Thank you to Minotaur Books for the digital copy to review.

I don’t really have words for this one, and how wild that this is not fiction. It read like an episode of The Sopranos, or The Godfather, and yet, this is all true. This is about two corrupt detectives who worked with the mafia for decades. It is crazy how long it took to get these guys, in fact, they even almost got off on a technicality. This was excellent via audio, it was well written, never a dull moment, and I was captivated from start to finish. I’m still thinking about this and smh at how bad it got before it got better, and how these families waited years to get closure.

Thank you to Michael Cannell, Minotaur Books, and NetGalley for this ARC in exchange for my honest opinion.

My grandfather was an NYPD Sergeant in the 80s, so I am always intrigued to read books about the NYPD. This one didn't disappoint.

It was well written and it is clear that there was a lot and I mean a lot of research done in order to write it. It is one that I will definitely recommend.

Good "true crime" story, describing NYC of the 70's, 80's, and 90's. Also, an engaging look at the prosecutions of the corrupt cops.

This book provides a fascinating and in-depth look at the Mob, covering their lifestyle, history, and criminal activities, including the shocking corruption within the NYPD. While initially challenging to keep track of the numerous characters, Connell effectively introduces and reminds readers of key figures throughout the narrative. The decades-long complicity of some NYPD officers with the Mafia is truly appalling. This gripping true crime story will appeal to readers interested in the inner workings of the Mafia, the NYPD, and the dark underbelly of New York City.

This was a really fascinating and truly engaging book. The bravery of Michael Cannell even writing this book is just unfathomable. I love true crime, but this tale (true!) is beyond the scope of what an American citizen could even imagine.

Informative, interesting read ! This book details very thoroughly so much about the Mob culture, the lifestyle, the history, the antics. Not to mention the corruption of a small number of NY cops. - two of whom perpetrated their own crimes against NY citizens directly and indirectly - and others who turned a blind eye for decades.
At first I had a difficult time keeping up with all the names but I relaxed into the book and the names became so familiar to me by the second half I never gave that issue another thought. The author does a good job of reminding the reader through the book who many of the people are ( from how they’d been introduced in earlier chapters).

The two NY cops who were allowed to be ( in essence ) double agents for decades is disgusting. Abhorrent. But truth is stranger than fiction, and this book gets to the nitty gritty ( very gritty, grimy ) details.

If you life Mob stories, true crime, or you’d appreciate knowing the inner workings of a unique and powerful group ( the NYC Mafia and frankly, NY city cops … ) you’ll enjoy this book.

Thank you NetGalley and Minotaur Books for the ARC. really enjoyed it !

Well damn.

This is one crazy, bloody, selfish-filled ride.
I knew the names sounded familiar to me [when they are first mentioned in the book], and when the author mentioned the book one of the crooked cops wrote after retirement, it all came back to me; I was living in NY when that book came out and all the papers covered it, and it was on the news, and there was generally a big hullabaloo about it [this was near the beginning of Rudy Gulliani starting to do the mob roundup and eliminating as much crime as he could from Manhattan and Times Square] and then *POOF* it was gone and we all moved on. I also vaguely remember the trial being on the news and hoping they were found guilty and then I promptly forgot all about them until this book [I honestly didn't pick this book for all that; I was just curious because I always wondered just how many cops were on the take back then, since the mob was such a huge presence in NY at that time].

This is a very well-written book that has been expertly researched [the author did SO MANY interviews, and all the paper research must have been completely overwhelming at times], and I was enthralled from page one [I miss NY so much] - it is a very deep dive into the Mafia and the mob life and how easy it was for the mob to turn cops [that had an odd bent to begin with], which is sad and very disturbing [and I have to wonder just how many never, ever got caught]. The author just sucks you into that world and you just have to shake your head at the thought process of some of these "wise guys".

A really great read; anyone who lived in NY during this time, or loves The Godfather and/or Goodfellas, or has read other mobcentric books will love this look into two lives gone wrong.

I initially struggled with this [new-to-me] narrator [Jonathan Yen], but thankfully, I quickly settled in and by the end of the book, I was more than happy to put him on my "favorite narrator" list. I recommend this audiobook highly, it really adds to the overall story.

Thank you to NetGalley, Michael Cannell, Jonathan Yen - Narrator, St. Martin's Press, and Macmillan Audio for providing the eBook and audiobook ARC's in exchange for an honest review.

BLOOD AND THE BADGE is an eye-opening account of the shocking double lives of two NYC detectives, Louis Eppolito and Stephen Caracappa, who secretly worked as Mafia members. Eppolito, the son of a prominent Mafia figure, and Caracappa had deep connections to organized crime, sharing confidential information, and even carrying out hits for the Mafia.

Meticulously researched and presented in an engaging, accessible way, Cannell shines a light on the corruption and misdeeds that spanned a decade, offering readers a fascinating look into the dark underbelly of law enforcement.


READ THIS IF YOU:
-are drawn to shocking stories where the truth is stranger than fiction
-like a balance of thorough journalism and captivating storytelling
-are fascinated by intricacies of the Italian Mafia

Thanks to NetGalley and St. Maritn's Press for the eARC.

When nonfiction reads more crazy than any fiction you could think of, you know the book is good and memorable. This book was so hard to read for the sheer fact that it actually happened and that people are doing these things - even the people you are supposed to trust to keep you safe. I will recommend this one far and wide to all of my fellow nonfiction lovers.

This was a very chilling read. We look up to police officers as those we can trust, who will keep us safe. Instead, these officers took the law into their own hands, helping a criminal organization evade the law. They even acted as hit men as needed.

I was blown away while reading this. Why would someone who has sworn to uphold the law ignore their oath? While family can be a large motivator, and was in this case, the lack of morality and care for citizens really chilled me.

This was a great read, but at the same time, very difficult. The betrayal here was beyond the pale.

This was a well written book of suspense that kept me reading into the night. I highly recommend reading this book you won't be disappointed.

Blood and the Badge
By Michael Cannell

This is a true crime story about the Mafia and two dirty NY detectives who worked for the mob for several years. These men, Louis Eppolito and Stephen Caracappa, were the living, breathing bad cops of all our collective nightmares. They warned their Mafia bosses of impending raids, fingered police informants, committed every kind of crime, up to and including murder, themselves.

They were scum of the earth and helped give rise to the "blue wall of silence" idea and ultimately to the "defund the police" movement of more recent times. In an era of home-grown and external terrorism and a seeming belief that "if you are disgruntled, you are justified in committing horrendous acts against people you don't even know", we need our police, who believe they are there to preserve and protect, now more than ever. And we need to trust that the vast majority of the men and women in blue have our backs.

Books like this, while factual, are contributing to the tensions in our country today.

Thanks to the publisher and Netgalley for this ARC

4.5 stars
Blood and the Badge is the true story about detectives Eppolito and Caracappa, who worked for the NYPD and the mafia at the same time. Honestly, it sounds like an episode of Law and Order or the plot of a movie, but it really happened and they got away with it for decades!

Cannell does a great job researching and getting first hand accounts of Eppolito and Caracappa from the 1980's. And while corrupt cops exist (perhaps too often), these two were really the summit of police corruption-they killed people, subverted raids, and destroyed evidence. It defied belief at the time. Understanding the background of these dectectives helps inform their decisions, but it was shocking all the same. Even more shocking is how long they escaped justice. Their crimes occurred in the 80's and they weren't tried until the early 2000's!

If you are a fan of true crime, this is a can't miss story. If you are thinking of giving true crime a try, I highly recommend Blood and the Badge-its sensational and riveting! If audio is your thing (and I do like it for true crime listens especially), the audio is wonderful as well! Jonathan Yen did a great job of telling the story.

Blood and the Badge by Michael Cannell was one of the most engaging and interesting true crime stories I’ve ever read!
A very intriguing and captivating informative read that had me hooked and spellbound from beginning to end.
Blood and the Badge is a mesmerizing true crime narrative which is an attention grabber from the opening paragraph.
The research done for this book was extensive and makes for a really interesting read.

“The Mafia, Two Killer Cops, and a Scandal That Shocked the Nation”

Blood and Badge tells the full story that is behind two New York cops that acted as double agents for the Mafia. The author wrote this well and it was an informative read that had me captivated from the beginning. This was a true crime book that I enjoyed especially since some of this stuff I did not know. It sheds light on this long buried scandal and police corruption. Overall, this was a very interesting and informative read that I highly enjoyed. Thank you to NetGalley, St Martins Press and Minotaur Books for this read in exchange of my honest review of Blood and the Badge by Michael Cannell.

Ever since living in Scranton for a few years I’ve had an interest in mafia true crime stories. While “Scandal That Shocked the Nation” in the subtitle might be a bit overblown (I don’t remember even being aware of these events as they wound to a close in the early 2000’s), this book does record scandalous corruption in the NYPD.

Along with the story of the two cops who cooperated with the Mob, there is a lot of background story involving Mob activities (especially surrounding Anthony “Gaspipe” Casso) from the 1970’s on as well as the FBI using RICO laws to take down major organized crime figures. At times, the “Mafia Cops” recede very much into the background. This didn’t bother me, but it did make the first 2/3 of the book feel somewhat unfocused.

The last third of the book gains focus as it zeroes in on the investigation, arrest, and prosecution of the scumbag “Mafia Cops.” We get a good look at the foolish inter-departmental rivalries and politics that hinder law enforcement and the infuriating nonsense that sleazy lawyers use to try to get clearly guilty criminals off the hook.

Overall, if you are interested in true crime in general or the mafia and police corruption in particular this is well worth your time.

For readers who are very versed in the New York mafia scene of the time, the level of detail in this book is probably good, but I would have appreciated more grounding and scene-setting, especially given the number of people appearing in this book. It's an interesting story but it felt like it lacked a core since we learn so little about the motivations of the two police officers.

I received an ARC of this via NetGalley.

3.5⭐️

Even though there have been many books written about this, I had never heard about it until I saw it on Netgalley. Back in the 1970s through the mid-1990s, two homicide cops in NYC worked for the mob.

Lou Eppolito and Stephen Caracappa killed for the mob and passed information to them. Eppolito's father was in the mob, but Lou wanted to be a cop. When he didn't get the recognition he that he deserved from being a cop, he let it be known he was for hire. Soon, Caracappa joined him.

The book is well researched, but it bogged down to me. It took me a week to get through the first half of the book, but after that, I couldn't put it down. I ended up staying up past midnight to finish it.

Tentative Publication Date:
January 14, 2025

Thanks to Netgalley, Saint Martin Press, and Michael Cannell for the E-ARC. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

😊 Happy Reading 😊

#Netgalley #SaintMartinPress #MichaelCannell #BloodandtheBadge #Nonfiction #AlphabetChallenge (B) #DecadesChallenge (2020's) #Bookspinbingo

It has long been observed that people hate government but love their own representatives. A similar principle may hold for the police: we appreciate and respect individual officers who give us directions, keep the peace, and protect victims, but, especially after the orgiastic cop-hatred ginned up in the summer in 2020, complain in unspecific terms about “the police” (although this trend appears to be reversing as the imprudence of “defunding” dawns on select heretofore wise elites).

The careers of Louie Eppolito and Stephen Caracappa, former New York Police Department detectives, are red meat for those who would paint law enforcement as inherently hopeless. Blood and Badge relentlessly portrays just how much damage two wayward public servants can inflict. The lesson offered by author Michael Cannell is not that the police are corrupt — it is that Eppolito and Caracappa weren’t the police. They may have sported badges, rode in cruisers, and drawn city salaries, but they were unequivocally criminals.

We can cautiously conclude that a case like Eppolito and Caracappa’s won’t happen again. Eppolito was born into an organized crime family. Caracappa was not, but before he joined the NYPD, he had been indicted on a felony larceny charge after trying to steal construction materials. Both were hired anyway. Now, an application to a police academy that includes a felony arrest will result in an automatic disqualification in most departments. The desperate onboarding of unqualified officers continues to be a major problem to this day, as seen in the January 2023 murder of Tyre Nichols in Memphis.

Once improvidently admitted into the ranks of New York’s Finest, it was practically impossible to get rid of them. It almost happened with Eppolito, who should have been swiftly canned after he was discovered to have handled confidential documents on a mafia family that were later found at the New Jersey residence of a member of that very family with Eppolito’s fingerprints on them. But after an internal affairs trial, he was acquitted and reinstated with back pay.

The list of Eppolito and Caracappa’s misdeeds on the payroll of the Lucchese crime family beggar belief. They committed and covered up murders. They revealed the identities of informants, compromising numerous investigations. Eppolito redirected a murder investigation away from the mob-connected assailant by framing an innocent man for murder, sending the hapless bystander to prison for over two decades. They facilitated the murder of a second innocent man by providing their wise guy contacts the information for the person with the same name as the mob’s intended target. It goes on and on.

The mark of a great crime writer, I think, is in his treatment of the legal proceedings following the big arrests. Trials and other court hearings are complicated, reducing complicated things to lay readers is hard, it is a noble pursuit to acquaint the citizenry with the mechanics of our judicial system — and besides, to what purpose has the reader slogged through all of this blood and gore if only to end in a muddle?

Cannell is virtuosic here. Not only was the trial stage the crucial denouement of Eppolito and Caracappa’s sordid careers, but theirs was a RICO trial, which are famously involved — the judge’s written instructions to the jury on the law went on for all of 134 pages!

The legal pitfall threatening the prosecution arose out of the five-year statute of limitations. Since both defendants had retired from the NYPD and moved to Las Vegas over 10 years before they were indicted, and since the crux of the case against them is that they abused their authority as detectives, the prosecution needed a more-recent hook that continued the conspiracy after their retirement. And this hook was pretty dubious, indeed: it consisted of Eppolito’s son selling a bit of methamphetamine in Las Vegas to an acquaintance of Eppolito’s accountant — arguably far removed from the mob business back east.

(The Eppolito and Caracappa trial is a fine exemplar of how hopelessly outdated the five-year statute of limitations on most federal crimes has become. Statutes of limitations are in place because it is unfair to ask people to defend old allegations when, as time goes by, evidence is lost or destroyed. With the advent of digital documents and recordings, this concern is not as urgent as it once was.)

Competent defense attorneys would have spotted this problem as soon as the indictment was unsealed. They would have settled down with a dozen cups of coffee and Microsoft Word and penned the mother of all motions to dismiss the indictment. The last thing the defense ought to have wanted was to go to trial. Even if the convictions were later reversed — a remote possibility — no lawyer would have wanted a public airing of the outrageous conduct in which these guys engaged, and a trial could (and in this case absolutely did) bolster the once-weak connection between the New York conduct and the Las Vegas conduct, diminishing the force of the strongest legal argument against the prosecution's case. But a trial there was; the defendants were convicted on all counts.

And this was the moment for the brilliant stroke of the trial judge, the late Jack Weinstein of the Eastern District of New York. Judge Weinstein, who all along was skeptical of the prosecution’s meth hook, imposed life sentences to both defendants, but held the sentences in abeyance so that the defendants, through their new attorneys, could argue that they received ineffective assistance from their trial attorneys. Next, Judge Weinstein reversed the convictions, knowing that the prosecution would appeal his decision and, it’s not unlikely, knowing that the court of appeals would reinstate the convictions, practically insulating them from further review. And this is precisely what happened. Eppolito and Cracappa both died in federal prison. If Judge Weinstein had reversed the convictions before imposing their sentences — had he acquitted them — the prosecution would have had no recourse, because acquittals are not appealable and the Double Jeopardy Clause would have barred another trial.

Blood and Badge is a riveting portrayal of justice gone wrong — and, though much later, justice winning the day.

I received an advance reading copy (arc) of this book from NetGalley.com and the publisher in exchange for a fair review. Blood and the Badge is not for the faint of heart. The gruesome details revealed makes a person wonder how anyone is capable of such horrific deeds, and afterward enjoy a meal. The book centers around two NYPD detectives, Louis Eppolito and Stephen Caracappa, who were also on the Mafia's payroll. They used their positions as police officers to deliver unsuspecting people to various hit men and to relay information to their mobster contacts about ongoing investigations--and they almost got away with it. Author Michael Cannell gives us a fascinating look at the New York underworld when it was ruled by the five Mafia families, as well as one of the biggest scandals that the NYPD ever faced. There were so many characters covered in this book, however, it was hard to keep them all straight--my only real complaint. If you like reading true crime books with a mobster-bent, than by all means pick this one up. It will make you cringe, but at the same time, you won't be able to put it down.