NYPD’s notorious ‘Mob Cops’ saga becoming a major, true-crime TV series

The story of notorious “Mob Cops” Stephen Caracappa and Louis Eppolito — decorated NYPD detectives who secretly moonlighted as Mafia hitmen — may be heading to television as a true crime series.

Four-time Emmy Award-winning “Boardwalk Empire” creator Terence Winter, a former executive producer of “The Sopranos,” has committed to write and develop the series, the project’s publicist said.

Consulting will be none other than infamous mob informant and former New York Gambino crime family underboss Sammy “The Bull” Gravano.

“When the cops and the mob hooked up, it was an explosion,” Gravano told The Post of Caracappa and Eppolito, convicted in 2006 of racketeering charges covering eight contract murders and a slew of kidnappings and drug deals.

The pair collected a monthly salary from the mob to pass along intelligence reports about crime family informants — and carried out two of the murders themselves.

In one of the murders, the two shoved a canary into the mouth of the corpse, a Lucchese associate suspected of informing on the family.

“This will be an amazing story with a lot of big Mafia names,” Gravano added.

“The investigators involved did a great job, but I have the behind the scenes stories that they didn’t know.”

The as-yet-untitled series now in development will be based on the 2003 book, “Friends of the Family: The Inside Story of the Mafia Cops Case,” penned by former NYPD Detective Tommy Dades, former top Brooklyn prosecutor Mike Vecchione, and writer David Fisher.

“This case was a team effort where everybody involved was instrumental in the arrest and conviction,” Dades told The Post.

“This story had to be told, and everyone involved should be commended” in the capture of the turncoats and the telling of the sordid tale, the ex-detective said.

Stephen Caracappa (left) and (right) Louis Eppolito former New York City police officers that did hits for the mob
Stephen Caracappa (left) and (right) Louis Eppolito former New York City police officers that did hits for the mobSpencer A. Burnett

The project is being produced by Asterlight, an independent company based in San Francisco, which announced Winter’s involvement.

“Caracappa and Eppolito disgraced their badges like no one else in NYPD history,” said Winter, who also wrote the screenplay for Martin Scorsese’s “The Wolf of Wall Street.”

“It’s a privilege to tell the story of Tommy Dades, Mike Vecchione and Joe Ponzi — the good guys who brought them to justice,” Winter said.

Other contributors to the project include Joseph Ponzi, former Chief Investigator for the Brooklyn DA’s office; retired DEA agent Frank Drew and former NYPD Det. Frank Pergola, an Asterlight publicist said.

Caracappa and Eppolito pocketed thousands in monthly mob pay-offs throughout the 1980s, before retiring as lifelong friends to the same cell block in Las Vegas.

Sentenced to life, both died — unrepentant — in federal prison.

The tall, thin Caracappa, once a member of the NYPD’s Major Case Squad, died in 2017 in a medical detention facility in Butner, North Carolina at age 75.

The rotund Eppolito, who in his heyday authored a book called “Mafia Cop” and appeared as a bit-player in the movie “Goodfellas,” died in November, 2019 at the U.S. Penitentiary in Tuscon at age 71.

This article was originally posted here