https://thenewyorkmafia.com/mob-vario-canarsie-flatlands/Capo:Paul (Big Paulie) Vario, Sr.
Made men
Salvatore (Don Turiddo) Curiale died 1978
Alfonso (Foo) Curiale died 2008
Bruno Facciola
Peter Vario
Paul Vario, Jr.
Frank (The Wop) Manzo
Leonard Vario
Salvatore (Babe) Vario
Joseph (Pippeniddu) Frangipani
Salvatore Falbo
Michael (Mikey Bones) Corcione
Peter (Pete the Killer) Abbinanti
Anthony Stabile
Thomas (Fat Tommy) Stabile
Joseph (Joe Reese) Schiavo
Alfonso (Little Al) D’Arco
Domenico (Danny) Cutaia
Louis (Cross Bay Louie) Daidone
Victor Aita
Raymond Argentina
Peter Argentina
Angelo (The Boxer) DeFendis
Carlo Piccioli
Michael (Big Mike) LaBarbara, Sr.
Associates
Stephen Oddo, Sr.
Stephen DePasquale, Sr.
Stephen DePasquale Jr
Raymond Montemurro
Henry Hill became a witness in 1980, died on June 12, 2012
Angelo (Sonny Bamboo) McConach
Philip Basile
Michael LaBarbara, Jr.
Thomas Vario
Vito Vario
Cosmo (Casey) Rosado
Abraham (Abe) Etter
Milton (Milty) Wekar
Sidney Fordin
Stanley Sczerbaty
Robert Brooke
James (Jimmy the Gent) Burke
Angelo Sepe
Thomas DeSimone murdered on January 14, 1979
Louis Facciolo
Caesar Scotto
Henry Younger
Anthony Totillio
Lawrence Taylor
Alfred Visconti
Remo Serra
Joseph Argentina
Mario Argentina
https://mafiahitters.com/roy-demeo-crew-members/Roy DeMeo Crew Members
Who were the DeMeo Crew members? Roy DeMeo killed more people than any mobster in history but he wasn’t alone. He had a team of killers at his disposal. Who were these men and what happened to them? Are any DeMeo Crew members still alive today? Read about these men and what became of them after the dismantling of the crew.
Chris Rosenberg
Chris Rosenberg was the star pupil of Roy DeMeo, his most capable and eager killer. Chris was just a 13 year old kid who sold weed when Roy found him and took him under his wing. Roy was already a mafia connected man at the time, and this gave young Chris a tremendous boost in his local reputation. He soon became the top young up and coming gangster in the Canarsie section of Brooklyn in the early 1970’s.
When the DeMeo Crew committed their first murder of Andrei Katz, Rosenberg displayed a savagery that surprised everyone. He maniacally stabbed Katz dozens of times and the decapitated him before putting his head in a cardboard compactor. His viciousness earned him the top spot in Roy’s crew. Chris was Roy’s go to guy when he needed someone hurt or killed.
Besides his murdering prowess, Chris was also a big earner who brought in lots of money from narcotics trafficking and stolen cars. Rosenberg had his own following and recruited several crew members, including the Gemini Twins Joey Testa and Anthony Senter. The twins looked up to Rosenberg like a big brother and Roy thought of hi as a son. Chris even introduced himself to people as “Chris DeMeoâ€.
In 1979, Rosenberg found himself in big trouble. He had ripped off and murdered some Cuban cocaine dealers. During the deal, he had used Roy’s last name and the Cubans were ready to wage war. DeMeo became so scared that he killed an 18 year old door to door vacuum cleaner salesman, mistaking him for a Cuban hitman. Roy was then ordered by his Gambino bosses Paul Castellano and Nino Gaggi to kill Chris.
Chris RosenbergChris Rosenberg
On May 11, 1979, he was shot to death by his best friends Roy DeMeo and Anthony Senter. It was DeMeo who fired the first shot into his Rosenberg’s head but when Chris didn’t die, Roy actually froze and couldn’t finish the job. Anthony then came in and finished Chris off with two more shots. It was the only time in the more than 200 murders that he participated in that DeMeo expressed any kind of hesitance, remorse and grief.
Joey Testa & Anthony Senter
Although Chris Rosenberg was Roy’s original favorite, it was Joey Testa and Anthony Senter who killed the most people during their time in the DeMeo Crew. Joey and Anthony had been best friends since early childhood and were always together. Later on when Roy took over a local bar and renamed it the Gemini Lounge, Joey and Anthony became known as the Gemini Twins.
The twins had no qualms about killing anybody, nor did they mind dismembering the bodies afterwards. Joey and Anthony were the guys that Roy tasked with the disposals and he even provided them with knife kits for maximum efficiency. Roy trained the twins in his art of dismemberment which originated from his time as a butcher’s apprentice.
The crew pulled this off more than a hundred times in the apartment behind the Gemini. The victim would be lured in under the pretense of some kind of business deal and then quickly shot. The dead body would then be dragged into the bathtub where they would hang the body upside down and let the blood drain for an hour before cutting it up. They often ate meals while the draining process was occurring.
Chris was their mentor and the one who brought them into the DeMeo Crew and taught them the tricks of the trade when it came to making money. They were merely two street hoods when Chris found them and took them under his wing much like Roy did for him. But when Chris was to be killed, the twins did not hesitate to comply. They also killed their close friend Danny Grillo on orders from Roy.
When Roy got in heavy legal trouble in the early 1980’s, Gambino family boss Paul Castellano decided he must be killed. Big Paul asked many people to do the hit, including John Gotti. Everyone declined, trying to kill a psychopath like Roy DeMeo was something no one was crazy enough to do. John Gotti’s brother Gene was caught on a wiretap saying John refused the job because it was far too dangerous.
Ultimately Paul gave the job to the only men crazy enough to do it, Roy’s boss Nino Gaggi and the Gemini Twins. Roy was killed in January 1983. The twins both put a bullet behind one of Roy’s ears in a symbolic gesture. After killing their close friends Chris Rosenberg and Danny Grillo, killing their longtime mentor Roy was just another day at the office.
Unlike most other crew members, both twins are still alive today. They were exiled from the Gambino family after DeMeo’s death and then went to work for Anthony “Gaspipe†Casso for a while. Both men were eventually given life sentences and currently sit in separate federal prisons. Senter apparently developed a friendship with Colombo family boss Carmine “The Snake†Persico in prison as many photos of them together have surfaced over the years.
Henry Borelli
“Dirty Henry†Borelli was one of Roy’s favorite shooters. He was a local Canarsie guy who lived a couple houses down from Joey Testa. Although Henry was several years older than Joey and Anthony, they took a liking to him and introduced him to Roy. Henry was a broke ex drug smuggler who had done some time in prison and had some great war stories so he fit right in with the crew.
Borelli was a bit of a different breed than Roy, Chris and the twins. He was more than willing to shoot anybody but he was disgusted and did not take part in the dismemberments that the DeMeo Crew was known for. This would actually become a point of contention as he was teased about his “weak stomachâ€. Henry just wanted to be an assassin, not a butcher.
Chris Rosenberg in particular loved to give him a hard time and Henry was not fond of Chris at all. More than once, he wanted to kill Rosenberg but didn’t dare to cross Roy by taking out his protege. He spoke often with his friend Dominick Montiglio about his hatred for Chris, Montiglio also hated Rosenberg. When Chris was killed in 1979, Borelli was thrilled to have his main rival gone.
With Chris gone, Henry was given more opportunities to make money, basically a promotion. Roy was running an international stolen car ring and Henry was given an easy job in it making $5,000 a week. He had done lots of hits for Roy through the years and it appeared his hard work was paying off. However, the FBI had been investigating a number of murders that appeared to be related to auto theft and the walls were closing in.
The car theft ring was busted in 1982 and Henry Borelli was ordered by Roy to plead guilty. Roy’s thought was that the FBI would take a few scalps and go away. Borelli would go to prison where he still sits today nearly four decades later. Unfortunately for Roy, the investigation would continue to grow and would ultimately lead to his demise after his bosses Nino Gaggi and Paul Castellano were tied to it.
“Broadway†Freddy DiNome
While he wasn’t one of Roy’s top killers, Freddy DiNome was one of his best friends and original partners in crime. Freddy was a master in the stolen car business and the one who gave Roy his introduction to that world. He earned his nickname “Broadway Freddy†on the drag racing circuit back in the 1960’s. At the time, he was extremely successful and making well over $100,000 a year.
Roy and Freddy stayed close through the years as Roy began to rise through the ranks of the Gambino family. While Freddy’s career began slowing down, Roy’s was speeding up. Roy would take his former mentor under his wing and make him his full time driver. While many other crew members thought Freddy was a weirdo and a loose cannon, Roy had a genuine affection for his friend.
Freddy knew that his good buddy Roy had killed some people but never saw him at work until 1979. One day Roy asked him to lure an elderly man named Fred Todaro to the apartment behind the Gemini. When Todaro arrived, Freddy witnessed the entire event from beginning to end. Todaro was shot, stabbed, hung upside down and then finally dismembered and brought to the Fountain Avenue Dump.
Roy DeMeo and Joey TestaRoy DeMeo and Joey Testa
Like Henry Borelli, Freddy was given a cushy job in Roy’s international stolen car ring. When the ring was busted, Freddy went to jail and intended to do his time like a good soldier. He knew that it came with the territory. But then things started to change and his fate would take an unexpected turn. It all started when his best friend Roy DeMeo was found stuffed in the trunk of his car in January 1983.
Freddy also knew that fellow crew associates Dominick Montiglio and Vito Arena were cooperating with the FBI, which could keep him behind bars for life. Then in February 1984, the Gemini Twins killed his younger brother Richie DiNome. They saw him as a weak link and killed him just in case he decided to rat. DiNome was devastated after the loss of Roy and Richie.
He decided to cooperate with the FBI and offered to testify against the remnants of the crew, including the twins. Freddy proved to be an honest and reliable witness and with the help of his testimony, the twins were sent to prison for life. While in the witness protection program, Freddy sunk into a deep depression. When the ghosts of his past became too much, he gave up and hung himself in 1985.
Edward “Danny†Grillo
Danny Grillo was one of the oldest members of the DeMeo Crew, he was about 25 years older than the twins and Chris. He was a hard as nails ex convict who was a late addition to the crew. Danny became good friends with Nino Gaggi’s nephew Dominick Montiglio, they were both military men. Not all of the other crew members were thrilled about having the older guy around but they tolerated him because Roy liked him.
Grillo had some connections in the New York underworld outside of DeMeo. He was close with some Irish gangsters from Manhattan known as the Westies. Grillo was the one who introduced Roy DeMeo to Westies leader Jimmy Coonan, a meeting which would lead to an alliance between the two forces. When the Westies teamed up with DeMeo, it led to Roy finally getting made into the Gambino family.
The big problem for Danny was that he was a degenerate gambler who built up over a hundred thousand dollars in debt to Roy and Nino Gaggi. Unlike so many other victims, Roy tried repeatedly to talk sense into Danny. Roy usually never hesitated to make an example out of a debtor. Grillo confided in Montiglio that he felt Roy and Nino Gaggi were going to kill him.
Finally, Roy decided that it was bad business to allow Grillo to live. It sent a message that he was soft and he wasn’t going to have that happen. Word had also gotten around about Danny being suicidal, which cast him as a weak link. Danny was called in to the apartment behind the Gemini Lounge on November 15, 1978 and was never seen again. His wife said that day that he had left his wallet and jewelry at home that day.
When Dominick inquired about Danny’s whereabouts the next week, Chris told him with a smirk that no one would ever see Danny again. Montiglio was disgusted as Chris and the twins snickered about killing their friend. This was the first case of the DeMeo Crew killing one of their own but it wouldn’t be the last. Just a few months later, Chris Rosenberg would be killed after starting the “Cuban Crisisâ€.
Vito Arena
Vito Arena was a very unlikely member of the DeMeo Crew. He was a very overweight and awkward individual, unlike Chris, Henry and the twins who were young and all handsome. Vito was also a homosexual, which threw the other crew members off. They were not happy to deal with Vito but for some reason Roy really took a liking to Arena and let him in on crew business.
The main skill that Vito brought to the table was his ability to steal cars. Unfortunately, even that had been compromised as he became too fat to crouch under the steering wheel. Vito took part in the murder of Joe Scorney along with Richie DiNome, a killing that would come back to haunt the crew later on. Roy showed a stunning lack of good judgement giving Arena inside crew information.
By the early 1980’s, Arena disappeared from sight and rumors began to swirl that he was about to cooperate with the FBI. Roy and his stolen car ring had been under investigation and were feeling serious heat. Roy now realized he made a mistake with Arena, and he put out a hit on Vito. All crew members were alerted that Arena was to be killed on sight. But they would never get the chance.
The FBI would find him first. Arena was arrested after a robbery and decided to cooperate with authorities. He knew the crew was after him and had been in hiding. The defection would be devastating for DeMeo. Arena brought down his money making car operation and tied him to multiple murders. The first thing Vito did to establish his legitimacy was to lead the FBI to the body of Joe Scorney.
Roy DeMeo was now a marked man. Not only was the FBI breathing down his neck and about to indict him, Paul Castellano was now looking to have him killed. He would be killed as a result in January 1983. As for Vito, he disappeared after testifying and soon returned to his life of crime. On February 15, 1991, he was attempting to rob a store in Houston, Texas when he was shot and killed by a store employee.
Joseph “Dracula†Guglielmo
Joseph “Dracula†Guglielmo was something of a mascot for the DeMeo Crew. He was Roy DeMeo’s cousin and had done some time in prison for a bank robbery. After getting out of prison, he moved into the infamous apartment behind the Gemini Lounge. Dracula cooked meals for the crew which they would eat often times during the middle of a dismemberment session.
Guglielmo, although he had very limited skills took part in several murders with Roy. He was basically a backup killer if Chris, Henry or the twins weren’t available. He often bragged about the time he and Roy killed a guy named “Mikey Muscles†and how he jammed a broomstick in the victim’s rectum. He became known for his ghoulish behavior and that’s what earned him the nickname “Draculaâ€.
Dracula was also with Roy on April 19, 1979 when they killed 18 year old Dominick Ragucci, the vacuum cleaner salesman that Roy mistook for a Cuban hitman. They chased Ragucci from Roy’s house down a local highway shooting at his car. They finally caught up to him a few minutes later and gunned him down in the middle of a crowded street. Ragucci was dead but his eyes were wide open with a panicked look on his face.
One of the most disturbing things about Joseph “Dracula†Guglielmo was that he actually lived in the infamous murder apartment. He took showers in the same shower where bodies were chopped up on a weekly basis. He slept in an apartment where over a hundred people were killed while he was living there and he liked bragging about it. Dracula certainly lived up to his nickname.
When the FBI finally raided the apartment, Dracula taunted them saying he would give 100-1 odds that they found nothing. They found dozens of bullets lodged into walls, ceiling and the floor. Guglielmo was soon to go on trial soon for his involvement in the stolen car ring. He would never show up for court. Dracula has never been seen again. He is assumed to be dead and dismembered, possibly by the Gemini Twins.
Murder MachineMurder Machine
Read the DeMeo Crew bible Murder Machine available on Amazon. The book is raw look into the darkest corner of the mafia. First it details some of the Gambino history with the help of Dominick Montiglio and others. Then it becomes about Roy and his crew and it has the feel of a serial killer thriller. Dominick was a great witness and was able to connect the story of many murders that would have otherwise never been solved. His descriptions of events are captivating as he tells a story that was never meant to be told.
Richie DiNome
Richie was Freddie DiNome’s younger brother. Like his big brother, Richie was known to march to the beat of his own drum and some of the other crew members didn’t take him seriously. Roy used him for a few killings and Richie once accidentally shot himself while attaching a silencer. He was very active and successful as a luxury car thief however. That and being Freddie’s younger brother seemingly kept him in Roy’s good graces.
One murder that DiNome did accomplish successfully was that of Joe Scorney in 1978. Scorney was another professional car thief that he often worked with in tandem. The sin of Scorney was not wanting to officially join Roy’s stolen car operation, he didn’t want to associate with the mafia. When he got the order from Roy to kill Scorney, Richie and Vito Arena killed him and put his sawed up body into a 55 gallon drum.
Things took a turn for the worse when Freddie went to prison over the car operation and then Vito Arena became an informant. When Roy was murdered in 1983, Richie now had no protection and could be facing a long sentence. The Gemini twins had never thought much of Richie and they killed him on February 4, 1984. In response, Freddie DiNome became a government witness.
Patrick “Patty†Testa
Joey’s handsome younger brother “Patty†was also a member of the DeMeo Crew. Patty was mainly involved in the stolen car operations and was one of Roy’s biggest earners in that department. Patty was an expert at working on and chopping up the stolen cars. He certainly wasn’t the cold blooded killer that his brother was but Patty was a respected crew member who got in on most of the scores.
When Paul Castellano ordered Nino Gaggi to kill Roy DeMeo in January 1983, Nino enlisted the help of the Gemini twins and Patty. Roy was lured to Patty’s car garage under the pretense of a meeting. When he got there, Gaggi shot him multiple times and then Joey and Anthony took turns putting a bullet behind each ear. It’s unclear if Patty was in attendance, but it seems clear that he must have at the very least loaned his space for the murder.
After the demise of Roy’s crew, Patty and the Gemini twins were released as associates of the Gambino family. They were picked up by Gaspipe Casso and the Lucchese family. The twins committed a few more murders before going to prison. Patty was the last remaining DeMeo Crew member still out on the streets in 1992. Patty was murdered on December 2, 1992 and most suspect Gaspipe as the one who ordered the hit.
Peter LaFroscia
Lafroscia is one of the few DeMeo Crew members still alive today, along with the Gemini twins and Henry. He was a top level member He was involved in the infamous murders of John Quinn and Cheri Golden in July 1977. Lafroscia was a full time DeMeo Crew hitman at least for that year. Shortly after that double murder, he and Roy went on a killing spree.
For a very short time, LaFroscia seemed to become Roy’s top hitman. When Roy was worried about two crew associates named Daniel Conti and John Costello becoming informants, he enlisted LaFroscia to help kill both. Both were shot to death and then stuffed into the trunks of their cars. He would soon end up in prison where he still sits today at 70 years old.
Read the full DeMeo story here at MafiaHitters.com
Roy DeMeo & The Story Of The DeMeo Crew (part 1)
Roy DeMeo & The Story Of The DeMeo Crew (part 2)
DeMeo Crew Associates
Dominick Montiglio The former Green Beret performed the weekly cash pickups for his uncle Nino Gaggi, Roy’s boss in the Gambino family. Dominick got involved selling and using cocaine with crew member Henry Borelli. He was soon banished by his uncle for the narcotics. After an FBI pinch, Montiglio agreed to cooperate and testify against Nino and the Roy. This led to the dismantling of the DeMeo Crew. It was Montiglio who was able to string together dozens of unsolved murders. He disappeared in the Witness Protection Program but has done many interviews in the years since.
Jimmy Coonan It was the alliance Roy formed with the Westies and their leader Jimmy Coonan that finally earned DeMeo the status of a made man in the Gambino family. Roy liked the tough Irishman from the west side and started financing his operations, and taking a significant cut of the action. Jimmy had many similarities to Roy, including the fact that he too was a vicious killer who often dismembered his victims. Jimmy was ecstatic to be associated with the Gambinos but many in his gang were not, especially his second in charge Mickey Featherstone who later became a government witness and put Coonan behind bars for life.
John Quinn Quinn was a very successful car thief who did lots of business with the DeMeo Crew in their early days. He was a high roller who had some local cops in his pocket that helped keep him out of trouble. Peter LaFroscia was the connection between Roy and Quinn. Unfortunately for Quinn, he eventually fell into legal trouble and Roy simply didn’t feel like taking any chances. The crew killed Quinn and his beautiful 19 year old girlfriend Cheri Golden. The killing of Cheri was planned, Roy felt that she knew too much about Quinn’s business dealings.
Andrei Katz Andrei was yet another successful young chop shop owner in Canarsie. In the early 1970s, he was both buying and selling cars through the DeMeo Crew. He partied many nights with Chris, Henry and the Gemini Twins. Things took a very bad turn in 1975 though. Katz had gotten pinched and blamed Chris Rosenberg for the arrest. A street war ensued with both sides trying to kill each other and Katz shooting Rosenberg in the face. The crew used a beautiful young lady to set up Katz. He was abducted, killed, dismembered and then placed in a dumpster. It was the first of many murders committed by the DeMeo Crew.
Ronald Ustica It was Roy and Long Island car dealer Ronald Ustica who came up with the idea of shipping stolen cars overseas to rich investors in Kuwait. Ustica was mainly just a crooked businessman but things went to another level after he hooked up with the DeMeo Crew. He wanted a rival car salesman out of business, he used Roy’s team to make two men disappear. It was the defection of Vito Arena that exposed Ustica, and put him in prison with a life sentence.
Carlo Profeta Carlo was the one time driver and bodyguard of DeMeo. He was present for multiple murders including one where Roy shot a young man to death in a car right outside the Gemini Lounge. After Roy’s murder, Profeta was often seen by authorities in the company of the Gemini Twins. Unlike nearly every other crew member, Profeta wasn’t killed or put in prison for life. He is still relevant in the New York mafia, now a made man in the Lucchese family. The Gemini Twins also relocated to the Lucchese family but both have now been in prison since the late 1980s.
Richard “The Iceman†Kuklinski Although he lied about his experiences with the mafia, The Iceman was indeed a loosely affiliated associate of the DeMeo Crew. He met Roy through the pornography business. They did business together and Roy extorted Kuklinski, pistol whipping him at one point. Roy eventually came to respect the toughness and ruthlessness of the Iceman. Kuklinski claimed to have killed a random man on DeMeo’s orders. He spoke in his HBO documentary about seeing a body hanging upside down in the shower during one of his visits to the apartment behind the Gemini Lounge.
