Speaker 1: Welcome to Criminalia, a production of Shondaland Audio in partnership
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Speaker 1: the episode.
Speaker 2: Federal Prosecutor Daniel Winner described the case as quote the bloodiest,
Speaker 2: most violent betrayal of the badge this city has ever seen.
Speaker 2: Two decorated new York City Police detectives Stephen Caracappa and
Speaker 2: Louis Eppolito committed various illegal activities on behalf of the
Speaker 2: Five Families of the American Mafia, spanning from the mid
Speaker 2: nineteen eighties to nineteen ninety. Both Cara Kappa and Epolito
Speaker 2: were indicted on multiple charges related to their mafia associations.
Speaker 2: Because of the efforts by the Federal Bureau of Investigation,
Speaker 2: the Drug Enforcement Administration, as well as prosecutors, investigators, and
Speaker 2: staff of the United States Attorney's Office, and a woman
Speaker 2: named Betty Hidel, the men were arrested, convicted, and sentenced
Speaker 2: to life in prison. Let's talk about the so called
Speaker 2: mafia cops and the story of Wyatt. Took roughly twenty
Speaker 2: years to put them behind bars. Welcome to Criminalia. I'm
Speaker 2: Maria Tremarki.
Speaker 1: And I'm Holly Frye. Stephen the Stick Karracappa and Louis
Speaker 1: Louis or lou Eppolito were both sworn in as police
Speaker 1: officers in nineteen sixty nine. Epillito became a detective in
Speaker 1: nineteen seventy seven, and Karracappa followed in nineteen seventy nine.
Speaker 1: And both of them were considered pretty good cops by
Speaker 1: most accounts, until until they sold what should have been
Speaker 1: their incorruptible police badges for a monthly salary from Antony Caeso,
Speaker 1: a Lucchese crime family underboss known as gas Pipe. The
Speaker 1: Lucchese family is an Italian American mafia crime family and
Speaker 1: one of the five families that dominated organized crime activities
Speaker 1: in New York City and other cities across the United States.
Speaker 1: The others include the Gambino, Banano, Genovese, and Colombo organizations.
Speaker 1: As a retainer, each cop received four thousand dollars a
Speaker 1: month in exchange for passing along intelligence reports and privileged
Speaker 1: information about crime family informants. During their tenure with the
Speaker 1: Lucchese family, they were accomplices to multiple crimes, including several murders,
Speaker 1: two of which they carried out themselves.
Speaker 2: Cara Kappa grew up in Brooklyn. He was a high
Speaker 2: school dropout who spent five years working as a laborer
Speaker 2: in New Jersey before he joined the Army and did
Speaker 2: a tour in Vietnam. When he joined the New York
Speaker 2: Police Department, it was as a street patrolman at Bellito's
Speaker 2: family was also from Brooklyn and was known to have
Speaker 2: mafia ties. His father was a Gambino family soldier known
Speaker 2: as Fat the Gangster, his uncle known as Jimmy the clam,
Speaker 2: His grandfather and a cousin were also made men. By
Speaker 2: age ten, Lou was joining his father on his bookmaking rounds,
Speaker 2: meaning he accompanied his dad as he made the rounds,
Speaker 2: collecting regular payments to the Gambino family. And while most
Speaker 2: of us might imagine a bookie collecting mainly on sports bets,
Speaker 2: the mafia collected for anything and everything unspecified services.
Speaker 1: Kiracappa and Epolito were essentially lifelong friends. They spent a
Speaker 1: total of forty four years on the force together, and
Speaker 1: they retired to homes across the street from each other
Speaker 1: in Las Vegas. Epillito retired in nineteen ninety, The same
Speaker 1: year he ironically played a bit part in Martin Scorsese's
Speaker 1: nineteen ninety mafia drama called Goodfellas. You can look for
Speaker 1: him as Fat Albert. In nineteen ninety two, Epilito co
Speaker 1: wrote a memoir of his time with the New York
Speaker 1: Police called Mafia Cop, the story of an honest cop
Speaker 1: whose family was the mob and He appeared on the
Speaker 1: talk show Sally Jesse Raphael in nineteen ninety eight to
Speaker 1: promote his book and to discuss his time as a
Speaker 1: detective as well as his family's ties to organized crime.
Speaker 1: Although he denied that he knew any details. Speaking about
Speaker 1: his father, he shared with Raphael quote he hated cops
Speaker 1: with a passion, adding that it was probably a good
Speaker 1: thing his father died before he had joined the police academy.
Speaker 1: He continued interestingly that he saw a lot of similarities
Speaker 1: between police and mobsters, that in addition to both living
Speaker 1: by a strict code, they also both delivered justice.
Speaker 2: Kara Koppa retired in nineteen ninety two after an holds
Speaker 2: your Breath for This one, helping to establish the New
Speaker 2: York City Police Department's unit for mafia murder investigations. When
Speaker 2: he retired, he took a job as assistant chief of
Speaker 2: security at a prison for female offenders in North Las Vegas.
Speaker 1: They'd lived fairly quietly for ten year years in Nevada, well,
Speaker 1: Kara Kappa did. They were out of the business, but
Speaker 1: not all the way. While Epilito lived in Las Vegas,
Speaker 1: authorities learned of phone calls he made to associates of
Speaker 1: the Lucues and Banano crime families. He also met with
Speaker 1: a man named Burton Kaplan and remember that name at
Speaker 1: Billino Sure never forgot it, and we'll talk about who
Speaker 1: Burton was as the story unfolds.
Speaker 2: The men were indicted on March ninth, two thousand and five,
Speaker 2: and arrested in Las Vegas by DEEA and FBI agents
Speaker 2: as they were entering Piero's restaurant just off the Strip.
Speaker 2: The retired cops were charged in a federal racketeering indictment
Speaker 2: and both were returned to Brooklyn to face trial. That
Speaker 2: indictment read, in part that the pair were hired and
Speaker 2: paid by Anthony Kaeso to exact revenge on rival Gambino
Speaker 2: family members. It continued that with and Cara Koppa's help,
Speaker 2: Keso was able to rise to power in the Luquese family.
Speaker 2: Both were also charged with passing on information about ongoing
Speaker 2: police investigations into the mafia, including the names of informants,
Speaker 2: while working as police officers for the New York Police Department,
Speaker 2: and in some cases, people were murdered based on this
Speaker 2: privileged information.
Speaker 1: Here's the rundown and this is just a handful of
Speaker 1: names of the murder victims that they were tied to. First,
Speaker 1: there was Nicholas Guido, a twenty six year old recent
Speaker 1: college graduate who was gunned down because of an unfortunate
Speaker 1: case of mistaken identity. He just happened to have the
Speaker 1: same name as a rival of Caso's. He died in
Speaker 1: his family's driveway in nineteen eighty six after being fingered
Speaker 1: by Eppulito and Kara Coppa. Staten Island criminal and Gambino
Speaker 1: family associate. Jimmy Hidel was a shooter in a botched
Speaker 1: assassination attempt on Keeso in September of nineteen eighty six.
Speaker 1: Karracappa and Epilito were dispatched to kidnap him. As Keeso
Speaker 1: recalled the story later to investigators, he sent Epildo and
Speaker 1: Kiracappa to track him down. In doing so, they met
Speaker 1: his mother, Betty, at her home. They did take Hidel
Speaker 1: into custody, sort of posing as police officers. They were
Speaker 1: real police officers, but they had no business being involved
Speaker 1: in his case. And then they delivered him not to
Speaker 1: the precinct but to Caeso, who later boasted to federal
Speaker 1: agents that he quote shot him fifteen times after being
Speaker 1: marked by Epulito as an informant. Pascuale Verriale was found
Speaker 1: shot to death on Valentine's Day of nineteen eighty seven.
Speaker 1: His body was discovered near where another victim, Israel Greenwald,
Speaker 1: was murdered. Israel Greenwald was an Israeli Diamond District jeweler
Speaker 1: who was pulled over by Epildo and Kara Coappa on
Speaker 1: February tenth, nineteen eighty six, under the guise of investigating
Speaker 1: a hit and run. They then helped execute him in
Speaker 1: a Brooklyn parking garage on orders from Keso. The men
Speaker 1: thought the jeweler was talking to the Feds and had
Speaker 1: tracked his license plate using a police database. They were wrong,
Speaker 1: he wasn't. Epilito stood lookout while Karakappa and one of
Speaker 1: Caeso's hitmen killed him. The two detectives murdered Edward Lino,
Speaker 1: a Gambino family captain who was believed to have been
Speaker 1: associated with men who had tried to kill Keso. The
Speaker 1: indictment charged that Keso paid Eppildo and Karracappa sixty five
Speaker 1: thousand dollars for the hit the detectives. It would become
Speaker 1: clear as the story unfolded, pulled Lino over as he
Speaker 1: was driving, and then shot him. The men also accepted
Speaker 1: a contract from Keeso to hit Salvatore Sammy the Bull Gravano,
Speaker 1: who was a ranking Gambino family member. The attempt on
Speaker 1: Grava's life was unsuccessful, and Sammy later became a government witness.
Speaker 2: Stated in a news release from the United States Attorney's
Speaker 2: Office about the arrests of the Dirty Cops, quote, these
Speaker 2: corrupt former detectives betrayed their shields, their colleagues, and the
Speaker 2: citizens they were sworn to protect. For years, they were
Speaker 2: on a retainer with the Mob. They were paid handsomely
Speaker 2: for participating directly and indirectly in the murders and attempted
Speaker 2: murders of eleven individuals, and for disclosing highly confidential law
Speaker 2: enforcement information to their Mob benefactors. Added PASCUALE de Muro,
Speaker 2: Assistant Director in charge of the FBI in New York, quote,
Speaker 2: Epilido and Cara Koppa were not two good cops who
Speaker 2: went bad. It seems clear they were two bad guys
Speaker 2: who somehow became cops.
Speaker 1: Joseph Coffee, a highly regarded one time head of the
Speaker 1: New York Police Department's Organized Crime Tax Force New Epilido
Speaker 1: and karra Coppa before retiring in nineteen eighty five, and
Speaker 1: he told the Philadelphia Inquirer in two thousand and five, quote,
Speaker 1: it was well known that they were hooked up with
Speaker 1: the mom Let's put it this way. I couldn't afford
Speaker 1: a two thousand dollars suit and they could. Does that
Speaker 1: tell you something?
Speaker 2: So? How did we get from New York City career
Speaker 2: detective to hired hitman for the American mafia. We're going
Speaker 2: to take a break for word from our sponsors, but
Speaker 2: when we return, we'll talk about how authorities were eventually
Speaker 2: able to put this puzzle together.
Speaker 1: Welcome back to Criminalia. Let's talk about who said what
Speaker 1: and when and why. Investigators may never have cracked the
Speaker 1: case until a woman named Betty Hidel came forward with
Speaker 1: a tip.
Speaker 2: So how did this mafia moonlighting happen and go on
Speaker 2: for so long? Let's start laying out the story. In
Speaker 2: an interview with the Toronto Sun, former New York Police
Speaker 2: detective Tommy Dads stated, quote, Carra Coppa was in charge
Speaker 2: of a major case organized crime Investigations unit, and he
Speaker 2: had access he knew all the informants. Him and Eppolito
Speaker 2: hooked up around nineteen seventy nine in the Brooklyn North
Speaker 2: Robbery Squad. How they started this no one knows, but
Speaker 2: Epolito came from a mobbed up family. His cousin, Frankie
Speaker 2: Santoro Junior told the boys, my cousin, the cop can
Speaker 2: do anything. He continued, quote there were whispers around about
Speaker 2: Epolito and Carara Koppa, but I didn't believe it. It just
Speaker 2: seemed too incredible. I thought they were scumbags, low lifes.
Speaker 2: They took an oath as cops, and they betrayed that oath.
Speaker 2: It was the worst I'd never heard of cops being
Speaker 2: compared to killers. They conspired to kill. It was a
Speaker 2: very interesting story. It was a team effort to get
Speaker 2: these guys local state and federal authorities, cops and prosecutors,
Speaker 2: and as we mentioned at the top of the episode,
Speaker 2: a woman named Betty.
Speaker 1: There wasn't a lot of new information coming in when
Speaker 1: Dades gave that interview. More than a decade had passed
Speaker 1: until September of two thousand and three, when Detective DAIDs
Speaker 1: picked up a fresh lead, Betty Hidell. The mother of
Speaker 1: victim and Gambino family associate James Hidell came forward to
Speaker 1: tell him that Epilino and Kara Coappa showed up at
Speaker 1: her Staten Island home one afternoon and asked to see
Speaker 1: her son just before his nineteen eighty six disappearance. She
Speaker 1: knew it was them because she recognized Epolino from his
Speaker 1: appearance on the Sally Jesse Raphael talk show. After she
Speaker 1: saw him on TV, she had bought his book, and
Speaker 1: she was one hundred percent sure that he was one
Speaker 1: of two men who had been at her house looking
Speaker 1: for her son.
Speaker 2: But when Dades brought this new evidence to the Brooklyn
Speaker 2: District Attorney's office, he learned that many documents from internal
Speaker 2: affairs probes on the two former detectives, paperwork that went
Speaker 2: back decades was missing. But what hadn't gone missing was
Speaker 2: a record of a computer search Kara Koppa made to
Speaker 2: locate Nicholas Guido, a search that led Keeso's men to
Speaker 2: kill him in his driveway. Betty's tip, it turned out,
Speaker 2: was just the beginning, kind of like trying to undie
Speaker 2: a large, unwieldly k nott. But Betty's information awakened a
Speaker 2: case that had been going cold over the years, and
Speaker 2: it directly led to the Vegas arrests. Though that wouldn't
Speaker 2: happen for a few more years, investigators still had to
Speaker 2: make a solid case.
Speaker 1: After their arrests in Vegas, the former detectives became known
Speaker 1: as the MafA Via Cops. That was a nickname taken
Speaker 1: from the title of Epollino's memoir. In regard to their
Speaker 1: upcoming trial, Kiara Coppa's lawyer, Edward Hayes stated, quote, our
Speaker 1: expected defense would be Steve is a very talented detective
Speaker 1: with no motive and had no opportunity to do a
Speaker 1: lot of these things. In fact, the two both had
Speaker 1: careers that had earned them promotions and even headlines for
Speaker 1: their impressive police work. Epollino claimed he was the eleventh
Speaker 1: most decorated cop in the New York Police Department. That
Speaker 1: was a claim that the department stated was untrue.
Speaker 2: But Betty wasn't the only source of good information. When
Speaker 2: former New York garment dealer and career criminal Burton Kaplan
Speaker 2: remember we mentioned him a little earlier, sat down with
Speaker 2: DEA agents in two thousand and four, it was to
Speaker 2: tell them the story about two retired New York Police
Speaker 2: Department detectives who were on the mafia's payroll. Caplan was
Speaker 2: a long time I'm Mafia associate who was at the
Speaker 2: time eight years into a twenty seven year jail sentence,
Speaker 2: and he was looking to knock some time off that punishment,
Speaker 2: and it turns out his information was so good federal
Speaker 2: agents knocked his sentence down to just nine years.
Speaker 1: Caplan was the link between Luques family underboss Anthony Kso
Speaker 1: and the two detectives. The agents knew the story already though,
Speaker 1: ten years before Caplan's statement. Keso, facing charges related to
Speaker 1: thirty six murders that he confessed to, turned informant hoping
Speaker 1: to enter the witness protection program, and he offered a
Speaker 1: very detailed account of the work that he had assigned
Speaker 1: to Epildo and Kara Kappa to federal agents and what
Speaker 1: he paid them in return for that work. Though investigators
Speaker 1: were inclined to believe Keso, he was their sole witness,
Speaker 1: and they didn't think they could make the case without
Speaker 1: more and especially not after Keso, while incarcerated, plotted to
Speaker 1: kill a federal judge. It was not a surprise that
Speaker 1: a grand jury in New York declined to indict Kara
Speaker 1: Kappa and Epolito.
Speaker 2: At that time, investigators needed a solid witness. They needed
Speaker 2: something more than Betty's information, and with Kaplan they now
Speaker 2: had a literal link. Kaplan was the very person who
Speaker 2: carried orders from Keeso two of the detectives, and in
Speaker 2: court he gave devastating testimony as the prosecutor's chief witness.
Speaker 2: During his two days on the stand, he testified that
Speaker 2: Keeso referred to Epulito and Cara Kappa as quote my
Speaker 2: crystal ball between nineteen eighty six and nineteen ninety when
Speaker 2: they were on his payroll. He also stated they had
Speaker 2: received thirty five thousand dollars for the murder of Hidel
Speaker 2: and seventy thousand dollars for Gambino crime captain Eddielino. We've
Speaker 2: also seen that amount reported as sixty five thousand, so
Speaker 2: one or the other in total, though they'd received three
Speaker 2: hundred and seventy five thousand dollars for their work, Kaplan's
Speaker 2: testimony made it clear just how deep cases connections were
Speaker 2: in the New York City Police Department.
Speaker 1: We're going to take a break here for a word
Speaker 1: from our sponsors, and when we're back, we'll talk more
Speaker 1: about what went down at their trial and what Epolito
Speaker 1: had to say about the whole thing.
Speaker 2: Welcome back to Criminalia, Let's go to trial.
Speaker 1: The government's case was prosecuted by assistant United States Attorneys
Speaker 1: Robert Hennock, Mitraharmusi, and Daniel Winner. Lead counsel for the
Speaker 1: defendants were Bruce Cutler and Edward Hayes. According to FBI
Speaker 1: and court reports, following three weeks of trial and two
Speaker 1: days of deliberations, a federal jury returned to verdict, convicting
Speaker 1: Aldo and Karra Coappa of engaging in racketeering over decades,
Speaker 1: including while employed by the New York Police Department, during
Speaker 1: which time they directly participated in or aided and abedded
Speaker 1: eight murders, two of which they'd carried out themselves, two
Speaker 1: attempted murders, and one murder conspiracy. It was also found
Speaker 1: that the defendants routinely passed confidential law enforcement information to
Speaker 1: high ranking members and associates of the Lucchese crime family
Speaker 1: that disclosed the identities of numerous cooperating witnesses and compromised
Speaker 1: several state and federal investigations. It was also found that
Speaker 1: they engaged in several instances of obstruction of justice, drug distribution,
Speaker 1: and money laundering. John Paluso, Assistant Special Agent for the
Speaker 1: DEA's New York Field office, told the Associated Press quote,
Speaker 1: I have never dealt with anything this egregious. They are toxic.
Speaker 2: Both men declared they were innocent, with defense team lawyer
Speaker 2: Bettina Shine, who represented at Palito, stating quote, the government
Speaker 2: has absolutely not proven its case beyond a reasonable doubt.
Speaker 1: But the judge and jury disagreed with her statement. Twenty
Speaker 1: years after the pair began moonlighting for the mob, the
Speaker 1: Mafia cops were done. Betty Hidell, from the witness stand
Speaker 1: said to the men, quote, I wish you stay in
Speaker 1: hell the rest of your life and you die alone.
Speaker 1: Prosecutor Hennock asked the judge for the maximum sentence, stating quote,
Speaker 1: these two men stand before you, unrepentant and remorseless, and
Speaker 1: perhaps by a higher power, unforgiven. We don't have death
Speaker 1: squads as policemen, at least we're not supposed to. The
Speaker 1: jury called the pair the most corrupt cops in the
Speaker 1: history of the New York Police Department.
Speaker 2: The defendants were jailed, but sentence was delayed. In quote,
Speaker 2: an unusual legal twist. United States District Judge Jack Weinstein
Speaker 2: stated he would impose the maximum sentence on Epilito and
Speaker 2: Cara Kappa, but he wouldn't formally do so until after
Speaker 2: a June twenty third hearing, where the disgraced officers planned
Speaker 2: to argue that their high profile and high priced lawyers
Speaker 2: Cutler and Hayes and team were incompetent. Said Weinstein of
Speaker 2: the case, quote, this is probably the most heinous series
Speaker 2: of crimes ever tried in this courthouse. He continued, quote,
Speaker 2: two defendants have committed what amounts to treason against the
Speaker 2: people of the City of New York and their fellow
Speaker 2: police officers.
Speaker 1: Through his new attorney, Joseph Bondi, Epolito asked for Keeso
Speaker 1: to appear as a witness at the June twenty third hearing.
Speaker 1: The defense, however, did not put him on the stand.
Speaker 1: The hearing did not convince anyone that their trial lawyers
Speaker 1: didn't do their jobs properly or that they discriminated against
Speaker 1: their clients. The judge in that case, District Judge Raymond Deary,
Speaker 1: speaking directly to the men, stated that there was evidence
Speaker 1: to suggest these trials wouldn't be happening, that the killings
Speaker 1: would not have occurred had Epolito been dismissed or disciplined
Speaker 1: after quote an inexplicable failure to discipline him in nineteen
Speaker 1: eighty five, quote after he was caught red handed passing
Speaker 1: confidential police documents.
Speaker 2: So here's what that's all about. Epallito had come under
Speaker 2: suspicion decades earlier when authorities raided the New Jersey home
Speaker 2: of Rosario Gambino, a mobster and drug trafficker, and discovered
Speaker 2: there dozens of confidential intelligence reports on organized crime figures
Speaker 2: in the Five Families, papers that had Epolito's fingerprints all
Speaker 2: over them. At the time, he was suspended, but he
Speaker 2: was cleared after an internal investigation claimed it was all
Speaker 2: because he'd been set up by enemies in the department.
Speaker 2: No one, though, could explain how the files made it
Speaker 2: to Gambino's home, but Eppolito was reinstated, given back pay,
Speaker 2: and not long after, even received a promotion. The department's
Speaker 2: Trials Commissioner, Hugh mo told The Daily News at the
Speaker 2: time of the review, quote, there was no evidence before
Speaker 2: me other than that Detective Epulito epitomizes the finest in
Speaker 2: the department and is the unfortunate victim of circumstances.
Speaker 1: With their failed appeal, the cops would now be sentenced.
Speaker 1: Judge Weinstein handed down the lengthy terms after Prosecutor Mitra
Speaker 1: Harmozi stated the pair's quote heinous offense merited life sentences. Epilito,
Speaker 1: sporting a generous white mustache, sat quietly next to a scowling,
Speaker 1: unshaven Cara Kappa. Sentencing proceedings were held at the United
Speaker 1: States Courthouse in Brooklyn, during which the cops turned killers
Speaker 1: sat quietly at the defense table.
Speaker 2: Both were sentenced to life imprisonment without the possibility for parole,
Speaker 2: for their convictions of committing eight murders, to attempted murders, murder, conspiracy,
Speaker 2: obstruction of justice, drug distribution, and money laundering, and for
Speaker 2: disclosing sensitive law enforcement information to mafia bosses. Cara Kappa
Speaker 2: received life imprisonment plus eighty years and was fined more
Speaker 2: than four million dollars. Of his fate, he replied, quote,
Speaker 2: I am innocent of all these charges, and you'll never
Speaker 2: take away my will to prove how innocent I am.
Speaker 1: Epolito received life imprisonment plus one hundred years. And was
Speaker 1: fined more than four million dollars. Unlike his partner, Epillito
Speaker 1: had quite a bit to say. He apologized to the
Speaker 1: families of the victims, but denied that he had been
Speaker 1: involved with their deaths. He invited the families to visit
Speaker 1: him in prison. He then stated, quote, the federal government
Speaker 1: can take my life. I'm a man. They can't take
Speaker 1: my soul. They can't take my pride, they can't take
Speaker 1: my dignity. I was a hard working cop. I never
Speaker 1: hurt anybody. I never kidnapped anybody. I never did any
Speaker 1: of this. Eppolito gave a lengthy final speech that's been
Speaker 1: adequately described as a quote rambling defense about trying to
Speaker 1: live up to his father's pressures. He claimed he had
Speaker 1: always tried to live down the reputation of his father,
Speaker 1: Fat the Gangster, and told the judge quote, I was
Speaker 1: one hell of a cop. I tried my best on
Speaker 1: every case. I can hold my head up high. In
Speaker 1: response from within the courtroom, the son of one of
Speaker 1: the victims yelled quote.
Speaker 2: Rot Benton Campbell, united States Attorney for the Eastern District
Speaker 2: of New York, stated quote, the sentences imposed today bring
Speaker 2: some measure of closure. For the families of the victims
Speaker 2: of these defendants unspeakable crimes, and for the citizens of
Speaker 2: the city whose trust these men betrayed. We are gratified
Speaker 2: that the defendants will spend the rest of their lives
Speaker 2: behind bars.
Speaker 1: There was one catch, though, and it left a bad
Speaker 1: taste in a lot of people's mouths. Both men had
Speaker 1: been drawing tax free disability pensions from the city since
Speaker 1: they left the police department. That was according to city records. Karakappa,
Speaker 1: a retired first grade detective, received five three hundred thirteen
Speaker 1: dollars a month. Atpallito, a retired second grade detective, received
Speaker 1: three thousand, eight hundred ninety six dollars a month, and
Speaker 1: because they retired before they were accused, convicted, and sentenced
Speaker 1: to these crimes, their pensions would stand.
Speaker 2: Carara Kappa was incarcerated at the Coleman Federal Correctional Complex,
Speaker 2: a maximum security prison in Florida. In June of twenty sixteen,
Speaker 2: he wrote a letter to the court to consider his
Speaker 2: compassionate release because he was suffering from cancer. According to
Speaker 2: court records, In his letter, he stated, quote, please know
Speaker 2: I have been fighting the case in the courts since
Speaker 2: being convicted with no relief. I have stage four cancer
Speaker 2: and will not survive. Compassionate release is usually early release
Speaker 2: or parole given to an incarcerated patient with serious or
Speaker 2: debilitating illness. Judge Weinstein denied the request, stating in a
Speaker 2: letter filed in Brooklyn Federal court, quote, there is nothing
Speaker 2: I can do in your case. Kara Koppa died in
Speaker 2: April of twenty seventeen in a Federal Correctional Complex medical
Speaker 2: unit in Butner, North Carolina, at the age of seventy five.
Speaker 1: Epallito was incarcerated at the United States Penitentiary Tucson, a
Speaker 1: high security federal prison. He was not visited by any
Speaker 1: of the victim's families. He died on November third, twenty nineteen,
Speaker 1: at the age of seventy one, in federal custody at
Speaker 1: a Tucson hospital. What is known of his death is
Speaker 1: in a single statement made from his wife to the
Speaker 1: New York Post quote, Lewis died in a hospital with
Speaker 1: dignity and carrying people around him. Do you want to
Speaker 1: make it a double with me?
Speaker 2: I do. Let's find the happy spot here. Is there
Speaker 2: one that we can pull out of those?
Speaker 1: Well? So here's the thing. You have accidentally in choosing
Speaker 1: this story, given me an opportunity to use something that
Speaker 1: I have been secretly workshopping for a while.
Speaker 2: Oh hell yeah, that's great. That right there is the
Speaker 2: best news of the story.
Speaker 1: Okay, so obviously a lot of Italians involved in this story. Yes,
Speaker 1: what is more Italian than a tomato? I have been
Speaker 1: I'm thinking about ways to make friends with tomatoes and
Speaker 1: drinks because I still don't like a bloody mary. It's
Speaker 1: just not gonna happen. And then I had this kakamami
Speaker 1: idea recently, like as I was dropping off to sleep,
Speaker 1: where I was like, could I make tomato syrup? And
Speaker 1: the answer is yes.
Speaker 2: You could. But then the second question is do you
Speaker 2: want to eat tomatoes syrup?
Speaker 1: The answer is yes, Okay. To make tomato syrup in
Speaker 1: a saucepan, you're gonna bring a cup of water, a
Speaker 1: cup of brown sugar, and two to three small to
Speaker 1: medium dice tomatoes to a boil. I recommend like fresh tomatoes.
Speaker 1: I very fortunately had a friend that brought some over
Speaker 1: from her garden.
Speaker 2: Because she probably had hundreds.
Speaker 1: Yes, so you want ideally you want a tomato that
Speaker 1: already has a sweeter profile rather than an acidic profile.
Speaker 1: That's what we're going for. So you're gonna bring those
Speaker 1: to a boil when they get there, reduce the heat,
Speaker 1: let them simmer down until the liquid is reduced by
Speaker 1: about a third. This is gonna take a little while.
Speaker 1: In this case longer probably than others. Because tomatoes are
Speaker 1: juicy by nature, they're adding a little more liquid to
Speaker 1: the mix. Then when you have it reduced, you're gonna
Speaker 1: let it cool. You're going to strain off the tomato
Speaker 1: stuff into a clean jar for storage, keep it in
Speaker 1: the fridge for several weeks. Usually when I do something
Speaker 1: like this, I'm like, and then spread that on your
Speaker 1: toast and you can sure, but it's gonna taste like
Speaker 1: a sugar tomato, which is interesting actually. But once you
Speaker 1: have this, then you're ready to make your cocktail, which
Speaker 1: I'm calling the dirty cop This is three quarters of
Speaker 1: an ounce of lemon juice, three quarters of an ounce
Speaker 1: of that tomato syrup. You've made a splash of a morrow,
Speaker 1: and any brand will work. So you're thinking of things
Speaker 1: like Campari, apparol for net et cetera. Obviously those all
Speaker 1: have slightly different flavor. Profiles and differences in the level
Speaker 1: of bitterness that will shift the drink a little. But
Speaker 1: we're talking about a splash a tiny amount, less than
Speaker 1: a quarter of an ounce, So you want it to
Speaker 1: add a bitter base note to it, but it's not
Speaker 1: going to change the whole drink too much. And then
Speaker 1: to all of this, you're gonna add an ounce and
Speaker 1: a half of bourbon. And then you're gonna shake this
Speaker 1: with ice and strain it over fresh ice. I like
Speaker 1: a Collins glass for this one. Top it with just
Speaker 1: a teeny bit of club soda, like an ounce or less.
Speaker 1: You don't want much because you want all of these flavors.
Speaker 1: And then you are dune ski And this is like
Speaker 1: a weird variation on a John Collins and it has
Speaker 1: a very unique flavor because you don't get the acid
Speaker 1: of the tomato, but you get the rest of the flavor,
Speaker 1: which is pretty interesting. And it doesn't it's definitely sweet,
Speaker 1: it's not tart. To make it a mocktail, basically, instead
Speaker 1: of amorrow, you're gonna use a little bit of bitters.
Speaker 1: If you use bitters, if you do absolutely zero alcohol
Speaker 1: and bitters are off the table. I would add both
Speaker 1: a little bit of salt and a little bit of pepper,
Speaker 1: and then instead of bourbon, you're gonna use dark tea.
Speaker 1: This is a different tasting drink than the cocktail, but
Speaker 1: it's also really good. It's like you've made some sort
Speaker 1: of yummy, really interesting iced tea and it's delicious. It's
Speaker 1: full of lycopene.
Speaker 2: It's healthy.
Speaker 1: I don't know that it is. I don't know that
Speaker 1: the lycopene survives the process. It might, I don't know,
Speaker 1: but that's the dirty cop which is a fun reason
Speaker 1: to use my tomato syrup idea, which is actually pretty good,
Speaker 1: and I have used it also in some other drinks.
Speaker 1: I won't use it again here because I try not
Speaker 1: to repeat too much. But like, you can make this
Speaker 1: same colins, like as a regular tom collins with gin,
Speaker 1: as a vodka colins with vodka. You can also use
Speaker 1: it in just other cocktails. You can also do a
Speaker 1: tomato and soda or a tomato and champagne.
Speaker 2: It's one of those ingredients where I kind of want
Speaker 2: to just try it and a whole bunch of things. Yes, right,
Speaker 2: because how much does this ever come up?
Speaker 1: In Live Never? And the brown sugar, I think is
Speaker 1: the key because it just adds a lot of depth
Speaker 1: to it, and it's not a white, your standard white
Speaker 1: granulated sugar. It just doesn't seem like it's gonna work
Speaker 1: to me. So hopefully if you try it, you like it.
Speaker 1: The Dirty Cop. We are so grateful that you spent
Speaker 1: time with us here this week hearing about these dirty
Speaker 1: cops and the cocktail to go with it. We'll have
Speaker 1: another tale of criminal duos next week, as well as
Speaker 1: some more drinks. We hope to see you there. Criminalia
Speaker 1: is a production of Shondaland Audio in partnership with iHeartRadio.
Speaker 1: For more podcasts from Shondaland Audio, please visit the iHeartRadio app,
Speaker 1: Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.