Head's Up, Subject Has A Camera #91

Podcast: Raider-Cop Nation

Date:June 5, 2019

Episode#90

Subject:The Grim Reaper, Wiseguy Series

Host: Alpha Mike

Mafia Quote: “I want to kill this degenerate bastard brother of yours. But I am not selfish, I do not want to deprive you of that honor.” William Balsamo

Introduction: Alpha Mike, welcomes the audience to another episode, this time to, Gregory "The Grim Reaper" Scarpa

Main Topic: How, "The Grim Reaper" went up the ranks of the mob and worked with the FBI for 30 years. When all was said and done, "the Grim Reaper" took out over 100 bodies, the KKK and an FBI agent.

Background:

Scarpa was born to first-generation immigrants, Salvatore and Mary, from the town of Lorenzaga of Motta di Livenzanear Venice, Italy. He was raised in the working-class neighborhood of Bensonhurstin Brooklyn. As a child living in the Great Depression, Scarpa helped his father deliver coalthroughout New York City. His older brother, Salvatore Scarpa, may have introduced Gregory to the Colombo crime familywhich 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. Scarpa was inducted in the Profaci family in the 50's.

In late 1963, the Mafia Commission forced Magliocco out of office and installed Joseph Colomboas family boss.At this point, the Profaci crime family became the Colombo crime family.

Scarpa was a stylish dresser who routinely carried $5,000 in pocket moneyfor purchases and bribes. He had use of an apartment on Manhattan's Sutton Placeand 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 caporegimein the Colombo family, as well as the proprietor of the Wimpy Boys Social Club. Scarpa was involved in illegal gambling, loansharking, extortion, hijacking, counterfeitcredit 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 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 Mississippirecruited Scarpa to help them find missing civil rights workers Andrew Goodman, James Chaney, and Michael Schwerner. The FBI was convinced the three men had...