Roy DeMeo led a crew of the Gambino crime family in Brooklyn and Long Island in the 1970s and early 1980s. He was never charged, tried or convicted of any killing, and he was himself killed in Brooklyn in January 1983, at the age of 42. Within two years a federal indictment in the Southern District of New York charged 24 people with racketeering offenses connected to the crew he had led. It named him as the crew's "street leader" until his death and alleged 26 murders among 80 racketeering acts. Every killing in that record is an allegation against the crew or a conviction of the individual members named, and none is a finding against DeMeo himself.
The crew, as the indictment presented it, was part of the Gambino crime family. The indictment charged auto theft over an eleven-year period, extortionate credit, bribery, firearms offenses and a prostitution business that the government said was financed by Anthony Gaggi and DeMeo "as leaders of the crew."
The chain of command in the indictment was short. Paul Castellano acted as "boss," Gaggi as "captain," and DeMeo as "street leader." The enterprise was alleged to have existed from about January 1, 1972 until February 28, 1983, a span that ends a few weeks after DeMeo was killed. The pretrial opinion records that the organization of the crew "changed extensively" afterward.
Brooklyn was the base of the crew, and its activities extended to Long Island.
The indictment was returned in the Southern District of New York and named 24 defendants in 78 counts. Count 1 charged a substantive racketeering offense under 18 U.S.C. § 1962(c), alleging an enterprise "associated in fact to conduct, participate in and commit acts of racketeering activity." Count 2 charged a racketeering conspiracy under § 1962(d). The remaining 76 counts were substantive offenses and conspiracies that the government said related to the racketeering acts.
Count 1 alleged 80 acts of racketeering, "including twenty-six murders," along with bribery, extortion, narcotics offenses, thefts from interstate shipments, mail and wire fraud, obstruction of justice, transportation of stolen property and transportation of women for prostitution. A superseding indictment dated October 4, 1984 added further defendants and acts. Twenty-one defendants were before the court for trial, among them Castellano, Gaggi, Testa, Senter, Henry Borelli and Ronald Ustica. A twenty-second man, Richard DiNome, had been named in the earlier indictment and was dropped after his death in early February 1984.
On June 6, 1985, the district court ruled on the defendants' pretrial motions. The defendants asked the court to strike the word "crew" from the indictment, and the court noted that the government intended to offer proof that each deceased person described in it had in fact been killed, and that "it was their association with the defendants that provided the motive for their being killed." DeMeo was one of those deceased persons. The court's opinion refers to "the murder of Roy DeMeo on approximately January 10, 1983."
The indictment printed the names of a number of the people whose deaths it alleged. Ronald Falcaro and Khaled Daoud appear in Count 4, which charged Joseph Testa, Anthony Senter, Ronald Ustica, Henry Borelli and Joseph Guglielmo with "conspiring to deprive Ronald Falcaro and Khaled Daoud of their right to be witnesses against the defendants." Patrick Penny's murder was racketeering act 23. A conspiracy to murder James Bennett, which the indictment said was not completed until April 29, 1981, was charged as act 27 against Carlo Profeta and others. Fred Todaro, Charles Mongitore and Daniel Scutaro were also named in the racketeering acts, and the indictment changed one victim's name from Vincent Ragucci to Dominick Ragucci. Two killings and an attempted murder, acts 18 to 20, were tied to a separate Brooklyn state prosecution, People v. Gaggi.
The passages that name DeMeo describe him as the crew's street leader and do not assign any of these acts to him personally. Whether he took part in, ordered or knew of any particular act was never tried.
In June 1989, seven members of the crew were convicted of racketeering, and Senter and Testa were among five found guilty of participating in 11 murders. Each received life sentences plus 20 years in federal prison. The lead prosecutor called the crew "the most violent crew ever prosecuted in federal court."
DeMeo was killed in Brooklyn in January 1983, around January 10, when he was 42. His death came about seven weeks before the end of the enterprise period alleged in the indictment.
Anthony Senter served a life sentence for his part in the crew's crimes. A Department of Justice spokesperson said he "had substantially observed the rules of the institution" and that his release "would not jeopardize the public welfare," and he was due to be released in 2024 after 35 years in custody. Gaggi, the captain named in the indictment, died in jail in 1988 while on trial, and Castellano died in December 1985 before the trial ended.
The case was brought under the federal racketeering statute, 18 U.S.C. § 1962, which allows a group of people "associated in fact" to be charged as an enterprise, with each member answerable for the acts of racketeering he committed in furtherance of it. Section 1962(c) covers conducting the affairs of an enterprise through a pattern of racketeering activity and § 1962(d) covers conspiring to do so. Under that structure each conviction belongs to the individual defendant, and none belongs to DeMeo.
No court has found that DeMeo killed, ordered the killing of or took part in the killing of any person. The indictment alleged 26 murders against the enterprise he led as street leader; it did not try him for them.
Later accounts attribute to him a first killing, of Paul Rothenberg, in 1973. That is an attribution and not a court finding.
January 1, 1972: start of the enterprise period alleged in the indictment.
1973: first killing later attributed to DeMeo, that of Paul Rothenberg.
April 29, 1981: conspiracy to murder James Bennett, charged as racketeering act 27, completed.
About January 10, 1983: DeMeo killed in Brooklyn.
February 28, 1983: end of the enterprise period alleged in the indictment.
Early February 1984: Richard DiNome, named in the earlier indictment, dies.
October 4, 1984: superseding indictment.
June 6, 1985: the district court rules on pretrial motions in United States v. Castellano.
December 1985: Castellano dies before the trial ends.
1988: Gaggi dies in jail while on trial.
1989: Senter, Testa and others convicted; life sentences plus 20 years.
2024: Senter due for release after 35 years of a life sentence.