SSA R. Lindley DeVecchio case
FORMER FBI SUPERVISORY SPECIAL AGENT R. LINDLEY DEVECCHIO INDICTED
On September 5th, 2004, with the publication of COVER UP, Peter Lance, for the first time, told the story of how the FBI and the U.S. Justice Department covered up a scandal involving R. Lindley DeVecchio, a retired SSA known as "Mr. Organized Crime."
This burial of evidence had the effect of suppressing a treasure trove of intelligence on an active al Qaeda cell in
Further, it kept secret a catastrophic blunder in which the FBI blew a chance in 1996 to apprehend Yousef's uncle, Khalid Shaikh Mohammed in Doha, Qatar. KSM is the man the Bureau now calls "the mastermind of 9/11."
COVER UP tells the remarkable story of the alleged "unholy alliance" between SSA DeVecchio and Gregory Scarpa Sr., a notorious killer for the Colombo Crime Family, aka "The Grim Reaper," who was a Top Echelon (TE) informant for DeVecchio for many years.
If you read the first 128 pages of the book, you'll see that Lance laid out the entire story:
i) From Greg Scarpa Sr.?s recruitment by J. Edgar Hoover?to break the Goodwin, Schwerner & Chaney? MISSBURN case in 1964; 
ii) Through his fraudulent prosecution of the so-called "Colombo Wars" with DeVecchio in the early 1990?s;
iii) Through Greg Scarpa Jr.'s treasure trove of intelligence on al Qaeda from Ramzi Yousef, which the FBI and SDNY buried in 1996 in order to hide the DeVecchio scandal;
iv) To the story of Det. Joe Simone, the decorated NYPD cop whom the Feds ruined in order to plug the DeVecchio leaks.
THE BOOK INSPIRES THE D.A.'S INVESTIGATION
In September, 2005 Peter Lance met with investigators for the Brooklyn District Attorney's office who had read COVER UP in detail. On March 30th, at a press conference just prior to SSA DeVecchio's arraignment on four counts of Second Degree Murder, Noel Downey, Chief of the D.A.'s rackets Bureau who led the investigation said, in relation to COVER UP:
"Stage one of any murder investigation is to figure out who's who and what's what and where things occured and (COVER UP) was a wonderful springboard to understand who the parties were and in what direction the investigation should go."
"Stage one of any murder investigation is to figure out who's who and what's what and where things occured and (COVER UP) was a wonderful springboard to understand who the parties were and in what direction the investigation should go."
DeVecchio was released on $1 million bail following the arraignment. D.A. Charles "Joe" Hynes called the relationship between Greg Scarpa Sr. and SSA DeVecchio, "The most stunning example of official corruption that I have ever seen."
If followed through by Congressional investigators, this sordid tale of betrayal and murder in Brooklyn, could open up a startling new vein in the 9/11 investigation.
What follows is some of the press coverage of the indictment.
F.B.I. Colleagues Help Ex-Agent Post Bail
By WILLIAM K. RASHBAUM; JANON FISHER CONTRIBUTED REPORTING FOR THIS ARTICLE.
Published: March 31, 2006
When R. Lindley DeVecchio, a 65-year-old retired F.B.I. supervisor, stood up in a courtroom in Brooklyn yesterday to face charges that he had helped his prized Mafia informant commit four murders, the tension was clear.
On one side of the gallery, filling roughly two-thirds of the blond wood benches, were nearly four dozen mostly gray-haired men in dark-colored suits. Retired F.B.I. agents who had once been Mr. DeVecchio's colleagues, they were now his supporters. Most sat stiffly upright and spoke little.
In front of them, at the prosecution table in the well of the courtroom, sat two somber senior prosecutors from the office of the Brooklyn district attorney, Charles J. Hynes. Mr. Hynes, after a 13-month investigation, had hours earlier announced the indictment of Mr. DeVecchio on charges that he had helped his informant commit four mob murders in the 1980's and early 1990's, accepting weekly payoffs totaling more than $66,000. READ MORE.
Ex-FBI handler charged with aiding rubouts
BY NANCIE L. KATZ
DAILY NEWS STAFF WRITER
A retired FBI agent has been charged with helping a mob informant carry out at least three bloody hits, the Daily News has learned. The blockbuster indictment delivered by a secret Brooklyn grand jury caps an exhaustive six-month probe into allegations that Lindley DeVecchio, a federal agent for 33 years, helped his longtime Colombo crime family informer, Gregory Scarpa Sr., wipe out at least three enemies, a well-informed source said.
Prosecutors do not believe DeVecchio was directly involved in the slayings - including that of Mary Bari, a beautiful brunette - but they presented evidence the agent gave Scarpa information that led him to kill, sources said.
DeVecchio is expected to be arraigned on at least three counts of second-degree murder in Brooklyn Supreme Court next week. He could face up to 25 years to life in prison on each count if convicted.
The allegations that he is involved in the murder of Mary Bari or gangsters or anyone of that sort is absolutely ridiculous," Federo said. "We will vigorously defend against those allegations and will do so in court."
DeVecchio, an FBI supervisor for 11 years, has long weathered accusations of an improper relationship with Scarpa. But he was cleared of wrongdoing after a two-year federal probe in 1996 and by a federal judge in 2004.
Scarpa, a violent sociopath who died in prison in 1994 at 66, rose through the ranks of the Colombo family and was a paid FBI informant for more than 30 years. For 13 of those years, beginning in 1980, DeVecchio was his handler.
The Brooklyn grand jury heard evidence that DeVecchio told Scarpa in 1984 that Mary Bari - a dark-haired beauty who hung out with a Colombo family mobster - was a paid informant for the FBI. Scarpa shot her dead on Sept. 24, 1984, in a Brooklyn club as his son, Gregory Jr., held her down, according to court records quoted by the Web site Gangland News.
A second victim, Joseph (Joe Brewster) DeDomenico, was killed in 1987 after DeVecchio told Scarpa the mobster might become a turncoat, sources said. In 1992, during the 1991-93 Colombo family war, DeVecchio also is accused of helping Scarpa find and kill Larry Lampesi, a mob rival, sources said.
The office of Brooklyn District Attorney Charles Hynes, which led the probe, declined to comment yesterday. The FBI did not return calls. Originally published on March 25, 2006
