Deal With the Devil: The FBI's Secret Thirty-Year Relationship With a Mafia Killer

by Peter Lance

  20. Keith Wheeler and Sandy Smith, “Murph the Surf and His Jewel Studded Jinx,” Life, April 21, 1967.

  21. “Murph the Surf Held in a Miami Burglary,”New York Times, January 3, 1965.

  22. Memo from special agent in charge, FBI New York Office, to director, FBI, March 13, 1968, 2–3.

  23. Starting in 1980, Yablonsky ran the FBI’s Las Vegas Office. Michael Newton, Mr. Mob: The Life and Crimes of Moe Dalitz (Jefferson, NC: McFarland, 2009), 262–63.

  24. Memo from special agent in charge, FBI New York Office, to director, FBI, May 3, 1968, 2.

  25. U.S. v. Gregory Scarpa et al., U.S. District Court, Northern District of Illinois Indictment, Case No. 72 CR866, July 18, 1972. The indictment charged Scarpa, Gerry Ciprio, and nine others in the theft of a series of municipal bonds, including five bonds with a face value of $5,000 from Cleveland, Ohio, and another five $5,000 bonds from Columbus, totaling $50,000. The case dovetails with the May 1970 airtel in which Greg Scarpa Sr., according to Anthony Villano, helped the Feds recover a cache of bonds worth an estimated $550,000—among them municipal bonds from Cleveland and Columbus in the same $5,000 denominations as those listed in the Chicago indictment. Memo from New York SAC to the director, FBI, May 5, 1970.

  26. Archives of the Brooklyn Public Library, “Regina Pacis and the Case of the Missing Crowns,” Brooklynology.org, August 5, 2009. The $100,000 cost would equal $868,758.49 in 2013 dollars according to http://www.usinflationcalculator.com.

  27. “Religion: Thieves in the Shrine,” Time, June 9, 1952.

  28. Brooklyn Public Library, “Regina Pacis.”

  29. “Religion: Thieves in the Shrine.”

  30. “Hush-Hush Relationship between Mob and Church,” Philadelphia Inquirer, August 10, 1999.

  31. Memo from special agent in charge, FBI New York Office, to director, FBI, August 31, 1962, 10.

  32. Villano, Brick Agent, 111–14.

  33. Memo from special agent in charge, FBI New York Office, to acting director, FBI, April 5, 1973, 1–3.

  34. “Jewelry Recovered by FBI for Church,” Associated Press, in Lubbock Avalanche-Journal, January 22, 1973.

  35. Memo from special agent in charge, FBI New York Office, April 5, 1973.

  36. Author’s interview with James Whalen, May 19, 2011.

  CHAPTER 8: THIRTY DAYS IN FORTY-TWO YEARS

  1. Selwyn Raab, “The Mobster Was a Mole for the FBI: Tangled Life of a Mafia Figure Who Died of AIDS Is Exposed,” New York Times, November 20, 1994.

  2. Letter from Edward A. McDonald, attorney in charge, U.S. Department of Justice, Organized Crime Strike Force, EDNY, to Hon. I. Leo Glasser, July 22, 1986.

  3. Ibid.

  4. Ibid.

  5. Ibid.

  6. Ibid.

  7. Letter from Edward A. McDonald, attorney in charge, U.S. Department of Justice, Organized Crime Strike Force, EDNY, to Louis E. Diamond, Gregory Scarpa Sr.’s attorney, setting forth terms of plea agreement, July 18, 1986.

  8. U.S. District Court judgment and probation/commitment order, February 6, 1987; satisfaction of judgment, filed February 5, 1992; Greg Smith and Jerry Capeci, “Mob, Mole & Murder,” New York Daily News, October 31, 1994.

  9. Raab, “The Mobster Was a Mole.”

  10. U.S. v. Michael Sessa, testimony of Supervisory Special Agent R. Lindley DeVecchio, transcript, 119.

  11. R. Lindley DeVecchio and Charles Brandt, We’re Going to Win This Thing: The Shocking Frame-up of a Mafia Crime Buster (New York: Berkley, 2011), 116.

  12. Nicholas Gage, “Slain Brooklyn Man Described as Columbo ‘Family’ Associate,” New York Times, April 11, 1972.

  13. Memo from special agent in charge, FBI New York Office, to director, FBI, May 5, 1970, 3.

  14. Order to transfer, July 18, 1972; Nicholas Gage, “Slain Brooklyn Man.”

  15. U.S. District Court, Eastern District of New York, order of dismissal, April 6, 1973.

  16. Memo (airtel) from special agent in charge, FBI Newark Office, to assistant director, FBI, April 10, 1973.

  17. Memo (airtel) from special agent in charge, FBI Newark Office, to assistant director, FBI, April 30, 1973.

  18. Author’s interview with James Whalen, May 19, 2011.

  19. Memo (airtel) from special agent in charge, FBI Newark Office, to director, FBI, October 9, 1973.

  20. Ibid.

  21. Teletype from FBI Newark Office to director, FBI, June 6, 1974.

  22. Cover of special-delivery package addressed to director, FBI, time-stamped March 13, 1976.

  23. Memo from special agent in charge, FBI Newark Office, to Brooklyn Strike Force, December 6, 1976.

  24. Memo from special agent in charge, FBI Newark Office, to director, FBI, March 30, 1977.

  25. Memo from special agent in charge, FBI Newark Office, to director, FBI, September 9, 1977, 2.

  26. Memo from FBI Newark Office to Bureau (1) Headquarters, December 19, 1977.

  27. Letter from McDonald to Glasser.

  28. Author’s interview with Flora Edwards, October 13, 2011.

  29. Memo from special agent in charge, FBI New York Office, to director, FBI, January 20, 1966.

  30. Ibid.

  31. Ibid.

  32. Author’s interview with confidential FBI source, October 14, 2011.

  33. “6 Charged with Hijacking 870 Cases of Scotch Here,”New York Times, October 10, 1969.

  34. People of the State of New York v. Gregory Scarpa Sr. et al., indictment, October 8, 1969.

  35. Letter from McDonald to Glasser.

  36. Memo from special agent in charge, FBI Newark Office, to director, February 24, 1969.

  37. Author’s interview with former special agent in FBI New York Office, November 22, 2011.

  38. Michael T. Kaufman, “Profaci’s Roots Deep in Brooklyn,” New York Times, August 18, 1964.

  39. Memo from special agent in charge, FBI New York Office, to director, FBI, March 20, 1962, 9.

  40. Memo from special agent in charge, FBI New York Office, to director, June 18, 1962, 2.

  41. Memo from special agent in charge, FBI New York Office, to director, FBI, April 3, 1962, 2.

  42. Kaufman, “Profaci’s Roots.”

  43. Christopher Hoffman, “Whitey,” New Haven Independent, August 31, 2009, http://www.newhavenindependent.org/archives/2009/08/whitey.php.

  44. Memo from special agent in charge, FBI New York Office, to director, FBI, May 1, 1964, 2.

  45. Ibid.

  46. Kaufman, “Profaci’s Roots.”

  47. Memo from special agent in charge, FBI New York Office, to director, FBI, July 9, 1962.

  48. Memo from special agent in charge, FBI New York Office, to director, FBI, January 20, 1964.

  49. Memo from special agent in charge, FBI New York Office, to director, FBI, November 7, 1963, 3.

  50. Memo from special agent in charge, FBI New York Office, to director, FBI, November 6, 1964.

  51. Michael T. Kaufman, “Mafia Elder Slain in Brooklyn Sipping Drink at Soda Fountain,” New York Times, April 20, 1968.

  52. Memo from special agent in charge, FBI New York Office, to director, FBI, August 12, 1965, 2.

  53. Memo from special agent in charge, FBI New York Office, to director, FBI, September 2, 1965.

  54. Ibid.

  55. Memo from special agent in charge, FBI New York Office, to director, FBI, September 13, 1966.

  56. In some source material Richard LoCicero is referred to as the Sidge’s “nephew” or “grand-nephew.” See testimony of Michael Gallinaro, an investigator for the McClellan subcommittee, at the 1971 hearing cited later in this book: Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations of the Senate Government Operations Committee, OC and Stolen Securities, June 8–10 and 16, 1971, 633–35; 616. However, in a later airtel, boss Joseph Colombo himself identified Richard as LoCicero’s “grandson.” Memo from special agent in charge, FBI New York Office, to director, FBI, May 3, 1968, 5–6.

  57. Emmanuel Perlmutter, “‘Star Wit
ness’ in Big Robbery Slain in Brooklyn,” New York Times, April 6, 1967.

  58. Memo from special agent in charge, FBI New York Office, to director, FBI, July 29, 1967.

  59. Ibid.

  60. Ibid.

  61. Perlmutter, “‘Star Witness’ in Big Robbery.”

  62. Gallinaro testimony, 1971.

  63. Perlmutter, “‘Star Witness’ in Big Robbery.”

  64. Ibid.

  65. Ibid.

  66. Memo from special agent in charge, FBI New York Office, July 29, 1967.

  67. Kaufman, “Mafia Elder Slain.”

  68. Ibid.

  69. Nancy Katz, Greg B. Smith, and William Sherman, “Probing Mob Links to G-Man,” New York Daily News, January 5, 2006.

  70. Kaufman, “Mafia Elder Slain.”

  71. Memo from special agent in charge, FBI New York Office, to director, FBI, April 1, 1964, 2.

  72. Kaufman, “Mafia Elder Slain.”

  CHAPTER 9: THE OCTOPUS

  1. Claire Sterling, Octopus: How the Long Reach of the Sicilian Mafia Controls the Global Narcotics Trade (New York: Touchstone, 1990), 13, quoting Encyclopaedia Britannica.

  2. Memo from special agent in charge, FBI New York Office, to director, FBI, January 20, 1966, 2.

  3. Paid Notice in the New York Times: Deaths: Obituary of Elliott Golden, July 29, 2008.

  4. Memo from special agent in charge, FBI New York Office, to director, FBI, August 25, 1967, 4.

  5. Memo from special agent in charge, FBI New York Office, to director, FBI, May 3, 1968, 5–6.

  6. Ibid.

  7. Ibid.

  8. “The FBI’s Compliance with the Attorney General Investigative Guidelines,” Inspector General’s Report, September 2005, 18.

  9. Memo from special agent in charge, FBI New York Office, to director, FBI, March 1, 1974, 6.

  10. Memo from special agent in charge, FBI New York Office, to director, FBI, May 18, 1974, 1.

  11. FBI letterhead memo (LHM), March 1, 1975, 3.

  12. Memo from special agent in charge, FBI New York Office, to director, FBI, May 5, 1975, 1.

  13. Letter from Edward A. McDonald, attorney in charge, Organized Crime Strike Force, EDNY, to Hon. I. Leo Glasser, July 22, 1986.

  14. Fredric Dannen, “The G-Man and the Hit Man,” New Yorker, December 16, 1996.

  15. R. Lindley DeVecchio and Charles Brandt, We’re Going to Win This Thing: The Shocking Frame-up of a Mafia Crime Buster (New York: Berkley, 2011), 64.

  16. Ibid., 107.

  17. Dannen, “The G-Man and the Hit Man.”

  18. DeVecchio and Brandt, We’re Going to Win This Thing, 108.

  19. Ibid., 114.

  20. Addendum: Criminal Investigative Division, April 8, 1987, requesting additional authority for payment to Gregory Scarpa Sr. It describes broadly the “services” the informant provided in three major investigations, identified as “Shooting Star,” “Gambino Family,” and “Starquest.”

  21. District Attorney Charles Hynes at the press conference announcing the indictment of Lin DeVecchio, March 20, 2006.

  22. Jerry Capeci, “I Spy,” New York Daily News, October 19, 1998.

  CHAPTER 10: GUNS AND RABBIS

  1. R. Lindley DeVecchio and Charles Brandt, We’re Going to Win This Thing: The Shocking Frame-up of a Mafia Crime Buster (New York: Berkley, 2011), 109–10.

  2. Jenner & Block employs 450 attorneys and has offices in Chicago, Washington, New York, and Los Angeles, http://jenner.com/people/JayDeVecchio.

  3. DeVecchio and Brandt, We’re Going to Win This Thing, 21.

  4. Ibid., 35.

  5. Ibid., “costume,” 118; “gold chains,” 68.

  6. Ibid., 69.

  7. Ibid., 107.

  8. U.S. v. Orena, transcript of direct examination of R. Lindley DeVecchio by Gerald Shargel, February 28, 1997, 166–67.

  9. Interview with R. Lindley DeVecchio, “The Grim Reaper: Greg Scarpa,” Monsters, Biography Channel, airdate September 4, 2012.

  10. U.S. v. Orena transcript, 67.

  11. Memo from special agent in charge, FBI New York Office, to director, FBI. Subject: Gregory Scarpa. Top Echelon Criminal Informant Program, New York Division, November 21, 1961.

  12. DeVecchio and Brandt, We’re Going to Win This Thing, 54–55.

  13. Ibid., 32.

  14. Author’s interview with John Patton, April 29, 2004.

  15. Anderson Cooper, “The FBI’s Lin DeVecchio and ‘the Grim Reaper,’” 60 Minutes, CBS, airdate May 18, 2011.

  16. DeVecchio and Brandt, We’re Going to Win This Thing, 109.

  17. FBI teletype memo from FBI New York Office to director, FBI, July 1, 1980.

  18. U.S. v. Gregory Scarpa Jr., testimony of R. Lindley DeVecchio, October 14, 1998, transcript, 3384–85.

  19. R. Lindley DeVecchio, FBI 209 memos for Top Echelon (TE) informant designated “NY3461,” December 2, 1980, to August 27, 1993.

  20. Bob Drury, “Mafia Mole,” Playboy, January 1997.

  21. Scott Shifrel, “Mob Hit Man Testifies, Weeps at Lindley DeVecchio Trial,” New York Daily News, October 19, 2007.

  22. DeVecchio and Brandt, We’re Going to Win This Thing, 73.

  23. Accessing Bureau pay scales from that period, a former FBI agent consulted for this book estimated that the base salary for a GS-13—DeVecchio’s estimated General Schedule (GS) pay scale after ten years of service—would have been roughly $27,756, with a 25 percent voluntary overtime increase, for a total of $34,695. Certain agents in New York were awarded cost-of-living increases over the years, so it’s impossible to calculate DeVecchio’s 1976 salary precisely, but the retired agent called it a “fair estimate.”

  24. U.S. v. Orena transcript, 165.

  25. Alan Feuer, “For Ex-F.B.I. Agent Accused in Murders, a Case of What Might Have Been,”New York Times, April 15, 2006.

  26. U.S. v. Orena transcript, 164.

  27. Ibid., 161.

  28. Al Guarte, “FBI Big Shots Knew Mob Rat Killed His Rivals,” New York Post, March 1, 1977.

  29. 18 U.S. Code section 924, http://codes.lp.findlaw.com/uscode/18/I/44/924; 18 U.S. Code section 922, http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/18/922.html.

  30. DeVecchio and Brandt, We’re Going to Win This Thing, 74.

  31. U.S. v. Orena transcript, 165.

  32. DeVecchio and Brandt, We’re Going to Win This Thing, 114; FBI teletype memo from FBI New York Office to director, FBI, March 8, 1985.

  33. William Sherman, “You Pay G-Man’s Legal Bills,” New York Daily News, March 6, 2007.

  34. According to an aide to Senator Chuck Grassley (R-IA) investigating the payments, the Justice Department cited two sections of the Code of Federal Regulations, 28 C.F.R. 50.15(a) and 50.16, that provide for the payment of legal fees for accused government employees if their actions on the job fall within the “scope” of their employment and the U.S. attorney general determines that the legal representation paid for is “in the interest of the United States,” http://cfr.vlex.com/vid/representation-private-counsel-expense-19679481.

  35. Author’s interview with Gerald Shargel, November 9, 2011.

  CHAPTER 11: THE ROYAL MARRIAGE

  1. FBI, Manual of Investigative and Operational Guidelines, section 137-4, “Operation of Informant,” (6): “An alternate Agent must be assigned at the time the informant is opened. The alternate Agent must handle some contacts with the informant and must meet or observe the informant by the second contact after conversion. . . . Any deviation from this requirement must be approved personally by the special agent in charge and documented in a memorandum in the informant’s file.”

  2. Author’s interview with Special Agent James Whalen (ret.), May 19, 2011.

  3. U.S. Department of Justice, Office of the Inspector General, “The Federal Bureau of Investigation’s Compliance with Attorney General’s Investigative Rules,” September 2005, www.justice.gov/oig/special/0509/chapter3.htm.

  4. Memo to special agent in charge from Supervi
sory Special Agent R. Lindley DeVecchio (C-10), January 24, 1992, 5.

  5. R. Lindley DeVecchio and Charles Brandt, We’re Going to Win This Thing: The Shocking Frame-up of a Mafia Crime Buster (New York: Berkley, 2011), 70.

  6. Jack B. Weinstein, judgment, memorandum, and order, U.S. v. Victor J. Orena and Pasquale Amato, March 10, 1997, 33.

  7. DeVecchio and Brandt, We’re Going to Win This Thing, 144.

  8. Interview with Whalen, March 16, 2011.

  9. DeVecchio and Brandt, We’re Going to Win This Thing, 114.

  10. Memo from FBI New York Office to director, FBI, November 10, 1980, citing an August 26, 1980, meeting reported that “Source furnished a complete up-to-date structural breakdown, placing all the members under the appropriate capos,” 3.

  11. Ibid., 2–4.

  12. DeVecchio and Brandt, We’re Going to Win This Thing, 13.

  13. Ralph Ranalli, Deadly Alliance: The FBI’s Secret Partnership with the Mob (New York: HarperTorch, 2001), 70.

  14. Memo re: debriefing of Robert “Rabbit” Stasio, May 16, 1996.

  15. Special Agents Jeffrey W. Tomlinson and Howard Leadbetter II, FBI 302 memo re: Carmine Sessa, May 29, 1993.

  16. Special Agents Jeffrey W. Tomlinson and Howard Leadbetter II, FBI 302 memo re: Carmine Sessa, April 27, 1993.

  17. John Connolly, “Who Handled Who?” New York, December 2, 1996.

  18. Jerry Capeci, “No Tipping the Capo to Legendary Mobster,” New York Daily News, June 14, 1994.

  19. DeVecchio and Brandt,We’re Going to Win This Thing, 123.

  20. U.S. Department of Justice, “The Federal Bureau of Investigation’s Compliance,” 6–7; 1982 Final Report of the Senate Select Committee to Study Undercover Activities, at 523 (Civiletti Informant Guidelines, section F.2).

  21. R. Lindley DeVecchio, FBI 209 memo for Top Echelon (TE) informant designated “NY3461,” December 2, 1980.

  22. Gregory Scarpa and Lili Dajani, marriage certificate, State of Nevada, February 2, 1975. See Appendix B.