Crooked NYPD detective who worked as a mafia hit man for the infamous Lucchese crime family dies in prison at age 75
- Corrupt cop Stephen Caracappa died in a North Carolina prison on Saturday
- Caracappa, 75, was sentenced to life plus 80 years in 2006 for mafia murders
- Moonlighted as mob hitman while working as an NYPD detective in 1980s
- Cause of death has not been released, but Caracappa was known to have cancer
A New York City police detective who moonlighted as a brutal hitman for the mob in the 1980s has died in prison while serving a life sentence.
Convicted killer Stephen Caracappa died on Saturday while in detention at a federal medical facility in Butner, North Carolina, federal records show. He was 75.
The cause of death has not been made public, but Caracappa was know to have struggled with cancer in the past.
His death caps a sordid saga of crime and corruption on the dangerous streets of 1980s New York, where Caracappa and his partner abused their police powers to gun down enemies of the Lucchese crime family.
Former New York City police detective Stephen Caracappa (center) is seen at a Brooklyn court in 2005. Caracappa died on Saturday while serving a life sentence in federal prison
Crooked Cops: Caracappa (right) and fellow NYPD cop Louis Eppolito (left) were convicted of carrying out contract killings for Lucchese family underboss Anthony Casso
Shown is FMC Butner, the federal prison hospital in North Carolina where Caracappa died
Caracappa and fellow NYPD cop Louis Eppolito were convicted of murder and other charges in 2006, and both men were sentenced to life in prison.
Prosecutors said the pair were involved in at least eight contract killings for Lucchese family underboss Anthony Casso between 1986 and 1990.
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The detectives were accused of carrying out two of those killings themselves.
In others, they made traffic stops that ended with the driver killed, and another time, they kidnapped a victim and turned him over to Casso, prosecutors said.
Evidence was shown that Caracappa and Eppolito, who played a bit part in the classic mob movie GoodFellas, kidnapped an FBI informant, stopping his car and taking him to a parking garage, where he was shot in the head and buried. The informant's body wasn't found until 2005.
The mob cops' crime spree cost the city heavily in civil suits filed by the families of their victims.
Mafia Underboss: Lucchese crime family underboss Anthony Casso (pictured) paid Caracappa and Eppolito $65,000 for carrying out one of the contract killings, prosecutors said
Gunned Down: Nicholas Guido was brutally gunned down outside of his mother's home on Christmas Day after he was mistaken for a mobster with the same name
In 2010, the city paid $9.9million to a man who spent 19 years behind bars after new evidence surfaced that Eppolito and Caracappa had framed him in the slaying of a prostitute.
Innocent Victim: Guido's killers had him confused with an enemy of the mob
In 2015, New York paid out $5million to the family of Nicholas Guido, who was brutally gunned down outside of his mother's home on Christmas Day after he was mistaken for a mobster with the same name.
She ran outside to the car and found her 26-year-old son sitting at the wheel, she testified at Eppolito and Caracappa's 2006 racketeering trial.
'I went to touch his hand, and he must have just died,' she said.
'His fingertips were cold.'
Guido's killers had him confused with an enemy of Casso, the mob underboss, who paid the two detectives $4,000 a month for inside police information.
In one instance, the two cops were paid $65,000 for carrying out a contract killing, prosecutors said.
At sentencing, Caracappa and his partner insisted that they were innocent and had been railroaded in the case.
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