Greg Scarpa, the mafia hitman known as the ‘Grim Reaper’

Greg Scarpa, the capo of the Colombo family, was so ruthless and deadly that he became known as the “Grim Reaper” — but he also secretly worked as an FBI informant for 30 years.

Bettman/Getty ImagesGreg Scarpa, the capo of the Colombo family, was known as the “Grim Reaper” and was one of the most feared men in the Mafia for decades.

Some called him the “Grim Reaper.” Others referred to him as the “Mad Hatter.” Either way, his name would likely send shivers down your spine — because Greg Scarpa was every bit as terrifying as his nicknames suggested.

Scarpa, a caporegime and hitman for the Colombo crime family, was a career criminal involved in numerous illegal gambling, loan sharking, extortion and hijacking operations. He also dabbled in assault, robbery, drug trafficking and of course murder. His crew was among the best of the best and Scarpa himself rose through the ranks within the Mafia.

But in 1962, his world came crashing down when he was arrested for armed robbery. To avoid prosecution, Scarpa cut a deal with the FBI, marking the beginning of a 30-year association with the bureau—one that would serve the FBI well, as they would later recruit Scarpa to intimidate the Ku Klux Klan after the Mississippi Burning murders.

New York Police DepartmentIn the 1950s, Greg Scarpa became involved with the Colombo crime family and quickly rose through the ranks, soon becoming a top agent and one of the most feared hitmen in the Mafia.

And while he was working for the FBI, Greg Scarpa remained as ruthless a gangster as ever. In fact, he reportedly boasted that he stopped counting the number of people he had killed after he turned 50. This is his story.

Greg Scarpa’s Rise Within the Mafia

Gregory Scarpa was born on May 8, 1928, to Italian immigrants and grew up in the Bensonhurst section of Brooklyn. As a young child, he worked with his father delivering coal to help his family survive during the Great Depression. Then, sometime in the 1950s, he was introduced to the Colombo crime family.

Within the Colombo family, Scarpa quickly established himself as a force to be reckoned with. He became known as the “Grim Reaper” for the sheer number of murders he carried out (he reportedly stopped counting at 50). As Linda Schiro, Scarpa’s girlfriend of 30 years and with whom he had two children, told the New York Post in 2007: “If it was a big murder, a major one, he would leave the numbers 666 on the pagers of some of those guys.”

Greg Scarpa was involved in every aspect of the crew. He ran gambling, loan sharking, and extortion operations, regularly carrying around $5,000 in cash to give people bribes. Meanwhile, he was a prolific mob hitman. And he was good at what he did. Behind the scenes, though, he lived something of a double life: no-nonsense mobster by day; loving father by night.

“There was no one tougher than Greg,” Schiro said. “Yet he had an outside and an inside. On the inside, he was, strangely enough, really sensitive… Greg was a killer, but we were so in love.”

Scarpa familyGreg Scarpa with Linda Schiro, his daughter who was named after her mother.

Greg Scarpa made enough money working for the mob to live in a lavish Manhattan apartment while owning homes in Brooklyn, Staten Island, Las Vegas, and Singer Island, Florida. He became a caporegime and the owner of the popular mob hangout known as the Wimpy Boys Social Club.

“Greg was a real Machiavelli,” his former attorney, Louis Diamond, told the New Yorker in 1996. “He was the puppet master. He lived to manipulate people against people.” According to Diamond, Scarpa was “one of the better gin rummy players,” which showed his “brilliance” and “ability to focus and plan.”

Then, in 1962, everything changed.

How an armed robbery led the ‘Grim Reaper’ to cooperate with the FBI

After Greg Scarpa participated in an armed robbery in 1962, he was arrested by FBI agents outside his home and taken in for questioning. Despite his known mob connections, Scarpa only spent a few months behind bars and reportedly “hated serving time,” according to an associate.

So when the FBI offered him a deal that would keep him out of prison, he quickly accepted. It was a smart move by the FBI, too — most mobsters believed the FBI wouldn’t work with killers, and according to one associate, “(Scarpa) was crazy. He killed a lot. He was crazy.”

Public domainGreg Scarpa was known as the “Grim Reaper” of the Mafia.

Greg Scarpa’s status as a murderer gave him the perfect disguise as a snitch. Even better, working with the FBI would keep him out of prison. Plus, he’d make more money from the agency’s informant fees.

In 1964, just two years after he began working as an informant, Scarpa played perhaps his most important role for the FBI.

How Greg Scarpa Helped the FBI with the ‘Mississippi Burning’ Murders

In 1964, the Ku Klux Klan, on a rampage of murders, murdered three civil rights activists in what would become known as the “Mississippi Burning” killings. The Klan buried their bodies in a dam near Philadelphia, Mississippi, sparking a nationwide manhunt.

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 they could not find their bodies. J. Edgar Hoover was under pressure from the media to find the men, but he had exhausted his manpower to find them, without getting anything in return.

Public domainThe bodies of the three victims of the Mississippi Burning murders.

Meet Greg Scarpa.

The FBI called their informant and secretly flew him to Mississippi. According to a 2007 report in The guardLinda Schiro claimed that she and Scarpa checked into a hotel in Neshoba County and that Scarpa winked at one of the officers.

A few minutes later, the officer entered their hotel room and gave Scarpa a gun. Scarpa changed clothes and left money on the dresser, telling Schiro that if he didn’t return, she should take a cab to the airport and go back to New York.

He did return, however, not long after he left. Scarpa later told Schiro that he had kidnapped a local salesman and secret Klansman, Lawrence Byrd, after surprising him by helping him carry a television to his car. He then put a gun in Byrd’s mouth and threatened him. The FBI, of course, never confirmed this version of events.

Anyway, the story goes that the Klanman gave up and told Scarpa where the bodies were. When Greg Scarpa got back to the hotel, he met the cop and traded the gun for a wad of cash. He and Schiro then headed back to New York.

He reportedly assisted the FBI in another KKK murder case in January 1966, which resulted in a dispute over his payment and a rift between Scarpa and the agency—at least until 1980. That year, he again became an informant, this time working with handler Lindley DeVecchio.

Public domainSurveillance footage of Greg Scarpa, the Colombo family capo known as the “Grim Reaper.”

Greg Scarpa, Lindley DeVecchio and the Third Colombo War

Despite Greg Scarpa’s desire to distance himself from the FBI, DeVecchio was determined to bring him back. DeVecchio, however, was not exactly a model agent. He was corrupt, and he and Scarpa formed a fairly close relationship. He would regularly dine with Scarpa and his family at the mobster’s home, much to the chagrin of many of DeVecchio’s associates.

In fact, some would later suggest that DeVecchio was partly responsible for some of the murders Scarpa carried out in the 1980s and 1990s, particularly during the Third Colombo War. DeVecchio allegedly gave Scarpa the names of rival Mafia associates, who would be found dead shortly thereafter.

“Lin knew what would happen when he named Greg,” Schiro said.

ZUMA Press, Inc. / Alamy Stock PhotoLindley DeVecchio, the federal agent who worked with Greg Scarpa.

When DeVecchio took the witness stand during the trial of Victor Orena, who was accused of starting the Colombo wars, DeVecchio was reportedly “arrogant, hostile and spoke like a gangster himself,” Orena’s son Andrew said, according to the New York Post. “He protected Scarpa. He was useless.”

DeVecchio was eventually acquitted of all murder charges brought against him at his own trial. Greg Scarpa, on the other hand, had gotten into trouble with the law again in 1985, and was given a sentence of five years’ probation with no jail time. This led to suspicions within the Colombo family that the mobster might be working with the FBI.

The Unexpected Death of Gregory Scarpa

In 1986, Greg Scarpa underwent emergency surgery for a stomach ulcer and received several blood donations from family members and acquaintances, including Paul Mele, a bodybuilder who had contracted HIV from a dirty steroid needle and then passed it on to Scarpa.

Scarpa eventually sued and received a $300,000 settlement in 1992, but the violence of mob life had not left him in the lurch. While under house arrest that same year, Scarpa was involved in a shootout with Michael DeRosa and Ronald Moran, in which he lost an eye.

Then Scarpa got into trouble again. He pleaded guilty to three counts of murder and conspiracy to commit murder in May 1993 and was sentenced to life in prison in December of that year. However, just six months later, on June 4, 1994, Greg Scarpa died of AIDS-related complications at the Federal Medical Center in Minnesota.

The man who had taken so many lives finally met the Grim Reaper himself.

After learning about the life and crimes of Greg Scarpa, learn about the most powerful mob bosses of all time. Then watch this footage of the American Mafia in the 80s.