Mob Cops, directed by Danny A. Abeckaser, has an interesting premise, but it is never able to harness its full potential. The film seems like a collection of snippets from mafia films over the ages. Mob Cops lacks originality, and it just isn’t able to impact you, entertain you, or even keep you hooked the way it wants to.
Spoiler Alert
Is The Film Based on a True story?
Mob Cops takes inspiration from real-life NYPD officers Stephen Caracappa (called Sammy Canzano in the film) and Louis Eppolito (called Leo Benetti in the film), who were arrested back in 2005 and sentenced to life imprisonment. The film had taken some creative liberties, changed the names of characters, and also dramatized the events so as to make the narrative more engaging. That said, the creators have made sure to capture the essence of the events that shook American society and brought the corruption in the system to the limelight.
As shown in Mob Cops, these two officers were like errand boys of the mafia family, though over a period of time they started to give themselves a lot of importance and believe that they were indispensable. And they were involved in all kinds of illegal activities. They worked primarily for the Lucchese and Gambino crime families, and eventually the term mafia cops was coined for them. Eppolito did author a book titled Mafia Cop: The Story of an Honest Cop Whose Family Was the Mob, where he stated why he left the NYPD and tried to prove his innocence. Eppolito did love the spotlight, and he harbored dreams of making it big in Hollywood, something that was shown towards the Mob Cops’ ending. The man met the great Joe Pesci and had cameos in films like Goodfellas. Both Eppolito and Caracappa were living in Las Vegas before they were arrested in 2005. While Caracappa succumbed to his illness in 2017, Eppolito passed away in 2019 in the United States Penitentiary Tucson.
Was Josh dead or alive?
In Mob Cops’ beginning, Tim Delgado, who was a detective, went to meet Bridget, who had one son, Phil, killed by the mob, while the other, Josh, had been missing for a very long time. Delgado carried the guilt of not being able to do anything to help Bridget. He knew that she was a good woman and that she didn’t deserve that kind of life. Bridget had made peace with the fact that Phil had died. She had given him a proper burial, and she felt that at least his soul was at peace. What kept Bridget up at night was the fact that she didn’t know what had happened to Josh. That uncertainty was eating her alive. Her heart told her that he was alive, but she couldn’t do anything about it. Delgado promised her that he would get to the root of the matter and find her boy for her. Delgado and his colleague Jesse Polino were looking into the case of Johnny “the Wrench” Galiano. They knew that the key to Josh’s disappearance and the answers to the many questions that had haunted the law enforcement authorities lay in his case file. Also, everybody knew that the two infamous NYPD cops, Leo Benetti and Sammy Canzano, were involved in all sorts of illegitimate activities, and that they worked closely with Galiano and his right-hand man, Ben Sherman. Polino and Delgado went to talk to Galiano in the prison, and apart from information about what Benetti and Canzano did back in the day, they also got to know that Josh Hughes, the missing son of Bridget, had been killed by Galiano. When Josh started working for the mafia, his mother knew that his actions would have consequences. Josh is one of the three people who made an attempt on Galiano’s life back in the day. Galiano had survived, and he had taken a vow to kill all those who orchestrated the hit. Galiano got Josh captured, with Benetti and Canzano’s help, and then tortured him for days before finally killing him. Josh’s last request was to return his dead body to his mother so that she could claim the insurance money, but Galiano didn’t feel it was necessary for him to carry out his wish. Josh had messed with the wrong kind of people, and the worst part was that, by doing so, he made his mother’s life miserable. The poor lady was left alone to mourn the loss of her two boys, and she was left thinking about what she could have done differently in order to save them.
What secrets did Ben reveal?
Surprisingly, Galiano gave up all this information to Delgado and Polino without much of a hassle. He was a sociopath, and he just wanted to take down everybody else with him. Ben Sherman used to be his right-hand man, but Galiano didn’t even bat an eye before telling the detectives about all he had done in the past. Delgado and Polino knew that in order to prove Benetti and Canzano’s guilt in the court, they needed other big players to testify as well, since they couldn’t prove anything based on Galiano’s testimony alone. So Delgado and Polino went to meet Sherman, who made it very clear that he was not going to help the cops. But then Delgado told Sherman how Galiano threw him under the bus even when they had worked together for years. Sherman was the kind of man who knew how to be in control of his temper, but when he heard about what Galiano did, he decided to teach him a lesson. Sherman told Delgado and Polino everything, and they were ecstatic, and his testimony matched that of Galiano word for word.
How did Delgado trap Leo Benetti?
Galiano had testified, and so had Sherman. Delgado wanted to put the last nail in the coffin by laying a trap for Leo Benetti and catching him red-handed. Benetti and Canzano started out as errand boys, leaking information to the mafia, earning a side income, and not taking too many risks. But over a period of time, their greed grew. Canzano and Benetti asked Sherman to keep them on the payroll and pay them extra money over that fixed amount in case of any additional demands. The biggest mistake that Benetti made was that he had a high estimation of himself, and he considered himself to be indispensable. Canzano was the more sensible of the two, and time and again he tried warning Benetti. But Benetti didn’t listen, as his greed knew no limit. I believe things changed drastically after the hit on Carmine Avara. Benetti and Canzano were paid a hefty sum of $70,000 for the job, and after that there was no turning back for them. It was not like they hadn’t killed anybody before, but Carmine was a big fish, probably the biggest of them all. There was a time after Josh’s death when Canzano and Benetti both felt guilty. A young boy had been murdered, and they had played their part in it. But after a point in time, they were able to bury their conscience rather easily. So Benetti had written a book, and by the time Delgado set a trap for him, he had also done some small roles in Hollywood films. Canzano made Benetti aware that his desire to be in the spotlight would cost them their lives. He told him that they had everything they could ask for and that they should stay low and not attract too much attention. But Benetti took all the advice in from one ear and let it out from the other. Delgado firstly made one of his men give a call to Leo, pretending to be a big Hollywood producer. Benetti was told that a film was going to be made based on the novel that he had written and that the producer wanted to meet him in person. Benetti was ecstatic, and so was his entire family; they felt that he was going to be the next big thing in Hollywood. Canzano obviously wasn’t happy about whatever Benetti had done. He made it explicitly clear that he didn’t want his name in the film. But he didn’t have control over Benetti, and he knew that such was his hunger for fame that he would do anything to be in the spotlight. So Benetti met the fake producer, and he told him everything about his past. Benetti was over the moon when Delgado’s man told him that the film was going to win an Oscar for sure. Benetti had no clue that he had dug his own grave. Delgado knew he had struck gold. He knew with the information he had he could reopen Galiano’s case and get Canzano and Benetti convicted.
In Mob Cops’ ending, Delgado and his men arrested Canzano and Benetti, after which they were found guilty of various crimes by the court in 2009. Benetti tried telling the cops who he was, but Canzano knew that the man had signed their death warrant, and nothing could be done from there. Delgado went to Bridget once again at the end of Mob Cops, and he told her that Canzano and Benetti had been arrested. He told her that Josh had been killed and that she wouldn’t be able to find his dead body. Bridget was hurt; her hope that she might see her son once again was killed, but at least she got her closure. Probably Delgado, too, would stop blaming himself for Phil’s death and move on with his life. Phil was Delgado’s informant, and he later felt that it was his responsibility to keep him safe. He wasn’t able to do that, and for a very long time he felt that he was not capable enough to be a cop. Getting Benetti and Canzano arrested was important to him. He knew that that was the only way he could get rid of his guilt and prove to himself that he was worthy of being a cop. More importantly, the arrest of two ex-NYPD officers proved that nobody was above the law, and it reinstated people’s faith in the law enforcement authorities.
