Ex-Mob Boss Points A Finger

(CBS)  Correspondent Ed Bradley reports on the story of two New York City police officers who stand accused of moonlighting as hit men for the Mafia.

Louis Eppolito and Stephen Caracappa, two highly decorated former detectives, were indicted last month for the murders of eight people on the orders of a vicious mob boss, who is now in jail.

That mobster is Anthony (Gaspipe) Casso. He told 60 Minutes about his extraordinary relationship with the two cops in the only interview he has ever given.

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"I had law enforcement on my payroll, certainly. I had them looking after me," says Casso. "Yeah. The cops."

Bradley spoke to Casso in 1998, in prison, where he began serving a life sentence after admitting to 36 murders. Casso said Eppolito and Caracappa helped him commit eight of those murders.

Casso's claims couldn't be substantiated at the time, so 60 Minutes couldn't air them until now - now that the detectives have been indicted. Prosecutors say for a hefty salary, Eppolito and Caracappa would walk right up to Casso's enemies, trick them into believing they were under arrest, and instead kidnap and deliver them to Casso to be executed.

That's exactly what Casso told 60 Minutes the detectives did to a young hood named Jimmy Hydell, whom he believed had tried to kill him.

"Louis and Steve went by a club where the kid was staying, make believe they were going to arrest him. They put him in the car. I used to have cars for them. I gave them a car. Like a police car. An unmarked car. I gave them a car. They put him in the car," says Casso.

"The kid thought they were taking him to the station house. But they took him to a garage. When they got to the garage, they laid him on the floor. They tied his feet, his hands cuffed, put him in the trunk of the car. The police car comes in, the guy's kicking in the trunk. He's making noise. I took him to a place that I have pre-arranged. You know, somebody's house that I could use. ... Sat him down. I wanted to know why I was shot, and who else was involved. And who, you know, gave the orders to shoot me."

After that, Casso says, he killed Hydell himself. "I didn't shoot him in the head. That was somebody's house. You make a mess," says Casso. "No, I shot him a couple of times. I didn't torture the kid. I didn't do anything like that."

"What's a couple?" asks Bradley.

"More than a couple. Really, I don't know the exact amount. Maybe I shot him 10 times, 12 times," says Casso. "At that time, I gave Louis and Steve, I think, $45,000 for delivering him to me."

"These are two cops," says Bradley. "You gave them a bonus for delivering someone to you, you killed?"

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