S20 Ep9: Blood and the Badge: The Mafia, Two Killer Cops, & The Scandal That Shocked The Nation w/ Michael Cannell
Darkness Radio
Darkness Radio
4.8 • 3.2K Ratings
🗓️ 21 January 2025
⏱️ 148 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
No episode in NYPD history surpasses the depravities of Louis Eppolito and Stephen Caracappa, two decorated detectives who covertly acted as mafia informants and paid assassins in the Scorsese world of 1980s Brooklyn.
For more than ten years, Eppolito and Caracappa moonlighted as the mob’s early warning alert system, leaking names of mobsters secretly cooperating with the government and crippling investigations by sharing details of surveillance, phone taps and impending arrests. The Lucchese boss called the two detectives his crystal ball: Whatever detectives knew, the mafia soon learned. Most grievously, Eppolito and Caracappa earned bonuses by staging eight mob hits, pulling the trigger themselves at least once.
Incredibly, when evidence of their wrongdoing arose in 1994, FBI officials failed to muster an indictment. The allegations lay dormant for a decade and were only revisited due to relentless follow up by Tommy Dades, a cop determined to break the cold case before his retirement. Eppolito and Caracappa were finally tried and then sentenced to life in prison in 2009, nearly thirty years after their crimes took place.
On today's TCT, Michael Cannell, author of the book, "Blood and the Badge: The Mafia, Two Killer Cops, and The Scandal That Shocked The Nation" talks about the rise and fall of Eppolito and Caracappa, the players around them that drew out their dishonest and evil traits, how things even went wrong in the first place, and how one partner wanted to stay quiet, while one had Hollywood aspirations!
Get your copy of "Blood and the Badge" here: https://read.macmillan.com/lp/blood-and-the-badge-9781250817785/
PLUS: DUMB CRIMES AND STUPID CRIMINALS WITH JESSICA FREEBURG!
Watch the video of the Hooters waitress flirting with the Florida cop here: https://bit.ly/3DQk3gS
Check out Jessica Freeburg's website and order her new books: https://jessicafreeburg.com/books/
and check out Jess on Tik Tok: https://www.tiktok.com/@jessicafreeburgwrites
There are new and different (and really cool) items all the time in the Darkness Radio Online store at our website! . check out the Darkness Radio Store! https://www.darknessradioshow.com/store/
#crime #truecrime #truecrimepodcasts #truecrimetuesday #michaelcannell #bloodandthebadge #stmartinspublishing #themafiatwokillercopsandthescandalthatrockedthenation #louieeppolito #stephencaracappa #nypd #mafia #lucchesefamily #gambinofamily #fatthegangster #jimmytheclam #gangster #gaspipecasso #johngotti #burtkaplan #lasvegas #hollywood #FBI #federalgovernment #mafia #RICO #dumbcrimesstupidcriminals #TimDennis #jessicafreeburg #paranormalauthor #floridaman #drugcrimes #foodcrimes #stupidcrimes #funnycrimes #sexcrimes #dumbcrimes
Transcript
Click on a timestamp to play from that location
| 0:00.0 | Welcome into the best in true crime podcasting. This is True Crime Tuesday. I'm your host, Tim Dennis. |
| 0:28.3 | Have an absolutely intriguing show lined up for you today, folks. I want to thank Alan Warren, |
| 0:34.0 | first of all, for forwarding me this guest today and this book. This book, folks, |
| 0:39.7 | blew me away. It's called Blood and the Badge. You know, I got to tell you, first of all, |
| 0:46.7 | one of the stories that absolutely grabs me by the collar, draws me in, not only are mob stories. |
| 0:51.6 | I think we're all into mob stories. But this story today has to do |
| 0:55.8 | with mob and police corruption. When you put the two of them together for me, it's like the most, |
| 1:03.9 | what's a good way of putting it? It's like a true crime a phrodisiac for me, right? It's like |
| 1:09.6 | the type of story that I can't get enough of. It's the type of story |
| 1:14.4 | that, uh, I have to, uh, I don't know. I just, I can't look away from. I have to get more and more |
| 1:23.1 | of. And this book absolutely did it for me. This book, uh, I got to tell you, it's probably one of the best |
| 1:30.1 | books I've read in the last couple of years. Blood and the Badge is a story of, well, you know what, |
| 1:37.1 | I'm going to bring our guest in. We're going to have him go over the meat and potatoes of it, |
| 1:41.3 | but is a story of two police officers who, let's just say, |
| 1:47.2 | got over in New York and got over in a big way, but one of those police officers had ties |
| 1:52.5 | to organize crime, but tried to make it seem like, you know what, my hands are clean. |
| 1:59.3 | But were they? We're going to talk to our guest, Michael Connell, who is the author of this wonderful book, |
| 2:05.7 | about whether the line was that clear. |
| 2:10.5 | Is the line that clear here with all of our players? |
| 2:15.3 | And why that line might not have been so clear and how does it stay clear |
| 2:21.6 | how can we stay clear even in a time in New York City where supposedly the department had been |
| 2:27.8 | cleaned up you know in the 70s they supposedly after a huge corruption, supposedly got rid of corrupt cops. |
... |
Please login to see the full transcript.
Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from Darkness Radio, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.
Generated transcripts are the property of Darkness Radio and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.
Copyright © Tapesearch 2025.