Gregory Scarpa, known as “The Grim Reaper,” was a feared capo in the Colombo crime family and one of the most violent figures in the American Mafia. Rising to prominence in Brooklyn during the 1950s, Scarpa became infamous for his ruthless efficiency as a hitman—credited with dozens, if not hundreds, of murders. He ran rackets involving extortion, loan sharking, gambling, and narcotics, while maintaining a reputation as a stylish and brazen enforcer. His willingness to use extreme violence made him indispensable during the Colombo family’s bloody internal wars, where he played a decisive role in eliminating rivals and consolidating power for his faction.

Scarpa’s criminal empire, however, was shadowed by his double life as a longtime FBI informant. Beginning in the early 1960s, he secretly collaborated with federal agents, reportedly even participating in the search for missing civil rights workers in Mississippi during the “Mississippi Burning” case. His relationship with the Bureau deepened in the 1980s under FBI agent Lindley DeVecchio, a partnership that sparked controversy amid claims the FBI allowed Scarpa to operate with impunity in exchange for intelligence. In 1986, he contracted HIV through a tainted blood transfusion, and by the early 1990s, he was terminally ill. Scarpa pleaded guilty to multiple murders in 1993 and died in prison in 1994 from AIDS-related complications—leaving behind a legacy as both one of the Mafia’s deadliest killers and one of the FBI’s most compromised informants.


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source:

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2007/oct/31/usa.international