Original Article Ex-New York police detectives charged as Mafia hitmen By MICHAEL WEISSENSTEIN Associated Press Writer March 10, 2005, 7:56 PM EST NEW YORK -- Two police detectives led double lives as Mafia hitmen, kidnapping and killing rival gangsters and giving confidential information to the mob for more than a decade, federal prosecutors charged Thursday. Louis Eppolito and his former partner, Stephen Caracappa, were arrested Wednesday night at a restaurant off the Las Vegas Strip, law enforcement officials said. The pair have been living in Las Vegas, across the street from each other, since retiring in the early 1990s. Eppolito's autobiography was titled, "Mafia Cop: The Story of an Honest Cop Whose Family Was the Mob." Caracappa helped found the New York Police Department's Organized Crime Homicide Unit. Each is charged with eight murders, two attempted murders, murder conspiracy, obstruction of justice, drug distribution and money laundering. They appeared late Thursday in federal court in Las Vegas but did not enter pleas to the charges. The hearing was postponed until Friday so their lawyers could have time to argue against the prosecution's request for no bail. Outside court, Caracappa's lawyer David Chesnoff accused the government of using "organized crime figures who are trying to save their lives" to build their case. "The government is relying on the words of rats," Chesnoff said. Family members who attended the hearing declined to comment outside the courthouse. According to court filings in the case, Eppolito, 56, and Caracappa, 63, took $65,000 from Luchese family underboss Anthony "Gaspipe" Casso to eliminate Eddie Lino, a Gambino family captain suspected of involvement in an attempt on Casso's life. The detectives followed Lino from his Brooklyn social club in November 1992, pulled him over and shot him dead, prosecutors charged. Lino was one of five mobsters, including Sammy "The Bull" Gravano, whom the two detectives targeted on Casso's orders in retaliation for the attempt on his life, prosecutors said. In 1987 Eppolito and Caracappa kidnapped a Gambino associate suspected of involvement in the attempted assassination, stuffed him in a car trunk and delivered him to Casso, who tortured and killed him, prosecutors said. The detectives also used their access to police information to give mob associates the names of three confidential informants who were slain for their cooperation, prosecutors said. Another cooperator was shot and survived. "These corrupt former detectives betrayed their shields, their colleagues, and the citizens they were sworn to protect," U.S. Attorney Roslynn Mauskopf said Thursday in Brooklyn. Eppolito, the grandson, son and nephew of Mafia members, became an officer known in the 1970s and '80s equally for his suspected ties to the mob as his rough-and-tumble takedowns of street thugs. His 1992 autobiography described his family background, decorated career and what he described as false charges of Mafia involvement. Caracappa was the gatekeeper for information about Mafia killings investigated by the NYPD's Major Case Squad, according to court filings in the case. "This shocking, disgraceful conduct demands prosecution to the fullest extent of the law," Police Commissioner Ray Kelly said in a statement. The two men had been suspected of Mafia involvement for more than a decade but authorities were unable to file charges in the case. Court filings say the defendants' Mafia involvement now can be proven through wiretapped conversations and the testimony of cooperating witnesses. Caracappa and Eppolito face life in prison if convicted.