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

(Paperback)

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Five-time Emmy Award-winning investigative reporter Peter Lance draws on three decades of once-secret FBI files and exclusive new interviews to disclose the epic saga of Colombo family capo Gregory Scarpa Sr.

"The perfect mix of thorough research and gripping storytelling."NPRGregory Scarpa Sr. spent more than thirty years as a paid top echelon FBI informant while wreaking havoc as a drug dealer, loan shark, bank robber, hijacker, high-end securities thief, and killer. A Mafia capo whose nicknames were "Grim Reaper" and "Killing Machine," Scarpa was enlisted by the FBI in the 1960s. His debriefings on Mafia activities went straight to J. Edgar Hoover, revealing the structure of Cosa Nostra long before the celebrated Valachi hearings. In forty-two years of murder and racketeering, Scarpa served only thirty days in jail. But Scarpa's most deadly reign of terror came from 1980 to 1992while he was a paid informant under Supervisory Special Agent R. Lindley DeVecchio, who ran two organized crime squads in the FBI's New York Office.

In Deal with the Devil, Peter Lance peels back the layers of Scarpa's unholy alliance with the FBI. Through exclusive interviews with Scarpa's son and other wiseguys and more than 1,150 pages of confidential briefing memos, Lance traces links between the Scarpa case, the infamous Mafia Cops case, and more in this page-turning work of investigative journalism that reads like a Scorsese film.

Reviews

"Deal with the Devil is a blistering account of a cunning and brutal Mafia capo... Packed with revelations, it offers the most penetrating look into the inner workings of the Mafia since The Valachi Papers." -- Nicholas Gage "[A] thrilling account... This scrupulously investigated tale... will have true crime fans on the edge of their seats -- Publishers Weekly, starred review "A meticulously researched and frightening account of the long term relationship between the FBI and vicious Mafia thug Gregory Scarpa Sr... Stunning revelations." -- Booklist "An exhaustive examination into the life and crimes of Mafia capo Gregory Scarpa Sr. and his questionable decades long relationship with the FBI... extensively researched...Aficionados of Mafia history and those concerned with FBI corruption will find this thorough investigation satisfying." -- Kirkus Reviews "The perfect mix of thorough research and gripping storytelling." -- NPR "An impressive piece of work... This is a book that has true potential to change history." -- Crimespree Magazine

Author Bio

Peter Lance is a five-time Emmy Award-winning journalist. Also the author of the groundbreaking 1000 Years for Revenge, Cover Up, and Triple Cross, he is a former correspondent for ABC News and has covered hundreds of stories worldwide for 20/20, Nightline, and World News Tonight. Among his other awards are the Robert F. Kennedy Journalism Prize and the Sevellon Brown Award from the Associated Press Managing Editors Association. Lance lives in Santa Barbara, California.