Blood and the Badge: The Mafia, Two Killer Cops, and a Scandal That Shocked the Nation

Former New York Times editor Cannell (A Brotherhood Betrayed) provides a disturbing account of corruption in the NYPD. Drawing on trial transcripts, court documents, and interviews, Cannell recaps the jaw-dropping story of detectives Louis Eppolito and Stephen Caracappa, who were on the payroll of the mob from the 1980s until the early 2000s. Though Eppolito’s father and uncle were Brooklyn mobsters, that didn’t prevent him from joining the NYPD, where he soon gained a reputation for violence. After he was promoted to detective in 1977, Eppolito teamed up with Caracappa, and they began laundering money and carrying out murders and kidnappings for the Lucchese crime family (“[They] somehow discovered a mutual inclination to supplement their day jobs with a second career in off-duty crime,” Cannell quips). The pair was finally brought to justice in 2005, and both men were sentenced to life in prison in 2008. Cannell expertly lays out how bureaucratic failures within the NYPD allowed the two to evade charges for decades despite private suspicions and allegations, and paces the proceedings like a thriller. True crime readers and New York City history buffs should check this out. (Jan.)