Running out of options, J. Edgar Hoover turned to Gregory Scarpa for assistance in the infamous "Mississippi Burning" murder case.
Wikimedia CommonsGregory Scarpa, the “Grim Reaper” of the Mafia.
Some called him the Grim Reaper. Others, the Mad Hatter. In either case, his name was likely to send shivers down the spine, because Gregory Scarpa was every bit as deadly as his nicknames implied.
A Colombo crime family caporegime and hitman, Scarpa was a career criminal involved in countless illegal gambling, loansharking, extortion, and hijacking operations who also dabbled in assault, theft, narcotics trading, and, of course, murder. His crew were among the best of the best, and Scarpa himself soared through the ranks.
But in 1962, his world came crashing down when he was arrested for armed robbery. To avoid prosecution, Scarpa struck a deal with the FBI, marking the beginning of a 30-year-long partnership with the bureau — one that came in handy for the FBI, as they would later recruit Scarpa to help intimidate the Ku Klux Klan after the “Mississippi Burning” murders. And in a shocking twist, it worked.
Greg Scarpa’s Criminal Career And Rise Through The Ranks
Gregory Scarpa was born on May 8, 1928 to first-generation immigrants, Salvatore and Mary, and raised in the Bensonhurst neighborhood of Brooklyn. As a young child, he would help his father deliver coal, working their way through the Great Depression. Then, sometime in the 1950s, he was introduced to the Colombo crime family.
Within the Colombo crime family, Scarpa quickly established himself as a force to be reckoned with. He became known as “the Grim Reaper” because of the sheer number of murders he would commit. As Scarpa’s girlfriend of 30 years, with whom he had two children, Linda Schiro told The New York Post, “If it was a big murder, an important one, he would leave the numbers 666 on some of the guys’ pagers.”
Scarpa was involved in all aspects of the crew. He ran gambling, loansharking, and extortion operations, regularly carrying about $5,000 in cash on his person to hand out bribes to people. And he was good at what he did. Behind the scenes, however, he lived a sort of double life: no-nonsense mobster by day, loving father by night.
“There was no one tougher than Greg,” Schiro said. “Yet there was an outside to him and an inside to him. Inside, strangely enough, he was truly sensitive… Greg was a murderer, but we were so much in love.”
Scarpa FamilyGreg Scarpa with Linda Schiro, his daughter who was named after her mother.
Scarpa earned himself enough money working for the mob that he could live in a lavish Manhattan apartment, while owning homes in Brooklyn, Staten Island, Las Vegas, and Singer Island, Florida. He became a caporegime and proprietor of the popular Mafia hangout spot, the Wimpy Boys Social Club. His own crew, though he was never officially a captain, were among the best of the best.
“Greg was a true Machiavelli,” his former attorney Louis Diamond told the New Yorker. “He was the puppeteer. He lived to manipulate people against people.” According to Diamond, Scarpa was “one of the better gin-rummy players,” which showed off his “brilliance” and “ability to focus and plan.”
Then, in 1962, everything changed.
How An Armed Robbery Led Greg Scarpa To Working With The FBI
After Scarpa participated in an armed robbery, FBI agents snatched him outside his home and brought him in. Despite his known mob connections, Scarpa had only ever spent 30 days in prison and reportedly “hated doing time,” according to one associate — and those 30 days were in 1978, well after he had begun working as an informant.
So, when the FBI offered him a deal that would keep him out of prison, he was quick to accept. It was a clever move on the part of the bureau, too — most mobsters believed that the FBI wouldn’t work with killers, and according to one associate, “[Scarpa] was crazy. He killed a lot. He was nuts.”
Bettman/Getty ImagesScarpa during his trial before the Senate Investigations Subcommittee
And so, Scarpa’s status as a killer provided the perfect disguise for him as a snitch. Even better, working with the FBI meant he would stay out of prison. Plus, he’d earn even more money in informant fees from the FBI.
Then, in 1964, just two years after beginning his informant career, Scarpa played what is arguably his most important role for the FBI.
How Gregory Scarpa Helped The FBI Find The “Mississippi Burning” Murder Victims
In 1964, the Ku Klux Klan, riding high on a string of murders, killed three civil rights workers in what would famously become known as the “Mississippi Burning” murders. The Klan buried their bodies in a dam near Philadelphia, Mississippi, sparking a nationwide man hunt.
The victims, James Chaney, Andrew Goodman, and Michael Schwerner, had traveled to Mississippi as part of the Freedom Summer campaign to help African Americans register to vote.
The FBI knew they had been murdered, but their bodies couldn’t be found. J. Edgar Hoover was facing pressure from the media to find the bodies but had exhausted his manpower looking for them with nothing to show for it.
Wikimedia CommonsThe bodies of the three victims in the “Mississippi Burning” murders.
Enter Gregory Scarpa.
The FBI called their informant and secretly flew him down to Mississippi. According to Linda Schiro, Scarpa had checked into a hotel in Neshoba County and winked at one of the agents.
A few minutes later, the agent turned up at their hotel room and handed Scarpa a gun. Scarpa then changed his clothes and left money on the dresser, telling Schiro that if he didn’t come back, she should take a cab to the airport and go back to New York.
He did come back, however, not too long after he had left. Scarpa later told Schiro that he had kidnapped a local salesman and secret klansman, Lawrence Byrd, after catching him off guard by helping him carry a television to his car. He then put a gun in the Byrd’s mouth and threatened him. Of course, the FBI has never confirmed this story.
In any case, the story goes that the klansman folded and told Scarpa where the bodies were. When Gregory Scarpa returned to the hotel, he met with the agent and traded the gun in for a wad of cash. Then, he and Schiro returned to New York.
He reportedly helped the FBI on another KKK murder case in January 1966, resulting in a disagreement over his payment and a split between Scarpa and the FBI. That is, until 1980, when he became an informant once again, this time working handler Lindley DeVecchio.
Greg Scarpa, Lindley DeVecchio, And The Third Colombo War
Despite Scarpa wanting to distance himself from the FBI, DeVecchio was determined to pull him back in — and managed to convince him. DeVecchio, however, wasn’t exactly a model agent. He was crooked, and he and Scarpa formed a fairly close relationship. He would frequently dine with Scarpa and his family at the mobster’s home, much to the chagrin of many of DeVecchio’s colleagues.
In fact, some would later suggest that DeVecchio was partly responsible for some of the murders Scarpa carried out throughout the ’80s and ’90s, particularly during the Third Colombo War, when DeVecchio was allegedly providing Scarpa with names of mob associates — who would turn up dead shortly after.
“Lin knew when he gave Greg a name of somebody what would happen,” Schiro said.
ZUMA Press, Inc./Alamy Stock PhotoLindley DeVecchio, the federal agent who worked with Gregory Scarpa.
When DeVecchio took the stand during the trial of Victor Orena, who was blamed for kicking off the Colombo wars, DeVecchio was reportedly “arrogant, hostile, and talked like a gangster himself,” according to Orena’s son Andrew. “He was protecting Scarpa. He was useless.”
DeVecchio was ultimately cleared of any counts of murder levied against him during his own trial. Scarpa, on the other hand, had landed himself in trouble with the law once again in 1985, landing a sentence of five years’ probation with no prison time, leading to suspicion in the family that he might be working with the law.
Then, in 1986, Scarpa underwent emergency ulcer surgery and received several blood donations from family members and associates — one of whom was Paul Mele, a bodybuilder who had contracted HIV from a dirty steroid needle, then passed it on to Scarpa.
Scarpa eventually filed a lawsuit and was awarded with $300,000 in cash payments to his family in 1992, but the violence of mob life hadn’t abandoned him. While under house arrest in December 1992, Scarpa was involved in a shootout with Michael DeRosa and Ronald Moran, causing him to lose an eye.
Then, once again, Scarpa got into legal trouble, pleading guilty to three murders and conspiracy to murder in May 1993, receiving a life sentence in December of that year. While imprisoned at the Federal Medical Center for prisoners, Greg Scarpa died of AIDDS-related complications on June 4, 1994.
Enjoyed this look into how the FBI used Gregory Scarpa to solve the Freedom Summer murders? Check out Letizia Battaglia’s mafia photos. Then, check out these photos of the 1980s Mafia.
