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Roy Lindley DeVecchio (born April 18, 1940) is a former U.S.
Federal Bureau of Investigation The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) is the domestic intelligence and security service of the United States and its principal federal law enforcement agency. Operating under the jurisdiction of the United States Department of Justice, ...
(FBI) agent in charge of managing mob informants. DeVecchio worked for the FBI during the
Mafia "Mafia" is an informal term that is used to describe criminal organizations that bear a strong similarity to the original “Mafia”, the Sicilian Mafia and Italian Mafia. The central activity of such an organization would be the arbitration of d ...
wars in New York during the 1980s and 1990s, eventually rising to head of the FBI squad responsible for surveillance of the
Colombo crime family The Colombo crime family (, ) is an Italian American Mafia crime family and is the youngest of the "Five Families" that dominate organized crime activities in New York City within the criminal organization known as the American Mafia. It was duri ...
. He was also responsible for handling Gregory Scarpa, a Colombo capo who had secretly been an FBI informant since the 1960s.Raab, Selwyn. ''The Five Families: The Rise, Decline & Resurgence of America's Most Powerful Mafia Empire''. New York: St. Martins Press, 2005.


Connection to Gregory Scarpa racketeering trial

After Scarpa pleaded guilty to racketeering charges in 1993, former Colombo
consigliere Consigliere ( , ; plural ) is a position within the leadership structure of the Sicilian, Calabrian, and Italian-American Mafia. The word was popularized in English by the novel '' The Godfather'' (1969) and its film adaptation. In the novel, a ...
Carmine Sessa Carmine Sessa, alias Carmine Marletta (born 1951) is an Italian-American mobster and former consigliere of the Brooklyn-based Colombo crime family and played a key role in the family from 1991 to 1993. He later became a government witness. Biog ...
, who had recently turned informer, tipped off prosecutors about Scarpa's unusual relationship with DeVecchio. Eventually, prosecutors uncovered circumstantial evidence that DeVecchio had leaked confidential information to Scarpa on numerous occasions. Reportedly, DeVecchio had told Scarpa about several former Colombo members who had turned informer. He was suspected of alerting Scarpa that he was being bugged, and that his son was about to be arrested for drug trafficking. Evidence allegedly surfaced that DeVecchio had given Scarpa tips on how to track down soldiers backing Victor Orena's effort to take over the Colombo family during the Third Colombo War (1991–93); Scarpa sided with longtime boss
Carmine Persico Carmine John Persico Jr. (; August 8, 1933 – March 7, 2019), also known as "Junior", "The Snake" and "Immortal", was an American mobster and the longtime boss of the Colombo crime family in New York City from 1973 until his death in 2019. He h ...
. DeVecchio is believed to be the first FBI agent accused of helping a mobster commit crimes and cover them up. The FBI conducted a two-year internal probe, but ultimately decided not to press charges against DeVecchio. Nonetheless, his reputation was affected, and he retired in 1996. Although DeVecchio was cleared of wrongdoing by his superiors, 19 soldiers from the Orena faction had their convictions reversed or charges thrown out after their lawyers contended DeVecchio's actions cast doubt on the evidence against them. The lawyers contended that DeVecchio actively helped Scarpa hunt down and kill opponents, thus making many of the deaths caused by their clients acts of self-defense. They contended DeVecchio had manufactured evidence. In 2006,
Brooklyn Brooklyn () is a borough of New York City, coextensive with Kings County, in the U.S. state of New York. Kings County is the most populous county in the State of New York, and the second-most densely populated county in the United States, be ...
district attorney Charles Hynes indicted DeVecchio on charges that he'd helped Scarpa kill four people in the 1980s and early 1990s through supplying confidential FBI information about them. The case was based almost entirely on the testimony of Scarpa's longtime girlfriend, Linda Schiro. However, the case imploded in the fall of 2007 when Tom Robbins of ''
The Village Voice ''The Village Voice'' is an American news and culture paper, known for being the country's first alternative newspaper, alternative newsweekly. Founded in 1955 by Dan Wolf (publisher), Dan Wolf, Ed Fancher, John Wilcock, and Norman Mailer, th ...
'' came forward with an interview he and mob expert
Jerry Capeci Gerald Capeci () is an American journalist and author who specializes in coverage of the Five Mafia crime families of New York City. Capeci has been described by news organizations, such as CNN and BBC, as an expert on the American Mafia.
had conducted with Schiro in 1997, in which Schiro denied that DeVecchio had been involved in most of the murders. Robbins and Capeci had interviewed Schiro for a book they had initially planned to write, and had promised Schiro that her revelations would not appear in a news article or be attributed to her. However, Robbins said, the prospect of DeVecchio facing life in prison trumped any promises they had made to Schiro. This forced prosecutors to move for a dismissal of charges against DeVecchio, which was granted on 1 November 2007. A retired judge was appointed special prosecutor in 2008 to examine whether Scarpa's former girlfriend, Linda Schiro, had committed
perjury Perjury (also known as foreswearing) is the intentional act of swearing a false oath or falsifying an affirmation to tell the truth, whether spoken or in writing, concerning matters material to an official proceeding."Perjury The act or an inst ...
but his report concluded that her interview tape wasn't enough to prove perjury. DeVecchio co-authored a book, published in 2011, about his experiences.


References


Sources

*


External links


License to Kill: Greg Scarpa and the FBI
by James Ridgway
The G-Man and the Hit Man
by Fredric Dannen

by Sander Hicks * ttps://www.nytimes.com/2006/04/15/nyregion/15agent.html?ex=1302753600&en=9d55a34074ed8200&ei=5088&partner=rssnyt&emc=rss ''The New York Times'' coverage of DeVecchio and Rudy Giuliani {{Colombo crime family Federal Bureau of Investigation agents 1940 births People from Fresno, California Living people Corruption in the United States People from New York City