Blood and the Badge: The Mafia, Two Killer Cops, and a Scandal That Shocked the Nation
Michael Cannell unearths the full story behind two ruthless New York cops who acted as double agents for the Mafia. No episode in NYPD history surpasses the depravities of Louis Eppolito and Stephen Caracappa, two decorated detectives who covertly acted as mafia informants and paid assassins in the Scorsese world of 1980s Brooklyn. For more than ten years, Eppolito and Caracappa moonlighted as the mob’s early warning alert system, leaking names of mobsters secretly cooperating with the government and crippling investigations by sharing details of surveillance, phone taps and impending arrests. The allegations lay dormant for a decade and were only revisited due to relentless follow up by Tommy Dades, a cop determined to break the cold case before his retirement. Cannell’s Blood and the Badge is based on entirely new research and never-before-released interviews with mobsters themselves, including Sammy “the Bull” Gravano. Eppolito and Caracappa’s story is more relevant than ever as police conduct comes under ever-increasing scrutiny.
AUTHOR BIO
Michael is the author of five non-fiction books, most recently BLOOD AND THE BADGE: THE MAFIA, TWO KILLER COPS, AND A SCANDAL THAT SHOCKED THE NATION. Michael has worked as a reporter for Time and an editor for The New York Times. His writing has appeared in The New Yorker, Sports Illustrated, and many other publications. He lives in New York.
