Mafia Cops | The Crystal Ball | 3

0:00American scandal uses dramatizations that are based on true events. Some elements, including dialogue, might be invented, but everything is based on historical research.

0:20It's April 18, 1989, at a cheap hotel in an industrial area of Newark, New Jersey. Victoria Vreeland takes a sip of coffee and stares out the window. The room's cramped, with stains on the wall and a shabby carpet. But Vreeland isn't here for the amenities. She's watching a beat-up trailer in a lot across the street. Vreeland is an investigator for the New Jersey Division of Criminal Justice. And behind her, a colleague sits at a desk watching video footage of the trailer. They've been here every day for weeks, and the room is littered with empty coffee cups and full ashtrays. The lot across the street is owned by the Lucchese Mafia family.

0:59They're running a garbage disposal business out of the trailer, but investigators suspect that they're dumping medical waste illegally. Vreeland's job is to watch suspected mobsters come and go and listen in on their conversations thanks to a court-authorized wiretap. So far, she hasn't discovered much. But as Vreeland watches today, an RV turns into the lot and a man climbs out. He's dressed in a dirty t-shirt and a fedora. Vreeland has seen him here before. But rather than going into the trailer, the man drops to his knees and starts crawling across the ground. Vreeland waves her partner over.

1:37Hey, hey, come look at this. Her partner comes to the window and peers out at the man in the fedora. What's he doing? I don't know. It's like he's looking for something. Maybe he lost a contact lens. But as they watch, the man disappears under the trailer. Oh, crap. What? That's where the bugs are. If he finds them, we're cooked. Vreeland and her partner watch in tense silence. All Vreeland can see are the man's sneakers. It would be comical if she weren't so worried. Suddenly, the man wriggles out from under the trailer. He stands up and brushes himself off. You think he found them? I don't know.

2:13Depends on how good a job the techs did hiding them. The guy in the lot disappears inside the trailer. Vreeland's partner races back to the screens on his desk, which show live footage of the trailer's interior. But Vreeland stays by the window, watching in case anyone else shows up. What's he up to in there? He's opening cupboards, pulling out couch cushions. Now he's inspecting the air vents. Yeah, he's definitely checking for bugs. Oh, oh, he's coming out again. The man in the fedora steps outside and goes back to the RV and pulls out a ladder. He sets it against the trailer and climbs onto the roof.

2:48The other detective rejoins Vreeland at the window. And what's he looking for up there? There's nothing on the roof, is there? Breeland frowns. No, but... Oh, no. The trailer is right next to a telephone pole. The man walks across the roof and starts inspecting the wiring box at the top of the pole. Breeland stares out the window in disbelief. He knows about the wires on the phones. Crap! We better call this in. Weeks of work for nothing. You think they spotted us somehow? We've been so careful. Breeland shakes her head. No, he's been tipped off. He must have been. But who would hand that kind of information to the mob?

3:25I don't know, but dollars to donuts, his information came from a cop. While her partner makes a call back to headquarters, Victoria Vreeland watches the man in the fedora check every telephone pole on the street. Over the next two days, their wires and bugs all go dead. Without the surveillance evidence, the investigation into the waste disposal company falls apart. But it's not the first time a probe into the mob has suddenly collapsed. No matter what the police do, the Lucchese family always seems to know they're coming.

4:01I'm Raza Jaffrey, and in the new season of The Spy Who, we go back in time to meet Benedict Arnold, the spy who betrayed the American Revolution. As America fights for freedom from Britain, Arnold emerges as one of the rebels' greatest generals. But when his loyalty is pushed to the limit, he turns spy and devises a plot to shatter the rebellion and make George Washington a prisoner. Follow The Spy Who now, wherever you listen to podcasts. You can also listen to the full season of The Spy Who Betrayed the American Revolution early and ad-free on Audible.

4:59From Audible Originals, I'm Lindsey Graham, and this is American Scandal.

5:23In 1986, the Lucchese crime family underboss, Anthony Gaspipe Casso, narrowly survived an assassination attempt. To track down the men responsible, Casso turned to a Brooklyn businessman and drug dealer named Burton Kaplan. Kaplan had a connection most mobsters could only dream of, two senior detectives in the New York Police Department. By then, Stephen Caracapa and Louis Eppolito have been secretly working for the mafia for several years. It was a lucrative business for them. And for the mobsters, what they got in return made it money well spent. But the partnership between Caracapa and Eppolito and the mob was about to be tested.

6:01An FBI investigation was about to take down some of the most senior men in the New York underworld and threaten to reveal the identities of the two mafia cops in the process. This is Episode 3, The Crystal Ball.

6:17It's May 25th, 1990, in Queens, New York. Burton Kaplan is driving on the Long Island Expressway. He's on his way to meet Detective Louis Eppolito, who has something important to tell him, and apparently, it has to be done in person. So Kaplan's worried. He's never heard Eppolito sound so serious before. He pulls up at their agreed meeting point just off the expressway. The gravel shoulder is littered with crushed cans and broken glass. Eppolito is already there, leaning against the hood of his car, fanning himself with his cap. Normally, he's all smiles, but today, his expression is grim.

6:58Kaplan wipes his brow with a handkerchief. Hey, you wanted to talk, Louie? Yeah, thanks for coming. Well, what's going on? This about me? Eppolito glances around. The traffic roars by on the expressway. No one will be able to listen in to this conversation. It's the windows job. New York City is in the process of replacing nearly 900 ,000 windows in its public housing. The contract is worth hundreds of millions of dollars, and several crime families are cashing in. They've conspired to inflate costs, rig bids, and extort money from the program, but Kaplan has nothing to do with it. Well, I don't know much about it, to be honest, Lou.

7:35I'm not really involved. Well, a gas pipe is, right? What have you heard? It might be a good idea for him to get out of town this weekend. Is it going to be a raid? Eppolito nods. Yeah, big one. The truck thunders by, and Eppolito waits, watching it go. They're sweeping the board, everyone involved in this window scam. Everyone. The Gambinos, the Genoveses, and your guys. Kaplan stares at Eppolito in shock. Jeez, is my name on the list? Because I'm not really involved. Eppolito shakes his head. No, but Gas Pipe is, along with his boss. You sure about this? I wouldn't be standing here otherwise.

8:13I mean, I want to keep getting paid, don't I? Eppolito laughs, but Kaplan forces a smile. Yeah, right. So tell Gas Pipe to maybe think about a trip out of town. All right, Lou, thanks. I'll pass that along, and I guess I should get going. He turns back to his car, but Eppolito calls out to him. Just don't pass it along too far, yeah, Bert? What do you mean? Well, you start saving everybody and they're going to notice. Someone's got to be there when the door gets kicked in. Kaplan nods. Well, whatever happens, gas pipes men won't talk. Yeah? He hates rats almost as much as me. Well, the FBI is going to try and flip as many guys as they can.

8:52Doesn't matter if they do. No one knows your names except for me. Not even Casso. Well, that's smart thinking, Bert. Guess me and Steve, you just got to make sure the feds never get a hold of you, right? Burton Kaplan gets back in his car and drives away. He has to warn Anthony Casso about the raid before it's too late. But as he heads back to the expressway, he can't help wondering how the FBI got enough evidence to target so many mafia families at the same time. The truth is that it's not just the Lucchese family who have informants working for them. For months, the FBI has had a man on the inside of their own.

9:28He's a union worker who's responsible for funneling cash from the public housing windows program. But after he was arrested on unconnected charges of murder, he decided to cooperate with the authorities. He hoped to secure a lighter sentence, and in return, the FBI wanted evidence they could use against the most powerful mobsters in New York. It's an investigative tactic that was only possible thanks to a law passed in 1970. The Racketeer Influenced and Corruption Organizations, or RICO Act, has transformed how prosecutors go after the mob. They no longer have to prove defendants committed a specific crime to secure a conviction.

10:05Instead, all they have to do is show that someone is part of a wider criminal enterprise. And that means mafia bosses can be convicted for crimes they ordered but never carried out themselves. And it gives lower-ranking criminals, like the FBI's union worker, a powerful incentive to cooperate with authorities. So the FBI put Buggs in the informant's office, his car, even on his clothes. And through hundreds of hours of secret recordings, they secured enough evidence to indict more than a dozen senior figures in New York's most powerful crime families. It's going to be one of the biggest busts in the history of the city.

10:41And the arrests are planned for just after Memorial Day weekend, when the authorities believe the mobsters are likely to be at home with their families. So at 6 a.m. on May 30, 1990, a van with blacked-out windows pulls up outside Anthony Casso's house. Inside the van, an FBI agent checks his gun. He's been working on this case for over two years, and if today's raid goes as planned, it could make his career. The doors of the van slide open, and the FBI agent strides toward the house. The rest of his squad fans out across the immaculate lawn. They're hoping to surprise Caso, so they don't bother knocking.

11:16One of the agents breaks the lock, another kicks down the door, and they move inside swiftly. The team sweeps the ground floor, searching for their target. but every room they enter is dark and silent. It's clear Casso was here recently, though. The FBI agent finds takeout boxes on the kitchen counter, even fresh milk in the fridge. But there's no sign of the man himself. Thanks to Burton Kaplan and his friends in the NYPD, Anthony Casso is already in hiding. Vic Amuso, the boss of the Lucchese family, has also escaped the FBI's clutches. But across the city, more than a dozen other senior mobsters are taken into custody.

11:55This FBI raid is so large that it makes Louis Eppolito reevaluate. Eppolito has been with the New York Police Department for 20 years and is eligible for a police pension. And with the FBI cracking down on his mob associates, Eppolito decides it's time to go. But Stephen Caracapa can't imagine not being a police officer. So he decides to stay put, while in late 1990, Eppolito retires from the force. Still only 42 years old, he's not ready to see out his days on the golf course. Instead, he sets his sights on a new career in show business. While still in the NYPD, he was scouted by a Hollywood casting director and scored a small role as a mobster in the movie Goodfellas.

12:38Encouraged by his first acting job, Epolito now dreams of making it big in Hollywood. He wants to write and star in his own gangster movies and plans to make a move to Los Angeles. But he soon decides that California is too expensive for him. So he and his family settle in more affordable Las Vegas. He doesn't get the movie roles he dreamed of, not right away. But he soon secures a book deal for a memoir of his life in the NYPD. The publisher calls it Mafia Cop, the story of an honest cop whose family was the mob. Released in 1992, it presents Eppolito as a decent, if unconventional, hero, trying to escape his mafioso roots despite the prejudice and doubt of his superiors.

13:20Eppolito doesn't see any problem with drawing attention to himself in this way. He's never been afraid to tease his connections to the mob. Whether it's joking about the criminals in his family when he was at the academy or dressing like the stereotype of a Brooklyn mobster, it's almost been part of his cover. But the publication of his book has some unintended consequences. One morning in July 1992, Betty Heidel is at her home in Brooklyn watching a talk show. She's the mother of Jimmy Heidel, the young man who was kidnapped and murdered by Anthony Casso in 1986. More than half a decade on, she still doesn't really know what happened to Jimmy, though she's accepted by now that he's never coming home.

14:00But then a familiar face appears on the television. It's the talk show's next guest, a large man with a pompadour and a thick mustache. Betty is sure she's seen him before, but she can't remember exactly where or when. Then the host introduces the man as former Detective Louis Eppolito, a highly decorated NYPD officer who's written a new book called Mafia Cop. And that's when it hits Betty. She knows exactly when she last saw this man. It was October 18th, 1986, the same day her son went missing. That morning, Jimmy went out, not telling his mother where he was going as usual. Later that afternoon, her other son, Frank, also left the house to go to work.

14:42But after a few minutes, he came back inside. He said he'd been stopped by a pair of cops in an unmarked police car. They told him they were looking for Jimmy. Frank says that's his brother, not him, and then headed straight back home to tell his mom. Betty marched out of the house and got in her car. If the police wanted to question her son, they should do it the right way, rather than creeping around the neighborhood. So she drove around the block until she spotted the pair Frank had described, a big man with black hair and gold chains and a skinny guy in a dark suit. Betty pulled up next to them and rolled down her window.

15:16She intended to give them a piece of her mind, but as soon as she asked them who they were, they drove off without answering. So Betty went home, but she couldn't shake the feeling that something was wrong. When Jimmy failed to come home that night, all her worst fears began to come true. She didn't go to the police with what she'd seen. She could hardly tell them that she suspected it was cops that took Jimmy. And as the months and then years passed, Betty gave up all hope of finding out what happened to her son, until today. Betty writes down the title of Eppolito's book, then grabs her purse and heads straight for the nearest bookstore.

15:50There's a large display of copies. She picks one up and flips through its pages until she comes to a photo that makes her catch her breath. It's a picture of Eppolito with another man that Betty Heidel recognizes, the skinny cop from the car. The caption under the photo reads, Louis Eppolito and Stephen Caracapa, the two godfathers of the NYPD. Betty's hands start to shake. Betty thrusts the book back on the pile. She won't be giving Eppolito a dime of her money. Before, he and this Stephen Caracapa were just faces in her memory, growing a little hazier with every passing year. But now she knows their names, and she's determined and that somehow, someday, they are going to pay for what they did to her son.

16:38You there! Tis I, Queen Mortuana of the Night Realm, a.k.a. Kate McKinnon, and her Raven minion Jojo, a.k.a. Emily Lynn. If you do not download and binge my show, Heads Will Roll, Air Apparent, on Audible, I will cut off your head! Oh, no. Maybe just tell them about the guest stars, like Richard Kind, Carrie Coon, Jimmy Fallon, at all. But they were in it. And if you don't listen to them, then I will cut off your tongue, then cut off your head, and then put the tongue in the head hole. Aw, you tried. Listen now exclusively on Audible and download the Audible app today, or off with your head! I'm kidding.

17:46The Spy Who war wound, a new wife, debts and politics test his loyalty to the mags, he turns spy and devises a plot to shatter the revolution and help Britain capture rebel commander-in-chief General George Washington. And that plot would make him the most infamous traitor in US history. Follow The Spy Who now, wherever you listen to podcasts. You can also listen to the full season of The Spy Who Betrayed the American Revolution, early and ad-free on Audible.

18:35When Stephen Caracapa learns that his photograph and stories about him are in Louis Eppolito's book, he's furious. While the memoir carefully avoids any mention of their work with the mafia, Eppolito still admits to serious breaches of police regulations, and that puts Caracappa in a difficult position. Eppolito is retired and living in Las Vegas. He's safe from disciplinary action, but Caracappa is still in New York and in active service with a major case squad. And based on what Eppolito has written about him, he could be investigated by internal affairs and lose his job along with his police pension.

19:12The more Caracoppa thinks about it, the more he realizes his career in the NYPD is as good as over. He has no choice but to quickly retire before anyone can ask too many questions. But he's not just worried about the repercussions from his fellow officers. Up until now, only Burton Kaplan knew their names. And while they stayed anonymous, no one in the mob could come after them. Now, though, thanks to Eppolito's book, they aren't safe anymore. And one man who has already figured out their identities is Anthony Gaspipe Caso. Still in hiding from the FBI, he bought a copy of Eppolito's book and read it cover to cover.

19:50When he saw the photograph of Louis Eppolito and Stephen Caracappa together, he also recognized them immediately. They were the men hanging around the Toys R Us parking lot the night he picked up Jimmy Heidel. Eppolito and Caracappa must be the cops Burton Kaplan has been working with all this time. And the next time Casso sees Kaplan, he asks him about it directly. Kaplan doesn't confirm their identities, but Casso can tell from Kaplan's reaction that he's on the money. So Casso files this information about the detectives away. He's sure it will come in handy one day. Since the FBI raid in 1990, Casso and his boss have continued to run the Lucchese crime family from a series of safe houses across New Jersey.

20:33Casso uses an elaborate system to communicate with his men. Each payphone in New York has been given a code number, and when he wants to talk to one of his soldiers, Casso pages him with the code. The recipient then drives to that specific payphone and waits for Casso's call. The coded beeper messages let Casso do business without any risk of the feds listening in. But the system is time-consuming and awkward, and as the months go by, without any sign that the FBI is onto him, Casso becomes complacent. Believing cell phones to be more secure he buys one and starts using it to call other members of the Lucchese family directly.

21:10Eventually, though, the FBI catches on. Agents trace his calls to underlings in Brooklyn back to a radio tower in Morris County, New Jersey. And it's there, 32 months after Casso disappeared, that the FBI finally tracks him down. Casso's holed up in his secluded house in the neighborhood of Mount Olive. The property is set back from the road and surrounded by hills and woods. With the closest neighbor a hundred yards away, it's the perfect place for a wanted man to lie low. And Casso is comfortable here. On the morning of January 19th, 1993, he does as he always does. He kisses his mistress goodbye, and as he hears the front door close and the purr of her Jeep's engine outside, he heads for the shower.

21:53Since going into hiding, Casso has grown out his hair and mustache and started wearing glasses. But he's still the same man underneath. And standing under the stream of hot water in the shower, he thinks about his plans for the day ahead, the calls he has to make, the business he has to address. His thoughts are interrupted, though, by a hammering sound from downstairs. And for a moment, he wonders if his mistress has forgotten her key. He turns off the shower and listens. Then there's a loud crash, the thump of footsteps in the hall and voices shouting FBI. Casso grabs for a towel and has just covered himself when the agents burst into the bathroom with guns raised.

22:32Dripping water onto the tiled floor, Casso surrenders and says he'll come peacefully. He's then cuffed and a large coat is thrown over his shoulders. Then he's bundled down the stairs and brought out across the snowy lawn to a waiting car. Casso is soon charged with multiple counts of murder conspiracy, extortion, loan sharking, witness tampering, and illegal weapons offenses. If he's found guilty, Casso will likely spend the rest of his life behind bars. The odds aren't in his favor, and he knows many of his former friends and associates will be lining up to testify against him in exchange for shorter sentences of their own.

23:07And even in prison, he may not be safe. The Lucchese boss, Vic Amuso, has put out a hit on Casso to make sure he keeps his secrets. So Casso weighs his options and decides he's better off cooperating. But before prosecutors can cut him a deal, they need to know what he can give them. So they organize a meeting called a proffer to gather more intelligence. Casso will tell them what he knows, but if the deal falls through for any reason, the prosecutors agree not to use the information Casso shares against him in court. They'll all pretend the meeting never happened. And soon, prosecutors take Casso to a basement room of a federal court in Brooklyn.

23:46There, for two hours, Casso recounts some stories of his days in the mob. They were often so violent that they sound almost far-fetched. But when investigators compare Casso's accounts to those of other informants, it's clear his testimony is credible. And the prosecutors are convinced. They decide to offer Casso a deal. On March 1st, 1994, Casso pleads guilty to 14 murder conspiracy charges. Sentencing will follow at a later date, but to get a shorter spell in prison, he will have to give the FBI everything. Every mobster he's done business with and every crime he's ever committed. Casso is then flown to a military base in Texas.

24:25Unlike an ordinary prison, here he gets a comfortable room with his own TV and refrigerator. And when the FBI agents come to visit, he feels so at home that he offers them coffee and cake. It will take months of meetings for Casso to spill all his secrets. And in session after session, he'll confess to kidnappings, extortion attempts, torture, assaults, and murders, some of which the FBI knew nothing about. The investigators interviewing him are horrified by the casual brutality of Casso's crimes, but even more shocking are his allegations against two New York police officers. Casso says he got away with many of his crimes thanks to what he called his crystal ball.

25:05Inside the NYPD, there were two senior detectives who would feed him information on ongoing investigations, telling him who was going to get arrested and who needed to be killed to make problems go away. Their names were Stephen Caracapa and Luis Eppolito, and over the years, Caso paid them over$350 ,000 on behalf of the Lucchese crime family. During all their long careers in law enforcement, the prosecutors have never heard anything like this. They spend hundreds of hours trying to build a case against Eppolito and Caracapa and linking Caso's confessions to outstanding investigations that stretch back decades.