killed in brooklyn new york including two innocent bystanders my book proves not only did gregory scarpa sr instigate and propagate the war with his enemy victory in a just plain defense the whole time but linda vecchio his contacting their control agent leaked information to him during the course of the war that allowed him to continue killing people so you know it was really was what amounted to a cointelpro today or up until the early one thousand nine hundred twenty years after the church quite committees basically a paid assassin and i mean taking out the people that they you know they're giving him inside information scott was actually indicted a number of times yet the charges were dropped i mean was the f.b.i. integral in keeping him free from prosecution as well you mentioned it goes up pretty far how far a business really go well he was arrested twenty two times that i was able to determine and he only did thirty days and over forty years of murder mayhem and racketeering and particularly linda vecchio his last contact the agent admitted ultimately that he intervened to help hi

and mafioso gregory scarpa sr a man who spent more than thirty years as a top informant while committing crime after crime and he did so also paid upwards of one million dollars so why is the f.b.i. working with instead of cracking down on organized crime and here to break it down is peter lance himself author of the book deal with the devil peter thank you so much for coming on great to be with you abbi and you know who would have thought that it took would take a twenty nine year old hacker to turn barack obama into george bush. absolutely well first of all why did the f.b.i. recruit a criminal mafioso i mean what was in it for both parties here well it first of all for years as you know j. edgar hoover even deny the existence of the mafia but when he finally came around and he kind of had to face it they began this thing called the top echelon informant program where in they would recruit mobsters who would supposedly give them good intelligence that they could use to bust other mobsters but gregory scarpa sr was the most violent vicious. member of organized crime in the history of ca

killed in brooklyn new york including two innocent bystanders my book proves not only did gregory scarpa sr instigate and propagate the war with his enemy victory in a just plain defense the whole time but linda vecchio his contacting their control agent leaked information to him during the course of the war that allowed him to continue killing people so you know it was it was really was what amounted to a cointelpro today or up until the early one thousand nine hundred twenty years after the church quite committees basically a paid assassin and i mean taking out the people that they are you know they're giving him inside information scott was actually indicted a number of times yet the charges were dropped i mean was the f.b.i. integral in keeping him free from prosecution as well you mentioned it goes up pretty far how far of this really got oh well he was arrested twenty two times that i was able to determine and he only did thirty days in over forty years of murder mayhem and racketeering and particularly linda vecchio his last contact the agent admitted ultimately that he intervened

because scarpa sr. the title three wiretaps in the mafia commission case, which made rudy giuliani's future. propelled him into gracie mansion with his eyes on the white house. the cases would have unravelled are. so the stakes in new york were much, much higher for the justice department than in boston. >> wow. peter, a final question here with a little time. what do we draw as the lessons here? obviously, you need informants like you knee spie -- need spie. yet people walk away from this reporting thinking how do we get in so deep on the law enforcement side with criminals. >> here's the big take aiway. i've done three books prior to this on counterterrorism failures. the bureau was so obsessed forever bothering italians. the number one priority of the new york office was to get john gotti. they took their eye off this me it's a sizing cell. that cell executed the 9/11 plot. finally the southern district superseded the indictment. where was the bureau all those years? forever bothering italians. obses

of information action by angela flamenta that i used in part of the book, the files show in 1962 scarpaving hoover the entire mafia play book, the entire hierarchy, even the secret induction ceremony punishable by death. the deal with the devil was over the years he gave reams of misinformation, rose to the top of the family, killed with impunity. he was the largest phony credit card dealer in new york, had an $30,000 week drug operation. he used to steal negotiable bonds. >>brian: do you think the f.b.i. knew he was killing and stealing while giving them information? >> the man killed -- i document in this book, killed 26 people from 19 # # -- 1980 to 1992. you tell me. >>brian: many people think this is what the godfather was based on. peter, congratulations on your book "deal with the devil: the f.b.i.'s secret relationship with the mafia." straight ahead, brand-new animal abuse allegations against michael vick. details on the show. anna kooiman is taking a swing at another installment of made in america. >> good morning to everybody at home. we're touring the louisville slugger fact

it would be possible for him to have had a killer, a vicious killer like greg scarpa on his watch without the fbi did nothing to stop him from doing that? >> not only did he do nothing to stop him but there was an opr, internal affairs investigation generating 900 pages which four agents charged he was leaking information. his contact agent is doing life and he skated after a two week trial that ended abruptly in '07. >> how does he stack up to other informants in u.s. history in. >> he's absolutely the most violent in the history. real quick, he had had a $70,000 a week drug operation. he had largest trafficker of stolen credit cards in new york. international auto theft ring. $2 million on the street as a loan shark. he traded in half million dollar bonds. as i said, he was this incredibly hyper violent mobster. every briefing memo from 1962 on, i have an 11-page memo that hoover got. >> he was paid millions in to y today's dollars if you're to look at the money that the fbi gave him. >> over one million. over one million dollars. >> in today's dollars, right? >> right. >> if you look a