The burly detective stormed into the 62d precinct demanding to be brought up to speed about the murders. One of the dead men – not the intended victim, it turned out – was Eppolito’s cousin, Frank Santora, a low-level mob associate who lived in Bensonhurst. 

Years ago, when Gang Land was first told of Eppolito’s reaction to the Sept. 3, 1987 killing of Santora, a police source remarked: “It’s a good thing there was no suspect in the house. Louie looked like he would have barged into the squad room and killed him with his bare hands.” 

It turns out that Santora, 51, was more than just an Eppolito blood relative who was in the wrong place at the wrong time. He was also an alleged partner-in-crime whose sudden death Eppolito viewed as a possible financial threat.

Law enforcement sources say Santora had hooked Eppolito up with Burton Kaplan, the mob associate who was instrumental in getting Eppolito (right) and detective Stephen Caracappa (left) a $4000-a-month retainer from the Luchese family, and a $35,000 bonus for kidnapping young James Hydell (left) in October 1986. 

The sources say that Kaplan, a key government witness against the ex-detectives, has told the feds that he met Santora while both were at the relatively relaxed confines of the federal prison camp in Allenwood, Pa., in 1982. While there,  

According to court records, Kaplan was then serving three years for manufacturing and distributing vast quantities of Methaqualone (Quaaludes), the Ecstasy of the era. Santora was there for taking part in a $12 million embezzlement of the estate of reclusive Brooklyn restaurateur Frederick Lundy in the eight months before he died in 1977.

After both were released – Kaplan in 1983, Santora in July 1984 – the connection was made. Eppolito began checking license plates of suspected undercover cars and performing other tasks for Kaplan with Santora functioning as an intermediary for his cousin, sources said.

They started small but moved on to bigger things later, according to court papers. By the time Santora was killed in 1987, the detectives’ side job with the mob was in high gear. 

Eppolito had already met Kaplan and Luchese underboss Anthony (Gaspipe) Casso – they took part in the grisly Hydell abduction and murder a year earlier. With Santora no longer around though, Eppolito quickly moved to reassure Kaplan that his cousin’s untimely death was no reason to end the mutually beneficial relationship that they all enjoyed, sources said.

“Within days, he reached out to Burt to let him know Santora’s murder shouldn’t change things between them,” said one source, adding that from then until their relationship ended in the early 1990s, Kaplan was the only one who had contact with the rogue detectives. (Caracappa and Eppolito (right) in 63d Precinct Squad Room.)

They fared much better with Gambino capo Edward Lino, allegedly pulling him over as he drove to a planned induction ceremony in Brooklyn on Nov. 6, 1990 and shooting him to death, sending the Gambinos into a frenzied war alert – and causing family boss John Gotti to postpone the initiation rites. 

But just as the Santora murder had little lasting impact on Eppolito and Caracappa, the Gambinos quickly put the Lino murder behind them. They regrouped the following week to replenish the family with eight new members, including turncoat soldier Frank (Frankie Fapp) Fappiano.

This time, Fappiano (right) has testified, John A. (Junior) Gotti selected a site in Queens for the last induction that his father would preside over before his arrest a month later, and his ultimate demise in a federal prison hospital in 2002.

The short, wiry Kaplan, who has a malady in one eye, was “very close” to Casso, (left) often drawing up phony loans to enable the murderous gangster to make “big ticket” purchases by writing checks, instead of raising eyebrows by paying with cash. Over the years, he was an entrepreneur, owning a bakery, vending machine company and clothing business.

He allowed Gaspipe to place a home and a car in his name, and remained a “stand up” guy for more than six years before knuckling under last fall and fingering Eppolito and Caracappa as killer cops.

On the other hand, Casso, who admits complicity in 36 murders, looked to make Kaplan his 37^th victim in 1993, shortly after the Brooklyn District Attorney’s office engineered Gaspipe’s arrest after three years on the lam, according to what two turncoat Franks have told the feds. 

Luchese soldier Frank Gioia Jr. and associate Frank Smith – Gioia and Smith’s sister were engaged and the men almost became brothers-in-law – have each reported that Casso had plotted to kill Kaplan, sources said.

According to an FBI report obtained by Gang Land, Gaspipe used them to

In addition to Gioia and Smith – who killed Santora – the prosecutors have assembled a large supporting cast of potential witnesses, including acting Luchese boss Alphonse (Little Al) D’Arco, capo Peter (Fat Pete) Chiodo and former Colombo consigliere Carmine Sessa.

For years, law enforcement officials have heard from mob turncoats that Casso had a police source he called his “Crystal Ball.” In 1994, Casso himself first told the feds of the scandalous allegations against Eppolito and Caracappa.

But the case languished until 2003. The investigation needed a boost and got one from Thomas Dades, (right) a detective who is now retired. At the time, he worked in a now-defunct NYPD unit, the Investigative Squad of the Intelligence Division. 

“I received information that corroborated prior intelligence about the Hydell murder,” said Dades. “I began investigating it as a state murder case. Little by little, more and more people got into it. The investigation snowballed and the case turned into a massive federal racketeering indictment.”