Roy DeMeo

Roy DeMeo mugshot taken in 1981. DeMeo was summoned by the Newark branch of the FBI to provide a photograph and fingerprints in relation to a Federal investigation of an international auto-theft ring. The FBI lacked sufficient evidence linking him to the operation at the time however, and he was never arrested for his suspected involvement.

Roy DeMeo (September 7, 1940, – January 10, 1983) was a ranking member of the Gambino crime family, formerly one of the largest and most feared crime families in New York. He is most infamous for heading a crew of car thieves, drug dealers and murderers suspected by the FBI of somewhere between 75-200 murders from the mid-1970s to the early 1980s. The crew also gained notoriety due to their affinity for dismemberment as a method of disposing of their victims.

Early life and criminal career

Roy Albert DeMeo was born in 1940 in Brooklyn, New York into a working class Italian immigrant family. DeMeo grew up on the same block as nephews of crime boss Joseph Profaci and often sat with them on their porch on nights when members of the Profaci Family would visit, watching the various expensively dressed men pull up in their brand new cars. As a teen, he began a small loansharking operation which turned into a full time job by the age of 17. DeMeo graduated High School in 1959 and began working seriously in criminal enterprise while maintaining legitimate business practices. He married shortly after high school and would eventually father three children. In the meantime, he worked his way up the criminal career ladder, initially through a continued loansharking operation. By the early 1960s DeMeo had quit his legitimate job at a Banner Dairy Supermarket to focus solely on loansharking and any other opportunities for income that presented themselves. He conducted most of his business at a neighborhood bar by the name of Phil's Lounge. In 1965 he became a silent partner in the ownership of the bar, now renamed the Gemini Lounge. The Lounge would serve as the DeMeo crew's primary headquarters for the next several years, with an apartment building directly behind the bar being the site of dozens of murders and subsequent dismemberments committed by the crew.

Although in the early 1960s DeMeo had minor connections to members and associates of the Lucchese Family, it was not until he met Anthony 'Nino' Gaggi in 1966 that he would begin a criminal career that eventually led to becoming an official member of Cosa Nostra. At the time, Nino was a well-respected soldier in the Gambino Family, prospering from a large and varied assortment of loanshark customers as well as silent partner positions in a number of legitimate businesses. DeMeo reportedly saw a future with the Luccheses as a drab prospect and quickly put his full attention toward cultivating a working relationship with Gaggi, their first piece of business together being a co-loan to a used car dealership.

Through the late 1960s, DeMeo's organized crime prospects increased on two fronts. He continued in the loansharking business with Anthony Gaggi, and also began developing a crew of young men involved primarily in car theft and drug trafficking. It was this collective of criminals that would become known both in the underworld and in law enforcement circles as the DeMeo Crew. The first member of the crew was Harvey 'Christopher' Rosenberg, who met DeMeo in 1966 at the age of 16. Rosenberg was dealing drugs at a Canarsie gas station, and Roy helped him increase his business and profits by loaning Chris money so that he could deal the narcotics in larger amounts. By 1972, Chris had introduced his friends to Roy and they began working for him as well. These early members of the crew included Joseph Testa, Anthony Senter and Joseph's younger brother Patrick Testa.

As a result of his continually increasing income, Roy joined the Boro of Brooklyn Credit Union that same year, gaining a position on the board of directors shortly afterwards. Roy utilized his newfound position to launder money he had earned through his various illegal ventures. He also introduced colleagues at the Credit Union to a lucrative side-business laundering the money of drug dealers he had become acquainted with. Finally, Roy also further built up his loansharking business with funds stolen from credit union reserves. His collection of loanshark customers, while still primarily those in the car industry, soon included other businesses such as a dentist's office, an abortion clinic, restaurants and flea markets. He was also listed as an employee for a Brooklyn company named S & C Sportswear Corporation, and frequently told his neighbors he worked in construction, food retailing and the used car business.

First murder

According to the book Murder Machine by Jerry Capeci and Gene Mustaine, DeMeo committed his first murder in July of 1973 at the age of 32, shooting to death Paul Rothenberg, the proprietor of a pornography film lab in which Roy was a silent partner. After Rothenberg's lab had been raided by police and he was arrested, DeMeo's mentor Anthony Gaggi (also a silent partner in Rothenberg's business) began to suspect that he would fold under police pressure to cooperate. This suspicion was rightly held, as immediately after the arrest he had already begun the process of official cooperation with authorities, informing the police that both DeMeo and 'a man named Nino' were extorting him. He had yet to sign an official agreement however, and more than one meeting with law enforcement was set up and then called off, with the last one canceled being on Friday, July 27, 1973. That same day, DeMeo contacted Rothenberg and set up a meeting at a local diner scheduled for that Sunday, July 29. When Rothenberg showed up for the meeting, DeMeo ordered him out of his car and into an alleyway at gunpoint, then shooting him in the head two times with a silencer-equipped pistol. Although law enforcement suspected DeMeo played a role in the slaying, and even tailed DeMeo to a meeting with Rothenberg's official partner in the pornography lab shortly after the murder, the case was never resolved and DeMeo was never charged. It is widely believed that this was the first murder committed by DeMeo and served to permanently solidify his relationship with Nino Gaggi, putting him on the path to becoming an official, or made, member of the Gambino crime family.

The Crew

By the time DeMeo had committed his first murder in the early 1970s, he had become prosperous in all facets of his criminal life, and so had the crew of young men he oversaw. The DeMeo crew were becoming more involved with auto-theft operations, drug-dealing, loansharking and as the 1970s continued, murder. With Gambino capo Nino Gaggi as his boss and protector, Roy and his crew's notoriety continued to increase within the underworld.

Roy cultivated his followers into a crew experienced with the process of murdering and dismembering victims. With the exception of killings intended to send a message to any who would hinder their criminal activites, or murders that presented no other alternative, a set method of execution was established by Roy and crew to ensure that victims would be dispatched quickly and then made to disappear to avoid the intense pressure of a murder investigation. The method of execution was dubbed the Gemini Method, named after the Gemini Lounge, the primary hangout of the DeMeo crew as well as the site where most of the crew's victims were killed. The exact process of the Gemini Method, revealed by multiple crew members and associates who became government witness in the early 1980s, was as follows: Typically, the victim would be lured through the side door of the Lounge, and into the apartment that made up the back portion of the building. At this point, a crew member (almost always Roy DeMeo according to crew member turned government witness Frederick DiNome) would approach with a silenced pistol in one hand and a towel in the other, shooting the victim in the head then wrapping the towel around the victim's head wound like a turban in order to staunch the blood flow. Immediately after, another member of the crew (originally Chris Rosenberg up until his 1979 murder, according to government witness testimony) would stab the victim in the heart in order to prevent any more blood from pumping out of the gunshot wound. By then the victim would usually be dead, at which point the body would be stripped of its clothing and dragged into the bathroom where it was left while the remaining blood drained out and/or congealed within the body. This was to eliminate the messiness of the next step, when crew members would place the body onto plastic tarps laid out in the main room and proceed to dismember it, cutting off the arms, legs and head. The body parts would then be put into bags, which were placed in cardboard boxes and sent off to the Fountain Avenue Dump in Brooklyn, where so many tons of garbage were dropped each day that it was a near impossibility for the bodies to ever be discovered. In fact during the initial stages of a Federal/State task force targeting the DeMeo Crew, a plan by authorities to excavate sections of the dump in order to locate remains of victims was aborted when it was deemed too costly and likely to fail at locating any meaningful evidence.

Although this Gemini method was the most common method the crew practiced, some victims would be killed in other ways for varying reasons. At times, suspected informants or those who committed an act of disrespect against a member of the crew or their superiors had their bodies left in the streets of New York to serve as a message and warning to any who would interfere with the crew. As well, there were occasions where it would not be possible to lure the intended victim into the Gemini Lounge, in which case other locations would have to be used. A yacht owned by one of DeMeo's men was used on at least one occasion to dispose of bodies as well.

Attempted Murder of Vincent Governara

In early 1975 he was involved in the attempted murder of Vincent Governara. Governara was a young Brooklyn resident who had broken Anthony Gaggi's nose in self-defense years earlier when an altercation took place after the young man and his friends had insulted a female relative of Gaggi's. On the night of March 2 1975, Gaggi's nephew Dominick Montiglio rigged Governara's car with a concussion grenade provided by Roy, while both Roy and Nino served as lookouts. The attempt failed however, with Governara's only injury resulting from the blast being a broken leg.

Andrei Katz murder

Around the time of attempted homicide of Governara, a conflict that had erupted between the Roy's crew and a young bodyshop owner named Andrei Katz in late 1974 had continued to escalate. In May of 1975, Roy was informed by a police officer that, as a result of this conflict, Andrei was cooperating with authorities. In June he was lured to a place where he could be confronted. After being abducted, he was stabbed to death and then dismembered. An accomplice who helped bait Katz confessed her role and Joseph Testa and Henry Borelli were both arrested. They would secure an acquittal at trial in January of 1976. This was the first known murder committed by the DeMeo crew.

Vito Borelli murder

For years, the murder of Andrei Katz was the only one the DeMeo Crew was known to have been involved in during the year of 1975. However, in 2003, former Bonanno Family underboss turned cooperating witness Salvatore Vitale supplied information to the FBI that lends credence to the 's claims that DeMeo and his followers may have been involved in more murders than were previously known. According to Vitale, in 1975 he was called on by fellow Bonanno soldier Joseph Massino to dispose of one Vito Borelli. Borelli (No relation to DeMeo crew member Henry Borelli) was boyfriend to one of the daughters of Gambino Family boss Paul Castellano. After making a remark about Castellano's physical appearance that was construed as an insult, Vito Borelli was murdered. Vitale was recruited to drive the corpse to a Queens garage so it could be disposed of. At the meeting point where he would pick up the corpse, Vitale claims that aside from fellow Bonanno Family members Joseph Massino and Dominick Napolitano, a few members of the Gambino Family were present as well, including John Gotti, Frank DeCicco and Angelo Ruggiero. The body was picked up and Vitale was directed to the garage, where as the body was unloaded, he claims that among the several men assembled at the garage was one who was brandishing a knife. Years later he was able to identify the man holding the knife as none other than Roy DeMeo after seeing a photograph of DeMeo in a New York newspaper. This information points to the possibility that the history of the DeMeo Crew in regards to murders may not be as complete as previously thought.

Other business

In the latter half of 1975, Roy became a silent partner in a peep show/prostitution establishment in New Jersey after the owner of the business became unable to pay his loansharking debts. Roy also began dealing in pornography, including bestiality, which he sold to his New Jersey establishment as well as connections he had in Rhode Island. When his superior Nino Gaggi found out about Roy's involvement in such taboo films, he ordered Roy to stop on threat of death. Roy did not stop however, and Gaggi continued to accept his weekly payments. Gaggi's nephew Dominick Montiglio claimed that the subject was simply never mentioned between the two men after the initial confrontation, and as long as Roy continued to provide copiously for his boss the violation of his order was never addressed.

Another forbidden subject between Roy and his boss Nino was narcotics. In the Gambino Family, as most of the other Mafia Families in the country, drug-dealing was an act punishable by death for any members caught being involved. The reason why is because the sentences imposed on those involved with the narcotics business are usually more severe than other crimes. It was feared by the administrations of the Mafia Families that those facing such harsh penalties would be more likely to flip, or become cooperators for the government. Gaggi and DeMeo, like many others however, continued to deal in narcotics despite the warning due to the massive amounts of profits earned. By this time, Roy's drug operations had expanded greatly from his initial operations in the late 1960s and early 1970s. He had recently started selling cocaine out of the Gemini Lounge and was also the financer of a large marijuana operation that imported the drug from Colombia in 25-pound bales. The marijuana would be delivered from offshore freighters and sold out of a Canarsie bodyshop. Roy's weekly tributes to Nino continued to increase from his drug operations and Nino continued to feign ignorance as to the source of the money.

As 1975 drew to a close, Roy was almost indicted due to IRS investigations into his income. Months earlier, the Boro of Brooklyn Credit Union had been pushed into insolvency as a result of DeMeo and his colleague's plundering of its finances. As a result Roy quit the Credit Union, avoiding law enforcement attention that increased as the Union was merged into another one. Despite this, Roy's had already gained the attention of the IRS earlier in the year. Before an indictment could be handed down against him however, he utilized false affidavits from businesses owned by friends and acquaintances claiming that he was on their payrolls as an employee. These affidavits served to account for some of his income and he and the IRS reached a settlement.

1976

On January 5 1976, Joseph Testa and Henry Borelli's trial for the murder of Andrei Katz began. In three weeks, on January 23, the two were acquitted after their defense lawyers destroyed the credibility of Borelli's woman friend, who testified against them in the trial. They attacked her story and cited her past drug use and medical treatment for anxiety to make her appear unreliable. This, as well as the absence of any physical evidence linking the men to the crime scene, secured a victory in the case. The DeMeo crew had also gained a new member named Peter LaFroscia, at the time one of the most prolific car thieves in New York. After Katz's murder in 1975 Roy had resumed the crew's auto-theft operations, putting Patrick Testa into a higher position in the operation and also recruiting LaFroscia.

In May of 1976, another murder was committed by the DeMeo crew. Joseph Brocchini, a made member in another of New York's Five Families, was involved in an argument with Roy related to a pornography business both were involved in. The argument escalated to a physical altercation when Brocchini punched DeMeo in the face, giving him a black eye. Mafia protocol prevented DeMeo, still only an associate of the Gambino Family, from retaliating in any way against Brocchini. DeMeo went his boss Nino and explained the situation. Dominick Montiglio, Nino's nephew who was now fully working for his uncle, claimed to have been present at this meeting, where DeMeo allegedly swore revenge regardless of the rules. Nino responded that they would never be given permission but reportedly agreed with Roy's intentions, merely advising him to ensure that the murder could not be traced back to them. On May 20 1976, Roy and Henry Borelli shot Brocchini five times in the back of the head in the office of a used-car dealership he owned. The office was ransacked and the other employees were blindfolded and handcuffed prior to the shooting in order to give the illusion that the murder was the result of an armed robbery gone bad.

In the following month, June 1976, Nino Gaggi's long-standing search for revenge against Vincent Governara, the young man who had broken his nose years earlier, reached its conclusion. Over a year after the concussion grenade had been planted in his car, Governara's car was spotted outside of a building hosting a craps game in the New York neighborhood of Bensonhurst by Gaggi's nephew Dominick Montiglio. Once informed of his nephew's discovery, Nino, along with Roy and Dominick, excused themselves from a birthday party being held at the time for Dominick's wife and drove back to the location where Governara's car had been seen. There, the trio waited until Governara left the game and approached his car, at which point Nino and Roy shot him several times. Governara died in the hospital a week later.

One month later in July, Nino had his revenge on another who had wrong him previously. In early 1975, Nino had been pistol-whipped and robbed at his newly-built Florida vacation home. Now, about one year after the robbery, Nino was given the name of the man responsible by the boss of another Mafia Family. An electrical contractor by the name of George Byrum had provided the thieves with information about Nino's Florida home after supervising the wiring of the house. Nino and DeMeo flew to Florida separately and Roy set up a meeting with Byrum, portraying himself a potential client in need of help building a home. After a meeting with Byrum at his office, a second meeting was scheduled at a Florida motel. Immediately upon entering the hotel room, Byrum was shot in the hindquarters by Roy, then shot again in the head after falling to the ground. Nino, along with a Gambino soldier stationed in Florida, helped drag the body to the room's bathtub. Initially the body was going to be dismembered and then taken out of the hotel room in suitcases, but noise from a construction crew outside of the motel influenced the men to abort the plan, leave the body in the bathroom with its head halfway sawed off.

Roy's sources of income, as well as his crew, continued to grow. By July of 1976 he added an automobile firm by the name of Team Auto Wholesalers to his loanshark customers. The owner of Team Auto, Matthew Rega, also purchased stolen vehicles from the crew and sold them off at a New Jersey car lot that he owned. He also involved himself with hijacking, targeting trucks that were delivering or receiving shipments fron the John F. Kennedy International Airport. His crew now included Edward 'Danny' Grillo, a hijacker who had just been released from prison. Roy also allegedly added to his body count according to various sources, including an FBI informant who reported that Roy DeMeo was a "ruthless killer" who had killed at least one dozen people and dismembered their bodies to make them disappear. Nino Gaggi's nephew Dominick Montiglio, who sometimes drove Roy on errands, also claims that during one trip around this time Roy had pointed to a recently built gas station and stated that he and his crew had buried the bodies of two victims under its foundation.

In the fall of 1976, the Gambino Family went through a massive change when its boss Carlo Gambino died of natural causes. His dying wish was for his cousin, Paul Castellano to succeed him as boss. Despite Carlo's wishes, many in the family reportedly wanted to wait until Carlo's underboss Aniello Dellacroce finished a prison sentence for tax evasion. The stage was set for an intra-Family war between the Castellano faction of Brooklyn and Dellacroce's Manhattan faction. Dellacroce was soon released and a sit-down, or meeting, between him and Castellano was scheduled, with the location being the house of Roy's mentor Nino Gaggi, a close ally of Castellano and naturally a supporter of his elevation to the Family's throne. Although no guns were supposed to be allowed at the meeting, Gaggi taped a pistol under the table in case hostilities broke out. He also had Roy provide him with an assault rifle taken out of an arsenal he kept at the Gemini. Gaggi gave the rifle to his nephew and told him to take a position at an upstairs window overlooking the driveway to the house. He was told that if any shooting were heard downstairs during the meeting, he should shoot anyone who ran out.

Despite the precautions, the meeting went without incident and Paul Castellano was named the boss of the Gambino Family, with Aniello Dellacroce retaining the position of Underboss. The implications of this were two-fold for Roy. His superior, Nino was elevated to the position of Capo, taking over the crew of men Paul headed before becoming boss. This promotion was beneficial for Roy, whose mentor was now even closer to the ruling Gambino hierarchy. Another advantage was that now that Carlo Gambino had died, new associates would be eligible for membership into the Family. Paul did not immediately "open the books" for new members however, opting instead to promote existing members and change around leadership of the crews he now presided over. He also reportedly told Gaggi he was against the idea of Roy ever being made for a number of reasons. Castellano's illegal activities focused more on white-collar crime, and it was said by both law enforcement as well as other mafioso that he looked at himself as more of a businessman than a gangster. He looked down on the more street crimes men such as Roy were involved with such as auto theft and hijacking. Additionally, Paul felt Roy specifically was unpredictable and did not feel he could be controlled. Nino's attempts at persuading Paul to consider inducting Roy were continually rejected because of this.

Soon Castellano had opened up the Veterans & Friends, a social club where he demanded the attendance of every crew in Brooklyn once a week, to pay respect as well as their weekly tributes to the boss. Roy, who had started to express his contempt of Castellano, visited the club every Monday along with his crew and his Capo Nino Gaggi. 1976 ended with Roy still an unmade associate of Nino's as he continued expanding both his crew as well as his businesses in an attempt to earn enough money to finally convince Castellano that he should be made.

1977

As 1977 opened, Paul Castellano's social club had become a target of surveillance by law enforcement. The problem of surveillance became such a problem that Castellano himself stopped attending his own club. Nino Gaggi, Roy and his crew continued to attend weekly meetings. Although Roy's first time being surveilled by the law was in 1973, it was at the Veterans & Friends club that he attracted the interest of a group of NYPD detectives and FBI agents that surveilled Mafia hangouts. Because they did not have an official reason to follow him or his crew, the NYPD/FBI partnership continued sporadic surveillance of Roy and his followers. They were also able to figure out that Roy's boss was Nino Gaggi, who himself had avoided law enforcement scrutiny for the most part.

Despite the considerable contributions Roy had already made to the Gambino Family, not least of which were his tens of thousands of dollars worth of weekly payments to Nino Gaggi, by Spring of that year DeMeo was still not a made, or official, member. Reportedly distraught at his situation, Roy continued to look for more opportunities to bring in larger amounts of profit to his superiors.

The Westies alliance

DeMeo found exactly what he needed to ensure that he would be officially inducted into the Gambino Family when he formed an alliance with a gang of Irish-American criminals headed by James Coonan. Coonan, who was introduced to DeMeo through crew member Danny Grillo, had aspirations to head The Westies, the Irish mobsters that dominated Hell's Kitchen. Roy took advantage of the opportunity, first loaning Coonan fifty-thousand dollars so that he could begin making large loans to customers in the area. Roy and crew committed a number of truck hijackings with Coonan's crew, splitting the profits between them. Coonan's only obstacle to assuming control of The Westies was Mickey Spillane, the boss of the gang for many years. In May of 1977, Roy and Danny Grillo murdered Spillane at the behest of Coonan, who then took over as Westies boss. Roy, sensing an opportunity to create a vast source of income for his superiors, informed Nino Gaggi of the possibilities of a partnership between the Westies and the Gambino Family. Shortly afterwards, Coonan and his second in command Mickey Featherstone were called to a meeting with Paul Castellano, becoming a de-facto arm of the Gambino crime family and agreeing to share 10-percent of all profits. In exchange, the Westies would be privy to several lucrative union deals and take on murder contracts for the Italians.

It was his pivotal role in the Westie/Gambino alliance that reportedly convinced Castellano to give Roy his "button", or formally induct him into the crime family. DeMeo was made in mid-1977, being put in charge of handling all Family business with the Westies. He was also ordered to get permission before committing any murders, and to avoid drug-dealing. Despite this warning, DeMeo's crew continued to sell large amounts of cocaine, marijuana, and a variety of narcotic pills, a violation many members of all Five Families continued to commit through the late 1970s and early 1980s due to the tremendous profits gained. DeMeo would also continue to murder without receiving permission from either of his superiors.

By 1978, Roy was heard bragging to associates that he was up to "one hundred notches" (or victims) on his belt. It was also during this year that he put out word among not just the Gambino Family but the other New York Cosa Nostra families as well that he and his crew were available for murder contracts. In at least one case, the crew charged a relatively paltry fee of $5,000. Other murders were committed for free, Roy describing them to crew members as "professional favors".

Members of the DeMeo Crew included Joseph Testa, Anthony Senter, Henry Borelli, Chris Rosenberg, Joseph "Dracula" Guglielmo (Roy's cousin), Patrick Testa, Edward 'Danny' Grillo, Carlo Profeta, Ronald Ustica, Peter LaFroscia, Frederick DiNome, Richard DiNome and Vito Arena. It was once widely believed that Richard Kuklinski, a convicted contract killer and the focus of three HBO Undercover programs, was a member of Roy DeMeo's crew as well. In fact, Kuklinski himself made this claim in the second of the three HBO documentaries. He also claimed that he was the one who murdered DeMeo. Both of these claims, as well as others included in the documentary interviews, have been confirmed by law enforcement authorities as being completely false

1979

Before becoming an official Gambino soldier, DeMeo was already the powerful leader of a feared crew that brought in a respectful amount of income from a variety of illegal activities. After being made, he expanded his business activities, in particular his auto theft operation, which would soon become the largest in New York City's history.

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It should be noted that in his book For the Sins of My Father DeMeo's son Albert strongly contests much of the writing in the book, however the number of factual errors in the book serves to weaken his argument.

Police surveillance photo of Roy DeMeo. The DeMeo crew were under constant surveillance by both Federal and State branches of law enforcement from the late 1970s to the early 1980s. (see also the full photograph)

By 1982, the FBI was investigating the enormous number of missing and murdered persons who were linked to DeMeo or who had last been seen entering the Gemini Lounge. It is around this time that an FBI bug in the home of Gambino Family soldier Angelo Ruggiero picked up a conversation between Angelo and Gene Gotti, a brother of John Gotti. In the conversation, it is discussed that Paul Castellano had put out a hit on DeMeo, but was having difficulty finding someone willing to do the job. Gene Gotti mentions that his brother John was wary of taking the contract, as DeMeo had an "army of killers" around him. It is also mentioned in this same secretly recorded conversation that, at that time, John had killed less than 10 people, while DeMeo had killed at least 38. According to mob turncoat Salvatore Gravano, eventually the contract was given to Frank Decicco, but Frank and his crew couldn't get to DeMeo either. Decicco allegedly handed the job to Roy's own men.

According to the book Murder Machine, in his final days Roy DeMeo was seen wearing a leather jacket, a shotgun concealed underneath. On January 10 of 1983, DeMeo went to crew member Patrick Testa's bodyshop for a meeting with his men. A few days later, on January 18, he was found murdered in his abandoned car's trunk. He had been shot multiple times in the head and also had a bullet wound in his hand, assumed by law enforcement as being from throwing his hand up to his face in a self-defense reflex when the shots were fired at him. Anthony Gaggi was suspected by law enforcement officials of being the one who personally killed DeMeo, although it is highly likely crew members Joseph Testa and Anthony Senter were present as well. Gaggi was not charged with this crime, although he was charged with a number of other murders. He died of a heart attack during his trial in 1988, aged 62.

DeMeo's crew was soon rounded up and the core members Henry Borelli, Joseph Testa and Anthony Senter were imprisoned for life after two trials that saw them convicted of a collective total of 25 murders, in addition to extortion, car-theft and drug trafficking. The convictions were secured in large part by testimony of former members and associates of the crew including Vito Arena, Frederick DiNome and Dominick Montiglio.

Paul Castellano was indicted for ordering the murder of DeMeo, as well as a host of other crimes, but he was killed in December 1985 whilst out on bail in the middle of the first trial. The murder was ordered by John Gotti, who thus became the new Boss of the Gambino family.

The FBI and NYPD say that DeMeo and his Gemini Crew murdered at least 70 people between 1973 and 1983, but the true total could be as high as 200. The vast majority were disposed of so thoroughly that they were never found.

Roy DeMeo: Encyclopedia BETA

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