On this day‬ in 1994, at the age of 66, The Grim Reaper would finally give in to poor health while serving life behind bars for three murder charges and conspiracy to murder others. Greg Scarpa was a formidable character in the mobs history and didn’t get the name The Grim Reaper for no reason. As Carmine Persico’s chief Enforcer for the Colombo Crime Family, Scarpa was said to have taken part in over 50 mob assassinations from the 1950’s to the early 1990’s.

Just a few years before he died from poor health he almost went out in spectacular mob style at the hands of Vic Orena loyalists. In 1991 Scarpa was driving his car in Brooklyn, with his daughter and granddaughter as passengers. Two cars pulled up alongside leaving Scarpa no where to go. Gunmen then opened fire on Scarpa’s car but The Grim Reaper put his foot down and managed to get away with everyone in the car unharmed.

On this day in 1994, one of the most feared and lethal figures in the history of American organised crime drew his last breath behind bars. Greg Scarpa, known throughout the underworld as "The Grim Reaper," died on June 4th at the age of 66, succumbing to AIDS-related illness while serving a life sentence for three murder charges and conspiracy to commit further killings. For a man who had cheated death so many times throughout his violent career, it was a cruel irony that illness, rather than a rival's bullet, would ultimately claim him.

Scarpa spent decades as one of the most trusted and feared soldiers within the Colombo Crime Family, one of New York's notorious Five Families whose roots stretched back to the era of Lucky Luciano and the founding of the American Commission in 1931. Rising through the ranks to become chief enforcer under boss Carmine Persico, Scarpa was believed to have participated in more than 50 mob assassinations spanning four decades, from the 1950s through to the early 1990s. He carried out his work with a cold efficiency that earned him his chilling nickname, and within Colombo circles his reputation for violence was unmatched.

What made Scarpa an even more extraordinary figure was the long-standing allegation that he had operated as an FBI informant for much of his criminal career, a revelation that cast a long shadow over several major prosecutions and sparked serious questions about the Bureau's conduct. His handler, agent R. Lindley DeVecchio, was eventually indicted on murder charges, though the case was later dismissed. The relationship between Scarpa and the FBI remains one of the most controversial and murky chapters in the history of law enforcement's dealings with organised crime.

Even in his final years, Scarpa remained at the centre of deadly conflict. In 1991, during the bloody third Colombo War between factions loyal to Persico and those backing acting boss Vic Orena, Scarpa was ambushed in Brooklyn whilst driving with his daughter and granddaughter in the car. Two vehicles boxed him in and gunmen opened fire, yet somehow The Grim Reaper forced his way through and escaped unharmed along with his family. He went on to kill several Orena loyalists himself before his deteriorating health finally forced him off the streets.

Greg Scarpa's legacy is that of a man who embodied the most brutal extremes of mob life, and his story continues to fascinate historians and crime writers as one of the darkest and most complex figures the American underworld ever produced.