Court Hears of Mafia Help on FBI Probe

'Mississippi Burning' case cracked with aid from notorious hit man

By Jason Farago, Newser Staff

Posted Oct 30, 2007 10:15 AM CDT

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Court Hears of Mafia Help on FBI Probe — Former FBI Agent L. Lindley DeVecchio, right, sits in court with his attorney Ginnine Fried as his trial got underway Monday, Oct. 15, 2007, in New York at state Supreme Court in Brooklyn . Prosecutors have billed the trial as "one of the worst cases of law enforcement corruption in the history of... (Associated Press)

Jurors heard shocking testimony yesterday in the trial of an ex-FBI agent charged with helping a Mafia informant complete four hits. The onetime girlfriend of a hit man known as the "Grim Reaper" testified that Gregory Scarpa was on the FBI's payroll, traveled to Mississippi, and provided the bureau with information about the notorious "Mississippi Burning" murders.

The Mob's involvement in the case has been rumored for years. Linda Schiro, the star witness at R. Lindley DeVecchio's trial, told the court that the FBI gave Scarpa a gun and paid him in cash for his services in Mississippi, the Post reports. Scarpa kidnapped a Klan member and learned the location of the corpses of three civil rights workers murdered there in 1964. (More Mafia stories.)

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