Gregory J. Scarpa Jr. (born August 4th, 1951) is a former American

mobster A gangster (informally gangsta) is a criminal who is a member of a gang. Most gangs are considered to be part of organized crime. Gangsters are also called mobsters, a term derived from '' mob'' and the suffix '' -ster''. Gangs provide a level ...

and

caporegime A ''caporegime'' or ''capodecina'', usually shortened to ''capo'' or informally referred to as "captain", "skipper" or "lieutenant", is a leadership position in the Mafia (both the Sicilian Mafia and Italian-American Mafia). A ''capo'' is a "made m ...

in the

Colombo crime family The Colombo crime family (, ) is an Italian American Mafia crime family and the youngest of the "Five Families" that dominate organized crime activities in New York City within the criminal organization known as the American Mafia. It was during ...

and government informant. He is the son of

hitman Contract killing (also known as murder-for-hire) is a form of murder or assassination in which one party hires another party to kill a targeted person or people. It involves an illegal agreement which includes some form of compensation, moneta ...

and fellow caporegime in the family

Gregory Scarpa Gregory Scarpa Sr. (May 8, 1928 – June 4, 1994), nicknamed the Grim Reaper and the Mad Hatter, was an American ''caporegime'' and hitman for the Colombo crime family, as well as an informant for the FBI. During the 1970s and '80s, Scarpa was t ...

. During the 1990s, Scarpa was sentenced to 40 years in prison for

racketeering Racketeering is a type of organized crime in which the perpetrators set up a coercion, coercive, fraud, fraudulent, extortionary, or otherwise illegal coordinated scheme or operation (a "racket") to repeatedly or consistently collect a profit. ...

, and provided the government with information about terrorist tactics and possible attacks orchestrated by

Ramzi Yousef Ramzi Ahmed Yousef (; born 27 April 1968) is a Pakistani convicted terrorist who was one of the main perpetrators and the mastermind behind the 1993 World Trade Center bombing and the bombing of Philippine Airlines Flight 434; he was also a co- ...

. Scarpa Jr. has since won compassionate release from prison as a result of his failing health and terminal illness.

Early life

Gregory J. Scarpa Jr. was born on August 4, 1951, in

Brooklyn, New York Brooklyn is a Boroughs of New York City, borough of New York City located at the westernmost end of Long Island in the New York (state), State of New York. Formerly an independent city, the borough is coextensive with Kings County, one of twelv ...

, to Connie Forrest and

, a

and hitman for the

. He pursued a criminal career in the Colombo organization, as had his father. Federal authorities believed Scarpa murdered his associates Robert DiLeonardi in 1981, Anthony Frezza in 1985 and Joseph DeDomenico in 1987, ordered the murder of limousine driver Alfred Longobardi in 1981 and plotted the murder and burial of suspected informant Sal Cardaci beneath a

Bensonhurst Bensonhurst is a residential neighborhood in the southwestern section of the New York City borough of Brooklyn. The neighborhood is bordered on the northwest by 14th Avenue, on the northeast by 60th Street, on the southeast by Avenue P and 22nd ...

store. Scarpa succeeded his father as a capo in the Colombo family after his father contracted

HIV/AIDS The HIV, human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) is a retrovirus that attacks the immune system. Without treatment, it can lead to a spectrum of conditions including acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS). It is a Preventive healthcare, pr ...

following a contaminated

blood transfusion Blood transfusion is the process of transferring blood products into a person's Circulatory system, circulation intravenously. Transfusions are used for various medical conditions to replace lost components of the blood. Early transfusions used ...

in 1986.

Prison and informant

Scarpa was initially arrested in 1988, charged with

and

narcotics The term narcotic (, from ancient Greek ναρκῶ ''narkō'', "I make numb") originally referred medically to any psychoactive compound with numbing or paralyzing properties. In the United States, it has since become associated with opiates ...

offenses and sentenced to 20 years in prison.

Ramzi Yousef

Scarpa was jailed in

Metropolitan Correctional Center, New York The Metropolitan Correctional Center, New York (MCC New York) is a temporarily closed United States federal administrative detention facility in the Civic Center of Lower Manhattan, New York City, located on Park Row behind the Thurgood Mars ...

with terrorist

while the latter was being tried for masterminding the

1993 World Trade Center bombing The 1993 World Trade Center bombing was a terrorist attack carried out by Ramzi Yousef and associates against the United States on February 26, 1993, when a van bomb detonated below the North Tower of the World Trade Center complex in Manhat ...

. Scarpa provided the government with information against Yousef. Scarpa claimed Yousef had spoken to him about plans to bomb an airplane or kidnap an American attorney to declare Yousef's 1996 trial a

mistrial In law, a trial is a coming together of parties to a dispute, to present information (in the form of evidence) in a tribunal, a formal setting with the authority to adjudicate claims or disputes. One form of tribunal is a court. The tribunal, ...

. He also stated Yousef had implied assistance from a foreign government, presumably

Qatar Qatar, officially the State of Qatar, is a country in West Asia. It occupies the Geography of Qatar, Qatar Peninsula on the northeastern coast of the Arabian Peninsula in the Middle East; it shares Qatar–Saudi Arabia border, its sole land b ...

, since Yousef's maternal uncle

Khalid Sheikh Mohammed Khalid Sheikh Mohammed (sometimes also spelled Shaykh; also known by at least 50 pseudonyms; born 14 April 1965), often known by his initials KSM, is a terrorist, and the former head of propaganda for the pan-Islamist militant group al-Qaeda. He ...

was living there as the guest of a cabinet official at the time. On March 31, 1996, Scarpa claimed Yousef had sent a bomb through the DHL postal service and also named Abdul Hakim Murad as a co-conspirator in a plan to bomb an airplane several months later. Scarpa also stated Yousef had people from England scouting the Atlanta Olympic Games. In 1999, prosecutors said that Scarpa's tips about Yousef were "a scam" which led nowhere. Judge

Reena Raggi Reena Andrea Raggi (born May 11, 1951) is a senior United States circuit judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit and maintains her chambers in Brooklyn, New York. She was formerly a United States district judge of the ...

agreed, ruling that Scarpa had not provided substantial assistance but had actually colluded with Yousef to mislead the government and chose to amend his initial sentence by doubling the length of his imprisonment.

Terry Nichols

In 2005, Scarpa tipped off authorities about previously undiscovered explosives and ammunition buried in the

crawl space A crawl space or crawlspace is an unoccupied, unfinished, narrow space within a building, between the ground and the first (or ground) floor. The crawl space is so named because there is typically only enough room to crawl rather than stand; any ...

of the home of

Terry Nichols Terry Lynn Nichols (born April 1, 1955) is an American domestic terrorism in the United States, domestic terrorist who was convicted for conspiring with Timothy McVeigh in the Oklahoma City bombing plot. Nichols was born in Lapeer, Michigan. ...

, a fellow prisoner at

ADX Florence United States Penitentiary, Administrative Maximum Facility (abbreviated as USP Florence ADMAX; commonly known as ADX Florence, Florence Supermax, and the Alcatraz of the Rockies) is a United States federal prison in Fremont County, Colorado, op ...

who had previously been convicted for his role in the

Oklahoma City bombing The Oklahoma City bombing was a domestic terrorist truck bombing of the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City, United States, on April 19, 1995. The bombing remains the deadliest act of domestic terrorism in U.S. history. Perpetr ...

. The

Federal Bureau of Investigation The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) is the domestic Intelligence agency, intelligence and Security agency, security service of the United States and Federal law enforcement in the United States, its principal federal law enforcement ag ...

had previously searched the home multiple times and the new discovery "embarrassed the F.B.I." according to Judge Edward Korman of the

United States District Court for the Eastern District of New York The United States District Court for the Eastern District of New York (in case citations, E.D.N.Y.) is the United States district court, federal district court whose territorial jurisdiction spans five List of counties in New York, counties in ...

. In December 2015, Judge Korman issued an order reducing Scarpa's sentence to 30 years in prison due to his tip in the Oklahoma City bombing case. The reduction was reversed upon appeal to the

United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit The United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit (in case citations, 2d Cir.) is one of the thirteen United States Courts of Appeals. Its territory covers the states of Connecticut, New York (state), New York, and Vermont, and it has ap ...

which reasoned that, although he had provided substantial assistance to the government, the government had the right not to reduce his sentence based on legitimate concerns related to his false statements in the Yousef case.

Release

In November 2020, Judge Korman granted Scarpa a

compassionate release Compassionate release is a process by which inmates in criminal justice systems may be eligible for immediate early release on grounds of "particularly extraordinary or compelling circumstances which could not reasonably have been foreseen by t ...

from prison. Scarpa had been suffering from

cancer Cancer is a group of diseases involving Cell growth#Disorders, abnormal cell growth with the potential to Invasion (cancer), invade or Metastasis, spread to other parts of the body. These contrast with benign tumors, which do not spread. Po ...

and treatment had left him with no

salivary gland The salivary glands in many vertebrates including mammals are exocrine glands that produce saliva through a system of ducts. Humans have three paired major salivary glands ( parotid, submandibular, and sublingual), as well as hundreds of min ...

s and a hole in his throat. He planned to live with a sister in Florida.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Scarpa Jr., Gregory 1951 births Living people Inmates of ADX Florence Colombo crime family FBI informants convicted of crimes Criminals from Brooklyn American gangsters of Italian descent