James "Jimmy The Clam" Eppolito

Hey guys just wanted to start a disscusion about the Eppolito family.Dont remmember it being on the forum before.
Anyway other than whats online and in the Mobster docu abouth his nephew Louie Eppolito,what is really known abouth Jimmy the clam and his brother?Remmember reading that he was the capo in the Gambino familly but than he shows up in Nino Gaggis crew.Was he broke down to just a soldier or what?And where did his crew fit in in the Gambino familly?
Also I know they owned a bar called the Grand mark at the corner of Grand ave and st marks place in brooklyn.Heres a rare footage with louie in the talk show..Thanks everybody.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IEdccpFAllg

Interesting thread. The bar they owned was indeed called the Grand Mark, it was in the Bed Stuy section of brooklyn. That neighborhood was already mostly black, the Grand Mark catered to the neighborhood's hustlers and gamblers. Lou's father Ralph, aka Fat the Gangster, was not made he was only an associate but he still knew alot of people on the street. They had another brother Freddie who drank himself to death. Jimmy the clam's demise came when his son tried to commit some type of fraud on the vice president I believe and was even photographed in Washington DC with some prominent policitians. Jimmy would not let his son get hit, so the two of them had to go.

Yeah, good stuff. And if anyone wants to read the rest of the story, it can be found right here, where everything else in this post came from.



If that fat pig egomaniac never wrote this pile of fucking garbage, he'd probably still be in Vegas right now. Well, maybe not Eppolito because he's the more criminal minded of the two, so he may have gotten arrested on some other petty bullshit. But Caracappa would be living a Hell of a retirement with all the cash he probably stole and stashed away over the years.

Scumbags. Eppolito's in Phoenix and Caracappa's at Coleman. Yet Vinny Basciano is still in SuperMax. Two public service homicides versus two guys who killed a dozen people and were paid to protect and serve the people. Some justice system .

Is Jimmy Marcello the only other mob guy in the Supermax? IMO, only guys like Casso and the psychopathic types need to be locked up there.

Yeah louie and the other guy were scumbags,I was really more interested in his uncles and father...Read in that book that they had numbers,bookmaking and loan sharking all over central Brooklyn.The lived in Pigtown,BK...Dont know about how he was a capo or what not

The eppolito murders in 1979 were a pretty crazy incident. Obviously Jimmy and hsi son were having issues with Gaggi and both parties went to Paul to ask to kill the other. Unfortunetly for Jimmy Eppolito Paul sided with Nino. Nino and Roy killed them then Nino got into a shootout with a cop and was hit in the neck i believe

I never claimed I was there boss you need to get over it and stop trolling my posts.

It all started with the Jimmy Carter political thing. Everything that happened from there on out was just an excuse to hit the guy.

The Genovese family inarguably had the strongest political ties from Day One (the '30s). But by the '70s, you should have known that getting your picture taken at such an event was suicide, no matter which family you were in.

This has nothing to do with politics, but I think it's relevant to the topic. Now, everyone here remembers the infamous picture of Sinatra with the Gambinos and several other wiseguys at the Westchester Premiere Theatre, right?

Well, there were at least four high-ranking Westside guys in the room that night who said, "Thank you but, no thank you," to being in the photo. They knew better. And to his credit, if Carlo Gambino wasn't so old and getting a little feeble minded at the time, I doubt he would have taken part in it either.

I thought you were a street guy?

By the looks of it, the Eppolito brothers were part of Johnny Robilotto´s crew and came up under him. But they were also the main suspects in his killing. Freddy Eppolito took over from Robilotto as crew leader. If memory serves, Freddy was indicted in the early 1960s for narcotics peddling and demoted. Apperently, he fell into a deep depression and drunk himself to death. His brother Jimmy then took over the crew but the crew was merged with Castellano´s in late 1960s.

Merged with Pauls crew,who were the soldiers in Jimmy s crew that merged with Paul?do you know?
P.S. knew HK was gonna pull thru.

johnny roberts was killed on the sneak, good guy very well liked..

That's what I heard that he was very well liked and guys under him were very loyal to him. If it wasn't for that guy in Jersey (who later became a state trooper) ratting him out then Roberts would probably have a long run.

john robliotto was originally around the Genovese family. His proposal for membership was nixed because his brother was a cop.
He got with the Gambinos by endearing himself to Al Anastasia and killing Willie Morreti for him.
Don't know about being hit on the sneak...He was supposedly hit because of his support for Anastasia and to squash any discontent following the Anastasia hit in 57. He was knocked in 58. Tommy Rava in late 57. This effectively finished any would be opposition to Carlo Gambino as new boss. Everyone else who had issue with it (Dellacroce) fell into line

I don't think Freddy Eppolito was actually indicted on the drug charges. He was involved in what would later become the French connection. He was picked up, questioned but not charged leading to speculation he was talking but avoiding being charged. This is when the hit was put on him and he drank himself to death.
I've seen a couple of references to him being at Appalachian but he doesn't show up on the official lists of mobsters charged for attending. Anyone have any info on this...maybe as a driver for higher ups?

hello Dimaggio, are you sure who was killed first? i thought roberts was killed first/

Supposedly they(Jimmy and his son) were on 60 minutes with the children's fund scam..I would like to see it if its out there. Couldn't find anything myself

Anastasia was hit October 1957
Tommy Rava last seen Nov.14 1957
Johnny Roberts hit Sept.7 1958

Freddy Eppolito died in 1963. Don't know what month.
and Ralph "Fat the Gangster" Eppolito 1968.

DiMaggio,do you know wich soldiers were under him?

Robilotto was killed first (Sept 1958). Rava wasn't killed until after that in Florida.

Correct, jimmy was a captain and put with nino when he was taken down..jimmy jr. was not well liked hence not being made. nino , roy and pete 17 were driving them to their death jimmy realized it and said pullover i have to take a leak.. the rest is history