On September 24, 1984, Mary Bari was dressed to kill. She was murdered instead. 

Bari, a stunning 5-foot-2 brunette, liked to hang out with wiseguys. She had even dated a Colombo family consigliere. Out of work for more than a year, Bari (right) had been told to show up at a Brooklyn social club dressed to impress for a position as a cocktail waitress, sources said. She wore designer jeans, a pearl-studded belt, a black halter top and white high heel boots to the job interview. 

But the outfit wasn’t enough. Moments after she walked into the club, Bari, 31, was shot and killed, her body dumped miles away in the street. Her sister later identified her after she read a story about the murder of an unidentified woman with a tattoo of a peach on her buttocks. 

Authorities have no doubt that the man behind the trigger in Bari’s death was notorious Colombo capo Gregory Scarpa, (right) who led a double life as a top echelon FBI informant. But law enforcement officials are now investigating a bombshell allegation that Scarpa acted after being tipped by FBI organized crime supervisor R. Lindley DeVecchio (left) that the “drop-dead gorgeous” gun moll was also a paid informant for the FBI. 

Law enforcement sources say the 1984 slaying of Bari is the fifth Brooklyn mob rubout that state investigators have linked to the long-retired DeVecchio and Scarpa, his longtime informant. 

DeVecchio’s lawyer angrily disputed the notion. “This allegation is even more ridiculous than the other ones I’ve heard,” said Douglas Grover. “I find it disappointing that anyone can take this seriously. And I think that a

responsible prosecutor when handed allegations like these will treat them for what they are – pure, unadulterated nonsense.”

As Gang Land reported last month, authorities are also probing allegations that DeVecchio assisted Scarpa in four gangland-style slayings from 1987 through 1992, including two murders during the bloody 1991-93 Colombo war. 

In the latest mob rubout to emerge, Scarpa, aided by his son, Gregory Jr. and four others, shot Bari to death after one crew member lured her to a Bensonhurst social club run by Carmine Sessa, (right) another member of Scarpa’s crew, according to FBI documents obtained by Gang Land. 

“When she arrived, Scarpa Jr. (left) grabbed her, and forced her to the floor, where Scarpa Sr. shot and killed her,” Sessa told agents Jeffrey Tomlinson and Howard Leadbetter when he began cooperating in 1993. She was shot three times in the head. 

She was wrapped in a canvass and placed in the trunk of a car, the agents wrote. With Sessa and a henchman following in a second car, the elder Scarpa drove about two miles away and dumped her remains in the street, where they were found later that night.

Sources say prosecutors have presented evidence linking DeVecchio to Bari’s

murder, as well as the other four slayings, to a Brooklyn grand jury that is looking into possible murder charges against the retired agent and others.

Sources say the FBI, which failed to charge DeVecchio with any wrongdoing after investigating his activities with Scarpa from 1994 to 1996, is cooperating with the probe and has turned over numerous documents to the DA’s office, including Bari’s informant file. 

Bari, a longtime paramour of the late Colombo consigliere Alphonse (Allie Boy) Persico, (right) was killed four years after Persico failed to show up for sentencing for an extortion conviction. Sessa said she “was murdered because she knew where Persico was hiding and could disclose it to law enforcement,” according to a report by agents Tomlinson and Leadbetter. 

That may be the reason Scarpa gave Sessa for the murder, but sources say Brooklyn prosecutors and investigators believe the underlying motive for her death was her role as an FBI informer.

So does Victor Oboyski, a former deputy U.S. Marshal who spearheaded a painstaking, seven year investigation that finally led to Persico’s capture in West Hartford in November 1987, three years after Bari’s execution.

“I think that was a cover story created by Scarpa to hide the real reason they

killed her. Somehow Greg (left) found out that she was a snitch and told his guys a cover story about her going to the feds about Allie,” Oboyski told Gang Land. 

“She didn’t know where he was. She hadn’t seen him in years. Not even his family knew where he was. His wife and daughter would drive towards Connecticut, but a meeting would be set up at a neutral site, usually a diner,” said Oboyski, adding that he learned about Bari’s informer status about six months before her death. 

“They (the FBI) came to us. They wanted pictures of the Saugerties farm (that the Persico family owned) and they wanted info that we had developed about the farm during our investigation. At some point, I said to the agent, ‘We’re very interested in talking to Mary Bari.’ He said, ‘We’d appreciate it if you didn’t. We have a special relationship with her.’ So we just dropped it,” said Oboyski. 

“It was troubling when she was killed, and even more troubling when I learned that she was killed by Scarpa, another informant,” said Oboyski. “The case has always bothered me.”

Valerie Caproni, a former assistant U.S. attorney in Brooklyn who spurred the Justice Department’s inquiry into DeVecchio’s actions a decade ago and is now general counsel for the FBI, did not return calls for comment about the FBI’s role in this investigation. 

Neither did Michael Vecchione, the chief of the Brooklyn DA’s Rackets Bureau, and the lead prosecutor in the continuing grand jury investigation.

On the eve of his retrial on charges that include the 1992 kidnap-shooting of ABC talk radio host Curtis Sliwa, mob scion John A. (Junior) Gotti bubbled with optimism, saying he owed his current jail-free status to the two main women in his life – his wife and his mom. If not for them, said the Junior Don, he would have gone along with a 10-year plea deal that he had sought, and gotten prosecutors to accept. 

“My wife was a major obstacle. She said, ‘If you do it, we’re through,’” he told The New York Post. Mom was just as blunt. “My mother got in her car and said, ‘If you do this, I won’t speak to you again.’”

This time around, Junior has an advantage in that he doesn’t have any problematic codefendants. But, it’s still a big gamble. His first jury was hung 11-1 for conviction and he faces more than 25 years if he loses. If that were to happen, Gang Land is sure he won’t blame his wife and mother for his fate.

Editor's Note: Gang Land is going on the lam for a week. Someplace warm. No slush, no snow. Where the wiseguys talk a really different language. Back March 2 with a new installment on mob mischief.