← Autodidact Archive · Original Dissent · Walter Yannis
Thread ID: 17268 | Posts: 15 | Started: 2005-03-12
2005-03-12 14:33 | User Profile
[URL=http://www.nypost.com/news/regionalnews/40962.htm]New York Post[/URL] FEDS: BADGES SHIELDED MOB By KATI CORNELL SMITH, LARRY CELONA and ANDY GELLER
March 11, 2005 -- Two brazen former NYPD detectives led secret lives as Mafia hit men, whacking one wiseguy, delivering another for execution and passing on confidential information that led to the coldblooded murders of six others, prosecutors said yesterday. In their most outrageous action, Louis Eppolito, 56 ââ¬â who wrote the book "Mafia Cop" and acted in the movie "GoodFellas" ââ¬â and Stephen Caracappa, 63, rubbed out Eddie Lino, a Gambino family capo, for $65,000, the feds said.
Almost as unthinkable, the dirty duo received $35,000 for delivering Gambino soldier James Hydell for execution by Luchese family underboss Anthony "Gaspipe" Casso.
Gaspipe believed that Lino, Hydell and two other men carried out a Sept. 14, 1986, attempt on his life and was hot for revenge.
Lino pulled the trigger in the fabled hit on Gambino boss Paul Castellano outside Sparks steakhouse on Dec. 16, 1985 ââ¬â a killing that brought John Gotti to the top of the storied mob family.
At Gaspipe's request, the ex-cops also tried ââ¬â but failed ââ¬â to rub out Salvatore "Sammy Bull" Gravano, the mob canary whose testimony put the Dapper Don behind bars for life.
And they were DumbFellas as well as GoodFellas ââ¬â providing bad information that resulted in the tragic, mistaken-ID slaying of a mildly retarded man.
In all, Eppolito and Caracappa ââ¬â one squat and loud, the other thin and quiet ââ¬â were charged under racketeering laws with eight murders, two attempted murders, murder conspiracy, obstruction of justice, drug distribution and money laundering.
If convicted, they could spend the rest of their lives behind bars.
"These corrupt former detectives betrayed their shields, their colleagues, and the citizens they were sworn to protect," said Brooklyn U.S. Attorney Roslynn Mauskopf. "They used the confidential files of the NYPD as their personal yellow pages."
Eppolito ââ¬â the son, grandson and nephew of mobsters with nicknames like "Fat the Gangster" and "Jimmy the Clam" ââ¬â has had bit parts in movies, including playing Fat Andy in "GoodFellas."
He and Caracappa were busted Wednesday night in a restaurant off the Strip in Las Vegas, where they moved after retiring from the force in 1990 and 1992. They live across the street from each other on Silver Bear Way.
Cops did not try to bust them in their homes because Eppolito has a collection of more than 200 guns, sources said.
At a hearing in Las Vegas federal court last night, the two did not enter pleas, and the hearing was adjourned until today so their lawyers could have time to argue against the prosecution's request for no bail.
"The government is relying on the word of rats," snapped Caracappa's lawyer David Chesnoff.
Gaspipe, serving life for murder, raised the charges against Eppolito and Caracappa in 1994, but authorities felt he wasn't reliable. They now have a new witness.
According to federal and state prosecutors and court papers, Gaspipe placed the detectives on his payroll after the September 1986 hit attempt, paying them a retainer of $4,000 a month each, with more for extra services.
He called them his "crystal ball," sources said.
Using their NYPD resources ââ¬â Caracappa was a founder of the Organized Crime Homicide Unit ââ¬â the dirty duo determined the strike was carried out by a four-man Gambino crew, the feds say.
They identified Hydell as one of the crew, and in October 1986, they allegedly kidnapped Hydell, stuffed him into the trunk of a car and delivered him to Casso.
The underboss tortured Hydell until he gave up the names of the three others and then was murdered. His body has never been found.
Casso bragged he did the killing himself, shooting Hydell 15 times, sources said.
The detectives allegedly got $35,000 "extra" for their chilling efforts.
The next victim, Nicholas Guido, who was mildly retarded, was tragically slain in a case of mistaken identify.
The real target, also named Nicholas Guido, was a Gambino associate who lived in the same neighborhood, but was three years older.
The dirty duo fingered the wrong man, feds say. On Christmas Day, 1986, Casso dispatched a hit team to the wrong Nicholas Guido and he was murdered.
Nevertheless, Gaspipe gave the detectives a contract to kill Bartolomeo "Bobby" Boriello, a Gambino soldier who was supposed to be part of the hit crew.
But the pair had to abandon their efforts when a fellow cop discovered they were searching for Boriello, according to prosecutors.
Still, they allegedly gave Gaspipe information about Boriello's whereabouts plus an audio cassette in which the Gambino soldier repeatedly threatened the underboss and his family.
On May 13, 1991, Boriello was murdered.
In November 1992, the detectives allegedly accepted a $65,000 contract from Gaspipe to murder Lino, the last member of the hit squad.
Eppolito had retired from the NYPD, but Caracappa was still on the force.
On Nov. 6, 1990, the two allegedly followed Lino from his social club, pulled his Mercedes over on the Belt Parkway in Brooklyn and killed him. Caracappa pulled the trigger, sources say.
The pair also tried to kill Gravano because Gaspipe thought he was linked to the four, but gave up, feds say. The pair also allegedly helped the underboss eliminate mobsters he thought were cooperating with the feds, including John "Otto" Heidel and James "Jimmy" Bishop, an official in the Painters Union Local 37.
Eppolito and Caracappa met in 1979 when they were both working in Brooklyn robbery.
Joseph Ponzi, the Brooklyn district attorney's chief investigator, and retired detective Thomas Dades, revived the investigation two years ago.
Additional reporting by Murray Weiss and Bob Shemeligian in Las Vegas
2005-03-12 15:22 | User Profile
A very big story here in Gotham, and absolutely disgusting. If ever two dirtbags deserved to ride a Lethal Injection to Nowhere, it's these two bastards.
However, it reinforces a belief I've long held, mainly, unless there is a gun to your head and you have no options left, you ought never to cooperate or volunteer information to the cops or any government agency. No matter how they may cajole or threaten or pressure you, keep your mouth shut. Anybody who believes law enforcement is there to protect you is dreaming. Just because they got these two - over a decade after they'd retired - doesn't mean there aren't any number of others currently working both ends of the street. And considering Bernie Kerik's record, it doesn't stop at the rank-and-file. The less interaction you have with govt in all its manifestations, the better off you'll be.
2005-03-12 15:54 | User Profile
[QUOTE=il ragno]Anybody who believes law enforcement is there to protect you is dreaming. [/QUOTE] Ditto.
This is a powerful argument for second amendment rights.
I mean, the "ban the guns" nutcases argue that private citizens don't need guns because we have the police!
Only a fool could say that.
This proves the point yet again.
[QUOTE]Eppolito ââ¬â the son, grandson and nephew of mobsters with nicknames like "Fat the Gangster" and "Jimmy the Clam" ââ¬â has had bit parts in movies, including playing Fat Andy in "GoodFellas." [/QUOTE]
I would love to see a picture of "Jimmy the Clam."
What a name!
2005-03-12 17:48 | User Profile
As a man of mostly reserved WASP heritage (a Catholic upbringing notwithstanding), I've always viewed the Mafia from two angles. On the one hand, they have vowel-laden last names, kiss each other on the cheek and run around doing things they're not supposed to do, like loan shark and extort. That's foreign to me. I will never and could never be a member of "the family." On the other hand. They're white, so they're on the bigger team. They demonstrate qualities WASPs could use more of: loyalty to family, heart and fight. They dislike blacks as much (and maybe more) than I do. They're wise to yids, though they often deal with them (pretty much unavoidable). They make great entertainment. And who are they really hurting? I don't fear the Mafia, personally. I fear the black man coming toward me on the sidewalk. In fact, I feel damn safe in neighborhoods with a Mafia presence.
Of course, if they have innocent victims --- say, an honest storefront man forced to pay protection money --- that's no good. It gets murkier when they shake down, say, casino owners. I mean, that's like crooks robbing crooks. My people wouldn't be in the casino business to begin with, so what do we care?
The Mafia cultivates an outside-the-system mentality, which has advantages and disadvantages. Depressingly, whites in America today --- even WASPy ones --- need to get used to the fact they WE are now outside the system, and maybe we could learn a lesson.
2005-03-12 18:02 | User Profile
The "we own the country" mentality is one of the reasons Faux News has so easy time leading the suckers around.
2005-03-12 18:10 | User Profile
In my more suspicious moments I think all the emphasis on the Italian mafia is just a way to clear off the playing field in favor of the Jewish Mafia.
2005-03-12 18:16 | User Profile
[QUOTE=Hugh Lincoln]The Mafia cultivates an outside-the-system mentality, which has advantages and disadvantages. Depressingly, whites in America today --- even WASPy ones --- need to get used to the fact they WE are now outside the system, and maybe we could learn a lesson.[/QUOTE]
Good points.
My suggestion is similar to that. The Mondragon Cooperatives of the Basque Country are free market based, legitimate enterprises that in 50 years grew from a single micro enterprise making sterno stoves to one of the largest (maybe the largest now) Spanish company (if you can call it a company, it's really more like a set of general partnerships). Now, Mondragon was very consciously Basque nationalist response to Franco's repressive economic and national polices (state monopoly on business licenses, official discrimination agains tht Basque language).
I talked with a Spanish colleague from Madrid about Mondragon's astonishing success, and he grew rather pensive and said that Mondragon was closely associated with the broad Basque nationalist movement, and that ETA got a piece of it.
I didn't want to tell him that I saw this as a positive thing for us Americans, but the fact remains that it is.
I agree that the Italian mob isn't our big problem. Besides, our stupid policies create most of their environmental niche. They mostly make their money on drugs, prostitution and gambling, all of which could be legalized and regulated thereby taking the profits out of these activities for organized crime.
But if we really want to gain our freedom, we need to look not at the Sicilians and their family success at supplying nogs with drugs and whores, but rather at the Basques and their astonishing - ASTONISHING - success in carving out a wholly alternative ECONOMY that they own and control in the context of an out-and-out FACIST state monopoly on anybody doing any business anywhere in Spain. We have much, much less onerous conditions to work under.
There's really no reason we couldn't do the same.
I've had absolutely no success in getting folks interested in this, though.
I guess it's just not time yet.
2005-03-12 18:58 | User Profile
Let's not get so caught up in the romanticized larger picture that we start sweeping murder-for-profit under the rug. The Mob had no problem dealing dope for decades - and then hiding behind mythology that claimed they were dead-set against it: nonsense.
The idea that they only rub out their own is similar horseshit. Try telling the hoods walking into your shop that you aren't paying anybody any protection money and you'll find out how equal-opportunity their violence is. (By no means is OC restricted to Sicilians, btw, but that's another story...) Try opening an above-board construction company in the NYC area and bidding against a mobbed-up competitor, and you'll be fish food in short order.
The Mafia as a necessary evil...even a boon for white society....is a mindset that has developed from years and years of outright [I]fear [/I] of them transmuted into something that allows the terrified to feel better about their sweaty palms and knocking knees. Yeah, I've known a few...they were no ****ing good when they were kids, and even more disgusting as 'adults'.
And as for that 'code of omerta', take a look at the rate these guys rat each other out for lighter sentences and witness protection packages. Trust me. If you'll kill someone for money, you'll sell them out even quicker to save your own hide. And for Italian-Americans who want something better in life than running whores or hijacking trucks, they are a plague better off eradicated.
2005-03-12 19:42 | User Profile
How strong is the "Russian" mob in New York these days? Are they really pushing Italians out of market?
Petr
2005-03-12 20:13 | User Profile
[QUOTE=il ragno]Try opening an above-board construction company in the NYC area and bidding against a mobbed-up competitor, and you'll be fish food in short order.[/QUOTE]
I don't doubt it. I know a guy who knew some guys (trust me, the circumstances were legit). He called the mob "the gang that couldn't shoot straight." He said some of them were incredibly dumb. They cruised on their fearful image. And the great romance of Sicilian days of old --- when the Mafia were the good guys united against bad rulers --- if far from the mark today.
[QUOTE=petr]How strong is the "Russian" mob in New York these days? Are they really pushing Italians out of market?[/QUOTE]
According to the tabs, the Albanians are the scariest these days.
2005-03-12 20:20 | User Profile
Yeah, the "Russian" (read Jewish) maffiya is far more entrenched these days - as are the Dominicans - than the leftovers of the Sicilians...for one reason, all the recent indictments and 'flips' are the result of decades of surveillance and undercovers initiated when the Sicilians were the only game in town.
A lot of which was the Italians' own fault, as they'd gotten sloppy, and were eager to do business with the Russian Jews as well. My own neighborhood, once a Bonnano Family stronghold, has grown increasingly Russian in the past decade, although the Bonnanos are still a presence in the area.
2005-03-12 20:38 | User Profile
[I][B] - "According to the tabs, the Albanians are the scariest these days."[/B][/I]
Even scarier than colored gangs?
(What tabs? Got any links?)
Petr
2005-03-12 23:05 | User Profile
Genovese guy complains about 'em:
[url]http://radio.villagevoice.com/news/0508,robbins,61322,5.html[/url]
2005-03-13 08:28 | User Profile
If we're talking about organized crime - in the interests of fairness and proportionality, let's set aside these relatively petty lowbrow ethnic gangs and focus on the most degenerate and bloodthirsty mob of the 21st century:
[url]http://www.originaldissent.com/forums/showthread.php?p=105903#post105903[/url]
Just like the dagos and the Albanians, these guys also suffer memory loss when it comes to the murder victims left in their wake. But they have [I]far [/I] friendlier press coverage.
2005-03-13 21:51 | User Profile
[QUOTE=Walter Yannis] [New York Post]... In their most outrageous action, Louis Eppolito, 56 ââ¬â who wrote the book "Mafia Cop" and acted in the movie "GoodFellas" ââ¬â and Stephen Caracappa, 63, rubbed out Eddie Lino, a Gambino family capo, for $65,000, the feds said. ... "These corrupt former detectives betrayed their shields, their colleagues, and the citizens they were sworn to protect," said Brooklyn U.S. Attorney Roslynn Mauskopf. "They used the confidential files of the NYPD as their personal yellow pages." .. Gaspipe [Anthony Casso], serving life for murder, raised the charges against Eppolito and Caracappa in 1994, but authorities felt he wasn't reliable. They now have a new witness. ...[/QUOTE] Ten years ago the ââ¬Å authorities felt Anthony Casso wasn't reliable?ââ¬Â Now they have a ââ¬Ånew witness?ââ¬Â Give me a break!
Take a look at the following press release and the number of law enforcement agencies involved.
[URL]http://www.usdoj.gov/usao/nye/pr/2005mar10.htm[/URL]
Looks to me like the authorities are tying-up loose ends and scoring publicity points in the process.
:rolleyes: