02x06 - Mob Cops

[bunniefuu]

- There were kind of
rumors and whispers

about
these two NYPD detectives

who were actually working
for the mob.

- Louis,
were you ever a bad cop?

- Never in my life.

- These guys were bad cops
and no one could prove it?

- Nothing that could stick.

- We don't go around
k*lling people.

- These cops, they were
receiving $4,000 a month

actually working for the mob.

They were committing murders
for the Lucchese family--

eight homicides spanning
from the mid '80s.

And then just seeing kind of
this blatant corruption

and betrayal,

but not enough
to make the case.

Not enough evidence.

- We couldn't have
done these crimes.

We just couldn't
have done them.

- They're, you know,
just thinking,

"Wow, we got away from it."

The tensions were very high.

We know we have to stop these
two New York City detectives.

So we were just trying
to figure out,

how can we get these guys?

We're not gonna another chance.

- In the FBI, we make
a lot of headlines.

Drug busts,

mob stings,

t*rror1st takedowns.

- Get down! Get down!

- We understand why people
want to tell stories about us.

- Mark it.

- Freeze!
- FBI.

- FBI!
- Action!

- But they don't know
the half of it.

What really goes down,

we save that for each other

when we're talking
agent to agent.

This is "FBI True."

- Cindy Coppola is a 23-year
veteran of the FBI.

She worked on cases
that included

organized crime and terrorism

and took part in multinational
investigations

into drug trafficking
and money laundering.

Coppola finished her career
with the Los Angeles division

running two offices,
supervising investigations,

and providing undercover
security for special events.

- Gerry,
it is so awesome to see you!

When's the last time
we saw each other?

- It's got to be--
- 20-plus years, right?

- Oh, yeah.
Definitely the '90s.

- I can't remember.
Where did you process out of?

- So I processed
out of New York.

Happy to come back to New York.
- Yep, me too.

Raise my hand, yeah.
- Absolutely, right.

- Geraldine Hart was
an FBI agent for 21 years.

She investigated
public corruption,

terrorism, and cybercrimes.

In 2014, Hart was appointed
as the supervisory agent

of the Long Island
g*ng Task Force.

- So tell me about one
of your biggest cases.

It's something that's been
in the news for a long time.

And it's something
you rarely would see, right?

- So there were kind of
rumors and whispers

about these two NYPD detectives

who were actually
working for the mob.

Lou Eppolito
and Steve Caracappa

were working for the Lucchese
family in the early '90s.

- So you've got
these two NYPD guys.

Worked for the mob,
potentially,

but, you know,
nobody really talked about it.

- Exactly.

- Tell me about who Eppolito
and Caracappa were.

- Very different
personalities,

but they both were kind of
two sides of the same coin.

Steve Caracappa, they called
him the Undertaker, Cindy,

'cause his kind of--
like, his demeanor was very--

he was tall and thin and
very gaunt, and very serious.

So he was kind of
the polar opposite of Eppolito.

Eppolito just had a big mouth.

Any time there was
an impending arrest,

any time there was a big,
large-scale investigation,

the Lucchese family
knew about it

because of Eppolito
and Caracappa.

Don't forget,
Caracappa was

in the organized
crime-homicide unit,

so he had access
to everything.

But, Cindy,
the biggest thing was

it had always
been rumored that

they were committing murders
for the Lucchese family.

They had
the perfect backstory.

They pulled people over,
you know,

put the siren on,
pulled them over.

"Hey, we need to talk to you."
- Next thing you know--

Oh, that's crazy.
What do you think about it?

- It was unbelievable.

It's just really hard
to imagine

this was even possible.

You know, all the--

all the things
that make cops so great,

all the bravery and courage
that they have.

And then you have
these two guys who are really--

in essence,
they were just mobsters

who were able
to infiltrate the NYPD.

But it was hard
to make the case,

because there was
no concrete evidence.

So nothing came of it, in that
it was always kind of rumored

that the Lucchese family
had somebody in the NYPD

who was not only
providing information

but committing homicides
on their behalf.

Eight murders,
and a lot of attempted murders

and homicides
that we didn't know about.

But again,
not enough to make the case.

It was very frustrating.

- What happens from there?

How do you get the case?

How did you come in?

- I arrived in '99,
on the Lucchese Squad.

They said,
"Take a run at this."

It was probably
one of the largest

public corruption cases
that had been worked...

- Yeah.
- In the city

up to that time, yeah.
- Absolutely.

If I remember correctly,

I think
your dad was NYPD, right?

- Yeah, my dad was a sergeant
in the NYPD.

- Okay.
both: So yeah.

- This case was personal,
but we had no leads.

The case really went cold.

A few years later,
I just remember

being called
into the supervisor's office

and saying, "Hey, an associate
of the Lucchese family

wants to cooperate."

Burt Kaplan.
- What happens?

Do you get someone
from the jail

or his attorney
call the FBI and say,

"Hey, I've got someone who's
worked with the mob for years.

He wants
to give youse information"?

- Honestly,
when you mention the name,

"Burt Kaplan wants
to cooperate,"

everybody knows
what that means.

We know what it's about.

He was the one who would
bring the information

from the cops
to the Lucchese family,

and they would give the order
for the hit.

He would bring it to the cops,
negotiate a price,

'cause, you know,
they would ask

for a certain amount of money.

They would go back and forth,

and then settle on a price.

So he was really
the key to the case.

- Why would he want
to now cooperate

and bring in some information
on this case?

- Kaplan was in jail
for trafficking marijuana,

and he got a 27-year hit
on a federal charge.

He figures he's got
17 years left on his term.

He's gonna be a grandfather.

He's diagnosed
with prostate cancer.

And he's like, "You know what?

"I'm gonna
just give all this up.

"I'm gonna cooperate.

I'm gonna give them
what they want,"

and that's Eppolito
and Caracappa.

- So there was a lot of victims

that
these NYPD detectives caused.

- Without a doubt.

The first m*rder
was Israel Greenwald.

He was k*lled in '86.
- Wasn't he the jeweler?

- So he was the jeweler.

He was completely innocent.

Had nothing to do
with the mob.

He was approached
by Burt Kaplan

to negotiate a bond
when he was overseas

on a trip related
to his jewelry business.

- A cash bond.
- Exactly.

"Hey, listen,
when you're over there,

can you just, you know,
cash this bond?"

Greenwald had no idea
that this was a stolen bond,

a government treasury bond

that can only be cashed
by the owner.

He took his trip,
tried to cash it,

and it set off all sorts
of alarms overseas.

Comes back to JFK.

He's approached by the FBI
to cooperate.

He says,
"Let me think about it."

He makes the mistake
of telling Kaplan

that he was approached
by the FBI,

and then
that was the end of him.

Because think about it:
if Greenwald talks,

everyone--Burt Kaplan and
the whole Lucchese family--

could be implicated.

So Eppolito and Caracappa
pull him over.

They say they need him

to identify somebody
in a hit and run.

Put him in the back
of the squad car,

take him over
to Nostrand Avenue.

Three people walk in.

Two people walk out.

He's k*lled and buried
in the garage.

Eppolito and Caracappa
were paid $25,000

to k*ll Israel Greenwald,
and that's the first m*rder.

There were eight homicides

spanning from the mid '80s

till the early '90s.

Something you can't even
wrap your head around...

- No.
- That people would be capable

of this.
- Absolutely.

And for such
a long period of time.

And got away with it, right?
- Right. Right.

- That's what's amazing to me.

- If it were not for
Burt Kaplan coming forward,

there would be no case
against the mafia cops.

But there was a problem.

We couldn't arrest them
for the murders

because it was more
than five years

after they allegedly
took place.

All of this happened
in the mid- to late '80s.

And now we're in 2004,
which is past

the statute of limitations
for federal prosecutions.

We have to see
what these cops are doing.

They retired
from the police department.

They moved out to Las Vegas.

Eppolito goes first.

A few years later,
Caracappa follows

and buys a house
right across the street.

- But even though
they moved to Vegas,

they've probably been
doing bad things all along.

They're like,
"Hey, we're in Vegas.

Anything goes in Vegas,"
you know.

- I think they thought, "Yeah,

"this thing was a rumor
years ago.

We got away from it."

And they were just
living the life out there.

So that was a lot
of the work, really,

just kind of trying
to figure that out,

to really just see
what they're doing.

Caracappa was working
in a women's prison.

Eppolito, he was,
you know, a wannabe actor.

He was in "Goodfellas,"
believe it or not.

- I remember that.
- And then there was

Mo Black's brother, Fat Andy.
- How you doing, buddy?

- Always had
these visions of grandeur.

- I think there's no such thing
as a bad coincidence.

- Eppolito really wanted
to write a screenplay

and become famous,
connect with Hollywood.

And trying to sell them--

that's
what he was really doing.

He wrote a book
called "Mafia Cop."

And he goes
on "Sally Jessy Raphael,"

a talk show,
to promote his book.

- What do you do now, Big Lou?

- Well, I've acted
in nine movies.

I've been in "Goodfellas,"
"State of Grace."

I tried writing a screenplay.

Gene Hackman has been
really great with me,

and Mikhail Baryshnikov.

And I did a movie with them
called "Company Business."

And I wrote a screenplay,

and it was bought
by New Line Cinema.

- Is this better than policing?

- Oh, beats getting shot at
any day, yeah.

- It was just pretty shocking
to see,

because he just really
can't keep his mouth shut.

- He hurts himself, right?
- Yeah, exactly. Yeah.

So we were just
trying to figure out,

who can we get
to get into these guys?

Soon I got to pack my bags
and go out to Vegas.

I have to spend some
significant time out there.

- So how was that for you?

How did you feel, you know,
now taking on this big case?

- You know,
that was a lot of pressure.

I had a daughter who, at the
time of the mafia cop case,

was three.

And then I had a little boy,
so--

- Wow, that's tough.
- Yeah, so it was a lot.

So we worked together
with both the FBI and the DEA

out in Las Vegas.

What we needed to do was
to get a criminal act

that was occurring
in Las Vegas

within the last five years

to get
within the RICO statute.

So we have to prove that
the conspiracy is continuing.

- The conspiracy
they're working together

and they knew about it, yeah.
- Right.

That they're still engaged
in a criminal enterprise

that could be linked
to the killings.

Then Eppolito and Caracappa
could be charged

for the murders.

So we were just trying
to figure out,

who can we get to flip?

Who can we wire up,
get them in there?

'Cause as you know, that's
the best way to make a case.

And then we come across
this guy, Steve Corso.

He was an accountant
back in Connecticut

who had swindled his clients
out of millions of dollars.

Corso was arrested,
and then he went out to Vegas

to try to work off his time
with the Las Vegas FBI

to find a case that's,
you know, gonna help him out.

I knew he wanted to get out
from under these charges

that were weighing on him.

So that kind of set off the
bells: this could be our guy.

This could be the guy
who could meet

with Eppolito and Caracappa

and see
what they're really up to.

- When you spoke with him,
though,

did you play nice with him?

- So just trying to really,
you know, get him on board

and get him to understand
how this is gonna work,

and, you know,
trying to allay his fears,

'cause Corso
was getting very nervous.

- He was almost saying, "Screw
you, I'm not doing this."

- Right. Like a lot
of the witnesses

that we've talked to and met
with, they were terrified,

not only because these guys
were mobsters, they were cops.

And I'm supposed to fool them?

Corso was saying exactly that.

"Hey, listen, you got me
in with these guys

who are organized crime,
and they're detectives."

- And they're cops too.
- Yeah.

So you would think
that they're gonna be

a little more leery
of somebody coming in.

- Yeah.
- "What if they're onto me?"

- How did you convince him?

- I knew
he had young children,

so just really trying
to appeal to that piece of him.

You know,
"You can really do this.

"You can do the right thing.

"You can get this done,
and this is gonna help you.

Cooperate and get back
to your family," basically.

- All right,
so how do you get Corso

to meet
with Eppolito and Caracappa?

I know when we worked a lot
of the organized crime cases,

you know, sometimes
they were undercover.

What techniques
did you guys use?

What were the next steps
that you guys did?

- So Corso now has
to become what Eppolito wants,

which is somebody
who can help him

connect with Hollywood, right?

"You're that guy
who can get the money

"for these screenplays.

"You're the guy
who can make the connections.

"You have people coming in
from Hollywood

"all the time,
meeting with you.

So that's gonna be you now,
to him," which wasn't easy.

We're talking
about two detectives,

so they're smarter
than the average person.

And then he understood
what he had to do.

We took, you know, baby steps
with these meetings,

just trying
to ingratiate himself--

getting him on the phone,
getting the introductions.

And then it kind of took off,

because Eppolito just
couldn't get enough of it.

He couldn't get enough of just
somebody who could help him.

And just could not get enough
of the Hollywood lifestyle,

being around people.
- He couldn't help himself.

- No, no.
- He just wanted to talk, and--

- Yeah, just wanted
somebody who can

get him connected to Hollywood.

Corso would get closer
and closer to Eppolito--

meet his family,
meet his children,

you know, come over for dinner
and come to the house.

They were constantly
at the casinos,

at the nicer restaurants
in the casinos.

Most of the meetings
would occur with Eppolito,

and then we would try to get
Caracappa into the picture.

- Corso,
he's probably scared shitless.

- Yeah.
- He's like, "Oh, my God."

- "What am I doing?"
- Yeah.

"What have I
gotten myself into?

- Right. And I said,
"You're almost there."

"We're getting there.
You're doing good work.

"It's gonna come
to an end soon.

Just trust me.
Stick with me."

And yeah, it was a lot.

So in 2005, we get
to the point where, you know,

I feel that Corso has
gained Eppolito's confidence.

And the decision was made
that Corso would ask Eppolito

for drugs for Hollywood people
that were coming in,

and that they wanted to party.
- Wow, OK.

- And, "Can you get me drugs?"

But Caracappa had to be
at that meeting too.

That's really the only way
it would work to build a case,

to build a significant case.

- How does the meet even start?

- Using the surveillance teams
out in Vegas,

we have to get Steve Corso
to wire up and meet with them.

The tensions were very high.

- It was a meeting
in a hotel in Las Vegas.

They're sitting at a table,

Steve Corso
with two NYPD detectives,

asking them for drugs.

And he says, "I have friends
that want to come in.

"They want to party.
I need some meth and ecstasy.

Can you do that for me?"

Kind of the pause
in between that seems forever.

If they said no, then that
would have been the end of it.

They could have told him,
"Go pound sand.

What are you talking about?"
- Yeah.

- And Eppolito says, "Yeah,
my son can do that for you."

So he offers up his son
to do it.

- That's shitty. That's shitty.
- It's pretty shitty.

- So here you've got
a bad cop for years,

and now he's gonna
put his son in the mix.

- So Corso pushes it.

He's saying, "So you can
do it? You can get the meth?"

And then Caracappa chimes in
and says,

"Yeah, we can
get that done for you."

So they take the bait.

- How long did they say
it was gonna take them?

- That occurs within about,

like, a week,
a week and a half.

Eppolito's son, Anthony,
and his friend, Guido,

show up
at Steve Corso's office.

They deliver the drugs.

And I knew we had it.
- Yes.

- We could bring it
within the statute now,

because we could show
the conspiracy

is continuing out in Vegas.

Now we know
we can make this case.

It's go-time.

It's time
to prepare for the arrest.

- How did you guys
do the arrest, the takedown?

- Again, it's Corso having

Eppolito and Caracappa
come to dinner and meet him.

- To arrest the same time,
Caracappa and Eppolito?

- They both show up
with Corso at the restaurant.

- Yeah.
- And they're sitting down

to dinner with Corso,
like they have

dozens of times before.
- Sure.

- And the takedown happens
inside the restaurant.

And I can tell you from working
cases involving the mob,

that could be
a scary proposition.

Everybody was ratcheted up
at the time.

You know,
really very tense investigators

from the Brooklyn DA's office,
the FBI Vegas, DEA Vegas,

take them out in handcuffs.

And, you know,
it was a long time coming.

- The government has arrested
two alleged mafia hitmen

who once served as New York
City police detectives.

- Caracappa and Eppolito
were paid handsomely

for selling out
the files of the NYPD.

- Both men are being held
without bail,

accused of being K*llers
for the mob.

- The news coverage, Cindy,
I cannot even explain

how broad it was.

- No, that's awesome.
- Yeah.

- So next steps.

They're arrested, and you guys
go out to Eppolito's house.

- Yeah, so we execute
a search warrant on the house.

His wife is home.
His kids are home.

They're shocked,
and they're emotional,

as you can imagine.

They're freaking out,
basically.

- What do you find?
- I think he had

an excess of 300 g*ns,
if I remember.

- What the heck?
- Yeah, locked up in safes.

So, you know,
taking those out.

And then, you know, Cindy,
what we found in the garage,

which was so strange,
was an original case file

of a homicide investigation.

- Yeah, so he took a file
from NYPD when he retired.

- Takes a file with him, right.

He had access
to the Lucchese files

in the police department.

And Eppolito took that case out

so that nobody
would ever know what happened.

- These guys were bad cops.

- Yeah, they were bad guys.

Caracappa, he was very much
of the mindset that--

"I cannot go to jail"
was what he kept saying.

They were both bailed out,
which is pretty shocking.

- It's ludicrous.

Anybody that knows me knows
I love the police department.

I couldn't k*ll anybody.

All I know is
that I am here now,

and I'm fighting for my life.

I'm fighting for my reputation.

I want to be vindicated
of this.

And I'm mad,
and I'm angry.

But we'll put up the evidence

to show that we couldn't
have done these crimes.

We just couldn't
have done them.

- It was always just kind of,
"No, we didn't do this."

- I was
a very highly-decorated cop.

I worked very hard
my whole life.

And, um, I just want
the people to know

that I'm not the person
that they're portraying me.

- Louis,
were you ever a bad cop?

- Never in my life.

- Never coming off
that position.

It was just pretty shocking
to see.

- Wow.
- And I guess that's

how you live with yourself
in the end, right?

And just to think about,
you know,

all the information
that they gave up,

all the sources who came in
and trusted law enforcement

and tried
to provide information.

And they were k*lled
as a result of it,

because of the information
that these cops gave.

All the good cops that
I worked with on the task force

throughout the years--
and I'm sure you have too--

all the investigations
that agents and detectives

put years in of their career,

and they were just blown up
because these guys

were on the payroll
for the Lucchese family.

They wanted them taken down
as much as anybody, you know?

- No, 'cause it's a scar
against the agency.

Did you guys find
any of the bodies?

- So we did.

We knew what happened to them,

and we knew where the body of
Israel Greenwald was buried.

This is really
compelling evidence that

we can use against Eppolito
and Caracappa in court.

So now, it's time
to prepare for the trial.

So they were charged
with eight murders,

two attempted murders,
a m*rder conspiracy,

obstruction of justice,
drug distribution,

and money laundering.

I think it was 35 witnesses.

It took over two weeks.

Burt Kaplan was
the star witness.

Yeah, he was
an amazing witness.

The jury was out for a very
short time--a day and a half.

And, you know, just kind of
that solemn moment

when they're
reading the verdict,

and how quiet it is
in the courtroom.

I'm sitting at the table
with the prosecutor.

And the forewoman
in this case stands up,

and she's reading
just count after count.

Guilty, guilty, guilty.

Guilty on all counts.
- All counts.

- Yeah, yeah.
- Phenomenal.

- You could hear a pin drop.

The courtroom was packed

with media, family, everybody.

But you couldn't hear a sound.
- Right.

- And I just remember
they were about halfway

through reading the verdict,
and I remember the marshals

moving over towards
Eppolito and Caracappa,

telling them to stand up.

And then you hear,
"Take off your belt.

Take off your shoelaces."
- You knew.

- That's it.
They're going.

And they're never coming back.
And that was it.

They took them.
They brought them away.

Eppolito and Caracappa were
sentenced to life in prison.

- I still felt the pain.

And I wish that all of that
never happened.

- Leah Greenwald never knew
what happened to him.

He went to work one day
and never came back.

I just remember so vividly,
Cindy,

going out to Manhattan
to tell her in 2005

that we had found her husband,
Israel Greenwald,

buried in that garage.

I remember walking
into her apartment

and just seeing
this big family portrait

of her and her husband

and these two
beautiful young girls,

who were
about my children's age...

- Shame.
- And just thinking, wow.

This whole life
has turned upside down,

this whole family.

And, you know,
telling her the news.

And obviously, it wasn't
news that she had hoped for,

but just the kind of
sense of closure

that I could tell
she was experiencing.

And then just meeting
her daughters,

who were, you know,
young ladies now

and just wonderful people.

And just seeing her
kind of sense of relief

and able then to release
the remains to her.

And that was so meaningful
for the family.

Never admitted anything,
never expressed remorse.

Nothing.

- They never admit.

to the day they died.
- To the day they died.

- They're gonna take it
to the grave.

- Right. Right.

- Wow.
- Yeah.

- Corso, do you know
where he is today?

Did he get in trouble again,
or is he clean guy now?

You don't want to know.

- So did you get
an award for this?

Because this type of case
is one in a million.

- So the team did.
The team got

the Attorney General's Award

for Excellence
in Law Enforcement.

We all traveled down to D.C.

We got the award, you know,
went out to dinner together,

and kind of just, uh--

it was a nice closure
for all of us together, yeah.

- Congratulations.
You know, it's well-deserved.

- Oh, thank you.
- Well-deserved, yeah.

- It was a definite
team effort, for sure.

- You know, your dad was NYPD.

And you couldn't tell him
about the case at the time.

- Right.
- But when the case was over,

did you say,
"Dad, that was my case"?

What was it like, telling your
dad about this investigation?

- Yeah, so after everything
was finished in the verdict,

I was able to kind of have
that conversation with him.

You know, "This is
the case that I worked.

This is why
I was away so much."

- He had to be proud.
He had to be proud.

"This was my daughter
that did this case."

- Yeah, you know how it is.

They don't talk much
about that.

The Irish
don't talk much about that.

But I knew he was.

I knew he was, yeah.
- Yeah, that's awesome.

- He was always great.
- That's great.