Gregory Scarpa Sr. (May 8, 1928 – June 4, 1994), nicknamed the Grim Reaper and the Mad Hatter, was an American caporegime (captain) and hitman for the Colombo crime family of New York City, as well as an informant for the FBI. During the 1970s and 1980s, Scarpa was the chief enforcer and veteran hitman for Colombo boss Carmine Persico. He was sentenced to life imprisonment for three murders in 1993 and died the following year.
Biography Gregory Scarpa was born in New York City on May 8, 1928. His parents were Salvatore and Mary Scarpa, first-generation immigrants from the village of Lorenzaga of Motta di Livenza near Treviso, Italy. He was raised in the working-class neighborhood of Bensonhurst in Brooklyn. As a child living in the Great Depression, Scarpa helped his father deliver coal throughout the city. His older brother, Salvatore Jr., may have introduced Gregory to the Colombo crime family, which he reportedly joined in the 1950s.
During the 1950s, Scarpa married Connie Farace. She and Scarpa had one daughter and three sons, including Gregory Scarpa Jr., who followed his father into the Colombo family and eventually rose to the rank of caporegime (captain). Scarpa and his wife separated in 1973. He maintained a thirty-year extramarital relationship with girlfriend Linda Schiro, which resulted in two children."Squeeze Puts Squeeze On G-Man" by Pablo Guzman WCBS
Scarpa was a stylish dresser who routinely carried $5,000 in pocket money for purchases and bribes. He had use of an apartment on Manhattan's Sutton Place and owned homes in Brooklyn and Staten Island, as well as Las Vegas and Singer Island, Florida. His power, guile and brutality earned him the nickname the "Grim Reaper" and helped him escape prosecution for many years. Schiro later recalled that Scarpa would sometimes leave the numbers "666", the biblical number of the beast, on his victims' pagers.
Scarpa eventually became a captain in the Colombo family, as well as the proprietor of the Wimpy Boys Social Club. He was involved in illegal gambling, loansharking, extortion, hijacking, counterfeiting, assault, stock and bond thefts, narcotics and murder. Many of the highest-ranking members of the family in the early 21st century were originally members of Scarpa's crew."The Mafia, an F.B.I. Agent and Murder: Mr. Scorsese, Your Next Film Awaits" by Michael Brick New York Times
In March 1962, Scarpa was arrested for armed robbery. To avoid prosecution, he agreed to work as an undercover informant for the FBI, beginning a twenty-six-year relationship with the agency, with a five-year break between 1975 and 1980.
Recovery of the bodies of Chaney, Goodman, and Schwerner
In 1964, according to Schiro and other sources, FBI field agents in Mississippi recruited Scarpa to help them find missing civil rights workers Andrew Goodman, James Chaney and Michael Schwerner. The FBI was convinced the three men had been murdered, but could not find their bodies. In this narrative, agents thought that Scarpa, using illegal interrogation techniques the agents were not allowed to utilize, might succeed at gaining this information from suspects.
Once Scarpa arrived in Mississippi, local agents allegedly provided him with a gun and money to pay for information. Scarpa and an agent allegedly pistol-whipped and kidnapped Lawrence Byrd, a TV salesman and secret Klansman, from his store in Laurel and took him to Camp Shelby, a local United States Army base. At Shelby, Scarpa severely beat Byrd and stuck a gun down his throat. Byrd eventually revealed the location of the three men's bodies."Mob Solved 'Mississippi Burning' Murders?" ABC News
The FBI has never officially confirmed the Scarpa story. Though not necessarily contradicting the claim of his involvement in the matter, investigative journalist Jerry Mitchell and Illinois high school teacher Barry Bradford claimed that Mississippi highway patrolman Maynard King provided the grave locations to FBI agent Joseph Sullivan after obtaining the information from an anonymous third party.
In January 1966, Scarpa allegedly helped the FBI a second time in Mississippi on the murder case of Vernon Dahmer, who had been killed in a fire set by the Ku Klux Klan. After this second trip, Scarpa and the FBI had a sharp disagreement about his reward for these services. The agency dropped Scarpa as a confidential informant in 1975.
FBI informant In 1980, FBI agent Lindley DeVecchio became Scarpa's contact and handler and restarted his relationship with the FBI. Scarpa had refused contact with the Bureau for the previous five years, but DeVecchio persuaded him to cooperate again. Gregory Jr., Schiro and federal prosecutors later claimed that Scarpa had numerous illegal dealings with DeVecchio. He allegedly provided DeVecchio with cash, jewelry and other gifts along with information of questionable value on the Colombo family. In return, DeVecchio allegedly protected Scarpa from arrest and provided him with information about his factional rivals during the Third Colombo War.
Over the years, the FBI reportedly paid Scarpa $158,000 for his services. According to mob associates, he would joke about his "girlfriend", a female friend in law enforcement who gave him information. For ten years, DeVecchio met alone with Scarpa, often at an apartment or hotel room provided by the Bureau. DeVecchio was a frequent dinner guest at Scarpa's house and on one occasion received a hard-to-find Cabbage Patch doll from Scarpa as a gift. Some of DeVecchio's fellow agents were disturbed by his closeness to Scarpa and were soon reporting their suspicions to superiors."Who Handled Who" by John Connolly New York Magazine December 2, 1996 (Google Books)
In 1985, federal prosecutors indicted Scarpa for running a major credit card scam. After he pleaded guilty, prosecutors asked the court to give him a sizable fine and prison sentence. However, DeVecchio submitted a memo to the judge that listed all of Scarpa's purported contributions to the FBI's efforts against organized crime. The judge finally sentenced Scarpa to five years probation with no prison time and a $10,000 fine. Colombo family members were so surprised by Scarpa's light sentence that some started wondering if he was working for the government. "Mafia Son: The Scarpa Mob Family, the FBI, and a Story of Betrayal" By Sandra Harmon pp. 115–116 (Google Books)
HIV infection After having emergency ulcer surgery at Victory Memorial Hospital in Brooklyn in 1986, Scarpa received several blood donations from family members and associates. He had refused blood from the hospital blood bank. Scarpa eventually received blood from mobster Paul Mele, a bodybuilder, who was using injectable anabolic steroids. Mele had contracted HIV from a dirty needle and transmitted it to Scarpa in the blood transfusion.
Surgeons at Mount Sinai Hospital eventually removed Scarpa's stomach. On August 30, 1992, he received a $300,000 settlement in civil court from his first surgeon and Victory Memorial Hospital for negligence. As Scarpa's illness progressed to AIDS, he and his relatives told everyone that he was suffering from cancer.
Assassination attempt and retaliation In 1991, supporters of Colombo acting boss Victor Orena attempted to kill Scarpa. Earlier that year, a power struggle between Orena and imprisoned Colombo boss Carmine Persico had erupted into violence. Persico's loyalists unsuccessfully attempted to kill Orena at his Brooklyn home. In retaliation, Orena decided to murder Scarpa, one of Persico's strongest supporters.
On November 18, Scarpa was driving his own car in Brooklyn, followed behind by his twenty-two-year-old daughter Linda and eight-month-old grandson, when he was stopped by two cars. Hitmen ran from their vehicles with guns drawn and converged on Scarpa's car, but Scarpa managed to drive away from the ambush, crashing into anything that got in his way. Several bystanders were injured, but Scarpa and his relatives escaped unharmed.
During the seven-month conflict between Persico and Orena, Scarpa served as Persico's enforcer. Although weakened by illness, he constantly cruised along Avenue U in Brooklyn, looking for Orena supporters in social clubs and bars. Incensed by his family being endangered, Scarpa was especially watchful for Orena loyalist William Cutolo, who had organized the attempted hit. Over the next few weeks, Scarpa and his associates killed Genovese mobster Thomas Amato and Orena loyalists Rosario Nastasa, Vincent Fusaro and James Malpiso. Scarpa allegedly shot Fusaro as he was hanging Christmas lights on his house."The G-man and the Hit Man" by Fredric Danne New Yorker Magazine December 16, 1996
Prison and death In 1992, Scarpa's lawsuit against Victory Memorial Hospital was settled with $300,000 in cash payments to his family."Settlement in Lawsuit on H.I.V.-Tainted Blood" Mary B.W. Tabor New York Times While appearing at a New York courtroom for his civil suit, he was arrested for violating state firearms laws. Soon after, he was indicted on federal racketeering charges involving three murders. In December 1992, two Lucchese mobsters, Michael DeRosa and Ronald Moran, threatened Scarpa's grandson Joey over a drug deal. On December 29, the elder Scarpa, who was under house arrest, drove with Joey to DeRosa's home and shot him. Moran fired back and hit Scarpa in the eye. Back at his house, Scarpa allegedly poured some Scotch whisky into his wound, assured the authorities everything was fine and later went to the hospital. Prosecutors revoked Scarpa's house arrest and sent him to jail.
By 1993, Scarpa was blind in one eye, emaciated and in poor health. On May 6 he pleaded guilty to three murders and conspiracy to murder several others."Special Report: Chapter Three: The Attorney General's Guidelines Regarding the Use of Confidential Informants" Office of the Inspector General U.S. Department of Justice September 2005 On December 15, Scarpa was sentenced to life in federal prison. This sentence was later reduced to ten years due to Scarpa's poor health. Scarpa died in the Federal Medical Center in Rochester, Minnesota, from AIDS-related complications on June 4, 1994.
Aftermath Scarpa's status as an FBI informant was only revealed in 1995, during a racketeering and murder trial of seven members of the Orena faction. At that time, former Colombo family consigliere Carmine Sessa, now a government witness, told prosecutors about DeVecchio's corrupt dealings with Scarpa. Eventually, prosecutors were forced to reveal that DeVecchio might have revealed confidential information, including information about former Colombo members who had turned informant, to Scarpa. Ultimately, nineteen Orena supporters had murder charges thrown out or murder convictions reversed after their attorneys contended DeVecchio's collaboration with Scarpa tainted the evidence against them. Attorneys argued that DeVecchio gave Scarpa information he used to kill members of the Orena faction, thus making any killings committed by their clients acts of self-defense.Raab, Selwyn. The Five Families: The Rise, Decline & Resurgence of America's Most Powerful Mafia Empire. New York: St. Martins Press, 2005.