NYPD cop who served as Lucchese family hitman dies in prison while serving life sentence
Stephen Caracappa, one of the notorious NYPD “Mafia Cops” who moonlighted as a hitman for the Lucchese crime family, has died in federal prison.
Caracappa, 75, who was serving out his sentence at a federal detention center in Butner, N.C., died on April 8, federal prison records show.
Caracappa and his partner, Louis Eppolito, 68, were sentenced to life behind bars in 2009 for committing eight mob-ordered executions between 1986 and 1990.
It’s not clear how he died, but in June 2016, Caracappa petitioned Federal Judge Jack Weinstein, who handed out his life sentence, for “compassionate release.”
“Please know I have been fighting the case in the courts ... I have stage 4 cancer and will not survive,” he pleaded in a handwritten letter to the judge.
Weinstein replied a month later, “There is nothing I can do in your case.”
Stephen Caracappa wrote a letter (left) to Judge Jack Weinstein to seek a "compassionate release" on June 27, 2016. (Right) Weinstein responds to Caracappa.
Caracappa and Eppolito earned $4,000 a month on the payroll of Lucchese underboss Anthony "Gaspipe" Casso from 1986 to 1990 to orchestrate murders and pass along confidential police information.
The city shelled out $18.4 million to settle seven lawsuits with the families of their victims, who included a diamond dealer the pair kidnapped and murdered, two Gambino made men, two Lucchese mobsters and a mob-connected painters' union leader.
Mafia cop Louis Eppolito (pictured) is still in prison serving a life sentence.
At their sentencing, the son of one of the duo’s victims, Gambino capo Edward Lino, unloaded on the two dirty detectives.
“These two lowlifes shot and killed my father," Vincent Lino said in court, amid cheers. “May you have a long life in prison.”
Eppolito remains locked away in a high-security penitentiary in Tucson.
Caracappa, 75, who was serving out his sentence at a federal detention center in Butner, N.C., died on April 8, federal prison records show.
Caracappa and his partner, Louis Eppolito, 68, were sentenced to life behind bars in 2009 for committing eight mob-ordered executions between 1986 and 1990.
It’s not clear how he died, but in June 2016, Caracappa petitioned Federal Judge Jack Weinstein, who handed out his life sentence, for “compassionate release.”
“Please know I have been fighting the case in the courts ... I have stage 4 cancer and will not survive,” he pleaded in a handwritten letter to the judge.
Weinstein replied a month later, “There is nothing I can do in your case.”
Stephen Caracappa wrote a letter (left) to Judge Jack Weinstein to seek a "compassionate release" on June 27, 2016. (Right) Weinstein responds to Caracappa.
Caracappa and Eppolito earned $4,000 a month on the payroll of Lucchese underboss Anthony "Gaspipe" Casso from 1986 to 1990 to orchestrate murders and pass along confidential police information.
The city shelled out $18.4 million to settle seven lawsuits with the families of their victims, who included a diamond dealer the pair kidnapped and murdered, two Gambino made men, two Lucchese mobsters and a mob-connected painters' union leader.
Mafia cop Louis Eppolito (pictured) is still in prison serving a life sentence.
At their sentencing, the son of one of the duo’s victims, Gambino capo Edward Lino, unloaded on the two dirty detectives.
“These two lowlifes shot and killed my father," Vincent Lino said in court, amid cheers. “May you have a long life in prison.”
Eppolito remains locked away in a high-security penitentiary in Tucson.
http://www.nydailynews.com/new-york/nyc-crime/nypd-worked-mob-hitman-dies-prison-article-1.3045643
0 comments:
Post a Comment