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<\/a><\/p>\nCan two disgraced ex-cops share the same cell without driving each other crazy?<\/p>\n
Like a jailhouse Felix and Oscar, so-called Mafia cops Louis Eppolito and Stephen Caracappa have been sharing a 7-by-12-foot cell in the Metropolitan Detention Center\u2019s solitary-confinement wing in Brooklyn for eight months.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe\u2019s on top, I\u2019m on the bottom,\u201d Eppolito told The Post in a telephone interview last week, referring to their bunk assignments.<\/p>\n
The former partners differ so wildly in habits, appearance and personality, former co-workers can\u2019t fathom the pair sharing such tight quarters \u2013 much less for up to 23 hours a day.<\/p>\n
Caracappa likes to \u201chang up his socks and fold them,\u201d a former cop pal said. \u201cHe\u2019s a total neat freak \u2013 I can\u2019t see Steve sharing a cell with anybody.\u201d<\/p>\n
Another former partner of Eppolito\u2019s agreed. \u201cI don\u2019t know which is more punishing, being kept in solitary confinement \u2013 or being confined with Louie,\u201d said William Oldham, co-author of \u201cThe Brotherhoods: The True Story of Two Cops Who Murdered for the Mafia.\u201d<\/p>\n
Other than their NYPD careers and the corruption charges against them, they share few interests behind bars.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe\u2019s a big car nut. I couldn\u2019t care less,\u201d Eppolito said.<\/p>\n
Eppolito, known as \u201cthe fat guy,\u201d is brash, outgoing and talkative, with family ties to organized crime. Caracappa, \u201cthe skinny guy,\u201d is aloof, reserved and stoic, friends said.<\/p>\n
Eppolito tipped the scale at 300-plus pounds at trial, but said he\u2019s lost 81 pounds on a prison diet of \u201chockey-puck hamburgers,\u201d yucky stew and gluey macaroni.<\/p>\n
Caracappa \u201cweighs about 100 pounds soaking wet,\u201d his friend joked.<\/p>\n
While Caracappa was a natty dresser who liked fine Italian suits, Eppolito bought $40 suits off the truck from Burton Kaplan, a drug trafficker and mob associate whose turncoat testimony was key to the duo\u2019s convictions.<\/p>\n
Both men are so desperate for a break from staring at the four walls \u2013 and each other \u2013 that they volunteer to mop the floors and scrub toilets.<\/p>\n
\u201cAnything to get out of the cell is a privilege,\u201d a friend said.<\/p>\n
Caracappa asked the feds months ago to remove him from the joint cell. \u201cIt\u2019s not an Eppolito thing,\u201d said Caracappa\u2019s lawyer, Daniel Nobel. \u201cIt\u2019s for a modicum of space and privacy.\u201d<\/p>\n
Their longtime friendship is being tested to the max: A cop who knows them both said Caracappa used to \u201cidolize Louie\u201d and was \u201cin awe of his bravado, his tough-guy attitude \u2013 that\u2019s what Steve was attracted to.\u201d He\u2019s godfather to Eppolito\u2019s eldest daughter.<\/p>\n
Since a jury found them guilty of murdering for the Luchese crime family, Brooklyn federal Judge Jack Weinstein tossed out the convictions on a technicality. They remain jailed without bail while the feds appeal, and await retrial on money-laundering and drug charges.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe didn\u2019t do these murders,\u201d declared Eppolito, who blames what he calls a lackluster defense, prosecutors on a vendetta and \u201clies\u201d by rats like Kaplan.<\/p>\n
Caracappa declined to be interviewed.<\/p>\n
The two are stuck together in the jail\u2019s ninth-floor \u201csegregated housing unit,\u201d a hellhole where dangerous inmates and those being disciplined scream and kick the metal doors. They aren\u2019t allowed to have soap or toothpaste.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re sitting there freezing,\u201d Eppolito said. \u201cWe have a leaky ceiling, no heat, and no running water in the sink. I run the shower and drink with my hand.\u201d<\/p>\n
They get an hour a day outside in a small caged yard, \u201clike an animal,\u201d Eppolito said.<\/p>\n
The prison has seized all their books, except a Bible.<\/p>\n
They are isolated, supposedly for their protection from other inmates, but their lawyers blast it as \u201cpunitive.\u201d<\/p>\n
Eppolito\u2019s current lawyer, Joseph Bondy, told The Post he sent a letter Friday to the detention-center warden demanding the \u201cinhumane conditions\u201d be remedied immediately.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Susan Edelman Dec 17, 2006 Can two disgraced ex-cops share the same cell without driving each other crazy? Like a jailhouse Felix and Oscar, so-called Mafia cops Louis Eppolito and […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[18],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-369","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-articles-from-april-2006-dec-2006"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/israelgreenwald.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/369","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/israelgreenwald.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/israelgreenwald.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/israelgreenwald.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/israelgreenwald.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=369"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/israelgreenwald.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/369\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":370,"href":"https:\/\/israelgreenwald.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/369\/revisions\/370"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/israelgreenwald.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=369"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/israelgreenwald.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=369"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/israelgreenwald.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=369"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}