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steveneaklor-21731
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Law & Order: Criminal Intent: Unchained (2005)
Drawn from headlines
This is an interesting episode, like most of those from the Law & Order franchise taking their inspiration from true incidents. This one is pretty clearly based on the real-life "Mafia Cops" who did hits for the Luchesse crime family back in the 80's. "Mark Virgini" is, Louis Eppolito and."Albert Kirkoff" is based on Stephen Caracappa. The character of "Peter Taglioti," the mobster who pays Virgini and Kirkoff, is most likely based on Anthony "Gaspipe" Casso, the underboss of the Luchesse family who had Eppolito and Caracappa on his payroll. The writers even included the incident in which the dirty cops killed the wrong guy, something which actually happened.
For me, the interest in this episode is in following the storyline, noting the points which are similar to real-life events and also noting the liberties taken and the deviations from the actual events - how the writers took the "McGuffin" - two NYPD cops on the Mafia's payroll - and created what is essentially a new story from it.
As a trivia note, the real "Mark Virgini" - former NYPD cop Louis Eppolito - has a bit part in the movie "Goodfellas." He's introduced as "Mo Black's brother, Fat Andy" early in the movie when Henry Hill is showing and naming all the wiseguys he had come to know.