Friends of ours: John Gotti
Friends of mine: Louis Eppolito, Stephen Caracappa
Finally, Louie Eppolito offers a defense. His defense is that he had no defense.
The Mafia cop, in a jailhouse interview with my colleague Greg B. Smith in yesterday's Daily News, claimed that his defense team in his recent trial at which he was convicted of eight-mob related murders was poor.
Eppolito wasn't the only one surprised by the unfocused defense offered by Bruce Cutler and Eddie Hayes, two high-profile lawyers. In fact, Eppolito's first mistake probably was hiring Cutler. If you're trying to convince a jury that you're not mobbed up, why would you hire John Gotti's mouthpiece, the most high-profile mob lawyer in New York?
Almost everyone who attended the trial on a regular basis was surprised by the defense, which often rambled, got lost in name-calling and histrionics, and looked flatfooted in cross-examinations.
By contrast, Burton Kaplan was the best prosecution witness many court observers ever saw. His spellbinding testimony was like listening to an Elmore Leonard novel on tape. He was the quintessential shady Brooklyn character, an ingenious street kid who seemed to consciously have chosen "Crime" as a life plan on Career Day at Manual Training High.
Here was a complex man who says he loves his wife of 49 years, although he took a lover while on the lam. A man who adores his daughter - who became a Criminal Court judge - but a father who at middle age crossed the line to commit a murder that left two other daughters without a father. A family man who helped cause funerals in seven other families. And yet the defense was never able to paint this grab bag of contradictions as a liar.
The government started with a clear and lucid opening by Assistant U.S. Attorney Mitra Hormozi, who led the jury through a nightmarish narrative of two cops who betrayed their badges for money in a sociopathic spree of kidnapping, bribery and murder. No $50 words, no table thumping, no bellowing. Just a well-prepared lawyer telling a compelling, true-crime story in prose as sparse and direct as James M. Cain's in "The Postman Always Rings Twice."
The great Samuel Goldwyn, who founded MGM studios, once said that he could tell if a movie was working by whether or not his butt squirmed. Not one juror squirmed during Hormozi's opening.
Then, lead U.S. prosecutor Robert Henoch, a lieutenant colonel in the Army Reserves who had served in the Middle East, started calling witnesses to support Hormozi's harrowing tale. Henoch led Kaplan through his direct testimony, which was filled with precise, damning details like knowing where former Eppolito partner Stephen Caracappa's mother lived on Staten Island. Or that Caracappa had a black cat in an apartment in a "thin" building on 22nd St. in Manhattan. Or that he met with Eppolito at a "lady friend's" apartment in Bensonhurst, Brooklyn. Each detail became another brick in a prison wall.
Neither cop took the stand to counter Kaplan's testimony. Eppolito now claims that his lawyers forbade him from testifying. Excuse me, the client is the boss. But the two Mafia cops did worse than not testifying. Through the entire trial Eppolito and Caracappa sat stoically, showing zero emotion as their freedom was chipped away piece by icy piece by 40 prosecution witnesses. Noted anthropologist and linguist Ray Birdwhistell says the human face is capable of some 250,000 facial expressions. During the three-week trial, Eppolito and Caracappa each chose one expression - blank. Which made them look like the cold-blooded killers the prosecution claimed they were.
Weird.
If I were a wrongly accused man fighting for my life, and my lawyers convinced me taking the stand would be counterproductive, I would at least use my face to emote and register outrage, horror, astonishment, disbelief, incredulity, shock, pity, sadness, rage and disappointment to the 12 very human jurors sitting in the box, who gazed constantly at the defendants for reaction to the terrible things being said about them. Only to see two blocks of ice.
If Burton Kaplan was falsely connecting me to eight Mafia murders, the U.S. Marshals would need to bind and gag me to keep me still and silent. If Eppolito was being framed, as he now claims from a jail cell, why didn't he leap from his seat in the courtroom and scream, "Liar!" Why not plant at least a single seed of doubt in the mind of even one juror by reacting like an innocent man framed?
What was the risk? A few days held in contempt while you're facing life in a cage? Instead, Eppolito waited until the jury said, "Guilty" 70 times, after which he embraced and backslapped Cutler, before claiming he doesn't know what the defense was thinking.
During the trial, many on the jury were probably wondering the same of poker-faced Eppolito.
Thanks to Denis Hamill
Tuesday, April 18, 2006
Monday, April 17, 2006
After Conviction 'Mafia cop' Insists: 'It Was a Perfect Frame'
Friends of mine: Louis Eppolito, Stephen Caracappa
In his first interview since being convicted of racketeering conspiracy, so-called "Mafia cop" Louis Eppolito maintained his innocence, insisting that he was the victim of "a perfect frame."
"I was the most perfect scapegoat in history. Nobody was better than I was," Eppolito told the Daily News for Monday editions.
Days after being convicted alongside former NYPD partner Stephen Caracappa for doubling as hit men for the mob, Eppolito claimed he was targeted in part because he had been accused in 1984 of leaking secrets to the Mafia. He was later cleared of those initial charges. "It left a stigma that I was connected to the mob," he told the newspaper by telephone on Friday.
The former detective said he had thought about facing the family members of victims. "I'm going to have to stand there and have people look at me and say, 'You killed my father, you killed my son,"' Eppolito said. "I didn't kill anybody. ... What am I supposed to do? They'll say you don't have remorse."
Both men were convicted April 6 of participating in eight brutal killings while on the monthly payroll of a murderous Mafia underboss. They were also found guilty of kidnapping, witness tampering and bribery _ and of providing inside law enforcement information to the mob.
Neither man took the stand during the trial, though Eppolito told the Daily News that he "begged" his lawyers to let him take the stand.
The 57-year-old said his predicament could be blamed on his 1992 book, "Mafia Cop," which key witness Burton Kaplan said from the stand was "the reason for all our troubles."
"I've thought about it a million times," Eppolito admitted. "I would not have been arrested if I hadn't written the book."
"Still," he said, "there are no regrets. Not a one."
In his first interview since being convicted of racketeering conspiracy, so-called "Mafia cop" Louis Eppolito maintained his innocence, insisting that he was the victim of "a perfect frame."
"I was the most perfect scapegoat in history. Nobody was better than I was," Eppolito told the Daily News for Monday editions.
Days after being convicted alongside former NYPD partner Stephen Caracappa for doubling as hit men for the mob, Eppolito claimed he was targeted in part because he had been accused in 1984 of leaking secrets to the Mafia. He was later cleared of those initial charges. "It left a stigma that I was connected to the mob," he told the newspaper by telephone on Friday.
The former detective said he had thought about facing the family members of victims. "I'm going to have to stand there and have people look at me and say, 'You killed my father, you killed my son,"' Eppolito said. "I didn't kill anybody. ... What am I supposed to do? They'll say you don't have remorse."
Both men were convicted April 6 of participating in eight brutal killings while on the monthly payroll of a murderous Mafia underboss. They were also found guilty of kidnapping, witness tampering and bribery _ and of providing inside law enforcement information to the mob.
Neither man took the stand during the trial, though Eppolito told the Daily News that he "begged" his lawyers to let him take the stand.
The 57-year-old said his predicament could be blamed on his 1992 book, "Mafia Cop," which key witness Burton Kaplan said from the stand was "the reason for all our troubles."
"I've thought about it a million times," Eppolito admitted. "I would not have been arrested if I hadn't written the book."
"Still," he said, "there are no regrets. Not a one."
Mafia Cop Raped Me, Gal Says
Drug Bust Wife's Shocking Claim
Friends of mine: Stephen Caracappa, Louis Eppolito
Mob cop Stephen Caracappa was not only a murderous Mafia mole when he wore an NYPD badge - he also was a rapist, according to a bombshell charge.
"That man reminded me of the devil - he was Satan," alleged victim Diane Frisco said about the dirty ex-detective, who she first met in the late 1970s while Caracappa was an undercover narcotics cop putting together a case against her and her husband, Richard Warme.
Frisco and Warme were once eyed as potential character witnesses for the feds in their case against Caracappa and disgraced former partner Louis Eppolito, who were convicted on murder raps earlier this month.
While being questioned on the Caracappa drug connection, Frisco told investigators that he had lured her into a Bronx motel room in 1978 and raped her. Her husband was in prison at the time awaiting trial after the then-cop busted him for facilitating a drug deal.
Warme said her ordeal began after then-cop Caracappa, whom she had only known as "Frankie Black" - his undercover persona - came to her house off the Throgs Neck Expressway and explained, "You know I can help your husband when it comes time for trial."
"Remember, I'm holding all the aces, kid," Caracappa allegedly told Frisco, now 58, who was charged along with her husband and was out on bail at the time. She was later acquitted at trial.
A few days later, Caracappa drove her to the Town and Country Motel on Conner Street, now a women's shelter, and led her into a first-floor room. "He put me on the bed and took off my pants," Frisco told The Post. "I was frozen - crying and frozen," she said, describing how Caracappa undressed and looked like "a skinny gorilla."
She never reported the loathsome tryst because the detective told her, "If you say anything, no one's going to believe you." "I felt dirty, filthy," said Frisco, who is threatening legal action against Caracappa. "I felt violated."
She also described some of the strong-arm tactics the cop allegedly used while acting as Frankie Black, including threatening to cut off her daughter's fingers if drugs weren't delivered to him.
She said the terrifying ordeal forced her to send her five children to stay with relatives in Arizona, where she also went for a year after her legal woes were cleared up. She then returned to The Bronx and took on her grandparent's last name.
Frisco eventually divorced Warme.
Warme, 59, is also preparing to sue Caracappa, claiming that the former cop made bogus statements on the stand about Warme taking off with $20,000 he had given him for drugs.
Caracappa testified to giving Warme cash at the man's 1978 trial. Warme adamantly denies ever receiving the moolah and now believes the rogue cop pocketed it.
Ed Hayes, Caracappa's lawyer, said he didn't know enough about the couple to comment on the charges.
Warme admits that he was "no angel," and that he helped put Caracappa in touch with drug dealers because, "at the time, I was desperate for money."
He told The Post how he was first asked to track down cocaine, then heroin.
Prosecutors tried to introduce evidence at the mob cops' trial that Caracappa was caught on tape admitting to using cocaine while working in the narcotics unit, but the judge wouldn't let the jury hear it.
Frisco and Warme were being considered as potential witnesses in the case but wound up not being asked to speak under oath, partly because of an abundance of other evidence against the former officers.
The ex-cops are to be sentenced on racketeering raps, including murder and drug dealing, May 22.
Thanks to Patrick Gallahue and Zach Haberman
Friends of mine: Stephen Caracappa, Louis Eppolito
Mob cop Stephen Caracappa was not only a murderous Mafia mole when he wore an NYPD badge - he also was a rapist, according to a bombshell charge.
"That man reminded me of the devil - he was Satan," alleged victim Diane Frisco said about the dirty ex-detective, who she first met in the late 1970s while Caracappa was an undercover narcotics cop putting together a case against her and her husband, Richard Warme.
Frisco and Warme were once eyed as potential character witnesses for the feds in their case against Caracappa and disgraced former partner Louis Eppolito, who were convicted on murder raps earlier this month.
While being questioned on the Caracappa drug connection, Frisco told investigators that he had lured her into a Bronx motel room in 1978 and raped her. Her husband was in prison at the time awaiting trial after the then-cop busted him for facilitating a drug deal.
Warme said her ordeal began after then-cop Caracappa, whom she had only known as "Frankie Black" - his undercover persona - came to her house off the Throgs Neck Expressway and explained, "You know I can help your husband when it comes time for trial."
"Remember, I'm holding all the aces, kid," Caracappa allegedly told Frisco, now 58, who was charged along with her husband and was out on bail at the time. She was later acquitted at trial.
A few days later, Caracappa drove her to the Town and Country Motel on Conner Street, now a women's shelter, and led her into a first-floor room. "He put me on the bed and took off my pants," Frisco told The Post. "I was frozen - crying and frozen," she said, describing how Caracappa undressed and looked like "a skinny gorilla."
She never reported the loathsome tryst because the detective told her, "If you say anything, no one's going to believe you." "I felt dirty, filthy," said Frisco, who is threatening legal action against Caracappa. "I felt violated."
She also described some of the strong-arm tactics the cop allegedly used while acting as Frankie Black, including threatening to cut off her daughter's fingers if drugs weren't delivered to him.
She said the terrifying ordeal forced her to send her five children to stay with relatives in Arizona, where she also went for a year after her legal woes were cleared up. She then returned to The Bronx and took on her grandparent's last name.
Frisco eventually divorced Warme.
Warme, 59, is also preparing to sue Caracappa, claiming that the former cop made bogus statements on the stand about Warme taking off with $20,000 he had given him for drugs.
Caracappa testified to giving Warme cash at the man's 1978 trial. Warme adamantly denies ever receiving the moolah and now believes the rogue cop pocketed it.
Ed Hayes, Caracappa's lawyer, said he didn't know enough about the couple to comment on the charges.
Warme admits that he was "no angel," and that he helped put Caracappa in touch with drug dealers because, "at the time, I was desperate for money."
He told The Post how he was first asked to track down cocaine, then heroin.
Prosecutors tried to introduce evidence at the mob cops' trial that Caracappa was caught on tape admitting to using cocaine while working in the narcotics unit, but the judge wouldn't let the jury hear it.
Frisco and Warme were being considered as potential witnesses in the case but wound up not being asked to speak under oath, partly because of an abundance of other evidence against the former officers.
The ex-cops are to be sentenced on racketeering raps, including murder and drug dealing, May 22.
Thanks to Patrick Gallahue and Zach Haberman
How Ol' Blue Eyes Charmed a Princess
Princess Margaret invited Frank Sinatra to perform a favourite song for her in an affectionate letter.
Friends of mine: Frank Sinatra
He was the original pop idol, a brash entertainer with links to the Mafia. She was the Queen’s wild younger sister, a princess famed for her beauty, whose life tore a blazing path through popular culture. Now an affectionate handwritten letter from the Princess Margaret to Frank Sinatra has been discovered, inviting Ol' Blue Eyes to come swing with her at Kensington Palace.
It was March 1971. Sinatra had contacted the Princess from aboard the QE2, as he prepared for a tour in London. Her two-page reply, dated March 19, bears her distinctive M insignia, reveals her home telephone number, and requests a personal performance of the song Out of this World.
The Princess, who at the time was darling of the gossip columns and regularly voted one of the world's most beautiful women, could only have been flattered by the lyrics. In the song, Sinatra who had divorced the actress Mia Farrow three years earlier, would profess his love for her — for not one but two eternites. The Princess's own marriage to Lord Snowdon was to end in divorce five years later.
She had known Sinatra for more that ten years. Inviting him to dinner at the palace, she wrote: "Dear Frank, So nice to hear from you from the dear old ship and we would love to dine with you and perhaps it would amuse you to see the ancient dwelling (1690) which we have brought up to date."
The Princess, who was referring to her apartments at Kensington Palace, gave him her telephone number — the Clarence House switchboard.
"My mother's house so don't be put off and think that you have the wrong place. Because the operator will put you through."
In the letter, which has been acquired by Argyll Etkin, the London auctioneers who specialise in Royal memorabilia, the Princess requests one song. "Please brush up on the Out of This World song for all the fans of that particular music awaiting you," she wrote. "Yours very sincerely, Margaret."
Ian Shapiro, the joint managing director of Argyll Etkin, said that the letter was fascinating. "She was not a prolific letter writer, which is what makes this so interesting. She signed letters to the family Margot, and to friends Margaret."
The auction house acquired the letter on Kensington Palace headed notepaper from a private customer. It is valued at about £1,500. The letter has come to light as controversy grows over the sale of jewellery, silver, furniture and works of art owned by Princess Margaret to pay death duties on her estate.
The sale, by her son Lord Linley, includes gifts inscribed from her "devoted Papa" George VI, the Poltimore tiara that she wore at her wedding in 1960, and the Pietro Annigoni portrait of the Princess in 1957.
Sir Roy Strong, the former curator of the National Portrait Gallery, said: "I would be sorry to see it go overseas after sale at auction. Princess Margaret loved it".
In the "swinging Sixties" Princess Margaret and her husband, a society photographer, were at the heart of the new pop culture. They met, sang and danced to the music of the best bands and singers from the Beatles to the jazz musician Duke Ellington. Sinatra was a firm favourite of the couple.
Sinatra performed at a number of concerts for the Princess in front of fans to raise money for children's charities. Christopher Warwick, in his biography Princess Margaret: A Life of Contrasts disclosed that Sinatra had once paid the Princess a fulsome compliment.
Sinatra said: "Princess Margaret is just as hep wide-awake as any American girl, may be more so. She is up on all the latest records and movies and has a lot of wit and charm too. She is the best ambassador England ever had."
Thanks to Andrew Pierce
Friends of mine: Frank Sinatra
He was the original pop idol, a brash entertainer with links to the Mafia. She was the Queen’s wild younger sister, a princess famed for her beauty, whose life tore a blazing path through popular culture. Now an affectionate handwritten letter from the Princess Margaret to Frank Sinatra has been discovered, inviting Ol' Blue Eyes to come swing with her at Kensington Palace.
It was March 1971. Sinatra had contacted the Princess from aboard the QE2, as he prepared for a tour in London. Her two-page reply, dated March 19, bears her distinctive M insignia, reveals her home telephone number, and requests a personal performance of the song Out of this World.
The Princess, who at the time was darling of the gossip columns and regularly voted one of the world's most beautiful women, could only have been flattered by the lyrics. In the song, Sinatra who had divorced the actress Mia Farrow three years earlier, would profess his love for her — for not one but two eternites. The Princess's own marriage to Lord Snowdon was to end in divorce five years later.
She had known Sinatra for more that ten years. Inviting him to dinner at the palace, she wrote: "Dear Frank, So nice to hear from you from the dear old ship and we would love to dine with you and perhaps it would amuse you to see the ancient dwelling (1690) which we have brought up to date."
The Princess, who was referring to her apartments at Kensington Palace, gave him her telephone number — the Clarence House switchboard.
"My mother's house so don't be put off and think that you have the wrong place. Because the operator will put you through."
In the letter, which has been acquired by Argyll Etkin, the London auctioneers who specialise in Royal memorabilia, the Princess requests one song. "Please brush up on the Out of This World song for all the fans of that particular music awaiting you," she wrote. "Yours very sincerely, Margaret."
Ian Shapiro, the joint managing director of Argyll Etkin, said that the letter was fascinating. "She was not a prolific letter writer, which is what makes this so interesting. She signed letters to the family Margot, and to friends Margaret."
The auction house acquired the letter on Kensington Palace headed notepaper from a private customer. It is valued at about £1,500. The letter has come to light as controversy grows over the sale of jewellery, silver, furniture and works of art owned by Princess Margaret to pay death duties on her estate.
The sale, by her son Lord Linley, includes gifts inscribed from her "devoted Papa" George VI, the Poltimore tiara that she wore at her wedding in 1960, and the Pietro Annigoni portrait of the Princess in 1957.
Sir Roy Strong, the former curator of the National Portrait Gallery, said: "I would be sorry to see it go overseas after sale at auction. Princess Margaret loved it".
In the "swinging Sixties" Princess Margaret and her husband, a society photographer, were at the heart of the new pop culture. They met, sang and danced to the music of the best bands and singers from the Beatles to the jazz musician Duke Ellington. Sinatra was a firm favourite of the couple.
Sinatra performed at a number of concerts for the Princess in front of fans to raise money for children's charities. Christopher Warwick, in his biography Princess Margaret: A Life of Contrasts disclosed that Sinatra had once paid the Princess a fulsome compliment.
Sinatra said: "Princess Margaret is just as hep wide-awake as any American girl, may be more so. She is up on all the latest records and movies and has a lot of wit and charm too. She is the best ambassador England ever had."
Thanks to Andrew Pierce
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