He was called the Grim Reaper. Reportedly killed over 100 people. He died of AIDS after a blood transfusion from a fellow gangster

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This was how his criminal career began

Gregory Scarpa was born on May 8, 1928. He was the son of poor Italian immigrants and grew up in the working-class Bensonhurst neighborhood of Brooklyn. As a child living during the Great Depression, Scarpa earned his living by helping his father deliver coal all over New York City. At one point, however, he concluded that he was not made for hard work. First, he dealt with robbing payphones and running illegal lotteries. His actions, however, noticed an American gangster of Sicilian origin – Joe Profaci – and took him under his wing. Soon Gregory Scarpa began to collect money for the mafia, beat people indicated by the bosses, and even carried out death sentences issued by the mafia. Scarpa quickly climbed the ranks of the mafia hierarchy until he became the capo (mafia boss) of the Colombo family, who terrorized New York from the early 1960s to the early 1990s. In 1962, he was arrested for armed robbery. To avoid prosecution, Scarpa agreed to work as an undercover informant for the FBI, starting a 30-year partnership. At the same time, the FBI suspects that it has murdered over 100 people during its criminal career.

“There was a lot of talk about it at home”

In the 1950s, Scarpa married Connie Forrest, with whom he had one daughter and three sons. They separated, however, in 1973. Later, however, he was in a 30-year relationship with Linda Schiro. The fruit of their love was two children – son Joseph and daughter Linda. In the “Mafia Women” documentary, the woman revealed something about her relationship with her father. As she admits, she knew very well what he was doing.

Much was said about this at home. You know about beatings, about someone getting killed, or having a problem with someone in the club

she told Trevor McDonald.

Linda Scarpa also revealed that the called Grim Reaper, the Grim Reaper or the Mad Mafia Hatter also had another side that his relatives knew. For Linda, he was above all a caring father who loved her more than his life and fulfilled almost her every whim and guarded her as the most precious treasure. Apparently, when one day she came back from school crying, he asked what had happened. Linda, then teenage, said that a driver who was working for the mafia at the time and was supposed to drive her to school, began to harass her. The furious Gregory Scarpa ran out of the house immediately and on his return said:

This man will never hurt you again.

Not gangsters, and AIDS killed the boss of the Colombo family

In 1986, Gregory Scarpa had to undergo emergency surgery. He suffered from stomach ulcers. He lost a lot of blood during the procedure and needed a blood transfusion. The gangster, however, refused to accept blood from the hospital’s blood bank because he feared it was from African Americans. He has received several blood donations from family members and associates, including Paul Mele, an HIV-positive bodybuilder who got infected through a dirty needle by injecting himself with anabolic steroids.

In 1992, during his HIV medical trial, Scarpa was arrested for violating state firearms laws. Soon after, he was charged with racketeering, as well as three murders. On December 29, 1992, while under house arrest with an electronic monitoring device, he lost an eye in a shootout with other gangsters. As Scarpa’s disease progressed to AIDS, he and his relatives told everyone that he had cancer. On May 6, 1993, already in poor condition, he confessed to three murders. On December 15, 1993, he was sentenced to life imprisonment in a federal prison. However, this sentence was reduced to 10 years due to his very poor health. Gregory Scarpa died in June 1994 at the age of 66 of complications from AIDS.