“Protect, Serve, and Sometimes Betray”: A Review of “Blood and the Badge”

Written by Jonuel Martinez. Photographed by Jonuel Martinez.

Michael Cannell talks about new research on one of the NYPD’s most shocking cases in history in his new book, Blood and the Badge.

“These events happened a long time ago. A lot of these people are dead. This is sort of a part of history now.”

On Feb. 7, author Michael Cannell arrived at the Savannah Book Festival to showcase his true-crime book, his fifth nonfiction work overall, Blood and the Badge: The Mafia, Two Killer Cops, and a Scandal That Shocked the Nation. Cannell unearthed the full story of one of the darkest and most grisly cases in the NYPD’s history, when two ruthless New York cops acted as double agents for the mafia.

Within Trinity United Methodist Church’s pristine white walls and red-carpeted floor, audience members chuckled as Cannell broke a momentary silence with a congregation-related joke as he took center stage. Using a flat-screen TV connected to a portable stand beside him, Cannell began his prepared slideshow presentation with a photo of a classified ad from 1986 that read: “Angry? What makes you angry? I’m making a film about anger. Please call 976-5757.” The ad caught the attention of more than 200 people, who were then whittled down to seven interviewees. One interviewee was decorated New York City detective Louis Eppolito, one of the double agents for the mafia.

“Let’s just watch a moment of the interview with him,” Cannell said. He played a minute-long video clip in which Eppolito discussed his 17-year career. In the clip, Eppolito mentioned earning two Medals of Honor and two Medals of Merit. He said he had been in seven gun battles on New York streets, stood alone when the Black Liberation Army was killing cops, endured 44 shots fired at him and showed no fear throughout it all. But one morning, Eppolito woke up to a call asking whether he had seen the Daily News. When he checked the newspaper’s headline, he said what he saw made him sick: “Mob big got data from cop.” Eppolito was accused of passing a police file to an Italian mobster after his fingerprints were found on the file.

From there, Cannell spent much of his time summarizing the book’s plot. In the 1980s, two NYPD officers acted as double agents for the mafia, with one mob boss referring to them as his “crystal ball” — leaking crucial information, including impending arrests, tapped phones and the whereabouts of confidential informants. The two officers helped stage eight mob hits, and both men pulled the trigger themselves at least once. Drawing from previous investigative journalism and new research, including never-before-released interviews, Blood and the Badge shows how deep and brutal the case was. The book crafts what Cannell calls a “complicated story,” with the narrative jumping back and forth between timelines, yet it is delivered in an organized and compelling way. By doing so, it allows readers to understand the full scope of the crimes committed and who was involved.

As Cannell explained parts of the story, he showed images and clips through his slideshow presentation, ranging from crime scenes and mugshots of mobsters to correctional institutions and Eppolito promoting his memoir, “Mafia Cop,” on a live talk show.

Cannell spent extensive time reviewing legal documents and conducting new interviews with former detectives involved in the case. He also included quotes from judges, lawyers and victims’ families. But it wasn’t just law enforcement that provided insight.

“I did speak to some mobsters,” Cannell said.

Cannell directly dealt with organized crime members, including Sammy “The Bull” Gravano, who was the target of an unsuccessful hit by the two officers. Using his previous experience as a journalist, he gained the trust of the mobsters he interviewed, even becoming friendly with one or two, and persuaded them to share information. Cannell also gathered details about a former mafia underboss featured prominently in the book, who was responsible for paying the two officers to reveal sensitive information and ordering the hits they were involved in. Cannell showed a brief clip of an interview with the underboss from “60 Minutes,” in which he described personally carrying out a hit, saying he shot the victim “maybe 10 times, 12 times.”

As Cannell’s talk came to a close, he showed one final clip: a trailer for the book created by a friend. The audience was entranced as a montage of New York street footage, photos of criminals, newspaper headlines, police sirens and guns filled the screen with dramatized narration.

“Cannell’s Blood and the Badge is a stark, unflinching account of those sworn to protect, serve and sometimes betray.”