"Sopranos" And "Boardwalk Empire" Writer Terence Winter Has A New Project In The Works About The Notorious "Mob Cops"
Major news coming out of the world of TV over the weekend.
We all love "The Sopranos." It's arguably the greatest TV show ever made. One of the main components of the show was the tremendous work of executive producer Terence Winter. Winter won multiple Emmys for his work on 25 episodes of the show including what many consider the greatest episode, "Pine Barrens." He also wrote one of my personal favorite episodes, "Long Term Parking." Winter has also done movies such as "The Wolf Of Wall Street" where he was nominated by the Academy Awards for best Adapted Screen Play. I'm not gonna lie though, his best work may have been with "Boardwalk Empire" which he produced and wrote entirely.
Advertisement
The legend of this guy and what he's done is extremely impressive. He's now working on a big project that I'm really excited about. I've always been captivated by the mob genre and organized crime, so not only do we have the "Sopranos" movie to be excited about but…
According to the NY Post, Winter is working on adapting and writing a true crime series involving one of the most interesting stories in mob history, "The Mafia Cops," about Louis Eppolito and Stephen Caracappa. These two may be the most corrupt police in the history of the country.
Now a lot of you don't know this but I moonlight as a mob historian and these two are fascinating. Basically they both became police officers in the 1970s. Eppolito came from a family that was involved with the mob including his father and uncles which should have precluded him from being in the academy. Caracappa had convictions on his record and also shouldn't have been hired but at the time New York City had a major crime problem and desperately needed officers. Eventually they became partners. Eppolito, through family connections, was introduced to a man called Burton Kaplan - a Jewish garment dealer with major mob connections who connected them with Lucchese family underboss Anthony Casso. It started with just giving info, then it became finding people for Casso and eventually committing full fledged crimes on behalf of the family as sworn officers. They then retired and both moved to Las Vegas, where one became obsessed with the spotlight (including being involved with the movie "Goodfellas" and writing a book, all of which brought major attention to cold cases he and his partner were involved in). They were publicized in a high profile case where both they pleaded that they were innocent, including this legendary lie job by Caracappa on 60 Minutes.
The project will be created largely by consultations from NY police detectives and prosecutors who were involved in uncovering the story and prosecuting the Mafia Cops. They also will even use mob rat Sammy "The Bull" Gravano for consulting as well. Sammy was a sworn enemy of Casso in the '80s.
According to the NY Post “It’s a privilege to tell the story of Tommy Dades, Mike Vecchione and Joe Ponzi — the good guys who brought them to justice,” Winter said.
I'm beyond excited for this. I've researched these guys for years and wondered if anyone would ever pick it up and turn it into something. I'm glad its going to be a tv show, too. Sometimes they rush and try to put too much into a two hour movie and it becomes watered down. This is going to be an incredible show. You have to assume from his previous projects that there is going to be some tremendous talent cast for these roles as well. I can't think of someone better to adapt, write and produce this story better than the great Terence Winter.