Childhood and Education
Scoppetta was born on the Lower East Side of Manhattan in 1932. He was the youngest son of Italian immigrants, struggling to get by during the Depression.
By the time he was 4, his parents turned him and his two older brothers, Tony and Vincent, over to the city's care, initially in a shelter on 104th Street. At first, the three boys were separated, he said, but they were reunited a year or so later by a chance encounter at the dentist's office, where his brother Tony recognized him. Together, he and his brothers ended up in a group home in the Bronx called Woodycrest—now an AIDS hospice. They stayed until he was 12 and they were reunited with their parents.
Scoppetta attended public schools in Manhattan, including Seward Park High School, from where he graduated in 1950.
After serving two years in the Army, he attended Bradley University on the G.I. Bill and graduated in 1958 with a degree in Civil Engineering. While enrolled at Bradley, he joined Sigma Chi Fraternity.
In 1959 he was awarded a New York State Regents Scholarship and attended Brooklyn Law School at night while working in the criminal courts during the day assisting in the investigation and prosecution of cases in which children had been abused or neglected. He graduated from law school in 1962.
Read more about this topic: Nicholas Scoppetta
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