Mafia Cop Testifies It's True He's a Liar

Friends of ours: Anthony "Gaspipe" Casso, Lucchese Crime Family
Friends of mine: Louis Eppolito, Stephen Caracappa, Burton Kaplan

Mafia cop Louis Eppolito took the witness stand yesterday to get his conviction tossed - and seemed to prove that his lawyers made the right decision by not allowing him to testify during his racketeering trial. Finally getting the chance to speak in his own defense, Eppolito admitted he's a liar, a phony and maybe even a racist.

"You'll tell a lie if it will help you?" Assistant U.S. Attorney Robert Henoch asked.

"Yes, if it will help me get a movie done," replied Eppolito, who launched a fledgling career as an actor and screenwriter after his retirement from the NYPD in 1989.

Eppolito, 57, and his former partner, Stephen Caracappa, 64, were convicted in April of participating in eight gangland murders while on the mob payroll. The former cops are arguing that their trial attorneys - Bruce Cutler, who was paid $250,000 by Eppolito, and Edward Hayes, who pocketed $200,000 from Caracappa - failed to properly defend them.

Eppolito's current defense lawyer, Joseph Bondy, objected yesterday when the prosecutor asked Eppolito about his frequent use of the N-word and his admission that he always washes his hand after shaking a black man's hand. But Federal Judge Jack Weinstein ruled the questions were appropriate. "We're trying to determine if it was desirable to keep this witness off the stand; this is what the jury would have heard," Weinstein pointed out.

Eppolito acknowledged using the N-word and slurs for Asians and Hispanics. But he said he only used them as slang terms - "not to hurt their feelings."

He also insisted he's not violent. But he confirmed an anecdote in his autobiography, "Mafia Cop," in which he described shoving a shotgun into a man's mouth and feeling "this wonderful, heady urge to pull the trigger" as the man soiled his pants.

Eppolito was later asked how he knew mob associate and garment dealer Burton Kaplan, who testified that he had been the go-between for Luchese underboss Anthony (Gaspipe) Casso and the mob cops.

"I bought clothes from him. He's the one guy who would switch the [36-inch] pants with a bigger [54-inch] jacket," the rotund convict explained.

Thanks to John Marzulli