Sandra Harmon - Mafia son: the Scarpa mob family, the FBI, and a story of betrayal

This edition published in 2011

First published in Australia and New Zealand by Allen & Unwin in 2009

First published in the United States in 2009 by St. Martins Press,

175 Fifth Avenue, New York, N.Y. 10010

Copyright Sandra Harmon 2009

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording or by any information storage and retrieval system, without prior permission in writing from the publisher. The Australian Copyright Act 1968 (the Act) allows a maximum of one chapter or 10 per cent of this book, whichever is the greater, to be photocopied by any educational institution for its educational purposes provided that the educational institution (or body that administers it) has given a remuneration notice to Copyright Agency Limited (CAL) under the Act.

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ISBN 978 1 74237 599 1

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10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

For Deanne Barkley, my mentor and best friend, who has always stood by me with unconditional love and support

Injustice anywhere is injustice everywhere.

Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.

Contents

. Supermax Prison: The Last Worst Place

. Wiseguy

. Top Echelon Informant

. Blind Rage

. The Education of a Wiseguy

. The Princess of Bensonhurst

. Scarpas Mistress

. Mississippi Burning

. Married to the Mob

. Murder, Inc.

. The Goodfella Life

. Mnage Trois

. Fatherly Love

. The Hitman and the G-Man

. Dr. Scholnick and the Beauty Queen

. Crazy Love

. The Death of Donnie Somma

. Bad Blood

. Where Have You Gone, Joe Brewster?

. Sins of the Father

. RICO Act

. Who Killed Patrick Porco?

. The Colombo Crime Family War

. The Bullet He Couldnt Duck

. One-Eyed Greg

. Dementia

. The Last Days of the Grim Reaper

. Internal Investigation

. The Sins of the Son

. The Mobster and the Terrorist

. The Son Goes Down

. The Tomb

. The Scarpa Intelligence

. Gregory Scarpa and the Oklahoma City Bomber

. The People Against DeVecchio

. Assault

. Say Goodbye to ADMAX

. DeVecchio On Trial

. Dead Man Talking

Preface

he story of Greg Scarpa Sr. and, ultimately, the story of his sonis like no other mob story. Why? Because Scarpa was like no other mobster. Even in a world dominated by criminals, killers, and con men, Scarpa was uniquely qualied for the job. A sociopath who for thirty years was protected by the FBI from his enemies, other federal investigators, and local law enforcement authorities, Scarpa had nothing less than a license to kill. And he used itsometimes for perfectly practical, economic reasons, and other times simply because he felt like it.

But Scarpas greatest offense, perhaps, was the manipulation of his rst-born son, Gregory Scarpa Jr., an innocent boy (at one time, anyway) who was transformed into a doppelgnger of his father. At least in part to please Greg Sr., Gregory Scarpa entered the family business and became a mobster; he remained a wiseguy to the core until, betrayed by his father, he went to jail, where he became a government informant. He elicited in 1998 the incredible story of how Al-Qaeda terrorists were planning a horric attack on American soil, which was ultimately carried out on September 11, 2001. But Gregorys information was either buried or ignored; he was sentenced to forty years to life at the ADMAX Prison in Florence, Colorado, and there he has remained for the better part of the past decade, virtually incommunicado, locked in his cell for twenty-three hours a day.

His story is one that reects the complexities of life, especially a life lived outside the boundaries of legality. Gregory Scarpa is a hardened criminal; he is a murderer who spent virtually all of his adult life in a business for which killing was merely part of the territory... currency, if you will. But he was not an unrepentant or soulless monster. As is so often the case with men who walk in the footsteps of their fathers, Gregory was at once less and more than he appeared to be. If his actions regarding the acquisition of information that might have prevented the attacks of September 11, 2001, were on some level self-serving, they were nonetheless admirable.

Like most authors and journalists, I am intrigued by nothing so much as a fascinating story, and I found it in the twisted and sometimes tragic tale of the Scarpa family. While researching a project with Scarpa Sr.s longtime mistress, Linda Schiro (about whom you will hear in this book), I was introduced to Gregory Scarpa Jr., the eldest child produced by the union of Greg Scarpa Sr. and his wife, Connie. Gregory was imprisoned at the time; nevertheless, Linda assured me, Gregory was a great guy who had worked for his dad since he was seventeen years old and knew precisely where the bodies were buried (and I am speaking quite literally).

Despite some reservations, I reached out to Gregory. I wrote him an introductory letter; to my surprise, he replied swiftly, and thus began a correspondence that I never envisioned. Instead of a hardened criminal, Gregory gave the impression of being a rather ordinary man who chattered incessantly about his children and grandchildren. In his very rst letter he extended an invitation for me to visit, dangling an irresistible carrot in the process: Ill tell you everything I know.

It was a sweet letter, oddly charming in its apparent innocence, and I found myself almost instantly drawn to its author. I knew that I wanted to meet Gregory. In the meantime, though, Linda changed her mind about encouraging my contact with Gregory, and my relationship with her ended shortly thereafter.

In the spring of 2004 I learned from a forensic intelligence analyst named Angela Clemente about undercover work that Gregory supposedly had done for the U.S. government, which in turn had rewarded him by burying him in ADMAX. This seemed almost incomprehensible. Could Gregory really have possessed information that might have averted the tragedy of 9/11? And could that information have been ignored by the United States government? The very thought of it made my head spin. Ive never been much for conspiracy theories, but something about this story pulled me in and wouldnt let go. Eventually, through Clemente, I had an opportunity to read copies of FBI memos detailing Gregorys intelligence; the information was shocking. I told Clemente that I would help her in any way that I could, and sent her all of my research.

In May 2004, I wrote to Gregory at ADMAX and told him that I believed his story and the intelligence that supported it. Our correspondence soon escalated in frequency and intensity. Because all of the nonlegal mail that Gregory sent or received was opened, read, censoredand often simply kept from himwe learned to communicate in code, sending much of our mail through a trusted attorney.