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A statute of limitations is an enactment in a common law legal system that sets the maximum time after an event that legal proceedings based on that event may be initiated. In civil law systems, similar provisions are typically part of the civil code or criminal code and are often known collectively as periods of prescription.

Applications[link]

Common law legal system might have a statute, for example, limiting the time for prosecution of a debt or crimes designated as misdemeanors to two years after the offense occurred. Under such a statute, if a person is discovered to have committed a misdemeanor three years earlier, the time has expired for the person to be prosecuted. While it may seem unfair to forbid prosecution of crimes that law enforcement can later prove to a standard required by law (cf., e.g. beyond a reasonable doubt, clear and convincing evidence, and preponderance of the evidence), the purpose of a statute of limitations or its equivalent is to ensure that the possibility of punishment for an act committed long ago cannot give rise to either a person's incarceration or the criminal justice system's activation. In short, unless the crime is deemed exceptionally heinous – for example, murder, to which the statute does not generally apply – social justice as enacted through law says that lesser crimes from long ago are best left alone so as not to detract attention from more serious crimes.

Reasons for statutes of limitation[link]

One reason is that, over time, evidence can be corrupted or disappear, memories fade, crime scenes are changed, and companies dispose of records. The best time to bring a lawsuit is while the evidence is not lost and as close as possible to the alleged illegal behavior. Another reason is that people want to get on with their lives and not have legal battles from their past come up unexpectedly. The injured party has a responsibility to quickly bring about charges so that the process can begin.

Limitations periods begin when a cause of action is deemed to have arisen or when a plaintiff had reason to know of the harm, rather than at the time of the original event. This distinction is significant in cases in which an earlier event causes a later harm (e.g. a surgeon negligently operates on a patient, who subsequently suffers the consequences of that negligence years later).

In a related concept, contracts may also have a term under which they may be the basis of a suit, and after which a plaintiff is held to have waived any right to claim. Under Article VI of the United States Constitution, private contracts cannot be abridged; this provision has been held by the United States Supreme Court to mean that the federal government or a State can only vitiate a contract if it directly opposes an important public policy. Similarly, the Charter of Fundamental Rights, codified into law applicable to European Union countries by the passage civil lawsuit, is said to have accrued when the event beginning its time limitation occurs. Sometimes, it is the event itself that is the subject of the suit or prosecution (such as a crime or personal injury), but it may also be an event such as the discovery of a condition one wishes to redress, such as discovering a defect in a manufactured good, or in the case of controversial "repressed memory" cases where someone discovers memories of childhood sexual abuse long afterwards.

With respect to the United States as a defendant, suits against the government are generally forbidden without some waiver of sovereign immunity. Since the Spending Clause of the United States Constitution vests only Congress with power to spend money from the public fisc, the Supreme Court has held that only Congress may waive sovereign immunity, and Congress may place limitations on any such waiver. Therefore, statutes of limitation are typically seen as a limitation on the waiver of sovereign immunity, which is jurisdictional in nature. This distinguishes the United States from other parties, in that if the statute of limitations has run, a court has no jurisdiction over a case against the United States. Because the Spending Clause does not give any power to the Executive Branch or the Judicial Branch, officials of agencies in the Executive Branch may not enter into agreements tolling the statute of limitations, and courts may not toll the statute of limitations under equitable tolling principles in claims against the United States.

Statute of repose[link]

An idea closely related, but not identical, to the statute of limitations is a statute of repose. A statute of repose limits the time within which an action may be brought and is not related to the accrual of any cause of action; the injury need not have occurred, much less have been discovered. Unlike an ordinary statute of limitations, which begins running upon accrual of the claim, the period contained in a statute of repose begins when a specific event occurs, regardless of whether a cause of action has accrued or whether any injury has resulted. This often applies to buildings and properties, and limits the time during which an action may lie based upon defects or hazards connected to the construction of the building or premises. An example of this would be that if a person is electrocuted by a wiring defect incorporated into a structure in, say, 1990, a state law may allow his heirs to sue only before 1997 in the case of an open (patent) defect, or before 2000 in the case of a hidden defect. Statutes of repose can also apply to manufactured goods. Manufacturers contend they are necessary to avoid unfairness and encourage consumers to maintain their property. Consumer groups argue that statutes of repose on consumer goods provide a disincentive for manufacturers to build durable products and to notify consumers of product defects as the manufacturers become aware of them. Consumer groups also argue that such statutes of repose disproportionately affect poorer people, since they are more likely to own older goods.

Expiry[link]

Once the time allowed for a case by a statute of limitations runs out, if a party raises it as a defense and that defense is accepted, any further litigation is foreclosed. However, most jurisdictions provide that limitations are tolled, or delayed, under certain circumstances. Tolling will prevent the time for filing suit from running while the condition exists. Examples of such circumstances are if the aggrieved party (plaintiff) is a minor, or the plaintiff has filed a bankruptcy proceeding. In those instances, in most jurisdictions, the running of limitations is tolled until the circumstance (i.e., the injured party reaches majority in the former or the bankruptcy proceeding is concluded in the latter) no longer exists.

There may be a number of factors that will affect the tolling of a statute of limitations. In many cases, the discovery of the harm (as in a medical malpractice claim where the fact or the impact of the doctor's mistake is not immediately apparent) starts the statute running. In some jurisdictions the action is said to have not accrued until the harm is discovered; in others, the action accrues when the malpractice occurs, but an action to redress the harm is tolled until the injured party discovers the harm.

As discussed in Wolk v. Olson, the discovery rule does not apply to mass-media publications such as newspapers and the Internet; the statute of limitations begins to run at the date of publication.

An action to redress a tort committed against a minor is generally tolled in most cases until the child reaches the age of majority. A ten-year-old who is injured in a car accident might therefore be able to bring suit one, two, or three years after he turns 18.

It may also be inequitable to allow a defendant to use the defense of the running of the limitations period, such as the case of an individual in the position of authority over someone else who intimidates the victim into never reporting the wrongdoing, or where one is led to believe that the other party has agreed to suspend the limitations period during good faith settlement negotiations or due to a fraudulent misrepresentation.

Generally speaking, in the case of private, civil matters, the limitations period may be shortened or lengthened by agreement of the parties. Under the Uniform Commercial Code, the parties to a contract for sale of goods may reduce the limitations period to not less than one year, but may not extend it.

Although such limitations periods generally are issues of law, limitations periods known as laches may apply in situations of equity (i.e., a judge will not issue an injunction if the party requesting the injunction waited too long to ask for it). Such periods are not clearly defined and are subject to broad judicial discretion.

For U.S. military cases, the Uniform Code of Military Justice (UCMJ) states that all charges except for those facing general court martial (where a death sentence could be involved) have a five-year statute of limitation. This statute changes once charges have been prepared against the service member. In all supposed UCMJ violations except for those headed for general court martial, should the charges be dropped, there is a six-month window in which the charges can be reinstated. If those six months have passed and the charges have not been reinstated, the statutes of limitation have run out.

Prescription[link]

In civil law countries, almost all lawsuits must be started within a legally determined period. If they are presented after that time, an institution called prescription applies, which prevents them from filing the case.

The Italian case is quite peculiar in this regard since lawsuits and trials must be ended, rather than started, within such a time limit (this applies only to criminal proceedings). This makes it effectively possible to avoid a guilty sentence by delaying the trial enough for the time limit to expire.

For criminal cases, this means that the public prosecutor must prosecute within some time limit. The time limit varies from country to country, and increases with seriousness of the alleged crime (for example, in most jurisdictions, there is no statute of limitations for murder). When a time limit is suspended, it does not run (akin to hitting "Stop" on a stopwatch). Common triggers include the defendant being on the run. When a time limit is interrupted, it is restarted (like hitting "Reset" on a stopwatch). This may be triggered by a new crime committed.

If a criminal is on the run, he can be convicted in absence, in order to prevent prescription, or the time limit does not elapse during that time.

The prescription must not be confused with the need to prosecute within "a reasonable delay", an obligation imposed by the European Court of Human Rights. Whether the delay is reasonable or not, will depend on the complexity of the trial and the attitude of the suspect.

Exclusions[link]

Fraud upon the court[link]

In the United States, when an officer of the court is found to have fraudulently presented facts to court so that the court is impaired in the impartial performance of its legal task, the act, known as "fraud upon the court", is a crime deemed so severe and fundamentally opposed to the operation of justice that it is not subject to any statute of limitation.

Officers of the court include: lawyers, judges, referees, and those appointed; guardian ad litem, parenting time expeditors, mediators, rule 114 neutrals, evaluators, administrators, special appointees, and any others whose influence are part of the judicial mechanism.

"Fraud upon the court" has been defined by the 7th Circuit Court of Appeals to "embrace that species of fraud which does, or attempts to, defile the court itself, or is a fraud perpetrated by officers of the court so that the judicial machinery can not perform in the usual manner its impartial task of adjudging cases that are presented for adjudication". Kenner v. C.I.R., 387 F.3d 689 (1968); 7 Moore's Federal Practice, 2d ed., p. 512, ¶ 60.23

In Bullock v. United States, 763 F.2d 1115, 1121 (10th Cir. 1985), the court stated "Fraud upon the court is fraud which is directed to the judicial machinery itself and is not fraud between the parties or fraudulent documents, false statements or perjury. ... It is where the court or a member is corrupted or influenced or influence is attempted or where the judge has not performed his judicial function --- thus where the impartial functions of the court have been directly corrupted."

International crimes[link]

By way of custom of international law, genocide, crimes against humanity, and war crimes are usually not subject to statute of limitations, nor to prescription. This custom has been codified in a number of multilateral treaties. States that ratify the Convention on the Non-Applicability of Statutory Limitations to War Crimes and Crimes Against Humanity agree to not allow limitations claims for these crimes. Article 29 of the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court states that genocide, crimes against humanity, and war crimes "shall not be subject to any statute of limitations".

Heinous crimes in the U.S.[link]

Crimes that are considered exceptionally heinous by society have no statute of limitations. As a rule, there is no statute of limitations for murder, especially capital or first-degree murder. However, judges have been known to throw out murder charges for cold cases if they feel the delay violates the defendant's right to a speedy trial.

Continuing violations doctrine[link]

In tort law, if a defendant commits a series of illegal acts against another person, or, in criminal law, if someone commits a continuing crime (like molesting a child over a long period of time, which can be charged as a single offense), the period of limitation may begin to run from the last act in the series. In the 8th Circuit case of Treanor v. MCI Telecommunications, Inc., the court explained that the continuing violations doctrine "tolls [i.e freezes] the statute of limitations in situations where a continuing pattern forms due to [illegal] acts occurring over a period of time, as long as at least one incident … occurred within the limitations period".^[1] However, in the United States, there has been doctrinal confusion in the courts regarding whether or not the continuing violations doctrine applies to particular violations. For example, the continuing violations doctrine has been ruled to apply to copyright infringement per Taylor v. Meirick 712 F.2d 1112, 1119 (7th Cir. 1983), but has been ruled to not apply per Stone v. Williams, 970 F.2d 1043, 1049-50 (2d Cir. 1992). ^[2]

See also[link]

• Adverse possession
• Equitable tolling
• Laches
• Limitation Act 1980 (England and Wales)
• Nullum tempus occurrit regi
• Statute of Limitations in Ireland

Statute of Limitation in the United States

• Statute of repose
• Tort reform

References[link]

Anthony "Gaspipe" Casso (May 21, 1940) is a former New York City mobster who served as underboss and acting boss of the Lucchese crime family until he was arrested in 1993, becoming a cooperating witness for the Federal Government. During his criminal career he gained a reputation of being a "homicidal maniac."^[1]

Early life[link]

Born in Brooklyn, Casso was the youngest of the three children of Michael and Margaret Casso (née Cucceullo). Each of Casso's grandparents had emigrated from Campania, Italy, during the 1890s. His godfather was Salvatore Callinbrano, a made man and captain in the Genovese crime family, who maintained a powerful influence on the Brooklyn docks. Casso dropped out of school at 16 and got a job with his father as a longshoreman. As a young boy, Casso became a crack shot, firing pistols at targets on a rooftop which he and his friends used as a shooting range. Casso also made money shooting predatory hawks for pigeon tenders. Casso stands at 5'6 and weighs 185 pounds. He was a violent youth and member of the infamous 1950s gang, the South Brooklyn Boys.^[2][3] He is the father-in-law of Genovese crime family mobster Paul (Slick) Geraci. Casso soon caught the eye of Lucchese capo Christopher "Christie Tick" Furnari. Casso started his career with the Cosa Nostra as a loanshark. As a protege of Furnari, Casso was also involved in gambling and drug dealing, in addition to loansharking. He was arrested for illegal bookmaking in 1962, and was sentenced to five days in jail. He would not see the inside of a cell again for over 30 years.

Over the years, there have been various stories of how Casso got the nickname "Gaspipe" – Casso himself claims it is from his father, a mob enforcer who used a gas pipe to threaten union dissidents and other victims, however others say it is because his father hooked up illegal gas connections. Even though Anthony detested the nickname, it stuck to him for life and though few would say it to his face, he allowed some close friends to call him "Gas". He married Lillian Delduca in 1968 and had a daughter and son. In the 1970s, Casso murdered a drug dealer who was suspected of cooperating with the government. In 1974, at age 32, Casso became a made man, or full member, of the Lucchese family. Casso was assigned to Vincent "Vinnie Beans" Foceri's crew that operated from 116th Street in Manhattan and from Fourteenth avenue in Brooklyn.^[4][5]

Shortly after becoming made, Casso became close to another rising star in the family, Vittorio "Vic" Amuso. It was the start of a partnership that would last for two decades. They committed scores of crimes, including drug trafficking, burglary and murder. When Furnari became the Lucchese consigliere, he initially wanted Casso to take over his old crew. However, Casso was so loyal to Furnari that he instead opted to become Furnari's aide; a consigliere is allowed to have one soldier work for him directly. Casso and Amuso were chosen to handle the assassination of Gambino boss John Gotti, but the attempt failed.

Big Money[link]

FBI surveillance photograph of Amuso, Casso, Gotti and Gravano

In the fall of 1986, Lucchese boss Anthony Corallo sensed that the Commission Trial would result in a guilty verdict that would ensure the entire Lucchese leadership would die in prison. Wanting to maintain the family's half-century tradition of a seamless transfer of power, Corallo endorsed Casso as his successor. However, Casso turned it down and instead suggested that Amuso become new boss.

Amuso formally took over the family in 1987, and Casso succeeded Furnari as consigliere. Amuso named him underboss in 1989 after Mariano Macaluso retired. However, Casso wielded as much influence as Amuso. According to federal and state investigators, Amuso attended to policy issues and representing the family at Commission meetings, leaving day-to-day control of the family to Casso.

During this time, Casso maintained a glamorous lifestyle, wearing expensive clothes and jewelry (including a diamond ring worth $500,000), running restaurant tabs up to thousands of dollars, owning a mansion in an exclusive Brooklyn neighborhood and going on huge spending sprees. While at the top of the Lucchese family, Amuso and Casso shared huge profits from their family's illegal activities. These profits included: $15,000 to $20,000 a month from extorting Long Island carting companies; $75,000 a month in kickbacks from eight air freight carriers that guaranteed them labor peace and no union benefits for their workers; $20,000 a week in profits from illegal video gaming machines; and $245,000 annually from a major concrete supplier, the Quadrozzi Concrete Company."^[6] Amuso and Casso also split more than $200,000 per year from the Garment District rackets, as well as a cut of all the crimes committed by the family's soldiers.

Paying dues[link]

In one instance, Casso and Amuso split $800,000 from the Colombo crime family for Casso's aid in helping them rob steel from a construction site at the West Side Highway in Manhattan. In another instance, the two bosses received $600,000 from the Gambino crime family for allowing them to take over a Lucchese-protected contractor for a housing complex project in Coney Island, Brooklyn.

Casso also controlled Greek-American gangster George Kalikatas, who gave Casso $683,000 in 1990 to operate a loan sharking and gambling operation in Astoria, Queens.

The Russian Mafia[link]

Anthony Casso had a close alliance and with Ukrainian mob boss Marat Balagula, who operated a multi-billion dollar gasoline bootlegging scam in Brighton Beach. Balagula, a Soviet Jewish refugee from Odessa, had arrived in the United States under the Jackson-Vanik Amendment. After Colombo captain Michael Franzese began shaking down his crew, Balagula approached Lucchese consiglieri Christopher Furnari and asked for a sit-down at Brooklyn's 19th Hole social club. According to Casso, Furnari declared,

"Here there's enough for everybody to be happy... to leave the table satisfied. What we must avoid is trouble between us and the other families. I propose to make a deal with the others so there's no bad blood.... Meanwhile, we will send word out that from now on you and your people are with the Lucchese family. No one will bother you. If anyone does bother you, come to us and Anthony will take care of it."^[7]

Street tax from Balagula's organization was not only strategically shared, but also became the Five Families' biggest moneymaker after narcotics trafficking.

According to Philip Carlo,

"It didn't take long for word on the street to reach the Russian underworld: Marat Balagula was paying off the Italians; Balagula was a punk; Balagula had no balls. Balagula's days were numbered. This, of course, was the beginning of serious trouble. Balagula did in fact have balls – he was a ruthless killer when necessary – but he also was a smart diplomatic administrator and he knew that the combined, concerted force of the Italian crime families would quickly wipe the newly arrived Russian competition off the proverbial map."^[8]

Shortly afterward, on June 12, 1986, Balagula's rival, a fellow Russian named Vladimir Reznikov, entered the Rasputin nightclub in Brighton Beach. Reznikov pushed a 9mm Beretta into Balagula's skull and demanded $600,000 as the price of not pulling the trigger. He also demanded a percentage of everything Balagula was involved in. After Balagula promised to get the money, Reznikov snarled, "Fuck with me and you're dead – you and your whole fucking family; I swear I'll fuck and kill your wife as you watch – you understand?"^[9]

Shortly after Reznikov left, Balagula suffered a massive heart attack. He insisted, however on being treated at his home in Brighton Beach, where he felt it would be harder for Reznikov to kill him. When Anthony Casso arrived, he listened to Balagula's story and seethed with fury. Casso later told his biographer Philip Carlo that, to his mind, Reznikov had just spat in the face of the entire Cosa Nostra. Despite Balagula's warning that Reznikov was, "a psychopath," Casso said, "Send word to Vladimir that you have his money, that he should come to the club tomorrow. We'll take care of the rest."^[10] Casso also requested a photograph of Reznikov and a description of his car.^[10]

The following day, Reznikov returned to the Rasputin nightclub to pick up his money. Upon realizing that Balagula wasn't there, Reznikov launched into a barrage of profanity and stormed back to the parking lot. There, Reznikov was shot dead by DeMeo crew veteran Joseph Testa. Testa then jumped into a car driven by Anthony Senter and left Brighton Beach. According to Casso, "After that, Marat didn't have any problems with other Russians."^[11]

Fugitive boss[link]

Following the imprisonment of Amuso in 1991, Casso became the de facto boss of the family. In Ernest Volkman's book "Gangbusters", it is alleged that while both Casso and Amuso were on the run from the law, Casso wanted complete control of the family and set up Amuso to be taken down by the FBI. This theory is contradicted, however, by Casso's biographer Philip Carlo. According to Carlo, Casso had no desire to be boss of the Lucchese family and attempted to arrange for Amuso's escape from Federal custody after his arrest. To the great disappointment of Casso and the Lucchese captains, Amuso refused to leave prison out of fear for his life. As a result, the Lucchese captains asked Casso to replace him as boss. Casso reluctantly accepted.

While evading authorities for over three years, Casso maintained control over the Lucchese family. In the process, he ordered 11 mob slayings as well as plotting with Genovese leader Vincent "the Chin" Gigante to murder John Gotti. Casso and Gigante were deeply disgusted that Gotti had murdered Paul Castellano without the sanction of the Mafia's Commission. All attempts on Gotti's life were stymied, however, by the constant presence of news reporters around the Gambino boss.

In early 1991, Amuso and Casso ordered the murder of capo Peter Chiodo, a fellow windows case defendant who had pled guilty without the administrations' approval. Chiodo barely survived the assassination attempt and subsequently agreed to turn state's evidence.^[12] In September that year acting boss Al D'Arco, convinced Casso had marked him for death following his failure to kill Chiodo, also surrendered and agreed to testify. Both of these defections opened the door for new murder indictments against Amuso and Casso.^[13]

In another incident toward the year of 1993, Casso used the Brooklyn faction-leaders George Zappola, Frank "Bones" Papagni as well as the family Consigliere, Frank "Big Frank" Lastortino, to kill former Lucchese Underboss and Bronx faction leader Stephen "Wonderboy" Crea. However, due to the massive indictments at the time, all members of the plot were eventually incarcerated on various charges, including Casso, who was arrested at a mistress's home in Mount Olive, New Jersey, on January 19, 1993.^[14]

Informant[link]

Casso was held at the Metropolitan Correctional Center, New York City pending trial. Facing charges that would have all but assured he would die in prison, Casso nearly walked out of jail, but was thwarted at the last minute. He was making plans for a second escape attempt, including an elaborate plan to assassinate the judge slated to preside over his trial. However, all of this came undone when Amuso, who believed Casso was responsible for his capture, effectively banished him from the family.^[15]

Shortly before his trial commenced, Casso offered to turn state's evidence. He finalized a deal at a hearing on March 1, 1994, where he pled guilty to all 72 counts he had been indicted on, now including 15 murders.^[15][16]

Casso disclosed that two retired NYPD detectives had been on the Lucchese payroll. These detectives were later determined to be Louis Eppolito and Stephen Caracappa, who committed eight of the eleven murders Casso had ordered. Carracappa and Eppolito had also given Casso information which led to many others as well, revealing the names of potential informants. They were subsequently found guilty on all charges and sentenced to life in prison. However, when Casso revealed similar corruption within the FBI, no one was interested. Casso further enraged Federal prosecutors by accusing Gambino turncoat Sammy Gravano of committing multiple felonies which were never disclosed as part of his immunity deal. Most seriously, Casso accused Gravano of paying Richard Kuklinski to murder NYPD Detective Peter Calabro. Once again, no one was interested. However, Casso was vindicated to some extent in 2000 when Gravano pleaded guilty to operating a massive narcotics ring. Casso's testimony resulted in the near-total destruction of the Lucchese family.

However, in 1997, Casso was thrown out of the Witness Protection Program. Prosecutors cited numerous infractions, including bribing guards, assaulting other inmates and false statements about Gravano and D'Arco. Casso tried to get federal judge Frederic Block to overrule the prosecutors in July 1998, but Block refused to do so.^[17] Shortly afterward, Block sentenced Casso to 13 consecutive terms of life in prison plus 455 years.^[18] He is currently serving a life sentence without parole at the Supermax ADX Florence prison in Florence, Colorado.

According to the Federal Bureau of Prisons, in March 2009 Anthony Casso was transferred to the Federal Medical Center (FMC) at the Federal Correctional Complex, Butner in North Carolina for the treatment of prostate cancer.^[19] However, by July 2009, he had been returned to ADX Florence.

References[link]

Notes

Sources

• Kelly, Robert J. Encyclopedia of Organized Crime in the United States. Westport, Connecticut: Greenwood Press, 2000. ISBN 0-313-30653-2
• Raab, Selwyn. Five Families: The Rise, Decline, and Resurgence of America's Most Powerful Mafia Empires. New York: St. Martin Press, 2005. ISBN 0-312-30094-8
• Capeci, Jerry, and Mustain, Gene. Gotti: Rise and Fall. Penguin Books Canada, Limited (1996)
• Lawson, Guy, and Oldham, William. The Brotherhoods, Pocket Books (2007) ISBN 1-4165-2338-3
• Carlo, Philip. Gaspipe: Confessions of a Mafia Bs. William Morrow (2008) ISBN 978-0-06-142984-2
• Joseph D. Pistone, and Charles Brandt. Donnie Brasco: Unfinished Business, Running Press Book Publishers (2007) ISBN 978-0-7624-2707-9
• Blumenthal, Ralph. Mobster Makes Offer on French Connection Case, New York Times. February 22, 2009.

External links

• Federal Bureau of Prisons Inmate Locator: Anthony Casso (Life)

Louis Eppolito and Stephen Caracappa are two former New York Police Department (NYPD) police detectives who worked on behalf of the New York Mafia while they committed various illegal activities. In 2006, they were convicted of labor racketeering, extortion, narcotics, illegal gambling, obstruction of justice, eight counts of murder and conspiracy to commit murder, charges stemming from the 1980s and the early 1990s in New York, and in the 2000s in Las Vegas. Both were sentenced to life in federal prison.

Early life and career[link]

Eppolito[link]

Louis Eppolito is the son of Ralph Eppolito, a member of the Gambino crime family. His paternal uncle and cousin, James Eppolito and James Eppolito Jr., were also both made Gambino members in Capo Nino Gaggi's crew. Growing up, he became acquainted with several other mobsters. His uncle and cousin were eventually murdered by both Nino Gaggi and Gambino family soldier, Roy DeMeo, with the permission of Gambino family boss, Paul Castellano. When he applied for the NYPD in 1969, Eppolito falsely stated that he was unrelated to organized crime figures. He eventually rose to detective, a job which garnered him a number of headlines. He was first a suspect in a corruption case where he was suspected of passing New York Police Department intelligence reports on to Rosario Gambino, a distant relative of Carlo Gambino and Paul Castellano, the former leaders of the Gambino crime family, in 1983, but was cleared. Eppolito retired as a police officer in late 1990. In his book, he cites his tarnished reputation over the Rosario Gambino corruption case as a reason for leaving. Over the next decade, after meeting the actor, Joe Pesci, in a Manhattan bistro, Cafe Central, a restaurant which was frequented by celebrities, he had a minor career as an actor, with small roles in movies including Lost Highway, Predator 2 and the gangster film Goodfellas. In 1992, Eppolito wrote a book, Mafia Cop: The Story of an Honest Cop Whose Family Was the Mob, in which he spoke of his attempts to avoid being dragged into the criminal life and fight for his reputation as a result of the Rosario Gambino corruption case.

Caracappa[link]

This section requires expansion.

Stephen Caracappa had worked in the NYPD's organized crime unit in Brooklyn, New York, since the late 1970s before he eventually retired on a disability pension in 1992. He subsequently worked as a private investigator and later retired from his work of the law, as he moved to Las Vegas, Nevada, in the mid-1990s, along with Eppolito. Since hooking up with Eppolito as partners, Caracappa turned to the underworld side of New York City while collecting bribes from various Italian-American mobsters of various crime families of organized crime, mostly Anthony "Gaspipe" Casso, the fierce and notorious Underboss of the Lucchese crime family.^{[clarification needed]} While on trial in 2006, both he and Eppolito claimed they were discriminated against during the proceedings.

Working for the Mob[link]

^{[clarification needed]}

By 1985, US authorities recognized Eppolito and Caracappa as associates and workers for the New York Mafia. Caracappa was at this point a member of the Organized Crime Homicide Unit within the Major Case Squad, based in Brooklyn, New York, and both their reputations were diminished as they were known to use highly inappropriate methods to get results in their line of work. According to Anthony "Gaspipe" Casso, the Underboss of the Lucchese crime family, when he tried for Witness Protection in 1994, he and his boss Vittorio "Vic" Amuso had been paying Eppolito and Caracappa $375,000 in bribes and as payments for murder 'contracts' since 1985, after they were signed as NYPD detectives and partners. Among other things, Casso shared that, in 1986, the two police officers kidnapped and turned over an associate of the Gambino crime family named James Hydell to be murdered brutally by Gaspipe, on the orders of Casso and Amuso, as retaliation for an attempt on Casso's life. They also murdered Lucchese member Bruno Facciolo with assistance of Louis Daidone on the orders of Casso because they suspected him of being an informant for law enforcement. Facciolo's murder has been famous for the stuffed canary US law enforcement recovered in his mouth at the crime-scene, which was considered as a message to other informants. As the Genovese crime family boss Vincent "Chin" Gigante wanted to squeeze the rival John Gotti of the Gambino crime family during the late 1980s, Casso ordered Eppolito and Caracappa to put pressure on the Gambinos. Casso shared that he ordered the murder of Gambino captain Edward "Eddie" Lino as a favor for Gigante. On November 6, 1990, Lino was shot nine times as he was pulled over in his 1990 Mercedes-Benz by both Eppolito and Caracappa. The hit was in retaliation for the 1985 murder of Gotti's former boss and Gigante's ally, Paul Castellano, who was murdered on the orders of Gotti to protect himself from Castellano and become boss.

On April 13, 1991, Caracappa and Eppolito provided information that led to the murder of Gambino crime family soldier and Gotti's friend Bartholomew "Bobby" Boriello on the orders of Frank "Big Frank" Lastorino, a captain in the Lucchese crime family who was the central suspect in Boriello's murder for years. Lastorino, acting on Anthony "Gaspipe" Casso's orders in the early 1990s while he was on the run, was reportedly promoted Consigliere of the family for his work. As the relations between the Gambino and Lucchese crime families got even worse, Lastorino reputedly ordered Eppolito and Caracappa to murder former Gambino mobster and then-current Lucchese made man Patrick Testa in 1992, and make it look like the Gambinos did it, in an attempt to start a war with Gotti, who was jailed on federal racketeering and murder charges which he was sentenced to life imprisonment for in 1992. Although never convicted of Testa's murder, US law enforcement estimates Lastorino was present during the shooting. Anthony Casso was still a reported fugitive at the time.

After massive indictments were issued on almost every crime family in New York City during the mid-1990s, both Eppolito and Caracappa retired to Las Vegas, Nevada, however, Casso has later confirmed that both of the "Mafia Cops" were still much in business although considered in retirement, as they had been contacted in 1993 by Frank Lastorino, now one of the most powerful members in the Lucchese crime family, to murder then-current head of the Gambino crime family John "Junior" Gotti, son of imprisoned John Gotti, and Gotti's rival Nicholas "Little Nick" Corozzo, another top member of the Gambinos, a plot which never succeeded. They were also contacted when Lastorino conspired into murdering the Underboss of the Lucchese crime family, Stephen "Wonderboy" Crea, which also didn't succeed due to the indictments toward the family at the time. It has also been proved toward the late 1990s that both Eppolito and Caracappa conspired to kill former Gambino crime family Underboss Salvatore "Sammy the Bull" Gravano, who entered the Witness Protection Program in 1992 after testifying against his boss John Gotti, to collect the reward which was placed on his head by Peter Gotti. Gravano was later arrested and convicted of drug trafficking in 2003 where he received 19 years in prison.

Mafia indictments[link]

After a long investigation, highlighted by Burton Kaplan's decision to testify against his former confederates, both Eppolito and Caracappa were arrested in March 2005 and charged with counts of racketeering, obstruction of justice, extortion and eight counts of murder and conspiracy, including the murders of James Hydell, Nicholas Guido, John "Otto" Heidel, John Doe, Anthony DiLapi, Bruno Facciolo, Edward Lino and Bartholomew Boriello, and the murder conspiracy on Sammy Gravano, hatched by Peter Gotti.

On April 6, 2006, Eppolito and Caracappa were convicted on all charges. Kaplan, a businessman and career criminal, who had been the link between Casso and the two policemen, was the chief accuser, giving two days of riveting testimony.^[1] On June 5, 2006, Eppolito and Caracappa were sentenced to life imprisonment.

On June 30, 2006, a judge threw out a racketeering murder conviction against the two detectives on a technicality - the five-year statute of limitations had expired on the key charge of racketeering conspiracy. (Although there is no statute of limitations for murder in the State of New York, the case had been prosecuted in federal court because it was thought more likely to yield a conviction.) On September 17, 2008, their racketeering convictions were ordered reinstated by a federal appeals court.^[2]

On March 6, 2009, Eppolito was sentenced to life in prison plus 100 years. Caracappa received life plus 80 years. Each was fined more than $4 million.^[3]

On July 23, 2010, Eppolito and Caracappa's convictions were upheld by a New York City appeals court.^[4] As of April 2012, Eppolito was incarcerated at USP Tucson (Arizona, 10 miles from Tucson) and Caracappa was incarcerated at USP Coleman II (Florida); both are high security institutions.^[5]

See also[link]

• American Mafia

Further reading[link]

• Mafia Cop: The Story of an Honest Cop Whose Family Was the Mob. ISBN 1-4165-2399-5.
• The Brotherhoods: The True Story of Two Cops Who Murdered for the Mafia. ISBN 978-0-7432-8944-3.

References[link]

External links[link]

• New York Daily News article relating to the arrests
• Transcript of the indictment against both men - courtesy of ISPN.org
• Report of conviction
• "Mafia Cops Facing Life in Prison", AP, June 5, 2006
• 60 Minutes
• Fox News Conviction thrown out, 2006-06-30.
• Recorded Podcast of Barry Gibbs 2006. First Person Narrative of Barry Gibbs, one of the men exonerated after the detectives helped convict him of murder. Barry served 19 years on a 20-year murder charge before having his conviction reversed.
• Internet Movie Database entry to Louis Eppolito

Broderick Crawford (December 9, 1911 – April 26, 1986) was an Academy Award-winning American stage, film, radio and TV actor, often cast in tough-guy roles and best known for his starring role in the television series Highway Patrol.^[1]

Early life[link]

Crawford was born William Broderick Crawford in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, to Lester Crawford and Helen Broderick, who were both vaudeville performers, as his grandparents had been.^[2] His father appeared in films in the 1920s and 1930s; his mother had a minor career in Hollywood comedies. He joined his parents on the stage, working for producer Max Gordon. When vaudeville went into decline, he attended Harvard University for three months, but dropped out to work as a stevedore on the New York docks.^[2]

Acting career[link]

Crawford returned to vaudeville and radio, which included a period with the Marx Brothers on their NBC radio comedy show Flywheel, Shyster, and Flywheel.^[2] He played his first serious character as a footballer in She Loves Me Not at the Adelphi Theatre, London in 1932. Crawford's talents were spotted by Noël Coward during the three weeks the play ran. Coward also played in the 1935 Broadway production of 'Point Valaine'.

Early in his career, Crawford was stereotyped as a fast-talking tough guy and frequently played the villain. He gained fame in 1937, when he starred as Lenny in Of Mice and Men on Broadway. He moved to Hollywood, but did not play the role in the film version. (It went to Lon Chaney, Jr..) However, in 1939 Crawford was selected for a supporting role in the production of Beau Geste alongside such major stars as Gary Cooper and Ray Milland. Crawford followed this up with another important supporting actor role in the 1942 gangster spoof Larceny, Inc., a comedy with Edward G. Robinson, where Crawford played a dumb but lovable tough guy.

During World War II Crawford enlisted in the United States Army Air Corps. Assigned to the Armed Forces Network, he was sent to Britain in 1944 as a sergeant, serving as an announcer for the Glenn Miller American Band.

In 1949 he reached the pinnacle of his acting career when he was cast as Willie Stark, a character based on Louisiana politician Huey Long, in All the King's Men, a film based on the popular novel of the day by Robert Penn Warren. The film was a huge hit, and Crawford's performance as the blustering Governor Stark won him the Academy Award for Best Actor. The following year he starred in another hit 'A'-list production, Born Yesterday.

Until filming All the King's Men, Crawford's career had been largely limited to 'B' pictures as a supporting or character actor. Crawford was well aware that he did not fit the role of a handsome leading man, once describing himself as looking like a "retired pugilist". He could also be difficult to work with, and was well known for his prodigious drinking on the set. Nevertheless, he had excelled in roles playing the toughest criminal of all, such as 1955's Big House, U.S.A., where Crawford had to convincingly play the role of a convict who leads a band of hardened criminals such as Charles Bronson, Ralph Meeker, and William Talman. Crawford's Academy Award and larger-than-life persona eventually won him more diverse roles, and he would appear in such varied films as Phil Karlson's Scandal Sheet (1952), Fritz Lang's Human Desire (1954), Federico Fellini's Il bidone (1955) and Richard Fleischer's Between Heaven and Hell (1956). He appeared also in Stanley Kramer's Not as a Stranger (1955), "the worst film with the best cast"; and he even tried the European sword and sandal films in Vittorio Cotaffavi's La vendetta di Ercole (1960) also known in USA as Goliath and the Dragon.

In 1955 television producer Frederick Ziv of ZIV Television Productions offered Crawford the lead role as "Chief Dan Mathews" in the police drama Highway Patrol, which dramatized law enforcement activities of the California Highway Patrol (CHP). ZIV operated on an extremely low budget of $25,000 per episode of Highway Patrol, with ten percent of gross receipts due to Crawford under his contract. While the show's scripts were largely fictional, the use of realistic dialogue and Crawford's convincing portrayal of a hard-as-nails police chief helped make the show an instant success. Highway Patrol remained popular during its four years (1955–1959) of first-run syndication, and would continue in repeat syndication on local stations across the U.S.A. for many years afterward. For much of the period from 1955 until 1965 most of Crawford's television roles involved ZIV Television, who was among the relative handful of producers willing to accept the occasional challenges inherent in working with the hard-living Crawford. Years later Ziv admitted to an interviewer, "To be honest, Broderick could be a handful!"

Highway Patrol helped revive Crawford's career and cement his 'tough guy' persona, which he used successfully in numerous movie and TV roles for the rest of his life. During the series filming, Crawford's weight and penchant for heavy drinking contributed to several injuries suffered on the set, and it became particularly difficult for Crawford to do certain scenes, such as when he had to enter and exit a CHP police helicopter. In 1958, Crawford broke his ankle while exiting the helicopter, and was forced to wear an ankle cast, which may be seen in some episodes. Fed up with the show's hectic shooting schedule, Crawford quit Highway Patrol at the end of 1959 in order to make a film in Spain and to get his drinking under control.^[3]

Crawford's successful run as Chief Dan Mathews in Highway Patrol earned him some two million dollars under his contract with ZIV, who eventually paid him in exchange for Crawford's agreement to sign for the pilot and subsequent production of a new ZIV production, King of Diamonds.^[3] Recently back from Europe, and having temporarily stopped drinking, Crawford was signed to play the starring role as diamond industry security chief John King.^[3] King of Diamonds was picked up for syndication in 1961, but ran for only one season before being cancelled. In 1962, after the end of King of Diamonds, Crawford returned to acting in motion pictures. Since 1960, he had also begun to accept occasional roles in European-made films. Between 1962 and 1970, Crawford appeared in no less than seventeen additional films, though many of them failed to generate much box office success.

After 1970, Crawford again returned to television. From 1970 to 1971, he played the role of Dr. Peter Goldstone in The Interns. He would eventually make a series of guest appearances on several TV programs, while starring in several made-for-TV movies.

Playing on a stereotype of his famous TV role, he wore the trademark fedora and black suit when he made an appearance as guest host of a 1977 episode of NBC's Saturday Night Live that included a spoof of Highway Patrol, featuring Dan Aykroyd, a longtime fan of the original show, and one in which he portrayed FBI director J. Edgar Hoover, in a humorous send-up of Hoover's sexuality. In an episode of the TV series CHiPs Crawford appeared as himself, recognized after being stopped by Officer Poncherello, who presses a reluctant Crawford to give his trademark line from Highway Patrol ("Twenty-One-Fifty to Headquarters!").

Musician Webb Wilder's instrumental, "Ruff Rider" (on the album It Came From Nashville), is dedicated to Broderick Crawford in admiration of his Highway Patrol character's ability to solve any crime committed in California by setting up a road block. Crawford worked in 140 motion pictures and television series during his career and remained an especially durable presence in television. His last role was as a film producer who is murdered in a 1982 episode of the "Simon and Simon" television series. Ironically, the actor who played the part of the suspected murderer was Stuart Whitman, who had played the recurring part of Sergeant Walters on "Highway Patrol".

Personal life[link]

Throughout his adult life, Crawford was prone to bouts of heavy alcohol consumption, and was known for eating large meals. These habits contributed to a serious weight gain for Crawford during the 1950s. His weight and penchant for heavy drinking contributed to several injuries suffered on the set of Highway Patrol. It became particularly difficult for Crawford to do certain scenes, such as when he had to enter and exit a police helicopter. In 1958, Crawford broke his ankle while exiting the helicopter and was forced to wear an ankle cast, which may be seen in some episodes.

Crawford's heavy drinking increased during the filming of Highway Patrol, eventually resulting in several arrests and stops for driving under the influence of alcohol (DUI), which eventually gained him a suspended driving license.^[4] While representing the California Highway Patrol as "Chief Matthews", Crawford was known with considerable embarrassment by the CHP as "Old 502" due to his habit of driving under the influence of alcohol ("Code 502" was the CHP police radio code for drunken driving). According to the show's creator, Guy Daniels, "We got all the dialogue in by noon, or else we wouldn't get it done at all. He [Crawford] would bribe people to bring him booze on the set."^[4] The show used their CHP technical advisor, Officer Frank Runyon, to keep the actor sober: "I was told to keep that son of a bitch away from a bottle. I think his license was suspended. Some scenes had to be shot on private roads so that Brod could drive."^[4] Eventually the drinking strained the show's relationship with the CHP and Crawford's relationship with ZIV.^[4]

Death[link]

Crawford married three times; he had two sons (Kelly and Kim) from his marriage to actress Kay Griffith. He died of a series of strokes in 1986 at the age of 74 in Rancho Mirage, California after years of hard living and drinking, which continued virtually unabated to the end of his life. One of his long term pals for such adventures was Lon Chaney, Jr. He has two stars on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, one for motion pictures at 6901 Hollywood Boulevard and another for television at 6734 Hollywood Boulevard.

Filmography[link]

References[link]

External links[link]

Biography portal

• Broderick Crawford at the Internet Movie Database
• Broderick Crawford at the Internet Broadway Database
• Watch Highway Patrol
• Broderick Crawford in Il Bidone
• Profile @ Turner Classic Movies