DEFENSE TAKES HIT

Witness in 'Mafia Cops' trial says he paid ex-NYPD detectives for
information, joined them in three killings

"I paid them."

With Burton Kaplan's three electrifying words from the witness stand
yesterday in federal court, prosecutors sought to implicate two
former NYPD detectives in a world of bribery, murder and corruption.

Kaplan, 72, perhaps the most important witness against Louis Eppolito
and Stephen Caracappa, said he not only paid off the two ex-cops for
sensitive law enforcement information, but he participated with them
in a mob racketeering enterprise involving kidnapping, murder and
obstruction of justice.

"They brought me information about wiretaps, phone tapes, informants,
ongoing investigations and imminent arrests," the balding,
thin-faced, bespectacled Kaplan said under questioning in federal
court in Brooklyn by Assistant U.S. Attorney Robert Henoch.

Kaplan, testifying without emotion, said he first used Eppolito's
cousin, Frank Santoro, as an intermediary for the payoffs. But after
Santoro was killed in a gangland hit, Kaplan said he started paying
Eppolito directly.

The information the two cops gave him later was passed on to Anthony
"Gaspipe" Casso, then the acting boss of the Luchese crime family,
Kaplan testified.

If the information was related to other crime families, Casso passed
it on to those families, Kaplan said. But if it was about informants,
"Casso had them killed," he said.

Eppolito, 57, and Caracappa, 64, are being tried on racketeering
charges in which they are accused of playing roles in eight mob
slayings, as well as bribery, money-laundering and drug-dealing. If
convicted, they face life in prison.

Kaplan explained that he earlier had pleaded guilty in the
racketeering case and said he carried out three slayings with the defendants.

"Jimmy Hydell, Eddie Lino and the jeweler. I don't know the jeweler's
name," said Kaplan, the latter reference apparently to murder victim
Israel Greenwald, who died in 1986.

Eppolito and Caracappa did not show emotion as Kaplan testified about
their alleged crimes, although Eppolito at times drummed the defense
table with his fingers.

Kaplan revealed that he decided to cooperate with prosecutors because
he believed he would bear the brunt of the crimes.

"I did it, in all honesty, because I thought I was going to be made a
scapegoat in this case," said Kaplan, who has served about nine years
of a 27-year sentence for marijuana trafficking.

"I was in jail nine straight years. I was on the lam two-and-a-half
years before it," Kaplan said of his criminal past. "In that period
of time, I seen an awful lot of guys that I thought were stand-up
guys go bad, turn and become informants."

Kaplan told the jury that he did not believe assurances from
Caracappa that Eppolito wouldn't turn against Kaplan if state
prosecutors investigated the slayings.

"I didn't think that they would stand up, and I was tired of going to
jail by myself. I would be at the defense table now and Louie and
Steve would be up here," Kaplan explained, referring to the witness stand.

Kaplan's testimony, in which he recounted drifting into a life of
crime despite a job offer at the National Security Agency after Navy
service in 1956, only scratched the surface of the prosecution's
case. It is scheduled to continue today.

Outside court, Eppolito labeled Kaplan's testimony "stupid, stupid
answers to stupid questions."

'Jimmy Hydell, Eddie Lino and the jeweler. I don't know the jeweler's
name.' - Burton Kaplan, right, a prosecution witness, testifying on
murders he carried out with the alleged 'Mafia Cops'

30 years of a criminal life

1975 (circa): Arrested on various charges of dealing with goods
stolen from interstate commerce, including flash cubes, garments,
hair dryers. Served 4 years in prison.

1981: Arrested for conspiracy to manufacture quaaludes. Sent to prison.

1983: Arrested for suspicion in dealing heroin. Case dismissed.

1993: Arrested for conspiracy to deal in stolen Peruvian passports.
Case dismissed.

1996: Arrested for marijuana trafficking conspiracy. Convicted after
trial and sentenced to 27 years.

2004: Pleaded guilty to federal racketeering charges involving
murder, kidnapping and other charges related to "Mafia Cops" case. No
sentence yet.

Source: Burton Kaplan's Testimony