On February 10, 1986, 34-year-old Israel Greenwald, a respected diamond dealer, left his home in Far Rockaway, Queens, New York, for work and was never seen by his family again. A devoted husband and the father of two young girls, Greenwald's sudden disappearance left his family in a state of agonizing uncertainty for nearly two decades. For nineteen years, his wife and daughters grappled with the unknown, facing financial hardship and the emotional torment of not knowing his fate. The family's life was upended, they lost their home and the children had to change schools multiple times. The prevailing narrative was that of a man who had vanished without a trace, leaving a void filled with unanswered questions and rumors.
The truth behind Israel Greenwald's disappearance was far more sinister than his family could have imagined. He was the victim of a targeted abduction and murder orchestrated by organized crime. Greenwald had been unwittingly drawn into a fraudulent bond scheme by a friend and was later pressured by authorities to cooperate in their investigation. Fearing that Greenwald would become an informant, figures within the Lucchese crime family hired two corrupt NYPD detectives, Louis Eppolito and Stephen Caracappa, to silence him. On the morning he went missing, Eppolito and Caracappa used their police credentials to pull Greenwald over in his car, falsely accusing him of a hit-and-run. They then kidnapped him, taking him to a garage in Brooklyn where he was brutally murdered. His body was buried in a makeshift grave under the concrete floor of the garage, hidden for years.
For nineteen agonizing years, the case remained cold. A breakthrough finally came in 2005 when an informant, Burt Kaplan, confessed to his role in the murder and led the FBI to the Brooklyn garage where Greenwald's remains were unearthed. The discovery of his body, with two bullet wounds to the skull, brought a painful but necessary closure to his family. In April 2006, Louis Eppolito and Stephen Caracappa, who became known as the "Mafia Cops," were convicted for their roles in a racketeering conspiracy that included Greenwald's murder and seven others. They were subsequently sentenced to life in prison, where they both eventually died. The case of Israel Greenwald is a harrowing story of a beloved family man whose life was tragically cut short by a nexus of organized crime and profound police corruption, and the long and arduous journey his family endured in their quest for truth and justice. In 2015, the city of New York reached a $5 million settlement with the Greenwald family in a wrongful-death lawsuit.
Last Seen: Feb 10, 1986
