What Really Roy DeMeo Did To His Family (Shocking) – ht

 

 

Brooklyn, New York. January 1983. 10 days before the body is found. Roy Deo drives a new 1983 Cadillac registered in his wife’s name. The car is black. The registration keeps his name off the paperwork. In the back seat, a chandelier from his home in Masipiqua Park, Long Island, sits wrapped in cloth.

 He had planned to get it repaired. He no longer thinks about it. He wears a long overcoat. Inside a custom pocket, a saw-off shotgun. He drives through Brooklyn streets slowly, watching mirrors, checking cars behind him. He has done this for weeks. His son, Albert, turned 17 on January 10th. Days before the birthday, Roy told him directly, “I’m marked for death.

” Albert Deo was not involved in his father’s work. Neither was his daughter, Dion, nor his wife, Glattis. Roy kept them separate. They lived in a five-bedroom house in Masipiqua Park, a suburban neighborhood on Long Island. The house had a pool. The lawn was maintained. Neighbors knew Roy as a car dealer.

 Some knew he was connected. Most did not know what he did. What Roy did was kill people. By 1983, he had participated in over 200 murders. He ran a crew for the Gambino crime family. His boss was Paul Castayano. His mentor was Anthony Nino Gagi, a Gambino capo Roy had known since 1965. Royy’s crew operated out of the Gemini Lounge, a bar on Flatlands Avenue in Canari, Brooklyn.

 Roy secretly owned the bar. Next to it was an apartment rented by crew member Joseph Guglmo known as Dracula. The apartment had a separate entrance. Victims entered through that door. Inside, Roy kept guns, knives, ropes, ice picks, saws, plastic sheeting, and towels. The method was efficient. A suppressed gunshot to the head.

 A towel wrapped immediately around the wound to stop blood spray. a knife to the heart to stop the heart from pumping. Then the body was dragged to the bathroom and bled out in the shower. The shower drained directly into the sewer. After the blood drained, the body was moved to the living room, placed on a plastic swimming pool liner, and dismembered.

 Limbs, torso, and head were separated. Pieces went into plastic bags, then into cardboard boxes. The boxes were driven to the Fountain Avenue dump in Brooklyn or submerged in bodies of water around Long Island. Roy had learned butchery as a teenager working as an assistant in a butcher shop. He told his crew he knew how to break down a body the way you break down a side of beef. He called it practical knowledge.

The crew included Anthony Center, Joseph Ta, Henry Belli, and others. They worked in shifts. Some wore only underwear during dismemberments to avoid blood stains on clothing. Roy once put a severed head into a trash compactor. He told his crew, “No body, no crime.” The crew made money in several ways.

 Roy ran a lone sharking operation. He extorted pornography distributors. Most profitable was a luxury car theft ring. The crew stole four to seven cars per night from streets in Manhattan and Brooklyn. Mercedes, Porsches, Cadillacs. The cars were driven to garages in Brooklyn, their vins altered, then shipped overseas to buyers in Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, and Europe.

 Roy kicked a portion of the profits up to Paul Castayano. The ring generated millions. Royy’s first murder was in 1973. The victim was Paul Rothenberg, a pornographic film distributor. Rothenberg had been paying extortion money to Roy and Nino for months. 3 weeks before his death, authorities raided Rothenberg’s film processing business.

 They found checks written to Roy Deo. Nino ordered the hit. Roy followed Rothenberg to an alley in Roslin, Long Island, and fired two shots from a silenced 38 caliber handgun into his head. After that, Roy killed regularly. His crew killed regularly. They killed for Castellano when he needed a contract filled. They killed for business disputes.

 They killed informants. They killed people who knew too much. They killed a man who sold them bad drugs. They killed a man who owed money. They killed two members of their own car theft ring in 1979 inside a dark building. Crew member Veto Arena later testified in federal court about that night. Roy shot both men.

 Then Roy said, “We have to cut them up.” During the dismemberment, Roy told Arena and Henry Belli, “Go and buy some pizza.” Arena bought the pizza. They ate while they worked. Roy kept his family away from all of it. His children attended good schools. Glattis managed the household. Roy gave them money, cars, and comfort. He attended school events.

He took the family on vacations. He did not discuss his work at home. But by late 1982, the separation was collapsing. In June 1982, Veto Arena flipped. He was arrested on federal charges related to the car theft ring. He agreed to cooperate with prosecutors. He told them about murders. He told them about the Gemini Lounge.

 He told them about the bodies. In June 1982, Arena led police to Maitius Bay off the southern shore of Long Island. Divers pulled up an oil barrel filled with cement. Inside was the body of a low-level hoodlum. The body had been there for months. A joint local and federal task force began investigating the Gambino family’s car theft operation.

 They identified Roy Deo as the operations leader. They identified his crew. They began building a racketeering case. In late 1982, a federal grand jury subpoenenaed Roy Deio to testify. It was his second subpoena. Roy did not appear. He knew what the subpoena meant. Prosecutors were closing in. They had arena. They had evidence. They were building a case that could send Roy to prison for life.

 Paul Castano knew this, too. Castayano controlled the Gambino family from his mansion on Todd Hill in Staten Island. He was methodical. He was cautious. He did not tolerate risks. Roy Deo had become a risk. Castano heard that Roy might cooperate to avoid prison. The rumor spread through the family. Roy heard the rumor. He knew what it meant.

Roy began to behave erratically. In late 1982, an 18-year-old college student named Dominic Rigguchi knocked on Royy’s door in Masipiqua Park. Raguchi was selling vacuum cleaners doortodoor. Roy, paranoid and convinced the young man was a Cuban hitman sent by a drug cartel Roy had recently disputed with, opened fire. Raguchi ran to his car.

 Roy chased him into the street. In front of witnesses, Roy shot and killed Dominic Reguchi in broad daylight. Nino Gagi heard about the murder. He knew Roy was unraveling. Paul Castellano gave the order. Anthony Nino Gagi received the contract from Paul Castayano in late December 1982 or early January 1983. The order was clear. Kill Roy Deo.

Nino had known Roy since 1965. He had recruited Roy into the Gambino family. He had mentored him. He had sponsored his rise. Roy trusted Nino more than anyone in the family. Nino had no choice. Castano was boss. The order came from the top. Nino would carry it out. The plan required deception. Roy was armed. He was paranoid.

 He would not meet in an open location. He had to be lured somewhere familiar, somewhere he felt safe. On January 10th, 1983, Roy Deio was murdered in Brooklyn, New York. Deio was not killed inside the Gemini Lounge or its garage. His body was discovered later that day inside the trunk of his Cadillac, which had been abandoned near Sheep’s Head Bay.

 He had been shot multiple times, primarily in the head with additional wounds to his hands, consistent with defensive injuries. Autopsy reports confirmed several gunshot wounds to the head, though the exact number varies slightly across reports. The identity of the shooters was never definitively established.

 Investigators believed more than one gunman was involved. Law enforcement strongly suspected members of the Gambino crime family orchestrated the killing as Deio had become a liability due to his extreme violence internal paranoia. Fear he might cooperate with authorities. Nino Gagi Deo’s longtime mentor and captain was widely suspected to have approved or arranged the murder, but there is no conclusive evidence proving he personally pulled the trigger.

 No one was ever convicted for Roy Deio’s murder. The Cadillac sat in the parking lot for 10 days. Boat club members noticed it. Some complained. No one opened the trunk. On January 20th, 1983, police towed the car. Hours later, they opened the trunk. Inside, they found Roy Deo’s frozen body, the chandelier draped across it. The murder made local news.

 Investigators immediately suspected Gambino involvement. Royy’s name had been appearing in federal probes. His connection to the car theft ring was known. His crew was under investigation. Glattis Deio learned of her husband’s death through the police. She had not known the details of his work. She knew he was involved in organized crime.

 She did not know the extent. Roy had placed significant assets in his family’s name. The house in Masipiqua Park was in Glattis’s name. The Cadillac was registered to her. Bank accounts, properties, and other holdings had been transferred to family members over the years. After Royy’s death, the Deio family received more than $1 million in assets.

 The transfers had been Royy’s way of protecting his family. He knew the government could seize his assets. He knew he might die. He ensured his wife and children would inherit what he had built. Albert Deo was 17. Dion was younger. They had grown up in a suburban home. Insulated from their father’s work.

 After Royy’s death, they faced the truth. Albert later wrote a memoir, For the sins of my father, published in 2002. In it, he described his father as two men. At home, Roy was affectionate, attentive, and protective. He coached Albert in sports. He took the family to dinners and vacations. He emphasized education.

 He told his children to stay away from his business. Outside the home, Roy was a killer. Albert did not fully understand this until after his father’s death. He had suspected he had heard rumors, but Roy never discussed specifics. After January 1983, the details emerged. Federal prosecutors built their case. Arena’s testimony was central.

 He described murders. He described the Gemini Lounge. He described the method. He named names. In 1984, Paul Castayano and Ninoagi were among 21 defendants charged in a federal racketeering case. The charges included the car theft ring, 25 related murders, drug trafficking, lone sharking, extortion, fraud, and prostitution.

 Some of the charges would not stick. Some defendants cooperated with federal prosecutors under US attorney Rudolph Giuliani. Nino Gagi went to trial in 1988. While on trial for raketeering, he suffered a heart attack in jail. He died before the trial concluded. Paul Castayano never saw the end of his trial. On December 16th, 1985, while on a break from his federal rakateeering trial, Castiano was shot and killed outside Spark Steakhouse in Manhattan.

 The hit was ordered by John Gaudi, who took control of the Gambino family. Ysef Gulmo, known as Dracula, disappeared in 1983. He was never found. Investigators believe he was killed by surviving members of Royy’s crew to eliminate a potential witness. Albert Deio tried to understand what his father had done and what his father had protected him from.

Roy had kept his children away from the crew. He never brought them to the Gemini Lounge. He never introduced them to center ta or the others. He did not discuss his work at the dinner table. He attended the parent teacher conferences. He drove Albert to baseball practice. He helped with homework.

 Roy told Albert more than once to stay away from the life. He told him to go to college. He told him the business was dangerous and that it would destroy him. Roy did not want his son to follow him. But Roy also knew his son would inherit the consequences. After Royy’s death, federal authorities investigated the Deo family finances.

They examined properties, accounts, and assets. They identified transfers Roy had made. The government attempted to seize some of the assets under racketeering statutes, but much of the property had been legally transferred years earlier. Glattis Deio retained ownership of the house in Masipiqua Park.

 The family kept much of what Roy had left them. Albert struggled. He knew his father had been a killer. He knew his father had dismembered bodies. He knew the money that paid for his childhood came from theft and murder. He also remembered the man who coached him, who attended his games, who told him he loved him. In his memoir, Albert described the internal conflict.

 He wrote about the shame, the anger, and the confusion. He wrote about the media attention, the neighborhood gossip, and the fear that his father’s enemies might come for the family. No one came. Roiy’s enemies were dead, in prison, or had moved on. The family was not targeted. The Gambino family had no reason to harm them. Roy had not cooperated.

 He had been killed before he could testify. His family had no knowledge of his operations. They were left alone. Albert finished high school. He went to college. He worked. He tried to build a life separate from his father’s legacy. Dion Deo also moved forward. She married. She distanced herself from the name.

 The Deo children were not involved in organized crime. They were not investigated. They were not charged. They were the family of a dead mobster. nothing more. Glattis Deo remained in the house in Masipiqua Park for several years. She eventually sold it. She moved. She avoided interviews. She did not write a book. She did not speak publicly about Roy.

 The Gemini Lounge closed. The building still stands on Flatlands Avenue in Brooklyn. It is no longer a bar. The apartment next door, where bodies were dismembered, was eventually rented to other tenants. The new tenants did not know the history. Some neighbors remembered. Most did not talk about it.

 The Fountain Avenue dump, where many of Royy’s victims were discarded, was eventually closed and redeveloped. Investigators never determined how many bodies were disposed of there. Some estimates placed the number in the dozens. Others believed it was higher. The car theft ring collapsed after Royy’s death. Federal authorities dismantled the operation.

 Garages were raided. Vehicles were recovered. Overseas buyers were identified. The ring had been one of the most profitable criminal operations in New York in the 1970s and early 1980s. It ended in 1983. Roy Deio was buried in a cemetery on Long Island. His grave is unmarked. His family did not want it to become a sight of curiosity.

Albert attended the funeral. So did Glattis and Dion. Few others came. Most of Royy’s crew was in custody or dead. Nino Gagi did not attend. He was under indictment. Albert later described the funeral as quiet. There was no large gathering, no long eulogies, no organized crime figures paying respects. It was a small private service.

 The family buried Roy and left. Years later, Albert was asked in an interview what he wanted people to know about his father. He said his father was a killer. He said his father had committed terrible crimes. He also said his father had loved his family. He said both things were true.

 The Deio family received the money. They received the house, the cars, and the assets Roy had placed in their names. They also received the knowledge. They received the shame, the fear, and the weight of knowing where it all came from. Roy Deio had protected his family financially. He had ensured they would not be left with nothing, but he had also left them with everything he had done.

 They inherited the money and the murders. They inherited the comfort and the horror. Albert wrote the book, he said, to tell the truth. He wanted people to know what his father had done. He wanted people to know what it was like to be the son of a man who had killed over 200 people. He wanted people to know that his father had loved him. Albert Deio moved on. He built a life.

He had a family. He worked. He lived quietly. He did not return to Brooklyn. He did not visit the Gemini Lounge. He did not visit his father’s unmarked grave. The money Roy left behind eventually ran out or was spent. The house was sold. The cars were sold. The assets were liquidated. The family lived on what remained and then they lived on what they earned.

 Roy Deo died in the trunk of a Cadillac on January 10th, 1983. His body froze. His family inherited everything. Within a decade, the crew was dismantled. The empire was gone and the family was left with the memory of a man who loved them and killed without hesitation.