Las Vegas/New York City – Like the bit movie roles Louis Eppolito played and the designer suit samples Stephen Caracappa wore, their jobs as NYPD detectives were an act, authorities say, a veneer that cloaked a secret sideline as Mafia executioners.

Eppolito, a colorful, knock-around, central-casting Brooklyn Italian whose relatives were in the mob, had the connections to the underworld and played the tough guy on screen and in real life.

The quiet, somber Caracappa was the more superior sleuth and had access to confidential, high-level information about NYPD investigations.