The trial of two former NYPD Detectives accused of being mafia hitmen has just begun, and already things have turned towards the bizarre. Mostly because at the center of the trial is a memoir published way back in 1992 by Louis J. Eppolito, one of the defendants in the case (along with his former partner Stephen Caracappa) and its contents are being used to build Eppolito's defense that he is, as the book jacket says, an "honest cop whose family was the mob":

Once the trial began, the chief witness in its Brooklyn phase was revealed to be an old, arthritic marijuana dealer with a talent for "diversionary driving" and subsidiary interests in African diamonds and stolen leisure suits. The chief witness in the trial's Las Vegas phase was a disgraced, pomaded C.P.A. with a taste for gambling and bruschetta. He moved through the city surreptitiously recording members of its underworld - a sort of Studs Terkel of Las Vegas crime.

Both men testified that Mr. Eppolito gave them signed copies of "Mafia Cop," which has been mentioned at the trial almost every day. It contains the germ of the government's dispute with its author - his claim that he broke with the mobsters in his past. It contains the seeds of his defense - that he is not a killer but a writer, a man who "makes things up, creates," as his lawyer said.

The memoir, long out-of-print, has been reissued by Simon & Schuster's paperback imprint Pocket Star with a cover line that reads, "The book by the ex-N.Y.P.D. detective whose recent arrest for multiple counts of murder made national headlines."

And what's Eppolito's reaction to the news? "I don't get residuals," he said on Thursday. "I don't get anything from that book."