Based on the alleged involvement of Gregory Scarpa Sr. - a caporegime and hitman for the Colombo crime family of New York City, as well as an informant for the FBI - in assisting in gathering information that would lead to the discovery of the bodies of missing civil rights workers Andrew Goodman, James Chaney and Michael Schwerner. The FBI were unable to get information from the residents of the town, so it was thought that Scarpa, using illegal interrogation techniques the agents were not allowed to utilize, could succeeded in gaining the information where the FBI was failing.
When Scarpa arrived in Mississippi, local agents allegedly provided him with a gun and money to pay for information. Scarpa and an agent allegedly pistol-whipped and kidnapped Lawrence Byrd, a TV salesman and secret Klansman, from his store in Laurel and took him to Camp Shelby, a local United States Army base. At Shelby, Scarpa severely beat Byrd and stuck a gun down his throat. Byrd eventually revealed the location of the three men's bodies.
In January 1966, Scarpa also allegedly helped the FBI a second time in Mississippi on the murder case of Vernon Dahmer, who had been killed in a fire set by the Ku Klux Klan.
