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I Dug the Grave, He Testifies

Posted on: Wednesday, 29 March 2006, 12:00 CST

By Anthony M. Destefano, Newsday, Melville, N.Y.

Mar. 29--For nearly 20 years, Peter Franzone kept his terrible secret. Yesterday, the laborer from Flatbush told the whole world about digging graves and burying bodies at the behest of others.

Testifying in the "Mafia Cops" racketeering trial, Franzone said he was forced to bury a man killed in a gangland slaying and indicated that one of the defendants - former NYPD detective Louis Eppolito - may have been an accessory to the killing.

Speaking in a low voice that betrayed no emotion, Franzone, who is in the witness protection program, told a Brooklyn federal court jury how he was coerced into digging a grave 5-feet deep in a garage space he owned and was ordered later to move another corpse for disposal elsewhere. In both incidents, Franzone said, Eppolito had driven into the parking area as other men arrived.

Franzone, 56, testified that Frank Santoro Jr., Eppolito's mob associate cousin, forced him to bury the body of a man he described as "Jewish," who had been escorted onto the premises sometime in 1985 or 1986. The man, who prosecutors maintain was jeweler Israel Greenwald, was brought to Franzone's combination parking lot and body shop facility by Santoro and another man. Eppolito had driven onto the property moments before the other three men walked to the location, Franzone said.

Eppolito, 57, and his former partner, Stephen Caracappa, 64, are accused of taking part in eight gangland murders, including that of Greenwald in February 1986, for the Luchese crime family. Eppolito also is accused of taking part in the killing of Pasquale Varriale, the other man whose body allegedly was at the parking lot.

Franzone, under questioning by Assistant U.S. Attorney Robert Henoch, did not say that Eppolito killed anyone. Prosecutors, drawing out Franzone's description of Eppolito's proximity to the homicide scenes, are seeking to make the case that the former NYPD detective was an accessory to the crimes.

Franzone said that one of the two men who escorted the man believed to be Greenwald onto the property was tall, with a moustache and a face that was pockmarked on the right side.

About a half-hour later, Franzone said Santoro forced him, under pain of death, to bury the Jewish man's corpse.

"If I didn't help him, they would kill me and my -- family," Franzone said Santoro told him.

Franzone said he used a shovel, as Santoro watched, to dig a hole in one of the garage spaces he rented at 2232 Nostrand Ave. After the man's body was pushed into the ditch, Santoro first poured lime on the corpse and then wet cement, Franzone said. The hole was filled in.

In a second incident involving Santoro, Franzone said he was asked to lift a wrapped body into the trunk of a car. Investigators say the corpse was that of Varriale, who was killed after Eppolito allegedly tipped off the mob that Varriale was an informant.

Franzone said he didn't know the identity of the man he helped bury. The FBI unearthed Greenwald's body in April at the Nostrand Avenue location from beneath the garage floor. Franzone said he was afraid to tell police about what happened because he was afraid of Eppolito and Santoro. Santoro died in 1987.

"Who would believe me, what I did with a police officer?" Franzone said. "I figured he [Eppolito] would kill me, lock me up and have somebody else kill me."

On cross-examination by Caracappa's attorney, Ed Hayes, Franzone insisted that one of the men who escorted the Jewish man before his death had a pockmarked face and a hooked nose.

Caracappa, who is lean and stands under 6 feet tall, has smooth skin and a straight nose. Eppolito is short and heavy.

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Copyright (c) 2006, Newsday, Melville, N.Y.

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Source: Newsday, Melville, N.Y.

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