Gangster Roy DeMeo #truecrime

Roy Demeo

Who’s the most vicious gangster you know? What did they do? Chances are they are pale in comparison to a Roy DeMeo who is suspected of taking as many as 200 lives. His victims included other gangsters, informants, as well as innocent civilians not involved in crime. His victims were lured by his bloodthirsty crew to an apartment in the back of a nightclub where they were dispatched with a single headshot, then a towel was wrapped around their skull to prevent an even bigger mess before they were drained then cut to pieces which were then sent to the dump. This creature stirred up so much trouble that his own gang was tasked with getting rid of him by a leader of either the Lucchese or Gambino crime family. With such a horrific record and hundreds of victims, this mobster was a true monster.

Roy Demeo was born on September 7 1940 in New York City. As he grew up the mafia was actively building a new income base through Las Vegas casinos. His chikdhood was not easy- his parents had immigrated from Italy and was not wealthy with his father providing for his wife and 5 kids by working as a laundry delivery man. In 1951 when Roy was 11, his older brother became a casualty of the Korean War at only 20 years old.

As a teenager, DeMeo worked in a grocery store. While there he also trained as a butcher, learning skills he would later use in the most evil of ways. He attended James Madison High school, graduating in 1959 alongside classmate Bernie Sanders. Life took another rough turn when Roy’s father passed away of a heart attack in 1960 and his mother returned to Italy. That same year, DeMeo would marry a woman named Gladys Rosamond Brittain with whom he would have 3 children.

DeMeo caught the eye of the mob in 1966. He had been associated with a branch of the Luchese family which ran some semi-legitimate businesses and an auto theft ring, which DeMeo would come to specialize in. He was approached by a Gambino soldier named Anthony Gaggi as he drank in a bar called the Gemini lounge and recruited to come work for them.

Roy would get involved with loansharking with Gaggi while also putting together his crew to steal cars. The first to be recruited to this ring was a 16 year old named Chris Rosenberg. He had seen the youth selling marijuana and helped him develop his business with loans. The teenager would help DeMeo recruit his friends and DeMeo would gather others into his fledgling operation.

By the early 1970s the full crew would be made up of Rosenberg, Anthony Senter, Joseph and Patrick Testa, Joseph Guglielmo who went by Dracula, Richard and Frederick DiNome, and Henry Borelli, later it would come to include Vito Arena, and Carlo Profeta. DeMeo would also get on the board of directors for a credit union which came in handy for laundering money and because of the access to funds that it provided.

But Roy was also building his reputation through other means. In 1974, the underboss of the Bonanno family would tell the FBI that DeMeo had disposed of at least one body for them. But as his notoriety increased, DeMeo also ran into trouble with some of his own associates.

In particular, an auto repair shop owner named Andre Katz went to authorities in 1975. He gave them details on Rosenbergs involvement in the car thefts, which Katz had been a part of. One of the detectives was on DeMeos payroll and the gangster was quickly notified. A young woman was recruited in the plot to neutralize the threat to Roy and his criminal enterprise.

On June 13 of 1975, DeMeos crew used her to lure Katz to an apartment. Instead of a date, he was kidnapped by the gang. They took him to Queens where he was stabbed repeatedly before using a compactor to crush his head then wrapped in plastic and left in a dumpster. Before the garbage truck could collect him, one of the body parts was seen and reported. Katz was somehow still identified days later using his dental records.

This was the second known time the DeMeo or his crew had taken a life. In June 29 1973, DeMeo and Nino Gaggi had shot a man named Paul Rothenberg twice. He had been suspected of cooperating with authorities, and everyone knows what the mob does to snitches, well most of them (Sammy image)

Despite this exposure, the DeMeo crew devised a special procedure for making their enemies disappear. Though not every subsequent victim would go through this process, through disposal method is a driver of the range in the potential body mount of 75 to 200. Roy and the members of his organization had begun using the Gemini lounge as their headquarters.

Many would enter the bar who would never leave alive again. Since DeMeo was a silent partner, he had nearly unlimited access. Targets would be taken through a side door into a small apartment. Once there, one of the crew members would shoot them in the head. Members who later turned states evidence would say DeMeo would be the one to do this.

Whoever pulled the trigger would quickly wrap a towel around the victim like a turban. This would avoid any more blood than necessary to end up in the apartment. To stop the blood pumping another would use a knife to penetrate the heart then the body was put in a tub to drain.

Finally plastic was laid out Dexter style and the victim would be split apart and wrapped up. The pieces were put into boxes and sent to the fountain avenue dump. With the sheer volume of garbage delivered each day, these special packages would be totally buried soon after they arrived. In 1985 the dump was paved over making any further searching impossible.

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