Mob Cops

He was one of the most decorated cops in the history of NYPD. From his "wiseguy" relatives, he learned the meaning of honor and loyalty. From his fellow cops, he learned the meaning of betrayal. MAFIA COP His father, Ralph "Fat the Gangster" Eppolito, was stone-cold Mafia hit-man. Lou Eppolito, however, chose to live by different code; he chose the uniform of NYPD. And he was one of the best -- a good, tough, honest cop down the line. Butu even his sterling record, his headline-making heroism, couldn't protect him when the police brass decided to take him down. Although completely exonerated of charges that he had passed secrets to the mob, Lou didn't stand a chance. They had taken something from him they couldn't give back: his dignity and his pride. Now, here's the powerful story, told in Lou Eppolito's own words, of the bloody Mafia hit that claimed his uncle and cousin...of his middle-of-the-night meeting with "Boss of Bosses" Paul Castellano...of one good cop who survived eight shootouts and saved hundreds of victims, who was persecuted, prosecuted, and ultimately betrayed by his own department. Full of hard drama and gritty truth, Mafia Cop gives a vivid, inside look at life in the Family, on the force, and on the mean streets of New York.

Louis Eppolito and Stephen Caracappa were both cops working in York's Organized Crime Homicide Unit. They were also paid informants and killers-for-hire for the Lucchese crime family. They retired comfortably in Las Vegas until a trial unburied their secrets.

“One of the most spectacular cases of police corruption in the city.” —New York Times Friends of the Family is a look deep inside the most notorious case to rock the NYPD: The story of Louis Eppolito and Stephen Caracappa, the two police detectives who moonlighted as mob hit men. As told by Tommy Dades and Michael Vecchione—the cop and District Attorney investigator who solved New York’s coldest case—along with co-writer David Fisher, Friends of the Family is shocking true crime in the tradition of Nicolas Pileggi’s Wiseguys and Underboss by Peter Mass—a chilling, in-depth examination of what the New York Daily News calls “the worst betrayal of the badge in the NYPD’s history.”

Former Chicago police officer and mafia associate Fred Pascente is the man who links Tony Spilotro, a central character in Nicholas Pileggi's Casino and one of Chicago's most notorious mob figures, to William Hanhardt, chief of detectives of the Chicago Police Department. Pascente and Spilotro grew up together on Chicago's Near West Side, and as young toughs they were rousted and shaken down by Hanhardt. While Spilotro became one of the youngest made men in Chicago Outfit history, Pascente was drafted into the army and then joined the police department. Soon taken under Hanhardt's wing, Pascente served as Hanhardt's fixer and bagman on the department for more than a decade. At the same time, Pascente remained close to Spilotro, making frequent trips to Las Vegas to party with his old friend while helping to rob the casinos blind. Mob Cop tells about the decline of traditional organized crime in the United States, and it reveals information about the inner workings of the Outfit that have never been publicly released. Fred Pascente's positions as an insider on both the criminal and law enforcement fronts make this story a matchless tell-all. Fred Pascente was a Chicago police officer for twenty-six years and a professional thief with close ties to the mafia. He died in 2014. Sam Reaves is the author of ten novels and has served as president of the Midwest chapter of the Mystery Writers of America. He lives in Evanston, Illinois.

The last great mob story, this definitive inside account is an historic, unprecedented portrait of two brotherhoods - the NYPD and the Mafia - and the two cops who allegedly belonged to both.

"Read this man's book." --James Ellroy Gangster Squad presents a harrowing, edge-of-your-seat narrative of murder and secrets, revenge and heroism in the City of Angels—the real events behind the blockbuster Warner Brothers film starring Sean Penn, Josh Brolin, Ryan Gosling and Emma Stone. GANGSTER SQUAD chronicles the true story of the secretive police unit that waged an anything-goes war to drive Mickey Cohen and other hoodlums from Los Angeles after WWII. In 1946, the LAPD launched the Gangster Squad with eight men who met covertly on street corners and slept with Tommy guns under their beds. But for two cops, all that mattered was nailing the strutting gangster Mickey Cohen. Sgt. Jack O'Mara was a square-jawed church usher, Sgt. Jerry Wooters a cynical maverick. About all they had in common was their obsession. So O'Mara set a trap to prove Mickey was a killer. And Wooters formed an alliance with Mickey's budding rival, Jack "The Enforcer" Whalen. Two cops -- two hoodlums. Their fates collided in the closing days of the 1950s, when late one night "The Enforcer" confronted Mickey and his crew. The aftermath would shake both LA's mob and police department, and signal the end of a defining era in the city's history. Warner Brothers developed the film Gangster Squad based on the research award-winning journalist Paul Lieberman conducted for this book, which reveals the unbelievable true stories behind the film. He spent more than a decade tracking down and interviewing surviving members of the real police unit as well as families and associates of the mobsters they pursued. Gangster Squad is a tour-de-force narrative reminiscent of LA Confidential.

A true crime account of the old-school New York Police Department from the detective who helped catch the Son of Sam and waged a one-man war against the Mafia. In 1978, a gang war erupted in New York City, and the five boroughs ran red with blood. Men with names like “Matty the Horse” and “Tony Ugly” were found dismembered in garbage dumps, dead on the roadside in the far reaches of the Bronx, or suffocated in the trunks of cars parked at LaGuardia Airport. For years, the New York Police Department hadn’t bothered to investigate Mafia murders, preferring to let the mob handle its own bloody affairs—but that was about to change. The NYPD was going to war with the Cosa Nostra, and Det. Joseph Coffey would lead the charge. A hard-nosed veteran of the force, Detective Coffey took down some of the highest-profile organized-crime associations of the 1970s, from the conspiracy between the Mafia and the Catholic Church known as the Vatican Connection to the homegrown terrorists who called themselves the Black Liberation Army. In 1977, when the city was terrorized by serial killer David Berkowitz, better known as the Son of Sam, Coffey led the NYPD’s nighttime operations as they worked to lure the murderer into a trap. But the war against the mob would be his greatest challenge—one that would take him right into the heart of gritty, dangerous NYC. Cowritten by New York Daily News veteran Jerry Schmetterer, Coffey’s work is crime reporting at its finest. Fans of the two-fisted journalism of Jimmy Breslin and New York stories like The French Connection will find The Coffey Files has the thunderous intensity of a runaway subway train.

A collected history of the 100 most notorious criminals to walk the streets of the New York City borough. Brooklyn’s Most Wanted parades an impressive perp walk of 100 of the borough’s most notorious, ranking them meticulously from bad to worst. From crime bosses to career criminals to corrupt politicians, pedophile priests to Ponzi scammers, this is not your usual crime chronicle. You want labor racketeering, Ponzi scheming, hijacking, murder, loan sharking, arson, illegal gambling, money laundering? Fugetaboutit! Take this guided gangland tour of Brooklyn, the broken land, and meet everyone from the South Brooklyn Boys to the Soviet thugs of Brighton Beach’s Little Odessa. Want to know what Billy the Kid, John Wilkes Booth and the Son of Sam all have in common? Brooklyn. Anthony “Gaspipe” Casso, Al Capone, Frankie Yale, Paul Vario, Roy DeMeo and so many more malicious malcontents and maniacs stalk these pages, as author Craig McGuire rank a rogues’ gallery of the best of the worst from Brooklyn’s crime-ridden past and present. This includes more than a century of screaming crime blotter headlines, spotlighting epic cases, like The Brooklyn Godmother, The Sex Killer of Brooklyn, The Nurse Girl Murder, The Long Island Railroad Massacre, The Thrill Kills Gang, and many more. From “Son of Sam” to “Son of Sal,” “Little Lepke” to “Big Paulie,” “The Butcher of Brooklyn,” “The Vampire of Brooklyn,” “The Gang Who Couldn’t Shoot Straight,” and even “The Man Who Murdered Brooklyn Baseball,” they’re all here. Much more than Murder Incorporated, this book features kingpins and lone wolves alike, with a line-up featuring many of the multi-ethnic mobs mimicking the original La Cosa Nostra—the Russian Mafia, the Albanian Mafia, the Polish Mafia, the Greek Mafia—in fact, this book contains more mafias than you can shake a bloody blackjack at. The author’s proprietary Notorious Brooklyn Index analyzes criminal activity, socio-economic type, notoriety, relation to Brooklyn and more for a final score that’s far from conjecture—though it will undoubtedly spark debate. Praise for Brooklyn’s Most Wanted “Never has anyone put together a look into so many of Brooklyn’s worst. This is a great read I highly recommend.” —Thomas Dades, retired NYPD detective, bestselling author of Friends of the Family “If you love all-things-Brooklyn like I do, this is an absolute must-read you need on your shelf. . . . A revealing, rousing, rip-roaring tour that will slice you right into the underbelly of New York City’s most historic borough.” —Ron Valdes, co-founder, Brooklyn Creative Partners