Despite being related to Grancio, Scarcella was assigned to the case — and he failed to make any arrests.
Disgraced former NYPD detective Louis Scarcella claimed that a murder by his mobster uncle Nicholas Graciano was a “public service killing.” Stefan Jeremiah
Murder victim John Aratico who was shot four times in the chest in 1982 near his home in Mapleton, Brooklyn.
On the podcast Scarcella said that by the time he was asked to investigate the case he had already been tipped off that his uncle was to blame.
“I’m interviewing my uncle as a suspect in this murder at his house. He said the kid was not a good kid,” Scarcella remarked.
When questioned if he asked his uncle if he killed Aratico, Scarcella said, “I don’t remember, maybe I don’t want to remember. I was prepared to go as far as I could go with the case and if Nicky killed him I had to lock him up. I don’t think Nicky would have a problem with that.”
“The motive was that he (Aratico) turned Nicky’s daughter onto drugs. I was never able to prove that but that was the scenario we were getting.”
The crooked cop was assigned to investigate the 1982 murder of John Aratico in Brooklyn, but didn’t make any arrests. Stefan Jeremiah for NY Post
The NYPD’s internal affairs bureau looked into the case and Scarcella claims that he came out of it “smelling like a rose.”
But the producers of the Burden, including veteran journalist and producer Steve Fishman, reviewed the internal report and key details were missing.
Scarcella even claimed he didn’t know his uncle was involved in organized crime.
Unsurprisingly, nobody was arrested in the end, not least because Scarcella was so sympathetic to his uncle.
“We had a phrase, unfortunately enough: public service murder. This fit the criteria,” Scarcella told the podcast.
Asked if the shooting of Aratico was a “public service murder,” Scarcella tried to walk it back.
“I’m not going to disrespect his family. I’m not going to disrespect him. But (with) regards to Nicky Black I’m sure he had that feeling. I’m sure he thinks he deserved to die,” he said.
But later in the episode, Scarcella says that he saw things from his uncle’s point of view.
If it was his daughter hooked on drugs, “I believe I would have probably did the same thing and just turned myself in,” he says.
Scarcella complains that “it’s very hard for me to call my uncle a murderer” — Graciano was shot dead in a mob killing in 1992.
“Alright he was a murderer, are you happy? It’s hard to do it,” Scarcella griped.
In his heyday in the 1980s and 90s, Scarcella was a cigar-smoking legend of the NYPD who was known as “The Closer” because he could get the confessions nobody else could.
By his count he solved at least 175 cases and helped with the same number again.
But in 2013 witnesses began to come forward to question his record and the Brooklyn District Attorney’s Office started reviewing his case history.
This piece of shit; is supposed to be in prison himself; for all of the evil he did sending innocent people to prison; I hope that the Karma get him as soon as possible….
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