Gregory Scarpa

Gregory Scarpa (May 8, 1928 – June 4, 1994), nicknamed the Grim Reaper and also the Mad Hatter, was an American caporegime and hitman for the Colombo crime family, as well as an informant for the FBI.

His older brother, Salvatore Scarpa, may have introduced Gregory to the Colombo crime family which he reportedly joined in the 1950s.

In the 1950s, Scarpa married Connie Forrest; she and Scarpa had one daughter and three sons, including Gregory Scarpa Jr.., who would follow his father into the Colombo family, eventually becoming a capo.

In March 1962, Scarpa was arrested for armed robbery.

To avoid prosecution, Scarpa agreed to work as an undercover informant for the FBI, beginning a 30-year relationship with the agency.

In the summer of 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.

The agents thought that Scarpa, using illegal interrogation techniques not available to agents, 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 Army base.

At Shelby, Scarpa severely beat Byrd and stuck a gun barrel down his throat.

Byrd finally revealed to Scarpa the location of the three men's bodies.

The FBI has never officially confirmed the Scarpa story.

Though not necessarily contradicting the claim of Scarpa's 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, killed in a fire set by the Klan.

After this second trip, Scarpa and the FBI had a sharp disagreement about his reward for these services.

The FBI then dropped Scarpa as a confidential informant.

During the 1970s and 80s, Scarpa was the chief enforcer and veteran hitman for Colombo boss Carmine Persico.

Scarpa and Forrest separated in 1973.

Scarpa also maintained a 30-year relationship with girlfriend Linda Schiro that resulted in two children, Joseph and Linda.

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, Nevada, 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 said that Scarpa would sometimes leave the numbers "666", the biblical Number of the Beast, on his victims' pagers.

A career criminal, Scarpa eventually became a caporegime in the Colombo family, as well as the proprietor of the Wimpy Boys Social Club.

Scarpa was involved in illegal gambling, loansharking, extortion, hijacking, counterfeit credit cards, assault, stock and bond thefts, narcotics and murder.

Many of the highest-ranking members of the Colombo family today were members of Scarpa's crew.

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 FBI 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.

Scarpa allegedly provided DeVecchio with cash, jewelry and other gifts along with information of questionable value on the Colombos.

In return, DeVecchio allegedly protected Scarpa from arrest and provided him with information about his 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 "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 FBI.

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.

He was sentenced to life in prison in 1993 for three murders, and died on June 4, 1994.

Scarpa was born to first-generation immigrants, Salvatore and Mary, from the small village of Lorenzaga of Motta di Livenza near Treviso, Northern 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 New York City.