26 Facts About Gregory Scarpa

Gregory Scarpa was sentenced to life imprisonment for three murders in 1993 and died the following year.

Gregory Scarpa was born in New York, New York, on May 8,1928.

Gregory Scarpa's parents were Salvatore and Mary Scarpa, first-generation immigrants from the village of Lorenzaga of Motta di Livenza near Treviso, Italy.

Gregory Scarpa was raised in the working-class neighborhood of Bensonhurst, Brooklyn.

Gregory Scarpa maintained a thirty-year extramarital relationship with girlfriend Linda Schiro, which resulted in two children, Joseph and Linda.

Gregory Scarpa was a stylish dresser who routinely carried $5,000 in pocket money for purchases and bribes.

Gregory Scarpa 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.

Gregory Scarpa was involved in illegal gambling, loansharking, extortion, hijacking, counterfeiting, assault, stock and bond thefts, narcotics and murder.

Agents thought that Gregory Scarpa, using illegal interrogation techniques not available to agents, might succeed at gaining this information from suspects.

Once Gregory Scarpa arrived in Mississippi, local agents allegedly provided him with a gun and money to pay for information.

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

In January 1966, Gregory 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.

Gregory Scarpa had refused contact with the Bureau for the previous five years, but DeVecchio persuaded him to cooperate again.

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

Some of DeVecchio's fellow agents were disturbed by his closeness to Gregory Scarpa and were soon reporting it to their superiors.

In 1985, federal prosecutors indicted Gregory Scarpa for running a major credit card scam.

Gregory Scarpa had refused blood from the hospital blood bank.

Gregory Scarpa eventually received blood from mobster Paul Mele, a bodybuilder who was using injectable anabolic steroids.

Gregory Scarpa allegedly shot Fusaro as he was hanging Christmas lights on his house.

In 1992, while appearing at a New York courtroom for his civil suit, Gregory Scarpa was arrested for violating state firearms laws.

On December 29,1992, while under house arrest with an electronic monitoring device, Gregory Scarpa lost an eye in a shootout with other mobsters.

Back at his house, Gregory Scarpa allegedly poured some Scotch Whisky into his wound, assured the authorities everything was fine, and later went to the hospital.

On June 4,1994, Gregory Scarpa died in the Federal Medical Center in Rochester, Minnesota, from AIDS-related complications.

Ultimately, nineteen Orena supporters had murder charges thrown out or murder convictions reversed after their attorneys contended DeVecchio's collaboration with Gregory Scarpa tainted the evidence against them.

The Biography Channel series Mobsters, episode "The Grim Reaper: Greg Gregory Scarpa" depicts Gregory Scarpa's Mafia ties, father and husband lifestyles and his FBI informant profile.

Screenwriter Chris Gerolmo was inspired to create this character after reading about Gregory Scarpa's alleged recruitment by the FBI during their search for Goodman, Chaney and Schwerner.