‘Kid’ Lends a Hand in ‘Mafia Cops’ Case
This article is from the archive of The New York Sun before the launch of its new website in 2022. The Sun has neither altered nor updated such articles but will seek to correct any errors, mis-categorizations or other problems introduced during transfer.

A former right-hand man to the chief prosecution witness in the “Mafia Cops” case has backed up much of his old boss’s account of murder and mayhem carried out by ex-NYPD detectives Louis Eppolito and Stephen Caracappa, Gang Land has learned.
Thomas Galpine, who was convicted of drug dealing with longtime Luchese family associate Burton Kaplan, recently signed on with the feds and has agreed to testify at the racketeering trial of Messrs. Eppolito and Caracappa, sources said.
After months of haggling with the feds, Galpine, 49, whose code name was “Kid” when he worked for Kaplan, followed the lead of his former boss, whose moniker was “Old Man,” sources said. Galpine, who had been serving a 16-year sentence in a federal prison in Pennsylvania, disappeared recently from the official Bureau of Prisons database. Kaplan, 71, had been serving 27 years when he decided to cooperate last year.
“It’s hard to understate his importance,” a law enforcement source said. The source declined to relate any specific information Galpine had given the feds, saying only that Kaplan “told him about some stuff that went down and used him to deliver money and messages on occasion.”
Like Kaplan, Galpine was targeted as a potential witness by the feds a decade ago, soon after former Luchese underboss Anthony “Gaspipe” Casso told the FBI that he paid “the cops” for services that included murder. Gaspipe said Galpine had first-hand knowledge about some of their corrupt activities, according to court records.
In a 1996 NYPD memo, Lieutenant Frank Pooley told higher-ups that the NYPD and the DEA were “actively pursuing a drug case against Kaplan and Galpine.” The hope was that the case would lead to a federal prosecution and ultimately to Kaplan and Galpine’s cooperation in an investigation into Casso’s allegations.
Casso described Galpine as Kaplan’s “closest associate, a young kid who does everything for Kaplan, such as driving company trucks, driving Kaplan’s wife around, and a host of other errands,” according to FBI reports obtained by Gang Land.
On one occasion, Kaplan had Galpine store an audiotape that “the cops” had given Kaplan of a cooperating witness discussing the September 1986 shooting of Casso that led to the revenge slaying of Gambino associate James Hydell, according to a report by FBI agents Richard Rudolph and James Brennan.
After Casso listened to the recording that detailed the involvement of Gambino mobster Michael “Mickey Boy” Paradiso in the Casso shooting, Kaplan gave it to Galpine. Gaspipe, however, “was nervous about Galpine holding the tape so he instructed Kaplan to retrieve it and get rid of it,” Messrs. Rudolph and Brennan wrote.
According to another FBI report, Galpine also can provide information about the 1990 murder of Gambino capo Edward Lino, one of nine murders that both detectives are charged with in the latest version of the racketeering conspiracy indictment.
The new indictment – both ex-detectives pleaded not guilty Tuesday – charges Mr. Eppolito with the murder of a 10th victim, whose identity is not disclosed, and alleges that Mr. Caracappa unlawfully obtained New York pistol permits while living in Las Vegas. Both men were also hit with additional bribery and obstruction of justice charges.
But the major change in the indictment is the theory of the prosecution. The criminal enterprise at the heart of all 10 murders and 17 other crimes is no longer the Mafia or the Luchese family, but the “Mafia Cops” themselves. The feds didn’t give their enterprise a name, but Gang Land has no qualms about naming it the Mafia Cops family.
The name is hardly a stretch. Mr. Eppolito titled his own life story “Mafia Cop,” an allusion to his relatives’ close mob ties. The book was written with Bob Drury and published in 1992. Whatever it’s called, the family had a long and successful run that lasted 23 years, the indictment said. Messrs. Eppolito and Caracappa headed the family, which operated in New York and Las Vegas for the purpose of making money for its members and associates.
Like other crime families, the Mafia Cops crew, which had three members – unnamed but easily deduced as Casso, Kaplan, and Mr. Eppolito’s late cousin, Frank Santora – used murder, bribery, and a host of other activities, both illegal and legal, to line their pockets with cash, according to the indictment.
Because the feds added new charges and restructured the indictment, Brooklyn Federal Court Judge Jack Weinstein agreed to put off the trial until February 6, telling defense lawyers Edward Hayes and Bruce Cutler that he was not inclined to relax the strict house-arrest bail conditions for the ex-detectives. As they have done previously, the defense lawyers promised to file a motion attacking the validity of the indictment in due time.
Outside court, Mr. Cutler said the new indictment was filled with many of the same legal deficiencies as the prior versions, including statute of limitations problems for crimes that took place more than 15 years ago. He added: “The prosecutors changed the label on the can of soup, but it’s the same soup.” Prosecutors Robert Henoch, Mitra Hormozi, and Daniel Wenner said little in court, apparently believing that their soup would satisfy the judge’s taste and ultimately be swallowed up by a jury. Outside, they declined to comment about Galpine’s status as an added ingredient.
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In a postscript to Tuesday’s convoluted hung jury acquittal of John A. “Junior” Gotti and the confusing convictions-acquittals of his co-defendants, Gang Land invokes the wisdom of turncoat Mafia boss Joseph Massino that there are three sides to every story. We also chime in with these observations:
* Despite the tears of joy from the Gotti family over the outcome, Junior didn’t come close to the Teflon Don status his old man obtained in his first racketeering trial. According to the verdict sheets, Junior was spared a racketeering conviction by a single holdout juror, who apparently bought the argument that Junior had quit the mob.
* Even so, Junior’s lawyer, Jeffrey Lichtman, is a big winner for convincing that juror to hold fast, even though the attorney presented no evidence to back up the contention that Junior retired, which flies in the face of reality and the testimony of several witnesses at the trial.
* Before the Junior Don joins his sister, brother, and nephews as a co-star on “Growing Up Gotti,” the reality is that he still faces a retrial on racketeering charges that include extortion, loansharking, and the kidnapping of Curtis Sliwa.
* Despite Lichtman’s heroics, the player of the game award goes to Diurmuid White. Not only did the professorial attorney stymie the effort to convict his client, Michael “Mikey Y” Yannotti, of the Sliwa shooting, he also won him an acquittal for two 1996 murders even though a witness testified that Mikey Y had admitted the killings and Yannotti’s beeper was recovered at the murder scene.
During his closing argument, Mr. White placed the telltale beeper on the lectern, then pocketed it without the jurors’ noticing. Pointing to the lectern, he asked what happened to it. Then, with a flourish, he took it out of his pocket and threw it on the floor, arguing that the witness had in fact killed the men and planted his client’s beeper at the scene.
Yannotti was found guilty of racketeering and faces 20 years, but that’s a lot better than life, which he would have received if convicted of the murder charges.
* Lawyer Charles Carnesi saved about four years in the joint for his client, Louis “Louie Black” Mariani, even though he was convicted of securities fraud, by beating back loansharking and extortion charges. Mariani had been offered an eight year deal before trial. Now he faces about four when he is sentenced.
This column and other news of organized crime will appear later today at www.ganglandnews.com.