Scarpa was a force. He took down the families in the courts and crosses his own Colombo FAM/blood family. Evil guy. But when I read after he gets the tainted HIV blood that just made him go off the deep end.
He was off the deep end so to speak, prior to the HIV diagnosis. He had been killing people long before that, and has his rep prior to it, not to mention he'd been an informant since the 60's, I believe.
Anyway, this whole situation made me go pick up the book by Sandra Harmon, Mafia Son, she's the lady who testified on Scarpa Jr's behalf during the DelVecchio trial. Have yet to really get into it, but she's been privy to loads of evidence that we've never seen, and even she implies that Scarpa Jr was screwed by the FBI because they held a grudge over Scarpa Sr.