Mobster's Mistress Testifies at FBI Agent's Trial

Oct 30, 06:26 AM

Current Headlines: By Anthony M. Destefano, Newsday, Melville, N.Y.

Oct. 30--A dead mobster's mistress testified yesterday about how an FBI agent gave information to her gangster boyfriend on people who later wound up murdered by the mob.

Linda Schiro told a Brooklyn state court judge that she was only 17 when she met Colombo crime family member Gregory Scarpa Sr. at the Flamingo Lounge in Dyker Heights, Brooklyn.

"He told me I how beautiful I was; he wanted my number and I said, 'no,' I would call him," Schiro remembered.

She did call. Now 61, Schiro said she stayed with the married Scarpa for more than 30 years and became his confidant, sitting in on mob meetings where murders and other crimes were discussed.

During questioning by Brooklyn prosecutor Michael Vecchione, Schiro said she was also present when Scarpa gave FBI agent Lindley DeVecchio money and jewelry from crimes.

Testifying for the prosecution in DeVecchio's trial for murder, Schiro told Judge Gustin Reichbach, who is hearing the case without a jury, how the FBI agent tipped off Scarpa or planted information about four people who wound up murdered. She also said that DeVecchio, once a key FBI organized crime investigator, knew about murders Scarpa had committed, including the four that figure into the current trial.

Living off $2,200 a month from the Brooklyn district attorney's office, Schiro is considered to be the most important witness in the prosecution's case. Dressed in a dark pants suit, green knit blouse and wearing a locket containing a picture of her dead son, Joey, Schiro recounted in a low voice how her whirlwind life with Scarpa continued until his death in prison from AIDS in 1994.

Schiro said she was present at numerous kitchen table talks DeVecchio and Scarpa had at the various Brooklyn homes she lived in with him.

In one case, she said DeVecchio and Scarpa laughed about the killing of Alphonse Persico's girlfriend, Mary Bari. She was lured to a Brooklyn social club, where she was killed in 1984, after Scarpa learned from DeVecchio that she might be ready to tip off cops as to the whereabouts of Persico, then a fugitive and a high-ranked member of the Colombo crime family, said Schiro.

After Bari's killing, DeVecchio and Scarpa joked about the fact that her body was dropped only two blocks away from Scarpa's home, said Schiro. "Greg was laughing," said Schiro.

Details that Schiro gave yesterday were in stark contrast to a statement she gave the FBI in 1994 in which she denied knowing about Scarpa's crimes or the substance of his talks with DeVecchio.

On cross examination by defense attorney Douglas Grover, Schiro also indicated that she may have signed a partially false affidavit in a federal criminal case in 1998 in Brooklyn. She didn't recall asserting her Fifth Amendment right when called as a witness in that case.

The bulk of Schiro's direct testimony concerned the four homicides. In one case, DeVecchio told Scarpa that gangster Robert DeDomenico was taking drugs and could be a problem, said Schiro.

"'You should have to take care of this guy before he starts talking,'" said DeVecchio to Scarpa, according to Schiro. She said DeVecchio gestured with his fingers as a gun when he spoke.

After fruitlessly trying to help DeDomenico, Scarpa had him killed in 1987, said Schiro.

She also said that Scarpa told her that DeVecchio tipped him off that a friend of his son, Greg Jr., was getting ready to implicate the youth in a murder. The friend, Patrick Porco, was killed in May 1990. Schiro also testified that DeVecchio tipped off Scarpa on the address and travel routine of May 1992 murder victim Lorenzo Lampasi, a rival crime family member.

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