Retail Gangster by Gary Weiss

Author:Gary Weiss [WEISS, GARY]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Hachette Books
Published: 2022-08-24T00:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER EIGHTEEN

RAOUL LIONEL FELDER WAS THE MOST FEARED LAWYER IN NEW YORK—but only if you were getting divorced and only if he was representing the other side. If he chose to represent you, it was likely that you or your spouse was wealthy, famous, or both and that your case rose above the ordinary muck and mire of matrimonial practice. “You’re Rich? Not Boring? He’ll Take Your Case,” proclaimed a flattering Newsday profile in January 1987. He was the “courtier of rich, unhappily wed New Yorkers.” He and his law partner and wife, Myrna Felder, represented a host of 1980s celebrities, socialites, and their spouses. Mrs. Carl Sagan, Mrs. Roone Arledge, and Brian De Palma were on his client list. More important than any of them from Debbie Antar’s perspective was a non-celebrity. Her name was Nancy Capasso, and she was wife of a mob associate and contractor named Carl “Andy” Capasso.

The Capassos have long since faded into history, but the drama of Andy and Nancy and related rogues and ruffians was a 1980s tabloid sensation. At the pinnacle of this tower of slime was the Miss America for 1945. In the intervening years, Bess Myerson had morphed from symbol of Jewish resilience in the wake of the Holocaust, gaining the beauty pageant crown at the end of World War II, to 1980s object of derision. She attained the latter status during her tenure as cultural affairs commissioner under Mayor Ed Koch. The scandal surrounding Myerson was one of many that beset the latter stages of the Koch administration, but it was easily the most lurid. Myerson had an affair with Capasso, causing his marriage to fall apart. While the divorce was pending, Myerson gave a job to the daughter of the judge who was hearing the case, who then dramatically cut Capasso’s alimony and child support. It was as much of a conflict of interest as one could imagine, but in the Koch years such things had a way of being swept under the rug. The Felders were instrumental in sweeping the “Bess Mess” to where it belonged, in the public spotlight, after they were retained by Mrs. Capasso.

Nancy Capasso’s plight was strikingly similar to Deborah Antar’s—a victimized spouse overwhelmed by a cheating, abusive, deceitful, wealthy husband and ill-served by the judicial system. Still “in shock over his [Eddie’s] betrayal,” Debbie hired the Felders sometime in January 1987, a few weeks after Eddie’s all-night tantrum. By retaining these superstar lawyers, Debbie had taken a step that was intolerable to her ex-husband.

Though Crazy Eddie was as public as a company could be, Eddie himself was averse to publicity. His credo had long been “in obscurity there is security.” This meant that as far as Eddie was concerned, the Felders were the lawyers from hell. Raoul Felder was known for using tabloid exposure to extract favorable settlements for his clients. It “might be called the Felder gambit, after its acknowledged master.” And Myrna Felder, a scrappy Brooklyn native like Raoul, was an expert in tax law and investments.

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