Dirtnap for a Corrupt Mafia Cop

This week saw the demise of a man who, in my opinion, is worse than any other mobster I have written about on this blog.  John Gotti, Nicky Scarfo and Gaspipe Casso were all bad guys, no question.  Those men were mafioso and lived their lives accordingly: criminals who would lie, steal, cheat and murder according to the code they lived their lives by.  

Stephen Caracappa, on the other hand, was an NYPD detective who sold his badge to the Lucchese crime family. Why Stephan and his partner in crime fellow detective Louis Eppolito did not receive the death penalty is beyond me.  These two rogue detectives were sworn to uphold the law and they were responsible for good of the public.  Instead, they betrayed everyone in uniform as well as every citizen of this country.  They cost the taxpayers 18.4 million dollars in lawsuit settlements alone, and that is not where the damage they dealt ended. They murdered, or had a hand in the murders of, at least seven people, including one completely innocent man.

On April 8, 2017 Stephen Caracappa died of cancer.  He died in Butner, FCI where they house sick criminals like Carmine Persico and others.  

Caracappa not only sold information to Gaspipe Casso and the Luchese family, he committed murder for him. In 1990 he and his partner pulled over Gambino Edward Lino on the Belt Parkway and they shot him.  They dropped off another man they kidnapped so that he could be tortured.

They also sold bad information to Gaspipe that resulted in the Christmas day murder of Nicholas Guido, an innocent man who was just showing off his new car.

Guido happened to have the same name as one of the men who shot at Gaspipe Casso when they tried to murder him.  The Guido they were seeking had fled the state in fear of being found.  

Diamond dealer Israel Greenwald got into trouble with the mafia in 1985 when he traveled to Great Britain to help a friend purchase some treasury bills.  He thought the deal was an honest one.  When he returned, the FBI questioned him about his business.  Burton Kaplan, a drug dealer connected with Gaspipe Casso, hired Caracappa and Eppolito to find him and murder him so he could not talk to the FBI.

The two law enforcement officers used police databases to find out Greenwald's address and the kind of car he drove.  They pulled over his car, flashed their badges and told them they were taking him in for a hit and run.  They took him to a Brooklyn warehouse where they murdered and buried him.  Greenwald was not found for twenty years and his family had been left to wonder what became of him.

Greenwald's family lost everything because they could not prove he died.  The last they saw him when he left for work.  Caracappa had appealed his case and just recently asked a judge to grant him release because he was dying of cancer.   The judge rightly told him there was nothing he could do for him.

Clinton Pay for Play with the Gambinos

So much is in the news about the presidential race, most of which is blasting Trump. One can easily forget that the Clintons have been enriching themselves at our expense for decades.

The big question is how Rosario “Sal” Gambino, a convicted heroin trafficker and a member of La Cosa Nostra - who with his brothers flooded the streets of America with over 600 million dollars in heroin, got on the pardon list in the last days of Bill Clinton's Presidency?

I decided to research this some more, and revisit my former post on the topic.  I found out that my blog on this subject no longer comes up on a google search about Gambino & Clinton.  It used to.  I also cannot find the Congressional testimony that used to be online as a PDF.  Strange.

Rosario Gambino was arrested on March 16, 1984 and they found a loaded .38 pistol and $20,000 in cash. Two of the bills were directly traceable to heroin deals made with agents, plus there was a small sample of 95% pure heroin found.  He was in possession of confidential reports from the NYPD that detailed surveillance of Cafe Milano in Brooklyn. The report was later found to have come from rogue policeman Louis Eppolito.

Rosario was one of the leaders of the Pizza Connection heroin ring.  In 1978 six kilos of heroin were seized at JFK Airport in New York.  It never made the news, so the traffickers suspected the airline employees of stealing it.  Some were threatened and others tortured.  Rosario came in as a mediator, and he believed the employees when they said that the kilos were seized.

Rosario was arrested for the kilos, but he was acquitted.  The fact remains he was high enough to step in to find the missing heroin.

When his relatives were dealing with the undercover agent to sell heroin, they made numerous calls to Rosario that were intercepted.  The relatives promised the agent that Rosario could provide 10 kilos of heroin a month to them.

The ATF had evidence of arson of pizza restaurants in New Jersey by Rosario and his brother.

It is clear to me that Rosario should not be on the presidential pardon list, so how did this come about?

This all came about through his son Tommy.  According to the US Congressional report, Sal's son Tommy Gambino is a made man in the Los Angeles mafia family and maybe even an underboss.  I was introduced to Tommy once by Jimmy Caci, and was told he was “the same as him.”  Sal Gambino set up a meeting between Tommy and I in Beverly Hills and when I was at Joe Isgro's ( Gambino family soldier) Raging Bull Records, Joe had Anthony Gambino, Tommy's brother, working in the office.  

Tommy was running a payphone business called Progressive Telecom, and guess who is a partner: none other than Colombo Capo Donnie Shacks.  This is where things get good, because Tommy Gambino would soon become friends with Roger Clinton, the brother of then-President of the United States Bill.  Tommy Gambino met Roger Clinton in a Beverly Hills Club when he was with introduced by Gino Vannelli, a music industry manager.

Roger Clinton would later tell authorities that he knew that he was meeting Tommy Gambino because his father was seeking parole, but that after meeting him he realized what a close family Tommy Gambino came from.

Tommy Gambino gave Roger Clinton his father’s files, and after Roger reviewed them he felt that Sal Gambino had not gotten a fair deal.  Where was it that Roger went to law school? According to Roger, he then agreed to contact the US Parole Commission for Sal Gambino as long as they held nothing back concerning the case. Roger Clinton would later tell investigators that Tommy Gambino told him that if he helped get his father out of prison they would take care of him.

Roger made calls to members of the Commission and even had a meeting with one of them on behalf of Sal Gambino.  To be completely fair to Roger, he also sought help for two other prisoners.  The FBI wanted to set up a meeting between Roger Clinton and another "Parole Commission Member,"  really an undercover agent, but the Parole Commission would not cooperate.  Roger Clinton and Tommy made a trip to Washington DC in March of 1999 for who knows what.  Roger Clinton was playing golf with four people in Los Angeles when Tommy Gambino drove up on a golf cart and handed Roger a box with a gold Rolex watch in it.  Roger told the men he was playing with that the man was Tommy Gambino and he was helping his father.  Two of the men were US Air force Intell Officers and they were uncomfortable with what they saw, so they reported what they saw to the FBI.

On September 27, 1999 Tommy Gambino's sister Anna wrote a $50,000 check to Roger Clinton’s company. This money came from Lisa Gambino in Staten Island, New York, and both women frequently received deposits from Antonio Genovese (partners with John Gambino in G&G Concrete in New York).

Roger Clinton would later tell the FBI that money was a loan so he could buy a house and that all he took was existence money.  Sal Gambino would then apply for a pardon from the president in 2000.  The first call Roger made on January 20, 2001 was to Tommy Gambino's cell phone, and that was the day his brother was no longer president and Sal Gambino had gotten no pardon.

Sal Gambino was paroled to an Immigrant Detention Center in 2006, and he was deported to Rome, Italy on May 23rd, 2009.

It should be clear to anyone who reads this that Rosario Gambino had no business applying for a pardon.  It clearly shows that that those that can pay have a different justice than those that can’t.  This was not just some scam for Roger to get paid.  The White House received a petition for commutation for Rosario Gambino. Documents indicate that the White House lawyer responsible for clemency matters requested a criminal background check on Gambino, which is normally done when some serious consideration is being given to a grant of clemency.

The FBI had a plan to plant an undercover agent in the parole board but they were sabotaged by parole board members.  There is so much more to the pay to play.  If you want to read more read United States Congressional Serial Set, No. 14778, House Report No. 454 and The Goodfella Tapes Book about the John Stanfa War against Joey Merlino for control of the Philly Mob.  There is a great part of Tommy Gambino speaking to John Stanfa.

The Brothers Hydell

People romanticize the Mafia in movies, but the truth is very far from the picture on the big screen.  

Betty Hydell, the sister-in-law of Gambino capo Daniel Marino, has plenty of reason to know that the real Mafia is not a bunch of good natured hoods cracking jokes and eating cannolis.  Betty lost two sons to two different crime families.

James Hydell took part in the attempted murder of Gaspipe Casso, who would end up living and later became the Lucchese family underboss.  James and a few Gambino guys had waited outside a Bensonhurst Brooklyn restaurant named the Blue Ox.  They shot him numerous times, and he lived.  Gaspipe heard through the grape vine who had tried to kill him, and he unleashed his corrupt cops, Louis Eppolito and Stephen Caracappa, to bring James Hydell to him.  He planned to torture him to find out who else had been part of the attempted hit.  They went by his mother Betty Hydell’s house looking for him.  Years later she saw Eppolito on TV and she knew he was one of those looking for her son James before he disappeared.  James was kidnaped by the Mafia cops, thrown in their truck, and dropped off to Gaspipe in a parking lot.  Gaspipe took him and then tortured him for hours to find out who was with him on the attempted hit.    Then Gaspipe made him disappear so the family would never know what happened to him.

Legend has it that Betty hid some of Daniel Marino’s cash in a bank safety deposit. Frank Hydell, her other son, somehow stole it.  Betty had to give up her home to pay back the money her son had stolen.

I have been told that Frank Hydell was not like his brother, and had a big mouth.  He and some buddies were going to grab a score on 18th Ave Brooklyn from a night deposit at a bank.  Frank had a minivan that he had stolen from Long Island.  They were waiting in the minivan and that night it was cold.  They saw the man they were going to rob heading to the night deposit, but because of the cold, he ran instead of walking.  There was also an accident within sight on the corner, so there were a couple of cops close by and the guys called it off.  

The Gambinos began to suspect Frank, because a few times he should have been locked up for things but nothing happened.  A crew of bank robbers was taking down a score on 13th Ave Brooklyn and Frank drove his car. There was a snow storm that night and his car could not be moved.  The next morning he had to see his parole officer but nothing happened.

The Gambinos asked Marino, who was locked up at the time, if they could kill Frank.  He gave his blessing.

They used a Gambino associate named Eddie Boyle to murder Frank.  Frank’s own friend lured him to a Staten Island Stripclub where Boyle shot him in the back.

The Hydell brothers were no Saints. James was a bad guy who attempted to murder Gaspipe.  Frank was suspected of a murder, stole from his own uncle and was working with law enforcement.  In the end, they were murdered by their so-called friends.  

The Mafia is nothing funny or romantic, it is a deadly and serious criminal enterprise.

Mafia Cops

Louis Eppolito and Stephen Caracappa are referred to as the Mafia Cops.  Louis Eppolito wrote a book named “Mafia Cop: The Story of an Honest Cop Whose Family Was the Mob in 1992.”

That was very far from the truth because Louis Eppolito was worse than any made member of any family.  Street guys, knockaround guys, never pretend to be anything but what they are in life: criminals.  Most of them take the same route to becoming made members of a crime family.

Louis Eppolito came from a mafia family, his father was a Gambino soldier and his uncle and cousin were also Gambino men until they were murdered by Nino Gaggi and Roy Demeo.

Eppolito went to great lengths in his book to proclaim his innocence. Unfortunately it was all a lie and it was worse than the Internal Affairs of the NYPD could have imagined.

The March 9, 2005 indictment of Eppolito and Caracappa says it all.  At all times relevant Stephen Caracappa and Louis Eppolito were associates of the LCN.  It seems for years the two NYPD officers passed information to the Lucchese Family and they in turn passed it on to the other families.  They passed on information to the underboss of the Lucchese family Anthony “Gaspipe” Casso.  He would refer to them as his crystal ball and they would give him that edge.

The two NYPD officers then took part in 8 murders for the Lucchese family including the murder of Nicholas Guido.  Nicholas Guido was a hard working 26 year old telephone installer who was very proud of his new car on Christmas day 1986.  He was showing it off to his uncle when a three man hit team gunned him down on his Brooklyn street.  The problem was, it was the wrong Nicholas Guido!  The two Mafia Cops had kidnapped a Gambino associate named James Hydell because he had taken part in a failed hit on Gaspipe Casso. Gaspipe tortured Hydell until he gave up the name of those who had taken part in his shooting. Once Gaspipe learned Nicky Guido took part in his shooting he contacted his man Burton Kaplan a huge weed dealer and go between to the Mafia Cops.  Eppolito and Caracappa gave him a picture of Nicky Guido and a Brooklyn address near Court Street.  The three man hit team Frank Listerino, Georgie Zappola and Joseph Testa drove by and saw a man in a red car they thought was Nicky Guido.  They wrote down the plate number and again the Mafia Cops ran it and this time the name matched.  They were waiting outside on Christmas day when he came outside and they ambushed him. He was an innocent man and those two degenerate cops who were sworn to protect the public caused his death.  

They would retire from the NYPD but that never stopped them.  They gave up information about Sammy The Bull Gravano so the Gambinos could kill him.  

The good thing is just last week a Federal Judge ruled that the City of New York can be sued for the two criminals actions.  The NYPD had a chance in 1984 when they caught Louis Eppolito passing information to Rosario “Sal” Gambino.  Sal Gambino was deeply involved in the Pizza Connection Heroin ring.  The FBI had found copies of sensitive documents in Sal’s dresser when they raided his home. They were NYPD Intelligence files and it was determined that they were copied at the 62nd Precinct in Brooklyn and they had Louis Eppolitos fingerprints on them. The NYPD cleared him of charges despite compelling evidence that he was guilty.  It was then that Eppolito started working for the Lucchese Family and over the years he and his partner would be paid over $375,000 in cash.  They sold their souls.