Linda Schiro, right, long time girlfriend of  Greg Scarpa, a Colombo Captain and informant for the Justice Department. She died in 1994 as did Scarpa. He died in prison.

How touch was Scarpa?

On December 29, 1992, while under house arrest with an electronic monitoring device, Scarpa learned that two Lucchese family mobsters, Michael DeRosa and Ronald Moran, had threatened Joey Scarpa, his son, over a drug deal. Sick, Scarpa climbed out of bed, drove with Joey to DeRosa's house and shot DeRosa. Moran, who was also there, fired back and hit Scarpa in the eye. Scarpa went back home, poured some Scotch Whisky into his wound, assured the authorities everything was fine, and later went to the hospital. Prosecutors revoked Scarpa's house arrest and sent him to jail.

Scarpa was married Connie Forrest; she and Scarpa had one daughter and three sons, one of whom would follow his father into the Colombo family, eventually becoming a capo. Scarpa and Forrest separated in 1973. Scarpa also maintained a 30-year relationship with Schiro that resulted in two children. While having an emergency ulcer surgery at Victory Memorial Hospital in Brooklyn in 1986, Scarpa refused blood from the hospital blood bank and received several blood donations from family members and friends including mobster Paul Mele, a bodybuilder who was using injectable anabolic steroids. Mele had contracted HIV from a dirty needle and transmitted it to Scarpa in the blood transfusion.

Surgeons at Mount Sinai Hospital in Manhattan eventually removed Scarpa's stomach. On August 30, 1992, he received a $300,000 settlement in civil court from his first surgeon and Victory Hospital for negligence