0:04

Due

0:04

to the nature of this episode, listener discretion

0:07

is advised. This episode includes discussions

0:09

of gun violence, gore and murder.

0:12

Consider this when deciding how and when you'll

0:14

listen.

0:21

Serial killers aren't good people.

0:24

I mean, sure, we might not think of a mafia

0:26

hitman as a serial killer, but by

0:28

the FBI's own definition, Greg

0:31

Scarpa fits the bill. One of

0:33

Scarpa's protégés once said he stopped

0:35

counting victims once he reached 50. As

0:38

we heard last time, though, Scarpa wasn't

0:41

just a killer. To his family, he

0:43

was a caring and protective father

0:45

and partner.

0:46

And to the FBI, he was a wealth

0:49

of information, an informant.

0:52

That's what we'll hear about today, Scarpa's work

0:54

with the Bureau, and what makes someone

0:57

good versus what makes them bad.

0:59

Because we can all agree, killing upwards

1:02

of 50 people is evil. But

1:04

if those victims are evil

1:07

too, can a ruthless

1:08

serial killer also be

1:11

a hero?

1:23

Hi listeners, it's Greg. You're listening

1:25

to Serial Killers, a Spotify original

1:28

from Parcast. I'm here with my co-host,

1:30

Vanessa.

1:30

Hey everyone. This episode is

1:32

part two of another installment of Hitmen,

1:35

where we explore the twisted world of contract

1:38

homicide, both the people who kill

1:40

and the ones who hire them.

1:42

This time, we're continuing our story

1:44

on the many lives of Grim Reaper Greg

1:46

Scarpa, a prolific hitman for the Colombo

1:49

crime family. Today we'll

1:51

get into Scarpa's double life as an FBI

1:53

informant. This side of him

1:55

might surprise you, especially since

1:57

one of Scarpa's first assignments pitted him

1:59

against...

1:59

the Ku Klux Klan. It's

2:03

the mafia versus the KKK

2:06

coming up. Stay with us.

2:09

This episode is brought to you

2:11

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2:45

Mississippi burning, that

2:47

was the FBI's codename for the case.

2:50

It was freedom summer and the height of black

2:52

Americans fight for civil rights in the southern

2:55

US activists and black

2:57

southerners marched for their right to vote.

2:59

But at every turn, they were met with resistance

3:02

from the Ku Klux Klan.

3:03

In June 1964, three

3:06

civil rights workers, Michael Schwerner,

3:08

James Chaney and Andrew Goodman, traveled

3:10

into Mississippi to investigate the Klan's role

3:12

in the torching of a Methodist church.

3:15

Soon, a local sheriff sympathetic to

3:17

the KKK arrested them on trumped

3:19

up charges. That night they

3:21

were released and they sped away from town in their

3:23

blue station wagon. But after that,

3:25

the three young men disappeared. Their

3:28

activist organization reported them missing

3:30

and everyone in the movement feared the worst.

3:33

Days later, the FBI found

3:35

their burned out car on the side of the highway.

3:38

Schwerner, Chaney and Goodman were

3:41

gone.

3:42

It didn't seem like this was going to be a rescue mission.

3:44

All federal authorities could hope for was to find

3:47

the young men's bodies and hold the

3:49

killers accountable.

3:53

The case became national news. Families

3:55

wanted answers. America wanted

3:58

justice. But the bureau wasn't getting any.

3:59

and FBI director J. Edgar

4:02

Hoover felt the heat. The pressure was

4:04

mounting and he was running out of options. In

4:06

a later interview, the state's attorney said,

4:09

old J. Edgar figured that if he was gonna break

4:11

the case, he was gonna have to go to some extreme

4:13

measures, which is what led him to

4:15

Greg Skarpa.

4:19

For some context, Skarpa had officially

4:21

met the FBI back in 1960. That

4:24

was the year he got arrested for participating

4:27

in an attempted hijacking of a tractor

4:28

trailer, but the Bureau ended

4:31

up cutting a deal with the hitman. They'd

4:33

drop the charges if Skarpa

4:35

became an informant.

4:37

Vanessa's going to take over on the psychology here

4:39

and throughout the episode. Please note, Vanessa's

4:42

not a licensed psychologist or a psychiatrist,

4:44

but we have done a lot of research for the show.

4:46

Thanks, Greg. It's

4:50

impressive Skarpa would agree to this, considering

4:52

if the mob found out, he'd be dead.

4:55

But according to a 1980 article published

4:57

by the FBI, informants like Skarpa

5:00

often have psychopathic tendencies,

5:02

like vanity, a lack of empathy

5:05

and ego-centricity.

5:07

Those are all things that draw them to the job.

5:09

For instance, Skarpa's ego may have

5:11

made him think he could play all sides and

5:14

get away with it. And his lack of

5:16

guilt allowed him to squeal on his friends.

5:19

Regardless, Skarpa's high rank in the Colombo

5:21

family made him indispensable to the feds.

5:24

And by 1962, agents upgraded

5:26

Skarpa to the status of top echelon criminal

5:29

informant.

5:30

Internally, he was known by his code name,

5:32

NY3461-C-TE, or 34

5:36

for short.

5:38

He got a regular stipend from the FBI and

5:40

was essentially on their payroll.

5:42

But though he supplied them with steady information, his

5:45

handler wrote, "'The full potential of this

5:47

informant "'is yet to be realized.'" They'd

5:49

eventually see that Skarpa was no ordinary

5:52

rat. He was a ruthless weapon.

5:55

That brings us back to August, 1964, when

5:58

the FBI decided to go to-

5:59

extreme measures to find the bodies of the

6:02

three missing civil rights workers. They

6:04

asked Skarpa to go on a mission to Mississippi.

6:09

The job wouldn't be easy. The

6:12

36-year-old hitman was tasked with breaking

6:15

the shroud of silence permeating the

6:17

KKK, which rivaled the

6:19

Mafia's Omertavau. It

6:21

might also involve some unsavory

6:23

activities, kidnapping, threats,

6:26

and torture. In other

6:27

words, Skarpa's bread and butter. It

6:30

was perfect for the bureau. Skarpa

6:32

couldn't be traced back to the agency, and

6:34

even if he was, who would believe it?

6:37

The FBI hiring a mob hitman?

6:39

Unthinkable.

6:40

It might have been perfect for Skarpa, too. It's

6:43

rumored the FBI offered him a large sum

6:45

of money to do the job.

6:47

Whether they did or not, the hitman

6:49

agreed.

6:50

Skarpa told his girlfriend, Linda Shiro,

6:53

about the assignment. A real federal

6:55

agent might know the mission was dangerous and

6:57

top secret,

6:59

but Skarpa was no bureaucrat. To

7:01

him, it was more like a free vacation,

7:03

so he asked Shiro if she wanted to come, and then

7:06

he bought her a bunch of new outfits, as

7:08

if the two were going

7:09

on their honeymoon. When

7:14

the couple landed in Mississippi, they checked into

7:16

a hotel.

7:17

Later that day, there was a knock at their door.

7:20

An FBI agent peeked inside and handed

7:22

Skarpa a gun. Skarpa then changed

7:25

clothes and put money on the dresser. He

7:27

told Shiro something along the lines of, if

7:29

I don't come back, go back home.

7:31

Shiro wasn't worried. To her, Skarpa

7:33

was unstoppable. It was

7:36

the clan that should be afraid. The

7:41

FBI had determined the mayor of a local

7:44

town had ties to the KKK

7:46

and knew where the bodies were buried.

7:48

They just needed Skarpa to get the information

7:51

out of him.

7:52

According to investigative journalist Peter Lance,

7:54

that night, Skarpa and a few other agents

7:57

kidnapped this mayor and brought him to

7:59

an undisclosed location.

7:59

location. Then, the agents

8:02

left the room, leaving Skarpa to

8:04

his work. The

8:07

hitman put a pistol to the mayor's skull,

8:09

demanding to know where the bodies were. The mayor

8:12

hesitated. He knew if he gave

8:14

up the info, the clan would bury

8:16

him next. But he had to give up

8:19

something, so he offered Skarpa

8:21

a tidbit.

8:22

When Skarpa went outside and told the agents

8:24

what he'd learned, the FBI team cross-checked

8:27

the intel. It didn't line up.

8:29

The mayor was lying.

8:31

Skarpa didn't like that.

8:33

He stormed back into the room, shoved his

8:35

gun into the man's mouth, and reportedly said,

8:38

tell me the truth or I'll blow your brains out.

8:41

Incredibly, this wasn't enough. The

8:43

captive lied a second time.

8:45

Skarpa seemed to run out of patience

8:47

because the next time he went into that room, he

8:50

pulled out a straight razor blade

8:52

and unzipped the man's fly.

8:55

We don't know for sure what happened next. The

8:57

state's attorney later said that Skarpa just threatened

9:00

him. But Skarpa himself later

9:02

claimed that he started cutting the man's... uh,

9:05

well... either way. Whatever

9:08

happened in that room was enough. The man

9:10

blurted out a lead. And this one

9:12

was good.

9:16

The FBI descended on a

9:18

local farm, 14 feet

9:20

below an earthen dam, buried

9:23

under layers of red clay. Agents

9:25

exhumed the bodies of the three civil

9:27

rights activists. They'd all

9:29

been shot to death. An extensive

9:32

four-month investigation followed, and

9:34

eventually the bureau arrested more than

9:36

a dozen suspects. In the

9:38

end, these heinous murders helped

9:41

pave the way to finally pass the Civil

9:43

Rights Act of 1964.

9:44

After

9:49

the Mississippi job, it seemed the FBI

9:51

used Skarpa on at least two other civil rights-related

9:53

cases, possibly three.

9:55

Some investigators suspect Skarpa was tapped

9:58

to hunt the assassin, who murdered

9:59

civil rights activist Medgar Evers.

10:02

Another time, Scarpa flew back to Mississippi

10:05

and beat a Klan captain within an inch of his life.

10:07

A former state's attorney said that Scarpa scared

10:10

the Klansmen so badly, he was never the

10:12

same.

10:12

By 1965, one year after

10:14

the Mississippi burning case, the FBI

10:17

deemed Scarpa their most valuable top echelon

10:19

informant. He'd been giving them mob

10:21

intel, cracking their missing persons cases,

10:24

and saving their hides.

10:25

But in the mafia world, when you do someone

10:27

a favor, they owe you. And

10:29

for the next few decades, Scarpa squeezed

10:32

the bureau for all they were worth.

10:36

Coming up, the FBI helps

10:39

Scarpa get away with murder.

10:41

For hundreds

10:43

of years, we have looked to scientists

10:46

to explain how the world around us works.

10:49

But what happens when science doesn't

10:51

have the answer?

10:52

Every week on the podcast

10:54

Unexplained Mysteries, we take a

10:57

deep dive into paranormal activities,

11:00

natural phenomena, and suspicious deaths

11:03

to try to grasp how and why

11:05

mysterious events occur.

11:07

Some things need no explanation.

11:11

Others are a complete mystery. Follow

11:15

the Spotify original from podcast Unexplained

11:17

Mysteries. Listen

11:20

free, only on Spotify.

11:25

And now back to the story.

11:29

In the 1960s, Greg Scarpa had become one

11:31

of the bureau's most valuable assets. But

11:34

handling a criminal informant can be tricky, especially

11:37

when they're as cunning as Scarpa.

11:39

One former DEA agent said,

11:41

when it comes to CIs, you have to be extremely

11:44

careful that they're not feeding you information

11:47

that will lead you the wrong way, or that they're not

11:49

using you to eliminate their competitors.

11:51

And about 15 years after the Mississippi

11:54

jobs in 1980, Scarpa

11:56

had one agent eating out of the palm of

11:58

his hand.

11:59

At this point, Scarpe had stopped working

12:02

with the bureau, at least momentarily.

12:04

You see, his previous handler changed jobs,

12:06

and he didn't trust the new guys. To

12:08

collaborate with the FBI, Scarpe knew

12:11

he needed someone he couldn't level with, who was not

12:13

too buttoned up and who wouldn't blow his cover,

12:15

someone he could possibly use.

12:18

Enter Lynn De Vecchio, aka

12:21

Mr. Dello.

12:21

Like

12:25

Scarpe, De Vecchio had a flashy

12:28

sense of style. He'd walk into the FBI

12:30

office wearing silk pocket squares,

12:32

monogrammed shirts, and a shiny gold

12:35

bracelet. He was a boisterous

12:37

man, and over the years began talking

12:39

just like the foul-mouthed wise guys

12:41

he investigated. And in 1980,

12:44

the agent wanted some inside info on the Colombo

12:47

family. He figured if he linked up

12:49

with a former informant, they could offer some

12:51

high-quality dirt. He picked

12:53

the rat with a 902-page

12:56

file. It was 34. Informant

12:59

Greg Scarpa, now in his early

13:01

50s.

13:02

De Vecchio showed up at Scarpa's house,

13:05

unannounced, and instead of being turned

13:07

away or killed on the spot, the

13:09

two hit it off.

13:10

They worked out an understanding. Scarpa would

13:12

provide De Vecchio intel on family matters,

13:15

hits, and narcotic sales. De

13:17

Vecchio could help Scarpa escape charges

13:19

if they came his way. Some of the info

13:22

was good, like an organization chart of the

13:24

Colombo family, but only a few weeks

13:26

into their partnership, Scarpa was already

13:29

feeding De Vecchio half-truths. Like

13:31

one time he told him about a recent hit, but

13:33

he left out a pretty crucial detail.

13:36

He was the one who killed the man.

13:40

According to Linda Schiro, Scarpa gave De

13:42

Vecchio gifts. A pan of lasagna here,

13:44

a nice bottle of wine there. She also

13:46

said that after a few years, the two became

13:48

close, and De Vecchio began to idolize

13:51

his charming mafia contact. Information

13:54

was supposed to flow in one direction, toward

13:56

law enforcement, but with De Vecchio, Scarpa

13:58

found a way to reverse that.

13:59

because working with him kicked off a decades-long

14:03

killing spree. One

14:07

morning in September 1984, De Vecchio

14:09

and Scarpa huddled in Scarpa's kitchen. De

14:11

Vecchio said they had a problem.

14:13

A woman in her early 30s named Mary Berry was

14:16

dating a top lieutenant in the Colombo family. She'd

14:18

been his mistress for years. But De Vecchio

14:20

revealed she would soon turn him in. So

14:23

allegedly, De Vecchio said, you have to

14:25

take care of this.

14:29

Now, we should say that we don't know why

14:31

De Vecchio would have done that. Or if the conversation

14:33

happened at all. It's just what Linda

14:35

Shiro said she heard. But

14:37

we do know what happened the next day.

14:44

Mary Berry walked down a Brooklyn sidewalk, dressed

14:46

to the nines. She'd been lured to the Wimpy

14:48

Boy Social Club, a Colombo Mafia

14:51

hangout, for an interview. She thought

14:53

she had a good chance at the job. But what she

14:55

didn't know was that she was the job.

15:00

When Mary went in, she likely

15:02

greeted the other mafiosi. One guy

15:04

playfully put his arm around her like he would

15:06

an old friend. Then he

15:09

wrestled her to the floor. Scarpa

15:11

was waiting.

15:12

Calmly, he stepped forward and

15:14

shot her multiple times. He

15:17

fired a bullet behind her ear to make sure

15:19

she was finished. They

15:21

wrapped her body up and dropped it under an

15:23

elevated train just a few blocks from

15:25

Scarpa's home.

15:27

According to Linda Shiro,

15:29

De Vecchio thought that was funny. He

15:32

later said, Why didn't you just bring

15:34

the body right in front of the house?

15:36

Shiro also claimed this wasn't the last time

15:38

Scarpa and De Vecchio teamed up to take out a target.

15:41

Their next collaboration was in 1991. By

15:44

that point, Scarpa had been battling HIV

15:46

and then possibly AIDS for about five years.

15:49

And he was no longer some imposing giant.

15:52

He looked like an emaciated old man. His

15:54

face seemed hollow, with dark circles under

15:56

his eyes. His illness gave him second

15:58

thoughts about his dangerous life. lifestyle, and he

16:01

thought about quitting.

16:02

But then, war came to Brooklyn.

16:08

The Colombo War, as it came to be

16:10

known, raged along Avenue U.

16:12

It was those loyal to the family's old boss,

16:15

Carmine Persico, versus those

16:17

backing the new boss, Victor Arena.

16:20

Arena's crew tried assassinating Scarpa

16:22

outside his Brooklyn home, and his daughter Linda

16:25

was caught in the crossfire. Luckily,

16:27

neither of them was hurt, but Scarpa was

16:29

not going to let that stand. He

16:31

was out for revenge.

16:33

For the next couple months, Colombo-wise guys

16:35

blew each other apart at intersections and local

16:37

neighborhood hangouts. The death toll

16:40

rose to about 14, and Scarpa

16:42

was leading the charge. Every

16:44

night, he and his cronies trolled the streets

16:46

looking for prey. Sometimes they used

16:49

disguises, like when they wore traditional

16:51

Hasidic Jewish clothing, all black,

16:53

with strymal hats to get the drop

16:55

on a target. In the first few days of

16:57

December alone, Scarpa personally took

17:00

out three men, like some sort

17:02

of assassination advent calendar.

17:04

One Friday afternoon, he and his crew saw

17:07

a rival stringing up Christmas lights. This

17:09

man had no criminal record, he was just

17:11

the night manager of a nearby diner, but

17:14

he was backing the other faction, so

17:17

Scarpa shot him in the back.

17:21

Authorities couldn't keep up with the violence.

17:24

In one news interview, a very nonchalant DA

17:26

said, I

17:27

have no problem letting these folks blow each

17:29

other away. I think it's good for us

17:31

ultimately. He added that they just don't have

17:33

a lot of time for target practice. Cars

17:36

sometimes lost control, plowing into pedestrians.

17:39

Corpses littered the streets. Two days

17:42

after the night manager was shot off his ladder,

17:44

another crew entered a bagel shop on Third Avenue

17:47

and opened fire at the counter. They

17:49

thought the owner was standing there. Instead,

17:51

it was an innocent 18-year-old.

17:56

Scarpa probably wasn't thinking about

17:58

the chaos. had his eye on a

18:01

prize kill.

18:02

Nicholas Granccio, otherwise

18:04

known as Nicky Black. Nicknamed

18:07

for the big dark circles under his eyes,

18:09

Nicky Black was a larger-than-life lieutenant

18:11

in the rival faction.

18:13

And according to Scarpa's protege, Nicky

18:15

Black had sent a message that he was going

18:18

after

18:18

Scarpa. So

18:20

in January 1992, Scarpa

18:22

and his protege grabbed their rifles and headed

18:24

to Mother Cabrini Social Club, a rival

18:26

hangout. They eased close in a blue

18:29

sedan, tricked out to look like an unmarked police

18:31

car. It had everything, a siren,

18:33

big walkie-talkies, and coffee cups

18:35

in the window. They probably looked like a regular

18:38

old pair of cops. Nicky Black was

18:40

outside in his Land Cruiser, but they couldn't

18:42

make a move because the place was crawling with actual

18:45

authorities, FBI agents. By

18:47

the DA might have acted flippant. The bureau

18:49

was desperate to prevent a shootout. Scarpa

18:51

was pissed. He was so close.

18:54

But Nicky was out of reach. According to his

18:56

protege's account, Scarpa then phoned someone

18:58

named Dell and said, The

19:00

whole world's here.

19:02

Do something. Shortly after,

19:04

the agents on Nicky Black's detail got

19:06

what they described as a strange call.

19:09

They were pulled back to FBI headquarters

19:11

for a rare, midday meeting,

19:13

leaving Nicky exposed.

19:15

Later that day, Scarpa returned to the club

19:18

in their faux cop car and rolled up

19:20

next to Nicky Black, still in his vehicle.

19:22

At Scarpa's word, his protege

19:25

rolled down his window, pointed his

19:27

double-barrel riot control shotgun,

19:30

and squeezed the trigger.

19:34

Of course, we don't know for sure if De Vecchio pulled

19:36

the cops from their detail.

19:38

He later denied it. But months

19:40

later, he and a fellow agent had an odd conversation.

19:43

The official told De Vecchio that Scarpa had slaughtered

19:46

another one of Victor Arena's men.

19:48

De Vecchio looked oddly excited. He

19:50

slapped his hand on the desk and reportedly said,

19:53

We're going to win this thing.

19:55

The other agent was stunned. Did De Vecchio

19:57

think he was part of Scarpa's crew and forget?

19:59

he was in the FBI? In later testimony,

20:02

this official said he was compromised,

20:04

he had lost track of who he was.

20:07

In the relationship between Scarpe and his

20:09

FBI handlers, it's hard to say who

20:11

had the upper hand, and who was controlling

20:14

whom. But one thing's for sure. From 1980

20:16

to 1992, under De Vecchio's watch, Scarpe ordered the killing of 26 people

20:19

all while avoiding prison time. And

20:26

he could have been receiving intel from De Vecchio

20:29

that might have allowed him to do it.

20:31

It was an unholy alliance. As

20:33

one judge said, the FBI made

20:36

a deal with the devil.

20:38

And it was an offer they couldn't

20:40

refuse.

20:44

Coming up, Scarpe is shot in the head

20:46

and keeps on going.

20:48

And now the end of the story. After

20:54

Nikki Black was killed in early 1992, Scarpe

20:57

and his right-hand man raced back to Scarpe's

21:00

house, high off the kill. His

21:02

adult daughter Linda was there, waiting for

21:04

his return. As soon as

21:06

he walked through the door, Scarpe started

21:09

gloating about killing Nikki, like

21:11

he'd bagged a trophy.

21:13

Look, by this point, Linda knew fully well

21:15

who her father was. But as he was recounting

21:17

these gory details with pride, he

21:20

seemed different.

21:21

He was crazed and relentless. To

21:23

Linda, it was terrifying.

21:25

But she could also guess why he was more callous

21:27

than before. When

21:30

Scarpe was first diagnosed with HIV,

21:33

he knew his time left would be short. He

21:35

told his daughter he didn't want to die of the illness. If

21:37

he was going out, he wanted to go out shooting.

21:40

But by late spring, the Colombo

21:42

War was drawing to a close. The crime

21:45

family seemed to be running out of people to murder,

21:47

and the FBI was making tons of

21:49

arrests. Eventually, they came

21:52

for Scarpe. The indictment was spearheaded

21:54

by the FBI agent who'd grown suspicious

21:57

about De Vecchio's relationship with Scarpe. He

22:00

got a Brooklyn prosecutor to file murder

22:02

conspiracy charges behind De

22:04

Vecchio's back. When De Vecchio

22:06

found out, he tried warning his

22:09

favorite informant, but it was too late.

22:12

In August 1992, Scarpa was arrested.

22:15

It wasn't a dramatic chase or a big sting

22:17

operation. In fact, he actually turned

22:20

himself in. He thought he was on the hook

22:22

for a gun charge that assumed it'd be another

22:24

revolving door, in and out, just like always.

22:28

But when he entered the courtroom, the place was swarming

22:30

with agents. Luckily for Scarpa,

22:32

his lawyer argued the temperature in the penitentiary

22:34

was bad for his illness. Scarpa

22:36

was allowed to stay home on house arrest.

22:41

But shutting the grim reaper in a house

22:43

was like locking up a wild animal, and

22:46

he began getting restless. To make matters

22:48

worse, Scarpa's health kept deteriorating.

22:51

Now AIDS wasn't just ravaging his

22:53

body, it was also taking over his

22:55

mind.

22:56

Doctors told his family that Scarpa was suffering

22:59

from AIDS-related dementia.

23:01

AIDS is most known for how it affects the immune

23:03

system.

23:04

But according to Johns Hopkins Medicine, it

23:06

can spread to the brain, causing membranes

23:09

to swell leading to all sorts of symptoms,

23:12

personality changes, short-term memory

23:14

loss, or decision-making and a gradual

23:16

deterioration of motor skills.

23:19

The University of Rochester Medical Center

23:21

also said it could create rapid changes

23:23

in mood. This unpredictability

23:26

was exactly what Scarpa's family

23:28

had to watch out for. In

23:35

late 1992, four months after Scarpa's arrest, the

23:37

family was decorating the Christmas tree together.

23:39

At this point, Scarpa's temperament shifted at the

23:41

drop of a hat.

23:42

So the family had to be extra careful about

23:45

what they said.

23:46

That night, Linda, now in her early 20s,

23:48

gave her dad grief for making her go to the store to pick

23:51

up an extra pair of lights. It was the

23:53

kind of sass she'd given him all her life. Usually,

23:55

Scarpa didn't mind it. He probably

23:58

encouraged it.

23:59

But this time...

23:59

time, Scarpa charged and swung his

24:02

fist, connecting with her head. He

24:04

never laid a hand on his daughter before. He'd

24:06

protected her when she was young and avenged her

24:08

when she was a teenager. Now, she

24:11

was afraid of him. In Linda's memoir,

24:13

The Mafia Hit Man's Daughter, she said,

24:16

It was scary to know that the doctors were right.

24:18

He was dangerous even to us. What

24:21

she didn't know was that soon, Scarpa

24:23

would become a danger to himself.

24:28

Four days after Christmas, Linda's

24:30

brother Joey and his friend, both 21, bolted into

24:34

the house. A rival dealer had pulled

24:36

a gun on Joey a couple blocks away.

24:39

Joey didn't want his dad to find out, considering

24:41

how unpredictable he was. But

24:44

he did. And when Scarpa

24:46

heard someone had pointed a weapon at his

24:48

son, he was furious. He

24:51

stormed through the house, banging stuff around.

24:53

He yelled,

24:54

Do they think I'm sleeping? Listen,

24:57

Scarpa knew if he left, he'd be violating

24:59

his house arrest and he'd go straight to a cell,

25:02

likely for the rest of his short life.

25:04

He may never see Linda or Joey

25:06

again. That didn't stop

25:09

him. Scarpa

25:11

stormed out of the house and ordered Joey and

25:13

his friend into the car. As far as Joey

25:16

knew, his father was unarmed. As

25:18

we said before, under Scarpa's house arrest,

25:20

the family wasn't allowed to have weapons around. Joey

25:23

thought they were just going to straighten things out. But

25:25

Scarpa had other plans.

25:29

The ankle bracelet went off, but Scarpa didn't

25:31

care. He drove Joey and his friend down

25:34

the block and spotted the other crew outside

25:36

their house. According to Joey, Scarpa

25:38

got out of the car and exchanged words with the

25:40

other dealer.

25:41

He shook the guy's hand. Everything

25:44

was all good.

25:46

Then, once the other man walked away,

25:48

Scarpa pulled out a gun and shot him in the back.

25:53

The neighborhood erupted into a battlefield.

25:56

The rivals returned fire on Scarpa and his

25:58

car.

25:59

Both sides were hit.

26:02

Back at the Scarpa's house, Linda could

26:04

hear the shootout down the block. When

26:06

she ran outside to see what was going on, Scarpa

26:09

rolled the car onto the driveway.

26:13

As Scarpa made his way toward the house, Red

26:16

streamed down his white shirt. Joey

26:18

was nowhere to be seen, and his friend

26:20

was in the backseat of Scarpa's car,

26:23

gurgling blood.

26:24

Scarpa sauntered

26:27

into the house and sat down, complaining

26:29

he had a piece of glass stuck in his eye. But

26:31

when Linda looked closer, she realized

26:34

that wasn't what was happening. Someone

26:36

had shot Scarpa right through the eye. Linda

26:39

wanted to call an ambulance, but Scarpa refused.

26:42

Instead, he asked for a glass of scotch.

26:46

At that point, the phone rang. It

26:48

was the cops. They wanted to check on

26:50

Scarpa since his ankle monitor had gone off.

26:52

According to Linda, Scarpa, a smooth

26:55

talker as always, grabbed the phone. He

26:57

said everything was fine, just

26:59

something was wrong with the anklet. The dang thing

27:02

kept going off. They bought it

27:04

for the time being, but the ruse didn't

27:06

last long.

27:10

Eventually, 911 was called,

27:12

and an ambulance

27:13

hurtled toward their home. Scarpa

27:16

sat down and dabbed his wound with a

27:18

towel, debilitated by AIDS

27:20

and bleeding profusely from the hole in his

27:22

head. He sipped on his glass of scotch,

27:25

as if waiting for his limo ride.

27:27

Scarpa somehow survived the night. So

27:30

did Joey.

27:31

He ended up sprinting from the shootout and hiding

27:33

somewhere in the neighborhood. However, his friend

27:35

wasn't as lucky. He died a couple of days

27:37

later.

27:38

That night was the last time Greg Scarpa

27:40

got his hands on a gun.

27:42

With so many witnesses, it wasn't hard to piece

27:44

together what happened, and authorities finally

27:47

threw him in prison. When

27:50

the AIDS defense was brought up again in the hopes of

27:52

another house arrest, the prosecutor asked

27:54

if he could still move his trigger finger. If

27:57

so, the prosecutor said, he

27:58

was still a danger to human life.

27:59

in life. For

28:04

the next year and a half, Skarpa's

28:06

symptoms worsened from behind bars. He

28:08

needed a wheelchair to get around, and his skin

28:11

turned black and blue. Though his wife

28:13

could visit, his daughter Linda didn't

28:15

have the same visitation rights.

28:17

Finally, in June 1994,

28:20

Linda got the papers that would allow her to see

28:22

him in prison, but it was too late. That

28:25

same day, Skarpa, at age 66,

28:28

passed away from AIDS complications.

28:32

His death hit Linda like a ton of bricks.

28:35

Even though the man caused chaos and death

28:37

in her life, she still thought of him

28:39

as her best friend.

28:41

And she wanted to see him one last time.

28:43

She went to the funeral parlor where Skarpa was being

28:45

kept and approached his coffin. Slowly,

28:49

she cracked open the lid. She was

28:51

afraid, at first, of what she might see.

28:54

But then, she didn't care.

28:56

She leaned her head against his chest and cried.

28:59

Her dad once vowed to protect her,

29:01

but now no one was there to save

29:03

her from her grief.

29:08

Greg Skarpa left a trail of

29:10

wreckage in his wake. The same

29:12

year he died, an internal complaint

29:14

was launched against Lynn De Vecchio, Skarpa's

29:17

FBI handler.

29:18

In the 2000s, De Vecchio was indicted

29:21

for helping Skarpa kill at least

29:23

three people, and Linda Schiro

29:25

backed up the claim.

29:27

But when an old interview resurfaced that

29:29

contradicted her testimony against De Vecchio,

29:32

the charges were dropped. Still,

29:34

the stigma haunted him for decades.

29:36

When the Colombo family learned Skarpa had been

29:39

a rat all along, it only confirmed

29:41

what some had suspected. How he

29:43

could skate by without a scratch while

29:46

carnage rained down around him. When

29:48

he died, it was probably a relief. One

29:51

high-ranking member said he'd fear the

29:53

hitman until the day he was buried.

29:56

And maybe afterward,

29:57

too. Joey Skarpa

29:59

never escaped.

29:59

escaped from the life of a mafia hitman's

30:02

son. After his father's death, he

30:04

fell into a deep depression. And

30:06

just a year later, he was lured

30:08

into a trap by a member of a different

30:10

crime family. Joey was shot

30:13

dead at just 23.

30:18

Scarper lived many double lives. Linda

30:21

once knew him as a caring, protective dad,

30:23

but rarely saw his brutality.

30:25

His Colombo family witnessed his bloodlust,

30:28

but they had no idea he worked as an informant.

30:31

Finally, the FBI knew Scarper could

30:33

be paid for intel, but didn't suspect

30:35

he could be manipulating them.

30:38

Most of us aren't killers, or

30:41

FBI informants for that matter. Our

30:43

lives, thankfully, are a lot less

30:45

exciting than a hitman's.

30:47

But Scarper is a reminder that as much

30:49

as we think we know our friends, our

30:52

spouses, and our coworkers,

30:54

it's impossible to know everything about everyone,

30:57

which means we can't adequately characterize

30:59

a person as all good or bad.

31:02

Evil people may be capable of good

31:04

things every once in a while, and there

31:06

might always be dark secrets,

31:09

even among your closest loved ones.

31:12

But it's not personal.

31:14

It's just the business of being human.

31:27

Thanks again for tuning into Serial Killers. We're

31:30

here every Monday and Thursday. For more

31:32

information on Greg Scarper's work for

31:34

the FBI, we found Peter Lance's

31:36

book, Deal with the Devil, the FBI's

31:39

secret 30-year relationship with

31:41

a mafia killer, extremely helpful

31:43

to our research.

31:45

You can find all episodes of Serial Killers

31:47

and all other Spotify originals from Parcast

31:49

for free on Spotify.

31:51

We'll see you next time. Stay

31:53

safe out there. Serial

31:55

Killers is a Spotify original from Parcast.

31:58

Our head of programming is Julie.

31:59

Julian Boirot. Our supervising

32:02

sound designer is Russell Nash, with

32:04

Nick Johnson as our head of production, and

32:06

Spencer Howard as our post-production supervisor.

32:09

Stacy Nemec is our supervising editor,

32:11

and Derek Jennings is our writing lead.

32:14

This episode of Serial Killers was written

32:16

by Ben Caro, edited by Robert

32:19

Tyler Walker and Kate Murdock, fact-checked

32:21

by Catherine Barnar, researched by

32:24

Brian Petrus and Chelsea Wood,

32:26

produced by Bruce Kitovich, and

32:28

sound design by Juan Borda.

32:29

Our hosts are Greg

32:32

Polson and me, Vanessa Richardson.