wanted to kill you till his dying day and your father, Kelly, would be turning in his grave if he read all the lies in here."

We'd tell you to go read it for yourself, but that's not so easy. The Newark Public Library and the Irvington branch purported to have copies, but they were not on the shelves. By noon, nine of the 13 copies in the Bergen County library system had been checked out -- not bad for a book that's been out of print for years. By late afternoon, all but one had been checked out. The only copy to be found in Passaic County's libraries was unavailable. We had to schlep to a distant corner of the Rutgers Newark law library, where a clerk dug one of their two copies out of the movable stacks. And yes, it was worth it.