Colombo crime family captain Gregory Scarpa Sr. appears at a New York news conference Aug. 28, 1992. Former FBI Agent L. Lindley DeVecchio is accused of feeding Scarpa information that a prosecutor said Scarpa used to kill four people. Scarpa was convicted of murder and racketeering and died in prison.
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NEW YORK — The FBI used mob muscle to solve the 1964 disappearance of three civil rights volunteers in Mississippi, a gangster’s ex-girlfriend testified Monday, becoming the first witness to repeat in open court a story that has been underworld lore for years.
Linda Schiro said that her ex-boyfriend, Mafia tough guy Gregory Scarpa Sr., was recruited by the FBI to help find the volunteers’ bodies. She said Scarpa later told her he put a gun in a Ku Klux Klansman’s mouth and forced him to reveal the whereabouts of the victims.
The FBI has never acknowledged that Scarpa, nicknamed “The Grim Reaper,” was involved in the case. The bureau did not immediately return a call for comment Monday.
Schiro took the stand as a witness for the prosecution at the trial of former FBI agent R. Lindley DeVecchio, who is charged in state court with four counts of murder in what authorities have called one of the worst law enforcement corruption cases in U.S. history.
Prosecutors say Scarpa plied DeVecchio with cash, jewelry, liquor and prostitutes in exchange for confidential information on suspected "rats" and rivals in the late 1980s and early ’90s. Scarpa died behind bars in 1994.
Mob lore
The notion that Scarpa strong-armed a Klan member into giving up information about one of the most notorious crimes of the civil rights era has been talked about in mob circles for years.
The notion that Scarpa strong-armed a Klan member into giving up information about one of the most notorious crimes of the civil rights era has been talked about in mob circles for years.
It supposedly happened during the search for civil rights workers James Chaney, Michael Schwerner and Andrew Goodman, who were beaten and shot by a gang of Klansmen and buried in an earthen dam near Philadelphia, Miss. The case was famously dramatized in the movie “Mississippi Burning.”
Investigators struggled for answers in the early days of the case, stymied by stonewalling Klan members.
In 1994, the New York Daily News, citing unidentified federal law enforcement officials, reported that a frustrated J. Edgar Hoover turned to Scarpa to extract information. The Daily News said the New York mobster terrorized an appliance salesman and Klansman already under suspicion in the case and got him to reveal the location of the bodies.
Schiro testified Monday that she and Scarpa traveled to Mississippi in 1964 after he was recruited by the FBI. She said they walked into the hotel where the FBI had gathered during the investigation, and the gangster winked at a group of agents. She said an agent later showed up in their room and handed Scarpa a gun.
She said Scarpa helped find the volunteers’ bodies by “putting a gun
in the guy’s mouth and threatening him.” She said an unidentified agent later returned to the room, gave Scarpa a wad of cash, and took back the weapon.
in the guy’s mouth and threatening him.” She said an unidentified agent later returned to the room, gave Scarpa a wad of cash, and took back the weapon.
Civil rights turning point
The killings galvanized the struggle for equality in the South and helped bring about passage of the 1964 Civil Rights Act. Seven people were convicted at the time, but none served more than six years.
The killings galvanized the struggle for equality in the South and helped bring about passage of the 1964 Civil Rights Act. Seven people were convicted at the time, but none served more than six years.
Mississippi later reopened the case, winning a manslaughter conviction against former Klansman and part-time preacher Edgar Ray Killen two years ago. He is serving a 60-year prison sentence.
Schiro’s remarks about the Mississippi episode were only a brief part of her full day of testimony.
Schiro, 62, started dating Scarpa at age 17 after meeting him in a bar. She said she had been around mobsters most of her life, so his boasts that he had been involved in 20 gangland murders didn’t frighten her.
“I was impressed,” she said.
She said she was more surprised when the Colombo crime family captain told her about his ties to the FBI. “I said, ‘What do you mean, you’re a rat?”’ she recalled. “And he said, ‘No, I just work for them.”’
DeVecchio became the informant’s “handler” in 1978, and Schiro said she was allowed to sit in on weekly meetings at the couple’s apartment. She said that when Scarpa offered stolen jewelry to the agent, he took it and put it in his pocket.
'I'll take care of it'
Schiro testified that in the fall of 1984 she overheard DeVecchio warn Scarpa that the girlfriend of another Colombo capo was a potential “rat.”
Schiro testified that in the fall of 1984 she overheard DeVecchio warn Scarpa that the girlfriend of another Colombo capo was a potential “rat.”
“You know you have to take care of this?” DeVecchio said, according to Schiro.
“I’ll take care of it,” Scarpa said.
The girlfriend was gunned down at a mob social club a few days later.
Defense attorneys have sought to portray Schiro — who testified that prosecutors were paying her $2,200 a month for living expenses — as an opportunist who framed DeVecchio at the behest of overzealous prosecutors.
They have also accused her trying to improve her chances for a tell-all book deal about Scarpa.
The Giuliani administration has agreed to pay $450,000 to seven members of the Hells Angels motorcycle club and two of the bikers' girlfriends to settle a lawsuit over a police raid on the group's local headquarters in the East Village last year.
More than 50 police officers entered the six-story brick building at 77 East Third Street on Aug. 5, searching the Hells Angels clubhouse on the ground floor and then going upstairs and into apartments on each floor of the walkup building.
''We were just outraged because our rights were violated,'' said Bartley J. Dowling, 40, the chapter president and one of the plaintiffs.
''The reason for them doing it is, I guess, because we're the Hells Angels,'' he said. ''They have this strange idea that we're all illegal criminals or something.''
The police had a warrant to search the ground floor of the building for a stolen motorcycle and other items. Everything beyond that was illegal, the club members said in the lawsuit they filed last year.
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The police seized two handguns and other contraband in the raid and arrested 14 people. Most of the charges were later dropped.
Michael D. Hess, the city Corporation Counsel to Mayor Rudolph W. Giuliani, declined to comment last night. In court filings in the lawsuit, the city has denied any allegations of wrongdoing by the police. City lawyers have also written to the Hells Angels' lawyers, Ronald L. Kuby and Daniel M. Perez, to say that the settlement should not be construed as an admission of liability.
But in settling the lawsuit out of court, the city will avoid a potentially damaging trial. Lawyers for the bikers said they had planned to play three police videotapes that documented almost every step of the search and also picked up discussions by officers suggesting they were trying to cover up their actions.
On one tape, a police officer is heard asking whether to begin a search of the upper floors or ''wait until we get a warrant,'' according to a transcript quoted in the lawsuit.
Under terms of the city's offer, made on March 18 and formally accepted by the bikers the next day, the nine plaintiffs will each receive $50,000 to drop their claims.
The city will also pay legal fees and other costs, bringing the entire settlement to more than $500,000, said Mr. Kuby.
Despite the city's denial, Mr. Kuby contends that the size of the offer, the speed with which it was made -- four months after the suit was filed -- and the city's promise to turn over the three videotapes that were made by the police and not use them against the Hells Angels in the future, was the ''clearest admission of liability possible.''
''This is not some rogue individual cop who exceeded the scope of the warrant in the line of duty, in the heat of battle,'' Mr. Kuby said. ''This was a massive team. Everybody knew that it was illegal, and it was done in the most casual and callous way imaginable.''
The settlement must still be approved by Chief Judge Thomas P. Griesa of Federal District Court in Manhattan.
The disputed search stemmed from a complaint the police received July 29 from a man who said he had been assaulted five days earlier inside the group's clubhouse. He said he had been forced to give up his motorcycle, keys, helmet and leather jacket, the bikers said in other court papers.
Two days later, Detective Nicholas J. Cinalli applied for a warrant for ''the ground floor of the premises located at 77 East 3d Street'' and an adjacent messenger service. The warrant said the police were looking for a 1998 Harley-Davidson motorcycle and related items.
But instead of conducting a straightforward search of the ground floor, the suit said, the police planned an all-out assault and intelligence-collecting operation. They assembled a team of more than 50 officers, detectives and senior officials, including a chief, two deputy inspectors, two captains, two lieutenants, and six sergeants.
''The size and variety of the team, in and of itself,'' the bikers' lawyers said in court papers, ''would suggest to even the most credulous observer that law enforcement had a much larger agenda than the solving of a simple unarmed theft of a motorcycle.''
About 8:30 P.M. on Aug. 5, the police sealed off the block and entered the clubhouse, where officers recovered two guns, ammunition, a knife, mace and a motorcycle helmet matching the description of the one that had been reported stolen.
Upstairs, they kicked in doors and entered apartments, ordering residents to the ground at gunpoint, the suit says, and videotaping each room and its contents, including wall hangings, portraits and biker insignias.
Ten men and four women were arrested, taken into the street and videotaped, the suit says. At one point, a police camera operator can be heard asking whether he should tape their ''tattoos and stuff,'' the plaintiffs say in court papers.
''You can film whatever your little heart desires,'' Detective Cinalli is quoted as replying. Reached yesterday by phone, the detective declined to comment.
Charges against 10 of the defendants were dismissed that night. Four others were ultimately charged with crimes, including two for assault and robbery of the biker, and a third for possession of the handguns, a charge that was later dropped. Mr. Dowling was also held on a prior complaint of assault. That charge was also dismissed.
Mr. Dowling said he has not given much thought to what he will do with his share of the settlement. These days, Mr. Dowling said, it might be just enough ''to buy a bike.''
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