In the final chapter of Greg Scarpa, Legendary Evil, I attempt a summary of Scarpa’s character. I include in that summary the following: “He violated every oath he ever took, and in doing so made it clear that to him words like ‘family’ and ‘loyalty’ were useful only as tools of manipulation for his own advancement, his own protection, his own greed.”
Scarpa’s treachery and mendacity were central to his character regardless of the temporary social environment he occupied. He violated the rules-rules of law, customs, or simply civil society’s expectations-that would have applied to each environment in which he operated. He did so willfully, consciously, and eventually as a matter of habit. His life evidenced a rejection of any external limits on his own behavior. What rules may have applied to others did not apply to him.
Scarpa was a bigamist whose open and continuous lack of fidelity mocked his two sets of wedding vows. His philandering habits were one way to demonstrate his rejection of any limits on his behavior others might place on him. He was a traitor who cynically pledged his life and loyalty to a deadly secret society he routinely betrayed. He saw no need for “honor among thieves” if such a thing exists. He was a liar who brazenly soaked federal law enforcement for tens of thousands of dollars and priceless protection in exchange for years of self-serving information and misinformation. His motivation for assisting the FBI was never out of a sense of remorse for acts he’d perpetrated in the life he’d chosen, or out of an obligation to society in general. He used the law’s agents to combat his gangster competition, to feather his own nest, and to secure his freedom.
In all respects, Scarpa was the sole arbiter of his behavior, and for 30 years, there was no milieu he inhabited in which he wasn’t an outlaw.
