The Mobster Who Convicted Half the Mafia

It is well known that Greg Scarpa Senior had been a turncoat since 1960 and that he provided law enforcement with all the dope he could muster on his enemies, rivals and even friends -- basically anyone but himself.

Greg Scarpa did deep and lasting damage to most of
the Five Families, as well as other crime families.
We've written here, more than once, about his missions for the FBI, one of which involved him sallying south to help extinguish the Mississippi Burning problem.

He went on other missions, too.

Such complex duplicity requires a sharp mind and probably an intelligence level well above average.




Peter Lance wrote a detailed account of Scarpa's doings in his book Deal with the Devil: The FBI's Secret Thirty-Year Relationship with a Mafia Killer (which was based on FBI documents that Angela Clement spent years of her life and a princely sum of her own personal funds acquiring).

Greg Scarpa was indeed a Machiavellian supervillain, a chess playing puppet master.

Scarpa singlehandedly helped facilitate the Commission Case; in doing so he exposed the Concrete Club -- and even provided information that fueled the Windows case.

Scarpa gave a lot of information that the Feds used against his criminal cohorts. He was able to fully function as a high-level Mafia capo all while on the Fed's payroll. Take about having your cake and eating it, too!



We recently read through some reports filed during the trial of Lindley DeVecchio, the former FBI agent who some believe was quite a bit closer to Greg Scarpa than the Bureau ever should've allowed (to put it mildly).

Scarrpa  exposes the Concrete Club Case when, in 1983, he gave the FBI revealing intel regarding two mobsters involved in a multi-family extortion and bid rigging scheme that tucked a 2% surcharge into the mob's coffers for each Manhattan construction project that ran beyond $2 million.

He ratted out Colombo soldier Ralph Scopo, then president of the powerful cement workers union, which was charged with being the racket's muscle in the event the mob tax was not paid.

In September 1983, Scarpa described Anthony "Fat Tony" Salerno as “one of the most powerful men in that family.”

Carmine Persico. Even the boss wasn't
safe. Greg burned the house down.
In fact, he even gave up the Genovese family's entire "hide the boss" strategy in 1984, only the Feds somehow didn't pay attention or didn't believe him.

Scarpa told them Gigante was really boss, but they still went
after Fat Tony for the Commission Case.

About three years before Salerno was falsely convicted in the Commission case for being the boss of the Genovese family, Scarpa revealed that the real boss of that family was actually Vincent "The Chin" Gigante.

Scarpa also provided enough fodder for the Feds to install bugs and wiretaps in Brooklyn and Manhattan that led to a series of prosecutions of leaders of the Colombo, Luchese and Genovese crime families.

In late 1983, Scarpa also revealed that mob associate Peter Savino was “involved in a bid-rigging scheme” involving the installation of storm windows in city housing units. This was an entire six years before the feds indicted Gigante and bosses of three other families in the “Windows Case,” which caused so much mayhem and bloodshed, at least for the Luchese family, which was under the new management of Vittorio "Vic" Amuso and Anthony "Gaspipe" Casso

Scarpa knew plenty beyond the boroughs of New York, as well.

He gave information about the 1980 murder of Philadelphia boss Angelo Bruno, which would later be confirmed by additional sources.

He fueled the eventual conviction of Russell Bufalino,  aka "McGee" and "The Old Man" (September 25, 1903 – February 25, 1994) and also the boss of the Northeastern Pennsylvania crime family from 1959 to 1989.

Scarpa even gave up the guys in his own crew.

He provided details about the social clubs where the Colombo gangsters hung out, including boss Carmine "The Snake" Persico and a man who needs no introduction: John "Sonny" Franzese, going so far as to draw a sketch of the interior of one club.

Comments

  1. WOW,Silvester stalone will have is hands full playing this guy.

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  2. I was not aware of this... I assume by the data, people are reading this and didn't know it either, but I'd be curious to hear if any of you were aware of the extent of the damage Scarpa did to the Mafia... I thought his info has been more "local," shall we say....

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  3. Hey lucky and company were in bed with the Gov in the old days on the docks during the war thats how the early boys managed stay on top in the early days those who were smart enough that is nobody wants to here that but its true. Philly

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  4. I'm surprised he didn't credit Scarpa with the Jimmy Hoffa disappearance and JFK assassination. Too bad so many authors have to embellish in order to sell books instead using of just the facts.

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