A former postal worker who spent 18 years in prison for a murder he didn't commit won the largest personal settlement the city has ever agreed to pay: $9.9 million. Thanks to the Innocence Project, Barry Gibbs was set free in 2005 after prosecutors' key witness admitted that Detective Louis Eppolito had forced him pick Gibbs out of a line up, even though the man he'd seen was smaller and shorter. Eppolito and his partner Stephen Caracappa are in prison for life for taking part in mob-related killings and doing other dirty work for the Luchese crime family. more ›

Bizarre: A book claims that a hitman was actually dispatched to the Hamptons home interviewer Charlie Rose, who shares the same name as a prosecutor with the same name. The Post has that scoop from Friends of the Family, a book about convicted "Mafia Cops" Louis Eppolito and Stephen Caracappa, who were sentenced to life for helping the mob carry out hits while working for the NYPD. Eppolito and Caracappa allegedly "gave bad information to their benefactor, Luchese underboss Anthony 'Gaspipe' Casso...[who] was furious with Mafia-busting prosecutor Charles Rose, believing that Rose embarrassed him by leaking a story about Casso having killed his former architect for having an affair with the mobster's wife." The hitman apparently left because TV's Rose never showed up and Casso was arrested before he could off Rose the prosecutor (Rose died in 1998 of cancer). When the Post told the talk show host, Rose, whose close calls involve self-inflicted injuries from saving his gadgets, said, "It's a surprise it's all new to me." more ›

While the two former cops convicted of carrying out murders for the mafia were sentenced to life in prison yesterday, the two men will continue to receive thousands of dollars each month in pensions. Since Stephen Caracappa and Louis Eppolito were charged with their crimes after retiring in the early '90s, their families will continue to receive the pensions, which cannot even be seized and used towards the millions in fines they have to pay as part of their sentence. Yael Perlman, the daughter of a gem dealer killed by the pair, said yesterday, "That's sick." Attempts to overturn the statutes that are paying out pensions to 450 corrupt officials have gone nowhere. Last year City Councilman David Yassky said, "It's a world that rewards people who lie, cheat, steal, take bribes, betray the public trust and embezzle public funds." more ›

Nearly three years after being convicted, former cops Louis Eppolito and Stephen Caracappa were sentenced to life in prison for carrying out eight murders for the mafia. more ›