Gregory Scarpa Sr. (May 8, 1928 – June 4, 1994), nicknamed the Grim Reaper and the Mad Hatter, was an American caporegime and hitman for the Colombo crime family, as well as an informant for the FBI.
His parents were Salvatore and Mary Scarpa, first-generation immigrants from the village of Lorenzaga of Motta di Livenza near Treviso, Italy.
[4] A career criminal, Scarpa eventually became a capo in the Colombo family, as well as the proprietor of the Wimpy Boys Social Club.
[5] He was involved in illegal gambling, loansharking, extortion, hijacking, counterfeiting, assault, stock and bond thefts, narcotics and murder.
To avoid prosecution, he agreed to work as an undercover informant for the FBI, beginning a thirty-year relationship with the agency.
[7] 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.
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.
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.
[citation needed] 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 Ku Klux Klan.
In return, DeVecchio allegedly protected Scarpa from arrest and provided him with information about his rivals during the Third Colombo War.
[13] After having emergency ulcer surgery at Victory Memorial Hospital in Brooklyn in 1986, Scarpa received several blood donations from family members and associates.
Incensed by the murder attempt on his family, Scarpa was especially watchful for Orena loyalist William Cutolo, who had organized it.
[14] Over the next few weeks, Scarpa and his associates (mistakenly) killed Genovese family mobster Thomas Amato and Orena loyalists Rosario Nastasa, Vincent Fusaro and James Malpiso.
Two Lucchese family mobsters, Michael DeRosa and Ronald Moran, had threatened Joey Scarpa, Gregory Sr.'s son, over a drug deal.
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.
At that time, former Colombo family consigliere Carmine Sessa, now a government witness, told prosecutors about DeVecchio's corrupt dealings with Scarpa.
[23] On March 30, 2006, DeVecchio, who was forced to retire from the FBI in 1996, was indicted on charges of complicity with Scarpa and other Colombo mobsters in four murders during the 1980s and '90s.
Scarpa wins Linda's devotion and shows her struggles with losing a child, impacts from his Mafia ties and being left alone upon his downfall.
[38][39] Investigation Discovery released a second documentary of Scarpa's crimes in the episode "The Grim Reaper" from the series Evil Lives Here.
The abductor of the Klan-connected Mayor Tilman was originally written as a Mafia hitman who forces a confession by putting a pistol in Tillman's mouth.
Screenwriter Chris Gerolmo was inspired to create this character after reading about Scarpa's alleged recruitment by the FBI during their search for Goodman, Chaney and Schwerner.