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Authors: Tommy Dades
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his tie draped loosely around his neck and wearing a flashy chain and a snake ring and holding court. He’d tell joke after joke about the broads he’d banged and the crazy things he did. He was out of control.
“My dad was fairly close with both of them. One time Louis volunteered to fight in an exhibition boxing match. My father was his cornerman that night. Louis talked a good fight, but if he couldn’t knock out his opponent in the first thirty seconds he was finished. The guy he was fighting that night didn’t like him at all. He toyed with him. He just took him apart. In the dressing room they had to give Eppolito oxygen. But he still told people he won.
“I knew everything about the case before Tommy called me. I saved every newspaper that was ever written about Casso’s allegations. I talked to my father about it: ‘What do you think? You think it’s possible?’
“My father didn’t know. ‘You know what, I don’t know them like that. I just can’t fathom them in that context. Casso’s crazy as a fucking loon. The government wouldn’t have dropped the case if they had anything.’
“When Tommy called and told me what he had and asked me to get involved, I hesitated. Before I committed myself to this I needed to get my father’s approval. That was critical for me. I needed him to be comfortable with the idea that I would be investigating cops. My father is my best friend, my mentor, and in my life it’s always been taboo to hunt cops. I’ve steered clear of it for twenty-nine years; this was going to be the first time. But this…this was so far over the line. I told him, ‘If they didn’t do it,that’ll play out, but if they did these things there’s no way they should be able to just walk away from it. I don’t know that anybody’ll be able to put together something a prosecutor will deem court-worthy, but it’s something I want to do.’
“My father told me it was something I had to do. He was a great cop and if this was true, he wanted these guys to pay. He gave me his blessing.”
Ponzi had already had a small taste of the case. After the mob found out that Frankie Hydell was cooperating and killed him, Ponzi had run an internal investigation trying unsuccessfully to find the leak. So when Tommy told him about his conversation with Betty Hydell he immediately understood its relevance. It was a flimsy foundation on which to build a murder case against the two detectives, but it was a start. He owed it to his father, to himself, to every cop who had ever put on the uniform, to see where it went. “I’m in,” he said.
Ponzi quietly gave Tommy a tiny office with a desk, a phone, and a computer on the eighteenth floor. They were investigating cops, so nobody else knew about it. He and Tommy had the only keys. Even the cleaning staff wasn’t permitted to open the door.
Vecchione and Ponzi sat down to figure out how they’d work the investigation. Both men supervise relatively large departments. Vecchione runs the prosecutorial side of the Rackets unit; Ponzi is in charge of the investigative side of the entire DA’s office. This was a really unusual situation: As a chief Ponzi rarely had time to get personally involved in investigations. Vecchione was already in the midst of several major cases. “What do you think?” Ponzi asked.
“You kidding me?” Vecchione replied. “Of course we’re going to do this. I’m gonna do it myself. I’m going to try this case and put those two motherfuckers behind bars. What are you gonna do?”
Ponzi nodded firmly. “Let’s do this one.”
Dades’s team was now three strong. The strategy was pretty straightforward: Dades and Ponzi would handle the actual investigation; Vecchione would clear the legal path for them.
Mike Vecchione’s concern from the very beginning was how to keep this investigation on the state level rather than making a federal case out of it. That was going to be a little tricky, because they would need to get
“My dad was fairly close with both of them. One time Louis volunteered to fight in an exhibition boxing match. My father was his cornerman that night. Louis talked a good fight, but if he couldn’t knock out his opponent in the first thirty seconds he was finished. The guy he was fighting that night didn’t like him at all. He toyed with him. He just took him apart. In the dressing room they had to give Eppolito oxygen. But he still told people he won.
“I knew everything about the case before Tommy called me. I saved every newspaper that was ever written about Casso’s allegations. I talked to my father about it: ‘What do you think? You think it’s possible?’
“My father didn’t know. ‘You know what, I don’t know them like that. I just can’t fathom them in that context. Casso’s crazy as a fucking loon. The government wouldn’t have dropped the case if they had anything.’
“When Tommy called and told me what he had and asked me to get involved, I hesitated. Before I committed myself to this I needed to get my father’s approval. That was critical for me. I needed him to be comfortable with the idea that I would be investigating cops. My father is my best friend, my mentor, and in my life it’s always been taboo to hunt cops. I’ve steered clear of it for twenty-nine years; this was going to be the first time. But this…this was so far over the line. I told him, ‘If they didn’t do it,that’ll play out, but if they did these things there’s no way they should be able to just walk away from it. I don’t know that anybody’ll be able to put together something a prosecutor will deem court-worthy, but it’s something I want to do.’
“My father told me it was something I had to do. He was a great cop and if this was true, he wanted these guys to pay. He gave me his blessing.”
Ponzi had already had a small taste of the case. After the mob found out that Frankie Hydell was cooperating and killed him, Ponzi had run an internal investigation trying unsuccessfully to find the leak. So when Tommy told him about his conversation with Betty Hydell he immediately understood its relevance. It was a flimsy foundation on which to build a murder case against the two detectives, but it was a start. He owed it to his father, to himself, to every cop who had ever put on the uniform, to see where it went. “I’m in,” he said.
Ponzi quietly gave Tommy a tiny office with a desk, a phone, and a computer on the eighteenth floor. They were investigating cops, so nobody else knew about it. He and Tommy had the only keys. Even the cleaning staff wasn’t permitted to open the door.
Vecchione and Ponzi sat down to figure out how they’d work the investigation. Both men supervise relatively large departments. Vecchione runs the prosecutorial side of the Rackets unit; Ponzi is in charge of the investigative side of the entire DA’s office. This was a really unusual situation: As a chief Ponzi rarely had time to get personally involved in investigations. Vecchione was already in the midst of several major cases. “What do you think?” Ponzi asked.
“You kidding me?” Vecchione replied. “Of course we’re going to do this. I’m gonna do it myself. I’m going to try this case and put those two motherfuckers behind bars. What are you gonna do?”
Ponzi nodded firmly. “Let’s do this one.”
Dades’s team was now three strong. The strategy was pretty straightforward: Dades and Ponzi would handle the actual investigation; Vecchione would clear the legal path for them.
Mike Vecchione’s concern from the very beginning was how to keep this investigation on the state level rather than making a federal case out of it. That was going to be a little tricky, because they would need to get
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