Spencer Coffey

Special Agent Spencer Coffey is an FBI agent currently assigned to the Black Rock field office in North Dakota. Tall and stocky with small narrow eyes and a perpetual sunburn, Coffey is originally from Long Island and has a pronounced accent that many find abrasive. He is a profoundly arrogant man with a high opinion of himself and a low opinion of almost everyone else.

Special Agent in Charge, New York Field Office
When the New York Museum of Natural History experienced a series of murders prior to the opening of their Superstition exhibition, Special Agent Aloysius Pendergast ordered the grand opening of the exhibition postponed. The museum director complained directly to the governor (an old college classmate) and Coffey was promptly sent to take over the investigation, with orders that the opening proceed as planned.

The new Special Agent in Charge's plan was to simply seal the perimeter and add FBI officers to the contingent of NYPD and museum security, closing three of the four exits to the exhibition area despite the obvious fire code violations. He believed that he would quickly catch the killer as soon as the opening was finished, and chided Pendergast for not having solved the murders in the four days he had been there.

Coffey arrived late for a subsequent security briefing about the museum's new state-of-the-art digital security system, belittling Pendergast for declaring the untested system overly complex and dependent on computers. Pendergast's recommendation to shut the system down during the event was dismissed derisively, with Coffey suggesting the agent should "head down to your office and eat that catfish sandwich your wife put in your lunchbox." Pendergast, whose wife was deceased, became visibly angry but mastered himself and quickly left the room. D'Agosta called Coffey a "disgrace to law enforcement" and a "sack of shit" before also being dismissed by the SAC.

Hours before the opening of the Superstition Exhibition, Coffey refused to allow the NYPD to make a final sweep through the exhibition—a fateful decision, as two days earlier, NYPD Officer Fred Beauregard had unknowingly been murdered while investigating a noise inside the exhibition. The first group of visitors to the exhibition discovered his body, turning the opening gala into a riot as they stampeded the sole exit Coffey had allowed to remain open.

After the discovery of Beauregard's body, the situation spiraled out of control quickly: a jumpy police officer fired his shotgun at a noise in the museum's main electrical room, cutting power to the entire building. Without power, the heavy steel security door to the only exit came down automatically, killing and maiming several people. Others had been crushed during the stampede by the collapsing stelae facade of the exhibition.

The already bad situation quickly became worse as Mbwun, attracted by the smell of so many people in a confined space, came up from the subbasement to hunt. By the time Coffey was able to contact D'Agosta, the beast had killed Ippolito and several others. Coffey scoffed at Mbwun's existence and relieved D'Agosta of duty, putting NYPD sergeant John Bailey in charge. Bailey immediately deferred to D'Agosta before turning off the radio.

D'Agosta and the remaining police led a group of almost 40 guests, including Mayor Harper, from the exhibition into the subbasement to try and find a way out of the building. Coffey, realizing the mayor was part of D'Agosta's group, suggested they return to main exhibition area to wait for the SWAT team. In response, the mayor sternly chastised him for politically prioritizing the rescue efforts before commenting to D'Agosta that Coffey was a "horse's ass."

As Mbwun attacked more guests, Coffey called for a SWAT team, continuing to disregard warnings about the beast despite D'Agosta, Bailey and Pendergast claiming to have seen it firsthand. After arguing with the SWAT commander about the mission parameters—Coffey wanted them to focus on the beast, while the commander insisted their first priority was evacuating the wounded—he watched with the SWAT team spotter as the team entered the museum through the roof. After securing the exhibition area, they left two members with the medics to tend to the wounded and provide security, while the commander and five others followed the sound of gunshots from the floors above, where they encountered a panicked Ian Cuthbert. Two of them escorted Cuthbert back to the exhibition area, while the other four continued in search of Mbwun; they found the headless bodies of Winston Wright and Lavinia Rickman before Mbwun killed them all.

After losing half of the SWAT team, Coffey appeared to crack under the pressure, barricading himself in the FBI mobile command unit van and blaming everyone else for the evening's events: Pendergast, D'Agosta, the museum security team. Shortly afterwards he was relieved of command and replaced by Special Agent Loomis Slade.

In all, twenty-six guests, staff and law enforcement personnel were killed in what was characterized as "one of the biggest screwups in the Bureau's history." Though Coffey managed to save his job, he was demoted by Mike Decker and reassigned to the Waco field office in Texas; the rest of his team was fired.

Waco, Texas Field Office
Coffey's time in Texas did not go well. The Waco office under Coffey's "leadership" was the recipient of several Bureau records: the lowest number of closed cases, the highest number of agent transfer requests, and the highest number of alleged legal and ethical violations. During his tenure, he also opened fire on a teenager walking home carrying a large catfish, whom Coffey had, in the dark, mistaken for a Branch Davidian terrorist with a bazooka. His own partner had to tackle him to stop the boy from being killed - although, as Pendergast later wryly noted, the boy was probably in little danger, since Coffey ranked dead last in his Academy class during marksmanship training.

Return to New York
Somehow, Coffey managed to arrange a transfer back to the New York City field office. Pendergast sarcastically referenced the fact that Coffey's father-in-law was a former U.S. Senator, implying that this was also how Coffey had avoided being dismissed from the Bureau many times over.

When Pendergast suddenly became the primary suspect in four murders—including highly decorated FBI agent Mike Decker—the FBI launched a multi-agency manhunt, directed by Coffey. Secretly delighted by not only the death of Decker, who had been responsible for his demotion following the events of Relic, but that Pendergast had been identified as the killer, Coffey cut off any involvement of the local agencies, insisting the FBI take over not only the search for Pendergast, but the investigations of the other murders Pendergast was suspected of.

Pendergast, naturally, evaded the Bureau's manhunt and essentially turned himself in by calling the authorities on himself—a call that went not to the FBI, but to the NYPD, much to Coffey's chagrin.

Pendergast was arrested on four charges of murder, including Decker's. Coffey quickly arranged to take the lead in the investigation; since the case against Pendergast was believed to be ironclad, Coffey believed his sole task was to extract Pendergast's confession.

He interviewed Pendergast inside Herkmoor Federal Prison in upstate New York several times. After their first interview, when Pendergast refused to confess, Despite manipulating Warden Gordon Imhof into tormenting Pendergast in his cell, Coffey was vexed when, at their next interview, Pendergast still refused to confess. He blamed Imhof for not being "tough" enough on the prisoners, and insisted that something harsher was necessary to "soften" Pendergast. Coffey convinced Imhof to place Pendergast in an exercise yard dominated by a notoriously violent drug gang leader and rapist, whom Pendergast had arrested and sent to prison. Imhof, who was growing increasingly tired of Coffey's arrogant and imperious behavior, warily agreed.

As expected, Pendergast's time in the exercise yard led to a violent confrontation, which left Pendergast severely beaten and the gang leader dead. Coffey eagerly met Pendergast for their next interview, confidently expecting him to confess.

In a tone of mocking obsequiousness, Pendergast began to pour out his "admiration" of Coffey, listing the shining accomplishments of his career, including the debacle at the Museum and Coffey's lackluster administration of the Waco field office. By the time Coffey realized he was being insulted, the guard in Pendergast's cell had heard enough to start snickering behind his back. As Coffey was leaving, Pendergast included one final insult, suggesting that Coffey read William Shakespeare's play Much Ado About Nothing, as he could learn a great deal from the character of Constable Dogberry (a bumbling night watchman with a hugely inflated opinion of himself).

Coffey stormed out of Pendergast's cell and ordered Imhof to place Pendergast back in the same exercise yard the next day, despite warnings that doing so was essentially a death sentence. Imhof refused to take such action without written FBI authorization, and Coffey impatiently agreed to sign.

As soon as Pendergast was placed in the yard, Coffey radioed the two guards on duty and demanded their presence, threatening them both with termination or transfer to Black Rock, North Dakota. Unfortunately for Coffey, the absence of the guards allowed Pendergast to make his escape from Herkmoor, assisted by Vincent D'Agosta and Eli Glinn.

According to the electronic tracking bracelet attached to his ankle, however, Pendergast had never left his cell. Armed with this information, a miffed Coffey stormed into Imhof's after-action meeting following the escape attempt, demanding to know why his order was not followed. Imhof, who had just been informed by the two guards of Pendergast's presence in the yard during the escape and of Coffey's threatening order, had finally had enough of Coffey's behavior and called him on the carpet. Coffey was taken aback when Imhof refused to be intimidated, and began to leave the room, until Imhof stated—while being tape-recorded, for the official record—that Coffey had exceeded his authority by threatening the prison's guards, and was therefore directly responsible for the escape. All of Coffey's arrogance deserted him, and he sank into a chair, feebly pleading that whatever happened was just a misunderstanding.

Pendergast was later exonerated, and Coffey, having bumbled the Pendergast case and thoroughly embarrassed himself at Herkmoor, had been demoted to GS-11, received a notice of censure in his file, and been transferred to the FBI field office in—ironically—Black Rock, North Dakota.