Burton Kaplan
PER
Kaplan Burton Kaplan
The witness, Burton Kaplan, an aging marijuana dealer, testified that after his arrest in 1996 on drug and tax evasion charges, against Mr. Eppolito, 57, and Mr. Caracappa, 64. Mr. Kaplan described how, on the day of his arrest, a parade of 20 to 25 investigators from different agencies courted his cooperation. He never said a word at the Manhattan office of the Drug Enforcement Administration, adding that the scene was just the start of an eight-year attempt to win his cooperation against the two men. It was not until Mr. Kaplan was convicted of narcotics smuggling in 1997, tried to appeal the verdict by blaming his lawyers, and then served nine years in federal prison that he agreed to cooperate, a decision for which he has repeatedly flailed himself throughout the trial. Burton Kaplan, who was the witness, an aging marijuana dealer, testified that after his arrest on drug and tax evasion charges the government was willing to go to any length to make him crack and come on board to provide information against Mr. Eppolito, who was 57, and Mr. Caracappa, who was 64. The two men are accused of working under Mr. Kaplan's direction while they were detectives to commit at least eight murders, seven of them for Anthony Casso, the second man in the Luchese crime family. Mr. Kaplan said in the unschooled accent that he did not fight as good as he could, he said in the unschooled accent he has used throughout the trial.