FBI and Mobster Gregory Scarpa Sr Make Strange Bed Fellows in 1964 Civil Rights Case in Mississippi

Local mobster done good … 

The case was the disappearance and search for civil rights workers James Chaney, Michael Schwerner and Andrew Goodman. They were beaten and shot by the KKK and buried in an earthen dam near Philadelphia, MS. Years later it is being reported that the FBI turned to mobster Gregory Scarpa Sr. to help find the bodies of the missing civil rights workers. Further proving the point that crime and solving crime certainly makes strange bedfellows.

Linda Schiro said that her 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.

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.

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. (Yahoo News)