DeVecchio could be called as witness for Persico

The former FBI supervisor recently cleared of charges relating to Colombo Crime Family murders could soon be called as a witness in the defense of accused Mafia murderer Alphonse "Allie Boy" Persico (right), according to a story by John Marzulli of the New York Daily News.

State charges against Lindley DeVecchio were dropped last month when credibility issues were raised about a key prosecution witness.

Persico, son of reputed Colombo boss Carmine "the Snake" Persico, is on trial once again for allegedly ordering the 1999 murder of underworld rival William "Wild Bill" Cutolo. A trial on the same charge last year resulted in a hung jury.

Persico's defense attorney Sarita Kedia reportedly wants to call DeVecchio (left) to the stand to testify about events in the early-1990s Colombo Family civil war. DeVecchio was an FBI handler for informer and Colombo bigshot Gregory "the Grim Reaper" Scarpa Sr.

Schiro says DA's office betrayed her

Linda Schiro, the key witness in the recently abandoned case against former FBI supervisor Roy Lindley DeVecchio, feels betrayed and tossed aside by the Kings County District Attorney's Office, according to an interview with Sarah Wallace of WABC-TV.

Schiro's testimony in the DeVecchio trial connected the former FBI supervisor with four gangland killings. A reporter subsequently came forward with details of a Schiro interview that contradicted her testimony. Kings County prosecutors quickly dropped the case against DeVecchio and stated that Schiro (left) could face perjury charges.

In Schiro's interview with Wallace, she insisted that her court testimony was accurate and that the prosecutors were earlier aware of the apparently conflicting interview. She complained about how the DA's office has treated her. "I told the truth... I'm hurting because like I said, I can't believe what they did. I really can't."

During the WABC interview, Schiro recalled the FBI assistance provided by her longtime mobster boyfriend Gregory Scarpa. In 1964, Scarpa persuaded members of the Mississippi Ku Klux Klan to provide information on the murders of three missing civil rights workers. For many years, Scarpa secretly cooperated with the FBI.

Witness's apparent perjury clears DeVecchio

State prosecutors dropped their murder case against retired FBI supervisor Roy Lindley DeVecchio today and began looking into the alleged perjury of witness Linda Schiro (right), according to stories by Scott Shifrel and Helen Kennedy of the New York Daily News and Michael Brick of the New York Times.

Schiro, 62, the prosecution's star witness, was a longtime girlfriend of Colombo Crime Family bigshot Gregory Scarpa. She testified that DeVecchio provided information to Scarpa about a fellow gangster who was secretly cooperating in a federal investigation and aided Scarpa in setting up four mob killings. After hearing of Schiro's testimony, reporters Tom Robbins and Jerry Capeci came forward with 10-year-old audiotapes of conversations they had with Schiro to research a book. In those conversations, Schiro reportedly contradicted her sworn testimony in the DeVecchio case.

The reporters had promised Schiro confidentiality. Robbins said he felt he had to come forward after noting the contradictions in her testimony. Robbins described the contradictions in an article for the Oct. 30 Village Voice. In the taped interviews, Schiro did not link DeVecchio (left) with three of the four murders. She said nothing of DeVecchio's alleged involvement in the murder of Mary Bari and expressly excluded him from involvement in the murders of Joseph DeDomenico and Lorenzo Lampasi.

Assistant District Attorney Michael Vecchione asked Justice Gustin Reichbach to dismiss the case against the 67-year-old DeVecchio. Vecchione said the case would not have gone to trial "had we been provided these tapes much earlier in the process."

As Capeci noted in his online Gangland column today, the dismissal of the charges in such a high profile case is a public relations nightmare for Kings County District Attorney Charles J. Hynes (right). There was no announcement related to the case on the prosecutor's website today. Hynes reportedly told the press, "There's no way we would have brought a prosecution if we had that kind of information."

During the investigation for the case, Hynes publicly blasted federal agencies for their slow response to Kings County requests for information. Federal prosecutors had investigated the charges against DeVecchio earlier but decided not to prosecute. Current and former FBI agents came out in support of DeVecchio.

In the 2005 election, Hynes had to defeat primary election challengers from within his own Democratic party in order to run for reelection.

Mob put Giuliani hit to a vote

The bosses of New York's five crime families voted in 1986 on whether to whack then-U.S. Attorney Rudy Giuliani (left), according to a story by Murray Weiss, Patrick Gallahue and Alex Ginsberg of the New York Post and a story by Scott Shifrel and Helen Kennedy of the New York Daily News. The motion was defeated by a 3-2 margin.

The vote came to light as FBI records were made public in connection with the murder trial of former FBI supervisor R. Lindley DeVecchio Oct. 24.

Vincent "the Chin" Gigante (Genovese family), Philip "Rusty" Rastelli (Bonanno) and Anthony "Tony Ducks" Corallo voted against assassinating the federal prosecutor who secured convictions against many of New York's leading mobsters and went on to serve as mayor of the city. John J. "Teflon Don" Gotti (Gambino) and Carmine "the Snake" Persico (Colombo) voted in favor. (Mugshots of the five Mafia bosses are shown at right.)

According to a 600-page informant file entered into evidence by DeVecchio's defense team, DeVecchio became aware of the underworld vote on Sept. 17, 1987, about a year after it occurred. DeVecchio, 67, is on trial in Brooklyn on murder charges. Prosecutors say he provided information that aided Colombo Crime Family bigshot Gregory Scarpa in planning four murders.

At the time of the vote, Giuliani was prosecuting the Commission case. That trial ended with the November 1986 convictions of Corallo, Persico, Genovese family bigshot Anthony "Fat Tony" Salerno and five other defendants. Rastelli was convicted in a separate trial. "Big Paul" Castellano (Gambino) was indicted with his fellow New York bosses, but he was assassinated and replaced by Gotti before the trial began.

Giuliani, now a Presidential candidate, would not discuss the incident in detail. He has previously joked about threats on his life, noting that an $800,000 price on his head was insultingly later reduced to $400,000.

Ex-cop Coffey crooked: DeVecchio memo

A document to be used in the defense of former FBI supervisor R. Lindley DeVecchio charges that celebrated New York Police Detective Joe Coffey (right) was a mob informant, according to a story by Scott Shifrel of the New York Daily News.

Coffey, who solved more than 80 murders and led New York's Organized Crime Homicide Task Force, said the charge was "absolutely outrageous. I never in my life dealt with the Mafia other than to lock them up. They hated me. To this day, they hate me."

The defense document is a Sept. 4, 1984, memo relating to Mafia bigshot Gregory Scarpa (left), in which DeVecchio noted, "The source could not furnish specific details, but has longtime street knowledge of Coffey's dealings with La Cosa Nostra members."

That memo appears to have been the catalyst for an investigation of Coffey. "There was an investigation, and it was disproved," Coffey said. He suggested that DeVecchio might have fabricated the "tip" about his mob involvement. The two men feuded for some time.

DeVecchio (right) is standing trial in Brooklyn on murder charges. Prosecutors say his cooperation with Scarpa aided the Mafioso during the violent 1990s civil war in the Colombo Crime Family. Scarpa died in prison in 1994 at the age of 66. DeVecchio maintains his innocence. He is supported by a number of current and former FBI agents.

Coffey's law enforcement career is the subject of:
The Coffey Files: One Cop's War Against the Mob

Mobster weeps during DeVecchio testimony

Testifying Oct. 18 about his experiences within the Colombo Crime Family, ex-mobster Lawrence Mazza, 46, broke down and cried on the witness stand, according to a story by Scott Shifrel of the New York Daily News. Mazza was testifying for the prosecution in the murder trial of former FBI supervisor Roy Lindley DeVecchio.

Mazza recounted his work, which included shooting and killing underworld rivals, on behalf of Colombo capo Gregory "the Grim Reaper" Scarpa (left). "I was his right hand man - very, very close," Mazza said. During the 1990s Colombo Family civil war, Mazza and his underworld colleagues would cruise around Brooklyn streets looking for their human targets.

When Mazza told of his personal background and his early desire to follow in the footsteps of his father, a New York Fire Department lieutenant, he began to cry. He noted that he spent a year at John Jay College of Criminal Justice, studying police and fire science, while he worked as a supermarket delivery boy. A chance meeting with Scarpa's girlfriend, Linda Schiro, changed all of his plans. Mazza wept uncontrollably, and a break had to be called in the trial.

Prosecutors charge that DeVecchio (right) provided information to Scarpa that aided him in his attacks on his rivals. DeVecchio insists he is innocent of wrongdoing. A number of current and former FBI agents have publicly supported him.

Mazza was arrested in 1993 and began cooperating with authorities the following year. He served time in prison for racketeering and murder.

Scarpa died in prison in 1994 at the age of 66. His son, Gregory Scarpa Jr., followed him into the mob and into prison. He is now serving time on a racketeering conviction.

FBI's DeVecchio comes to trial

Roy Lindley DeVecchio, an ex-FBI supervisor accused of cooperating with brutal Mafia bigshot, was in Brooklyn State Supreme Court yesterday for the opening of his trial, according to a story by Michael Brick of the New York Times.

DeVecchio, 67 (right), has been a well respected law enforcement professional and retains the support of many of his FBI peers. He made a significant contribution to the landmark Mafia Commission Case in the 1980s, which put the nation's top crime bosses behind bars.

Prosecutors charge that he lost his way between 1980 and 1993 and began trading information with a Colombo Crime Family capo, the late Gregory "the Grim Reaper" Scarpa Sr., who also served as an FBI informant. They say that he accepted cash and other compensation for cooperating with Scarpa in his efforts to eliminate Mafia rivals and other suspected informants. DeVecchio is accused of causing four murders and of failing to stop several others.

The prosecution witness list includes Linda Schiro, Scarpa's common law wife.

DeVecchio defense attorney Douglas Grover insists that Schiro has engineered her testimony in order to sell books. He argued that the working relationship between his client and Scarpa was not inappropriate. "Gregory Scarpa, as ugly and miserable a human being as he was - a made member of the Colombo Crime Family - was a top echelon FBI source," Grover said.

DeVecchio waived his right to trial by jury. His fate will be decided by Judge Gustin L. Reichbach. DeVecchio's attorneys tried a number of maneuvers to avoid state trial, including arguing for the case to be heard as a federal matter.

Gregory Scarpa Sr. (left), who is believed to have played a role in extracting information from Ku Klux Klansmen about the murders of civil rights workers in the 1960s, died in prison in 1994 at the age of 66.

His son, Gregory Scarpa Jr., followed him into an organized crime career. The younger Scarpa, now in prison on a racketeering conviction, is also expected to testify in the DeVecchio trial. Prosecutors say the two Scarpa's teamed up for the Sept. 24, 1984, murder of Mary Bari in the Occasions Bar in Bensonhurst, according to a story by Alex Ginsberg of the New York Post. Scarpa Jr. allegedly held Bari in a bear hug as Scarpa Sr. put three bullets into her head. Prosecutors say the Scarpas learned from DeVecchio that Bari was about to lead federal investigators to her fugitive boyfriend, reputed Colombo Crime Family bigshot Alphonse "Allie Boy" Persico.

Scarpa Jr. links DeVecchio to 1984 murder

Gregory Scarpa Jr., now imprisoned after a career as a mob gunman, told investigators that information from then-FBI Agent Lindley DeVecchio prompted the September 1984 murder of Mary Bari, 31, according to a story by Nancie L. Katz of the New York Daily News.

DeVecchio (left) reportedly told Scarpa's father that Bari was turning informant, a particularly worrisome accusation as Bari's boyfriend at the time was Colombo Crime Family boss Alphonse Persico. Investigators believe Scarpa and his father then shot the woman to death at a Brooklyn social club.

The Bari murder is one of four that prosecutors have linked to DeVecchio's alleged cooperation with members of the Colombo Family. DeVecchio is asking now for the case against him to be thrown out because prosecutors have made use of earlier testimony he provided while under immunity.

D.A.: DeVecchio mistake led to Porco killing

Seventeen-year-old Patrick Porco, killed by a single gunshot to the mouth in May 1990, was the victim of misguided mob vengeance, according to a story by Alex Ginsberg of the New York Post.

The Colombo Crime Family had Porco (right) killed, believing he had cooperated with a police investigation into the 1990 drive-by shooting of Dominick Masseria, 17. According to the Kings County NY (Brooklyn) District Attorney, former FBI Agent Lindley DeVecchio told Colombo family capo Gregory "the Grim Reaper" Scarpa that Porco was talking to police.

That was reportedly an error. Papers related to Porco's unwilling interviews with police indicate that the teen would not reveal any information about the Masseria killing, even after a police official warned Porco that his life was in jeopardy.

Craig Sobel, 39, is now charged with the Masseria killing.

The Kings County D.A. has linked DeVecchio's relationship with Scarpa to several underworld killings. Scarpa reportedly served as an informant for DeVecchio (left). DeVecchio insists he is innocent of wrongdoing. A number of current and former FBI agents are strongly supporting DeVecchio.


Related MobNews posts:

• DeVecchio case stays with D.A. 01-10-07
• Kings DA: Feds stonewalling DeVecchio probe 09-25-06
• FBI's DeVecchio denies complicity with mob 09-02-06
• DeVecchio case stays in NY state hands 08-10-06
• Scarpa mistress to testify against DeVecchio 07-05-06
• DeVecchio can watch July 4th fireworks 06-27-06
• DeVecchio defense wanted mobster witnesses at grand jury 06-24-06
• FBI support of DeVecchio concerns senator 06-19-06
• Sleuth ready to quit DeVecchio probe 06-19-06
  

DeVecchio case stays with D.A.

U.S. District Court Judge Frederic Block rejected another defense motion to transfer the murder case of ex-FBI agent Lindley DeVecchio to federal court, according to a story by John Marzulli of the New York Daily News.

Judge Block noted that DeVecchio is being charged with murders and "nothing to do with his federal duties." Murder is a state-level offense. The Kings County (Brooklyn) District Attorney's Office will prosecute the case. A similar defense motion was denied in August 2006.

DeVecchio has been charged with providing FBI data to mob informant Gregory Scarpa, reputedly a key man in the Colombo Crime Family. Scarpa used DeVecchio's assistance to kill four underworld rivals. DeVecchio has denied any wrongdoing. He has received vocal support from a large number of former and current FBI agents.

The case has increased friction between the D.A. and federal agencies in Brooklyn. In September, the D.A.'s office said the U.S. Attorney's Office was withholding documents relating to a 1996 investigation of DeVecchio.

Related MobNews posts:

• Kings DA: Feds stonewalling DeVecchio probe 09-25-06
• FBI's DeVecchio denies complicity with mob 09-02-06
• DeVecchio case stays in NY state hands 08-10-06
• Scarpa mistress to testify against DeVecchio 07-05-06
• DeVecchio can watch July 4th fireworks 06-27-06
• DeVecchio defense wanted mobster witnesses at grand jury 06-24-06
• FBI support of DeVecchio concerns senator 06-19-06
• Sleuth ready to quit DeVecchio probe 06-19-06

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