MAFIA HELPED FBI SOLVE 1964 MURDERS IN MISS

The Associated Press is reporting that a woman has testified in open court that her former boyfriend, Mob enforcer Gregory Scarpa Sr., was recruited by the FBI in 1964 to help find the bodies of three civil rights volunteers who disappeared in Mississippi.

Monday's testimony from Linda Schiro confirms a story that has been underworld lore for years, according to the AP. Schiro said Scarpa told her he put a gun in a Ku Klux Klansman's mouth and forced him to reveal the whereabouts of James Chaney, Michael Schwerner and Andrew Goodman, who were beaten and shot by a gang of Klansmen and buried in an earthen dam near Philadelphia, Miss.

The FBI has never acknowledged that Scarpa, nicknamed "The Grim Reaper," was involved in the case.

Schiro took the stand as a witness for the prosecution at the trial of former FBI agent R. Lindley DeVecchio, who is charged in state court with four counts of murder in what authorities have called one of the worst law enforcement corruption cases in U.S. history. Prosecutors say Scarpa, who died behind bars in 1994, plied DeVecchio with cash, jewelry, liquor and prostitutes in exchange for confidential information on suspected rats and rivals in the late 1980s and early '90s.

Scarpa's recruitment by the FBI to force a Klan member into giving up information about the missing volunteers has been talked about in mob circles for years.

In 1994, the New York Daily News, citing unidentified federal law enforcement officials, reported that a frustrated J. Edgar Hoover turned to Scarpa to extract information. The Daily News said the New York mobster terrorized an appliance salesman and Klansman already under suspicion in the case and got him to reveal the location of the bodies.

Schiro testified Monday that she and Scarpa traveled to Mississippi in 1964 after he was recruited by the FBI. She said they walked into the hotel where the FBI had gathered during the investigation, and the gangster winked at a group of agents. She said an agent later showed up in their room and handed Scarpa a gun.

She said Scarpa helped find the volunteers' bodies by "putting a gun in the guy's mouth and threatening him." She said an unidentified agent later returned to the room, gave Scarpa a wad of cash, and took back the weapon.