Biography
Scarpa was born to first-generation emigrants from the impoverished village of Lorenzaga of Motta di Livenza near Venice, Italy. Scarpa was the brother of Colombo mobster Salvatore Scarpa, who may have introduced Scarpa to the Colombo family.
In the 1950s, Scarpa married Connie Forrest; she and Scarpa had one daughter and three sons, including Gregory Scarpa Jr. Greg Jr. would follow his father into the Colombo family, eventually becoming a capo. Scarpa and Forrest separated in 1973. Scarpa also maintained a 30-year relationship with girlfriend Linda Schiro that resulted in two children, Joseph and Linda. Scarpa reportedly joined the Colombo family during the 1950s.
Scarpa was a stylish dresser who routinely carried $5,000 in pocket money for purchases and bribes. Scarpa had use of an apartment on Manhattan's toney Sutton Place and owned homes in Singer Island, Florida, Staten Island, Brooklyn and Las Vegas. His power, guile and brutality earned him the nickname "the Grim Reaper" and helped him escape prosecution for many years. Schiro later said that Scarpa would sometimes leave the numbers "666", the biblical Number of the Beast, on his victims' pagers.
A career criminal, Scarpa eventually became a caporegime in the Colombo crime family, as well as the proprietor of the Wimpy Boys Social Club. Scarpa was involved in illegal gambling, loansharking, extortion, hijacking, counterfeit credit cards, assault, stock and bond thefts, narcotics and murder. Many of the highest-ranking members of the Colombo crime family today were members of Scarpa's crew. In March 1962, Scarpa was arrested outside for armed robbery. To avoid prosecution, Scarpa agreed to work as an undercover informant for the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), beginning a 30-year relationship with the agency.
Read more about this topic: Gregory Scarpa, Sr.
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