JF Garrard

In 1986, two NYPD detectives pulled a young man over, handcuffed him and put him in the trunk of a car. It wasn’t an arrest. They were delivering him to a mafia boss who was paying them to do it. Six years later, one of those detectives went on daytime TV to sell a book about being an honest cop, and the young man’s mother was watching. In the video below, you can see the real 1992 talk show appearance that started his downfall. Louis Eppolito spent over 20 years in the NYPD and was one of its most decorated detectives. His father was a Gambino family associate. He even had a small part in Goodfellas. His book was called “Mafia Cop: The Story of an Honest Cop Whose Family Was the Mob.” The truth was the opposite. Since 1985, he and his partner Stephen Caracappa, who worked in the NYPD’s own organized crime homicide unit, had been on the payroll of Lucchese underboss Anthony “Gaspipe” Casso. Casso later said he paid them $375,000 for police secrets and murder contracts. The young man in the trunk was Jimmy Hydell, a mob associate who had tried to kill Casso. The detectives handed him over, and Casso tortured and killed him. His body has never been found. Prosecutors said the two cops were paid $45,000 for that job. His mother had seen two men circling her house the day he vanished. Six years later, she saw one of them on Sally Jessy Raphael. The host asked him if he ever lost sleep at night. “Oh no, not at all.” She bought his book and recognized his partner in the photos. Then she stayed silent for 11 more years. Who do you report two cops to? In 2005, both retired detectives were arrested at an Italian restaurant in Las Vegas. They were charged with taking part in eight murders, one of them an innocent man shot because he had the same name as the real target. Eppolito got life plus 100 years and died in federal custody in 2019. If one mother hadn’t been watching daytime TV that day, would they have died as decorated heroes?