On March 10‚ 2005‚ two highly decorated detectives‚ Louis Eppolito and Stephen Caracappa‚ were indicted for providing information to the Luchese crime family‚ which resulted in eight murders-one of which they carried out themselves. According to the indictment‚ while working in the department's Organized Crime Homicide Unit‚ they were paid $4000 monthly by the Lucheses to provide highly confidential NYPD and FBI information into law enforcement operations and identify informers and witnesses. For more than a decade‚ it looked like they would get away with their crimes. When they were indicted‚ the story made instant headlines around the world.
Eppolito and Caracappa were killers‚ working for mob boss Anthony "Gaspipe" Casso from 1985 until they retired in 1993. In 1986 they kidnapped a Gambino family associate and delivered him to Casso‚ who tortured him for information‚ then killed him. Months later‚ in one of the true tragedies of this case‚ they provided the address of a Gambino family associate named Nick Guido‚ who was then shot to death sitting in his car outside his home. Incredibly‚ they had fingered the wrong Nick Guido. A completely innocent young man had been killed-and his parents spent the next decade determined to save their son's reputation. These are just two of the stories that make up this tremendous‚ unprecedented case.
FRIENDS OF THE FAMILY is the full inside story of two dedicated men who were determined not to let Eppolito and Caracappa get away with murder. Those two men were Mike Vecchione‚ the Chief of Investigations for Brooklyn D.A. Joe Hynes‚ and his best friend‚ street-wise Detective Tommy Dades. Together they are the real life LAW AND ORDER.
FRIENDS OF THE FAMILY is the story of that investigation‚ as told by Vecchione-who led it -and Dades-whose work broke the case-to best selling author David Fisher. It will detail both the investigation and the killings as they were uncovered.
