{"id":2090,"date":"2024-11-08T11:51:27","date_gmt":"2024-11-08T18:51:27","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/peterlance.com\/?p=2090"},"modified":"2025-10-19T09:48:10","modified_gmt":"2025-10-19T16:48:10","slug":"a-machiavellian-mafia-chess-master-publishers-weekly-talks-with-peter-lance","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/peterlance.com\/wordpress\/?p=2090","title":{"rendered":"A Starred Review in PW for DEAL WITH THE DEVIL"},"content":{"rendered":"<div style=\"padding-bottom:20px; padding-top:10px;\" class=\"hupso-share-buttons\"><!-- Hupso Share Buttons - https:\/\/www.hupso.com\/share\/ --><a class=\"hupso_toolbar\" href=\"https:\/\/www.hupso.com\/share\/\"><img src=\"https:\/\/static.hupso.com\/share\/buttons\/share-medium.png\" style=\"border:0px; padding-top: 5px; float:left;\" alt=\"Share Button\"\/><\/a><script type=\"text\/javascript\">var hupso_services_t=new Array(\"Twitter\",\"Facebook\",\"Google Plus\",\"Pinterest\",\"Linkedin\",\"StumbleUpon\",\"Digg\",\"Reddit\",\"Bebo\",\"Delicious\");var hupso_background_t=\"#EAF4FF\";var hupso_border_t=\"#66CCFF\";var hupso_toolbar_size_t=\"medium\";var hupso_image_folder_url = \"\";var hupso_url_t=\"\";var hupso_title_t=\"A%20Starred%20Review%20in%20PW%20for%20DEAL%20WITH%20THE%20DEVIL\";<\/script><script type=\"text\/javascript\" src=\"https:\/\/static.hupso.com\/share\/js\/share_toolbar.js\"><\/script><!-- Hupso Share Buttons --><\/div><h1><span style=\"font-size: 13px;\"><a href=\"http:\/\/www.publishersweekly.com\/978-0-06-145534-6\"><img loading=\"lazy\" class=\"alignleft size-full wp-image-6814\" title=\"Screen Shot 2015-05-11 at 12.40.02 AM\" src=\"http:\/\/peterlance.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/06\/Screen-Shot-2015-05-11-at-12.40.02-AM.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"265\" height=\"98\" \/><\/a>By Lenny Picker<\/span><\/h1>\n<div>Jun 07, 2013<\/div>\n<div id=\"share-inline\" data-jsclass=\"share\" data-ajaxsrc=\"components\/share.html\" data-deliver=\"ajax\" data-article=\"57710\" data-url=\"\/pw\/by-topic\/authors\/interviews\/article\/57710-a-machiavellian-mafia-chess-master-pw-talks-with-peter-lance.html\" data-path=\"\/by-topic\/authors\/interviews\/article\/57710-a-machiavellian-mafia-chess-master-pw-talks-with-peter-lance.html\" data-inline=\"false\" data-comments=\"true\"><\/div>\n<div>\n<div id=\"photo-auth\" data-jsclass=\"articlePhoto\" data-ajaxsrc=\"components\/article-photo.html\" data-deliver=\"ajax\" data-table=\"ARTICLE\" data-row=\"57710\" data-photo=\"auth\" data-width=\"250\">\n<div data-jsclass=\"imageWrapper\"><a href=\"http:\/\/www.publishersweekly.com\/978-0-06-145534-6\"><img loading=\"lazy\" id=\"ARTICLE_PHOTO.16060\" src=\"http:\/\/www.publishersweekly.com\/images\/cached\/ARTICLE_PHOTO\/photo\/000\/000\/016\/16060-v1-250x.JPG\" alt=\"\" width=\"250\" height=\"352\" data-lazysrc=\"\/images\/cached\/ARTICLE_PHOTO\/photo\/000\/000\/016\/16060-v1-250x.JPG\" data-width=\"250\" data-height=\"352\" data-max-width=\"250\" data-max-height=\"352\" \/><\/a><\/div>\n<div>\n<div>Photo by Ron Finley<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p><strong>PUBLISHER&#8217;S WEEKLY<\/strong> interviews former ABC News correspondent Peter Lance on his ground-breaking bio of mobster Greg Scarpa Sr. in <a href=\"http:\/\/www.publishersweekly.com\/978-0-06-145534-6\">Deal with the Devil: The FBI\u2019s Secret 30-Year Relationship with a Mob Killer<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p><strong>What turned you on to the story of Greg Scarpa Sr.?<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>My investigation of the FBI\u2019s counter-terrorism failures on the road to 9\/11 and beyond, which I wrote about in my first book, 1000 Years for Revenge. I proved that it was Ramzi Yousef who conceived the 9\/11 plot in Manila in the fall of 1994 after he\u2019d fled New York City [in the wake of the 1993 bombing of the World Trade Center, for which Yousef was responsible]. Incredibly, Yousef spent 11 months in a cell next to Gregory Scarpa Jr., the son of a bloodthirsty capo in the Colombo crime family who had worked as an informant for the Bureau for more than 30 years. That led to my looking into Scarpa Sr.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Sometimes deals get cut with lower-level thugs to catch the big bosses, as when Sammy Gravano incriminated John Gotti. Are these deals with lesser devils necessary evils?<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>There\u2019s a huge difference between making a plea bargain with a \u201cSammy the Bull\u201d so he\u2019ll flip on a Gotti, and actually employing a killer like Scarpa (who \u201cstopped counting\u201d after 50 murders) and using him as an effective \u201cagent provocateur\u201d to wreak havoc inside a mob family. The title of my book derives from a line in the dismissal of murder charges against Scarpa\u2019s FBI handler, who was indicted on four counts of murder-conspiracy by the Brooklyn D.A. in a case that fell apart in 2007. Judge Reichbach wrote, \u201cthat a thug like Scarpa would be employed by the federal government\u2026 is a shocking demonstration of the government\u2019s unacceptable willingness to employ criminality to fight crime.\u201d<\/p>\n<div id=\"articleRelatedEmbed\" data-jsclass=\"articleRelated\" data-ajaxsrc=\"components\/article-related.html\" data-deliver=\"ajax\" data-try-photo=\"1\" data-article=\"57710\">\n<div>\n<div><strong>What was the hardest part of writing this book?<\/strong><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p>The scope of the story, which got bigger and bigger as I kicked over rocks. As I began to interview sources and finally gain access to secret FBI memos on the Bureau\u2019s relationship with Scarpa, the book turned into an epic work. But what emerged for me from all of this research was an absolutely riveting story of manipulation by Scarpa, a Machiavellian chess master who played everybody around him, from senior FBI officials to the very members of his family, whom he betrayed.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Why have your discoveries not been picked up by the media?<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>The mainstream media is just as resistant to admitting that they may have been wrong in reporting a story and to correcting the record as institutions like the FBI are in revisiting their failures, copping to them, and correcting the system.<\/p>\n<div>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" id=\"ARTICLE_PHOTO.16061\" src=\"http:\/\/www.publishersweekly.com\/images\/cached\/ARTICLE_PHOTO\/photo\/000\/000\/016\/16061-v1-197x.JPG\" alt=\"\" width=\"197\" height=\"297\" \/><\/p>\n<div><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div>\n<h3>RELATED STORIES:<\/h3>\n<ul>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/www.publishersweekly.com\/978-0-06-145534-6\">Deal with the Devil: The FBI\u2019s Secret 30-Year Relationship with a Mob Killer<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/www.publishersweekly.com\/pw\/print\/20130610.html\">PW issue Contents<\/a><\/li>\n<li>More in\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/www.publishersweekly.com\/pw\/by-topic\/authors\/interviews\/index.html\">Authors -&gt; Interviews<\/a><\/li>\n<li>More in articles by\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/www.publishersweekly.com\/pw\/article_authors\/68.html\">Leonard Picker<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/div>\n<div>\n<h3>FREE E-NEWSLETTERS<\/h3>\n<form action=\"\/pw\/email-subscriptions\/index.html\"><input id=\"email-address\" name=\"email\" type=\"text\" value=\"Enter e-mail address\" data-default=\"Enter e-mail address\" \/><input checked=\"checked\" name=\"0f4bd0fb05\" type=\"checkbox\" \/>\u00a0PW Daily\u00a0<input checked=\"checked\" name=\"fd5c33daf6\" type=\"checkbox\" \/>\u00a0Tip Sheet<\/p>\n<div>\n<div><input name=\"subscribe\" src=\"http:\/\/www.publishersweekly.com\/images\/button-articlerelated-subscribe.png\" type=\"Image\" value=\"subscribe\" \/><\/div>\n<div><a href=\"http:\/\/www.publishersweekly.com\/pw\/email-subscriptions\/index.html\">More Newsletters<\/a><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<\/form>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<div style=\"padding-bottom:20px; padding-top:10px;\" class=\"hupso-share-buttons\"><!-- Hupso Share Buttons - https:\/\/www.hupso.com\/share\/ --><a class=\"hupso_toolbar\" href=\"https:\/\/www.hupso.com\/share\/\"><img src=\"https:\/\/static.hupso.com\/share\/buttons\/share-medium.png\" style=\"border:0px; padding-top: 5px; float:left;\" alt=\"Share Button\"\/><\/a><script type=\"text\/javascript\">var hupso_services_t=new Array(\"Twitter\",\"Facebook\",\"Google Plus\",\"Pinterest\",\"Linkedin\",\"StumbleUpon\",\"Digg\",\"Reddit\",\"Bebo\",\"Delicious\");var hupso_background_t=\"#EAF4FF\";var hupso_border_t=\"#66CCFF\";var hupso_toolbar_size_t=\"medium\";var hupso_image_folder_url = \"\";var hupso_url_t=\"\";var hupso_title_t=\"A%20Starred%20Review%20in%20PW%20for%20DEAL%20WITH%20THE%20DEVIL\";<\/script><script type=\"text\/javascript\" src=\"https:\/\/static.hupso.com\/share\/js\/share_toolbar.js\"><\/script><!-- Hupso Share Buttons --><\/div><p>By Lenny Picker Jun 07, 2013 Photo by Ron Finley PUBLISHER&#8217;S WEEKLY interviews former ABC News correspondent Peter Lance on his ground-breaking bio of mobster Greg Scarpa Sr. in Deal with the Devil: The FBI\u2019s Secret 30-Year Relationship with a Mob Killer. What turned you on to the story of Greg Scarpa Sr.? My investigation [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":2096,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[10],"tags":[125,330,467,122,1223,400,151,391,372,383,114,172,1211,388,454,387,109,380,110,119,401,395,382,113,386,252,106,108,393,470,375,390,311,472,377,373,392,379,249,402,111,115,381,116,374,462,397,399,406,118,105,167,384,385,107,376,126,291,1219,1220,468,469,473,121,461,471,398,396,251,250,112,1214,1222,463,389,117,394,371,378,120],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/peterlance.com\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2090"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/peterlance.com\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/peterlance.com\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/peterlance.com\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/peterlance.com\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2090"}],"version-history":[{"count":16,"href":"https:\/\/peterlance.com\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2090\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":21076,"href":"https:\/\/peterlance.com\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2090\/revisions\/21076"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/peterlance.com\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/2096"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/peterlance.com\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2090"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/peterlance.com\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2090"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/peterlance.com\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2090"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}