With the movie coming this aspect of his story interests me. It goes that they brought him down to rough up a klansman and get the location of the bodies of the three civil rights workers.

The FBI obviously never acknowledged this and the official story is that a highway patrolman who was tipped off by an anonymous third party gave up the location.

They will only tell you what they want you to know.
They say "rough up" ,I say he was sent to do what ever he had to do to get the job done.
The stuff we don't know about is going to be something if they ever let it out,don't think that will happen way to many guys will be getting millions $ for being locked up when they should have walked, and will get released on top of cash.

Yes they did, Edgar Ray Killen regularly complains about it.

I don't believe a word of that story about scarpa in mississippi. the FBI got the information from informers they were paying.

it was BS then and its BS now. my opinion only.

Binnie, I think your skepticism is warranted. There is zero proof Scarpa was in Mississippi, summer of '64. And doesn't one version of the story say Linda Schiro, then 17, went down with him? How reasonable is that? I respect Tom Robbins as journalist, Capeci also-- they broke this story back in I think '94-- but it's always smelled bad.

Is it possible? In Hoover's world, sure, anything is possible but...

Binnie, do you know the book 'We Are Not Afraid' by Philip Dray and Seth Cagin? All about Cheney, Goodman, Schwerner murders, including interviews with lots of LE, from ex- agents on up to John Doar. Could they ALL be in the dark or part of Scarpa cover-up?

that's a very good question conopizza. you would think something relating to scarpa would come out in that book.

I think the FBI made it up to bolster scarpa's worth to them.

I think it is a bogus story too.

Finding those bodies in Mississippi was a HUGE DEAL. If that was the case, I think the Feds would have taken great care of Scarpa. Didn't DeVecchio write or say somewhere that he went to the closed FBI informant files and found Scarpa's info and contacted him? Why would the Feds close an informant like him who did this, wouldn't they just keep him on their payroll?

I don't think it was the Feds that closed him I'm the beginning. If I'm not mistaken he stepped away on his own.

He used the government just how he wanted to they were his puppets he was able to gain wealthby having people locked up shaken up or killed to get there rackets

That's a very sound theory, I think.

People need to remember also there are TWO alleged Scarpa missions in Mississippi for the FBI.

The first is Cheney, Goodman, Schwerner case, summer 1964 and is the subject of this thread.

The second-- which seems documented from FOIA records-- is in early 1966, in relation to the Vernon Dahmer case.

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Sometime in 1994, fed source(s) tells Robbins & Capeci the Scarpa story, with no documents nor other corroboration. (I don't have the date for this original NY Daily News story but we can get it.)

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Now let's correlate this with the FBI investigation of Lin Devecchio.

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Let's also look back to the post-JFK FBI... with all the resources they had in the south, how much sense does it make they're going to fly a relatively untested mob informant down like that?

Linda Schiro-- who has near zero credibility on specific facts, the last time I checked-- claims she went with him?!

Even if some desperate or rogue FBI SA-- with or without Hoover approval-- is willing to give this a shot, they're letting Scarpa's 17-year-old girlfriend come along? Why, because it's better cover? Like one Brooklyn street thug won't stand out enough? (Granted, the area was swarming with journalists, military, feds etc by then.)

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Peter Lance has a lot of citations in his Scarpa book, this chapter included, but if you actually look at these citations, he has NOTHING to go on, except the original Robbins/Capeci story which someone--obviously-- planted for a reason.

Peter Lance, it should be noted, did NOT talk to John Doar who, afaik, was active until near the end.

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/11/12/us/joh...at-92.html?_r=0

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Is it possible Scarpa went to Mississippi, alone, in 1964 and, having used him once, the FBI thought to use him again in 1966?

Possible but more than a little unlikely.

Is Lin Devecchio-- like Linda Schiro-- even they both know A LOT, in any way a reliable source?

I think not.

Good post. Basically, getting away with murder.

Great post conopizza, and I agree. Linda and Lin both don't have a good rep in my mind and I don't believe anything they say. And like you said, back then (and even today) a Yankee like him would have stood out in a place like rural Mississippi. The people there can be something else. It's basically the same way with me going up to Boston or Providence to work. Everyone laughs at me and says "you not from around here huh?" because my warmest jacket is a realtree pattern and according to them NOBODY wears it up North. When I open my mouth they just laugh because I can talk as slow and country as you have ever heard.

Then to top if off they would have brought along Scarpa's big mouthed girlfriend on this "secret mission"? Yea sure.

yup. total bull. like they say in Georgia "I don't cotton to it"