Ex-Mob Boss Points A Finger

Anthony Casso Describes Murders He Says He Paid NYPD Detectives To Set Up Or Commit

(CBS) 
Prosecutors say Casso has in fact lied as a federal witness in past cases. But in this case, they believe the stories he told 60 Minutes about Eppolito and Caracappa.

For years though, prosecutors couldn’t corroborate his allegations, until an ex–cop named Tommy Dades helped break the case wide open.

After receiving a tip, Det. Dades came out of retirement as a boxing coach, and went to work in the offices of the Brooklyn district attorney, digging through old Mafia case files.

"I would go over as much information, to try and come up with a mistake that they made here, a mistake that they made there," says Dades. "There was a moment that got me very excited, that I knew I was on the right track."

Dades discovered that Caracappa, who worked in the organized crime unit, had run a search on the police department computer and got an address for a man named Nicky Guido. Guido was one of the people Casso thought was part of the team sent to assassinate him. A month later, at that very same address, Guido was gunned down.

"I remember my mom calling me screaming on the phone, 'Louise! They killed Nicky!' She said, 'They shot Nicky. They put nine bullets in him and he’s dead,'" says Guido's cousin, Louise Carbonaro. "We couldn’t believe it, knowing Nicky. But then there were the questions. Did he lead [a] double life, you know?"

The truth is, he did not lead a double life. Prosecutors say Caracappa mistakenly gave Casso the address for the wrong Nicky Guido, and led Casso to kill an innocent man.

"You know, they glorify organized crime in these movies and all. And they always say, 'Well, they just kill each other. Innocent people don't die.' I'm sorry, innocent people do die. They made a mistake and they hit my cousin by mistake," says Carbonaro. "A senseless killing."

Bradley talked to Hayes about the incident: "The appearance here is that your client runs the name Nicky Guido through the police department computer. And then within a month, Nicky Guido gets nine bullets to his body."

"Yes," says Hayes. "But Caracappa would have been in the perfect position to find out if he was the right Nicky Guido or the wrong Nicky Guido. That's not a mistake that Caracappa could have made."

"There's an argument that maybe they were just sloppy," says Bradley.

"Yes, I agree with that," says Hayes. "But in this country, you don't convict on an argument. You have to have proof beyond a reasonable doubt."

Federal prosecutors say they can meet that burden, and now claim to have several witnesses with direct knowledge that Caracappa and Eppolito were hit men.

Tommy Dades, like many other law enforcement officials, is still trying to comprehend the allegation that two highly decorated police officers crossed so far over the thin blue line.

"You raise your right hand when you swear into the police academy. And, you know, you’re there to uphold the law, and to do the right thing," says Dades.

"And to actually go out and murder somebody, and then go back to work. You know, it takes a certain type of individual to go to sleep at night after that, and they were probably never cops. They were just criminals that slipped through the system and obtained shields, you know?"

Louis Eppolito and Stephen Caracappa are in jail awaiting trial. If convicted, they each face life in prison.