DeMeo crew
| Roy DeMeo | |
|---|---|
FBI mugshot, July 14, 1981
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| Born |
Roy Albert DeMeo September 7, 1942 Brooklyn, New York, U.S. |
| Died | January 10, 1983 (aged 40) Brooklyn, New York, U.S. |
| Nationality | American |
| Other names | Roy DiMare, Steven DiMare, John Holland |
| Occupation | Mobster |
| Allegiance | DeMeo crew |
Roy Albert DeMeo (September 7, 1942 – January 10, 1983) was a New York mobster and member of the Gambino crime family. He headed the DeMeo crew, a gang suspected of murdering over 100 people between 1973 and 1983; with the majority of their victims' bodies dismembered and disposed of so thoroughly that they were never found. Roy DeMeo himself is believed to have killed some 70 people.
Roy Albert DeMeo was born in 1942 in Bath Beach, Brooklyn into a working class Italian immigrant family of Neapolitan origin. As a teen, he began a small loansharking operation which turned into a full-time job by the age of 17. DeMeo graduated from James Madison High School in 1959. He began working in a criminal enterprise while maintaining legitimate business practices. He married shortly after high school and fathered three children. He worked his way up the criminal career ladder through a continued loansharking operation.
A Gambino associate Anthony Gaggi noticed DeMeo and told him that he could make even more money with his successful business if he came to work directly for the Gambino family. Through the late 1960s, DeMeo's organized crime prospects increased on two fronts. He continued in the loansharking business with Gaggi, and began developing a crew of young men involved in car theft. 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 Chris Rosenberg, who met DeMeo in 1966 at the age of 16.
Rosenberg was dealing marijuana at a Canarsie gas station, and DeMeo helped him increase his business and profits by loaning Rosenberg money so that he could deal in larger amounts. By 1972, Rosenberg had introduced his friends to DeMeo and they began working for him as well. The members of the crew included Joseph "Dracula" Guglielmo (DeMeo's cousin), Joseph Testa, Anthony Senter and Joseph's younger brother, Patrick Testa. DeMeo joined the Boro of Brooklyn Credit Union that same year, gaining a position on the board of directors shortly afterward. He utilized his position to launder money earned through his 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. DeMeo also 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. In late 1974, a conflict that had erupted between the DeMeo crew and a young automotive bodyshop owner who was partners with DeMeo in a stolen car ring, named Andrei Katz, had continued to escalate. In May 1975, DeMeo was informed by a police officer that, as a result of this conflict, Katz 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 1976.
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