In ‘60 Minutes’ interview, mob figure links cops to murders

Eric Leake

Monday, April 11, 2005 | 9:31 a.m.

A former mob boss told the CBS television show "60 Minutes" that he hired two former New York City police detectives and Las Vegas residents for Mafia killings.

In an interview that was recorded in 1998 and aired Sunday evening, convicted murderer and former mob underboss Anthony "Gaspipe" Casso said from prison that the two detectives were paid to provide information, kill, and deliver people to be killed.

CBS said it initially held the interview's allegations because the claims against the retired detectives could not be substantiated.

Louis Eppolito and Stephen Caracappa were arrested March 9 in Las Vegas by federal agents.

They face charges in connection with eight mob-related killings and three attempted killings in or around New York City.

Casso corroborated some of the charges in the indictment against the retired detectives. He said they assisted him with eight of the 36 murders he confessed to.

He described paying the two to kill mobster Edward Lino.

"I gave them $75,000. They killed him, like cowboy style. They pulled alongside of him. They shot him. They made him crash into the fence alongside the belt parkway on the service road," Casso said in the interview.

"Then Steve got out of the car, ran across the street and finished shooting him. Finished killing him in the car. Then they got back and they went away."

Attorneys for Eppolito and Caracappa denied Casso's allegations and point to their clients' highly decorated service.

"It's an obscenity, that kind of allegation," Eppolito's lawyer, Bruce Cutler, told "60 Minutes." "It's scurrilous. It's not true. ...

"Why would somebody who went up the ladder in the police department, received awards for bravery above and beyond the call of duty, why would you besmirch and tarnish everything you stand for to do the bidding of a reprobate like Casso?"

The CBS report notes that prosecutors said Casso has lied as a federal witness in the past but that in this case they believe him.

Casso also said in the interview that he paid the detectives about $45,000 to act as though they were arresting a man named Jimmy Hydell and deliver him to Casso, who then killed him.

CBS reports that the case against the detectives opened up after another retired detective, Tommy Dades, received a tip.

Dades went through records and found that Caracappa had searched the police database for the address for a man named Nicky Guido, who was shot to death at the same address nine months later.

But Caracappa had looked up the wrong Nicky Guido, the report alleges, and led hit men to an innocent man.

Eppolito worked from 1969 to 1990 and Caracappa from 1969 to 1992 for New York City police before the partners retired to Las Vegas.

They are currently in jail awaiting trial.