I Married A Mobster: Recap Orena’s “Family Getaway”



Victor Orena Senior

Last night’s episode of I Married A Mobster was not about a mobster or someone married to a mobster. It was the story of Andrew Orena, youngest son of Victor Orena, who was a one time Colombo boss. So why did Investigation Discovery include him in the line up? My first thought is they couldn’t find a tenth woman to tell her story to the world. Perhaps they should have delayed production until they did? I don’t know. But the story that Andrew tells about his father and the Colombo wars gives us the “other side’s” point of view. Victor Orena and Greg Scarpa represented the two warring sides of the Colombo crime family and this is his story.


Victor Orena was the acting Colombo crime family boss. He was old school. He grew up without a father and looked up to wise guys as his role models. His mother was dating a local mobster who abused her. Though Victor was just a young boy, he got a zip gun from a friend of his, and when he encounters the mobster in front of his house--he shoots him. Victor is ironically told by the mob that he can’t go around shooting people. He tells them that if this guy raises his hand to his mother again, he will kill him. With his answer, he earns their respect.


Victor moves his family to Long Island. One day Andrew is outside waiting for the pretzel man to come by. The truck passes him up without stopping. Nick Santoro (a mobster played by Joe Pesci in Goodfellas) asks Andrew what’s wrong. Andrew tells him about the preztel guy. An angry Nick makes Andrew get into his car and they back up down the street till they catch up with the truck. Nick gets out of his car and into the truck, screaming at the guy for passing up Andrew on the street. He tells him he better pass by every day and stop. He gets off the truck with a half dozen pretzels in his hand.


Andrew soon wises up about his father when he reads familiars names of family friends in the newspapers. His older brothers, John and Victor Jr., became made men, but Andrew wanted no part of a lifestyle that would only end in death or jail. One day the FBI comes to their house and tells them there is a contract out on Victor Sr., he is a marked man. Victor tells the family he has to go to a “sit down” over an incident. He leaves his oldest son in charge of the family and says this meeting will decide if he lives or dies. Victor Sr. does return home, but visibly upset. He confided in Andrew, who was the closest to his father. Andrew laments that his father could have done anything with his life, like go into business, but he chose this lifestyle.

Andrew falls in love with his high school sweetheart, Denise. Denise was at the house when the FBI raided it. She was scared and had never experienced anything like that before in her life. By 1985 the Orena family has a lot to celebrate. Carmine Persico is in jail and Victor Sr. is made acting boss of the Colombos and Andrew and Denise marry. They have a big wedding and many mobsters attend, including John Gotti. She gets many envelopes. Andrew is a Pontiac dealer and a year later they have a baby boy, Andrew Jr.

By 1991 Carmine Persico is still in jail and Victor Sr. wants the official title of Colombo boss. However Greg Scarpa, a Perisco loyalist, has other plans. Scarpa sends guys out to shoot Victor Sr. When Victor spots a suspicious car nearby, he senses danger and goes home to his family. He calls his sons and they get the family together. He tells them he is a target of the mob. Their plan is to call all the other mobsters in the family. Those that answer are on their side. Those that don’t are against him.


Victor’s guys try to kill Greg Scarpa. They approach his car the day he is driving away with his daughter’s car following him, and start shooting. Greg decided to kill everyone involved in that incident, including Orena’s kids. Scarpa, known as “The Grim Reaper,” is the most notorious killer and they know all their lives are in danger. Andrew takes his family to a house in Montauk to hide out.

 

Andrew defends his father against Scarpa. They live in fear of stray bullets. Greg’s reputation is well known. Denise was scared, but she knew her husband had nothing to do with what was going on. After 4 months in hiding, they go home. Victor Sr. decides it is safe. The Feds arrest Victor Sr. and it is really a relief for the family because now he is safe in prison and they can breathe. Andrew works with his father’s attorneys on the case. Andrew’s business suffers greatly because he is guilty by association. The banks will not lend him money and the customers refuse to buy cars. He goes out of business. After the trial, Victor gets three life sentences plus 85 years for racketeering and murder. His brothers were also tried for crimes.


However, at the time, news broke that Greg had been an informant of the FBI for years and was paid for it. They used that information to show that the FBI was protecting a homicidal maniac. The lawyers challenged the FBI’s actions. Andrew’s brothers were acquitted because that did not sit well with the jury. They got out of the mob after that and made new lives for themselves. Victor Sr. is still in prison.


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I Married A Mobster: Recap Of “The Grim Reaper”

Recap of Episode 3: The title of last night’s episode says it all, “The Grim Reaper.” The title is the name that was given to Greg Scarpa, a mafia capo who was known for his countless, violent murders. Linda Schiro was his mistress for decades and this was her story.

Linda Schiro grew up around mobsters. Her grandmother ran crap and numbers games from her house. It was part of her childhood and all she knew.

When Linda was 17, she was having an affair with Larry Pistone, a made member of the Gambino crime family. One night, while she was out, Greg Scarpa asked her to dance. He complimented her eyes saying, they were black, like olives. He asks for her number, but she tells him she will call him. She doesn’t. Instead, two days later she has a big argument with Larry and goes straight to Greg. Larry is outside blowing the horn and telling her to get in the car. Greg tells him she is going with him. Greg reaches for something under his seat. Linda gets scared and gets in the car with Larry and they drive off. Linda had just saved Larry’s life.

Greg was a huge money maker for the Colombo crime family and he was a notorious hit man. Both Greg and Larry wanted Linda so the two families had a sit down. Greg came out the winner. He treated her like a queen and she became his mob mistress. They celebrated her birthday at the Copacabana. She got a lot of gifts. In the mob, the girlfriends get everything and the wives, not so much. Linda describes him as caring and giving, but do him wrong and he will kill you.

One night Greg gets out of his car to go speak to a guy in another car, leaving Linda to wait across the street. Greg shoots the guy and this was the first mob hit that Linda witnessed. Then Greg tells her he has a secret, he is working for the FBI. After he was arrested in 1962 for armed robbery, he became an informant to avoid going to jail. She asks if he is a “rat.” He says no, he just does jobs for the FBI.

One day, in 1964, the FBI asks him to go to Mississippi where three civil rights workers had disappeared. Hoover and the FBI knew Scarpa would do anything and was afraid of nothing. They needed him to talk to the KKK and find out where he bodies were. An FBI agent gives him a gun. Greg handles it. He kidnaps one of the klansmen and tortures him for the information and he gets it. The FBI pays him money for a job well done.

After four years of being with Greg, Linda wants to get married and have children. Greg cannot leave his wife, it’s not what mobsters do. Linda marries a guy named Charlie, who worked with insurance, but she still went out with Greg every night and sometimes didn’t come home. Charlie never said anything. Then she got pregnant and had her daughter, Linda. Linda is Greg’s daughter. Greg has it all. He has two families, he is well respected in the mob and he works for the FBI so he can rest assured he will not go to jail.

Linda is Greg’s partner in crime. Mistresses know far more than the wives and Greg shared everything with Linda. When Linda gets pregnant with Greg’s son, Charlie leaves and Greg moves in. Linda was very happy.

Then, Greg becomes ill with a bleeding ulcer. He needs massive blood transfusions. At the time AIDS was a huge problem, so he got his friends to donate the blood for him. One of his friends was HIV positive, but his blood had never been tested. Greg gets AIDS. Orena and Scarpa were at war to get control of the family. One day while he was pulling out of his driveway with his daughter Linda and her baby in the car behind him, they are shot at, it’s a mob hit. Linda runs screaming back into the house thinking her father was hit. Greg soon follows, no one was hurt. But now, the war was personal. Linda says there were 5 holes in her car where the baby was sitting. Greg goes out every night looking for Orena’s crew. He went out himself, with his health declining, to get them all. He is arrested and the judge sentences him to house arrest because he is so ill.

One day Joey, their son, gets into trouble on the streets. They hide it from Greg. Someone had pulled a gun on Joey, Greg finds out. Greg goes out and starts shooting punks on the street. He drives back home. He is shot through his nose and his eye was out. He doesn’t even realize it. They take him to the hospital where he is arrested by US Marshals. Linda wants to take him home to die. They want to know if his trigger finger still works? As long as it does, they are taking him to jail. Greg died two days later, in prison at the age of 68.

Greg’s sonJoey rips off a drug dealer who was protected by a made guy. Linda is worried sick, but Joey tells her Vinnie’s dad has it under control. Linda knows what that means, she has been part of the mob lifestyle for decades. She tells him that mean they are going to kill you. Joey doesn’t believe it. But, the next day, Joey is killed. He didn’t have his father’s protection any more.

Linda says of Greg, “he was my life.”

In my opinion, there is so much to Linda’s story that 30 minutes could not do it justice. They just scratched the surface of her life with Greg Scarpa. She spent decades with the man and knew all his business. They did mange to get quite a bit of information into the episode. It was very well executed and the story was coherent. I felt the same way about last week’s episode with Andrea Giovino. Both of these women had much more to their stories, they filled up books, and what we got was the condensed “Reader’s Digest” version. Still they were fascinating and left me wanting to know and see more.

In both episodes, they show the lavish lifestyle side by side with violent murder as part of the woman’s daily routine. It’s impossible to even imagine greeting your significant other at the door, knowing that he may very well have committed murder that day or having to wash out his blood stained clothes. I don’t know how they dealt with it, accepted it, and went about their business. I wish someone would do a psychological study on the mindset of mob wives and mistresses.

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I Married A Mobster: Joey Scarpa, Linda Schiro’s Son

Joey Scarpa was the beloved son of Linda Schiro and Greg Scarpa Sr. and sister of Linda Scarpa.  He was murdered a few months after his father died of AIDS in prison. Joey was reportedly killed by a friend, Vincent Rizzuto, over a drug deal.  His death was tragic and devastating to both his mother and sister.  Her story is being featured tomorrow night on Investigation Discovery at 10:30 PM ET.

Joey, like his older brother Greg Jr.,  looked up to and respected his father.  But, Joey was also a rebellious teenager and often didn’t agreed with the things his father asked of him. Joey’s best friend was Patrick Porco. The two boys grew up together, almost like brothers. Patrick spent a lot of time at the Scarpa home.   Both Joey and Patrick starting selling drugs on the street, mainly marijuana and cocaine. Actually it was quite a bit of cocaine. Linda and Greg both worried about Joey’s safety, he was only 17 at the time. Joey and Patrick got into a dispute with a dealer from another crime family, Domenick Masseria, and ended the argument with the alleged killing of Masseria. Greg was very worried for his son’s safety and sent him away, while he tried to negotiate with the other family to save Joey and Patrick’s lives.

According to a 2005 affidavit, sworn to by Sandra Harmon, author of Mafia Son, Linda told her that Greg got a call from FBI agent DeVecchio, telling him that Patrick was going to snitch on Joey about Masseria's murder. Greg Sr's focus was on killing Patrick to protect his son.  He needed Joey to help him with his plan.   Joey never believed his friend would rat on him and protested. However, in the end, at his father's insistence, he went along with his father’s orders. But, the guy who was ordered to whack Patrick had car trouble that day and Greg told Joey he had to go do the job himself. Joey went with his friend John, to take care of Patrick, but when he came home he was inconsolable and sick with grief. Greg wanted Joey to attend Patrick’s funeral, but Joey was too upset to go.

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For the entire affivadit of Susan Harmon: http://www.mafiason.com/AFFADAVIT.pdf

I Married A Mobster: Joy Behar Grills Mobster’s Wives

Joy Behar never tires of mob wives. She had a nice chat with the women of VH1’s Mob Wives when their show premiered a few months ago. Last night she chatted with three women, who will tell their stories, from ID’s “I Married A Mobster,” which premieres tonight at 10:30 PM.

The three women featured on the show were Cheryl Caruso, whose story airs tonight, Linda Scarpa and Dion Nicosia, a new addition to the lineup. The ever curious Joy, fired questions faster than a semi-automatic, trying the get the most information out of them in the 30 minute segment. She scored some “hits.“ The women all were very forthcoming about their stories and why they appreciated the opportunity to tell people what they went through.

Cheryl speaks first. She has been divorced from Philly a long time now. She says she never knew he was involved with the mob. As far as she knew, he was a businessman with a successful printing business in Manhattan. She never asked any questions about his work or how much money he made. When he went to jail, she had no money and was completely in debt with two very young daughters to raise. Up until that point, Philly had taken care of everything. She finally learned of his crimes when she walked into court and heard the judge rattled over a long list of crimes and sentence him to 15 years to life. That was all she heard and she couldn’t comprehend it. The bottom feel out of her ideally perfect world. She had to get three jobs to pay the bills and was literally working around the clock, while her mother helped her raise the children. She had to rebuild everything. When Phil was released, after serving 7 years, he was on her doorstep begging for her to take him in. Cheryl said she couldn’t allow him back in the home, she didn’t know who he was. She worked too hard to establish herself and make a life for her and the girls. Sure she liked the perks that the mob life afforded her, but she didn’t know that was where the money was coming from. One day her life was perfect and the next it was ruined. She is telling her story to close the door on it and move on.

Dion says that after her husband went to prison there was no money left. The lawyers ate it up. She knew her husband, Angelo Nicosia, was well connected in the mob. It was nice and she enjoyed the lifestyle. Joy wants to know if Dion, who is African American, experienced any racism from the mob. Dion answers, “No, she was surprised, everyone was wonderful to her. The men were all charming.” Joy adds, “Yeah, other than the murders.” Dion says her husband was arrested and convicted in 2008 of extortion and will be out in March 2012. Joy asks, if her husband has ever gotten violent with her. Dion says, “no he hasn’t, but I have hit him a few times.’ She says people are fascinated with the mob and she finds telling her story is very therapeutic.

Finally, we hear from “Little” Linda Scarpa, whose father was Greg Scarpa. Greg was known as a notorious killer and because of that earned the nickname, The Grim Reaper. He was head of the Colombo family. Linda comes across as quiet, demure woman with an air of sadness about her. She begins by saying that her father was a great dad, a typical dad, and that she grew up in Brooklyn. She found out about her father’s lifestyle when she was 16 years old. She had a Sweet 16 Party and she said about 200 made men showed up. She says, if you see the video of it, it was pretty morbid. Joy pipes in, “I’d love to see it.” She tells the story of when there was an attempt made on her father’s life. She was in the car behind his, which her baby boy in the back seat. They were pulling out of the driveway, her car behind her dad’s, when men jumped out of a van across the street and started firing shots at her father’s car. She was “in the way,” so some stray shots entered her car. She was 21 at the time. She says she loves her father, but she has anger and resentment towards “the life.”

She has four children, but is not currently married. She says that when you marry someone in the mob or are conceived by someone in the mob there is really no way out of it. There is so much pain you can’t get over. She says she has never spoken about her pain before. She has never gotten over the death of her brother. Her brother died from being shot on the streets because he no longer had protection from the mob. But, she never felt she had the right to express her grief because her father killed so many people and caused so much pain for others. Her father, Greg Scarpa, died of AIDS while in prison. He was sick and needed a transfusion. One of his friends, who had AIDS, donated blood which was never screened because he was a friend. Linda says she wanted to speak openly about what she went through and show the lifestyle is not glamorous. She says she is speaking because there is no one left to speak about it. No one who is left to worry about what she has to say. The Colombos were at war with each other, killing each other, and there is no one left. The only ones left to talk about the mob lifestyle are the women and children.

All in all, a very informative set of interviews skillfully “executed” by Joy Behar. I wouldn’t be surprised if she was made an honorary “mob wife” at some point in the future. The mob wife phenomena is quickly catching on and we are keeping on the look out for new shows in the near future. Are you listening Jenn Graziano, from JustJenn Productions? We need to know!

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