Did Murder Machine Roy DeMeo Record Some Wiseguys? Or Are We Whistling In The Wind
Roy DeMeo was a ruthless killer—allegedly—and not a man worthy of admiration—but in the context of Cosa Nostra, he offers an example of a fascinating mobster with great business acumen.
Gambino boss Paul Castellano at least at first rejected the idea of straightening Roy out, but in the end was too greedy not to. Roy was bringing in too much cash to simply dismiss.
Roy combined his skills with a blood lust that drove him to commit torture murders not common even among mobsters. (Or so we have been lead to believe.)
Roy had a crew of young wannabes, some of whom would eventually be given buttons, such as Gemini Twins Anthony Senter and Joey Testa, who hooked up with the Lucheses after leaving Roy. Others wound up dead. (Like Roy when the Gemini Twins left him.)
An FBI bug installed in the home of Gambino soldier Angelo Ruggiero picked up an intriguing conversation between Angelo and Gene Gotti, a brother of John Gotti.
When Castellano finally decided he wanted DeMeo hit, he had difficulty finding someone willing to do the hitting.
Eventually he made contact with one such official -- who we won't name because he didn't know his communications would be published. So the researcher sent a text message to him, asking whether Roy had been duly warned by the law about Big Paul's contract.
Rather than give a direct reply, the official responded:
"Roy was offered a deal. When Roy was killed he was dumped in the trunk of his Cadillac. There was a microphone leading from the backseat to the trunk of his car. The tape recorder [and the tape] was gone when we got there; what does that tell you? The word on the street was Joey Testa whacked him because Joey took over Roy's loan shark operation."
The former detective seems to be saying that he believed Roy was informed of Castellano's contract and had agreed to turn informant.
If this is true, mob history books may need some revising.
Jerry Capeci, for one, wrote in "Murder Machine" that Roy had grown exceedingly paranoid and had taken to tape recording his own conversations -- Capeci never wrote that Roy had flipped or that Roy was making tapes for anyone but himself.
DeMeo's son Albert also wrote that in his final days, his dad seemed a bit paranoid -- one of the few points on which the two books do agree.
Capeci does reveal that, when Roy's body was found in the trunk, the tapes had been removed from the recording device. These tapes have never been found.
Now let's assume the Feds did flip Roy -- why would they hide it? They usually love to demoralize the mob by trumpeting all the turncoats they have under their protection. They also like to screw with mobsters' heads by putting out false information. For example, Time magazine, for one, ran an obit for Neil Dellacroce, Gotti's mentor, revealing that Dellacroce had been a federal informant. You have to be a subscriber to read the full article but here is a summary.
Seize the Night: A curious story in Time magazine, datelined on the day of Castellano’s murder but printed earlier, declared that Dellacroce had been an informer for the FBI for some two decades. Among other things, it claimed Dellacroce had tipped off the FBI when Carmine Galante, a would-be boss of bosses, was marked for death.
He also was said to have given the FBI leads on the long-unsolved murder of Teamsters boss Jimmy Hoffa and that he helped to break some major narcotics cases. Perhaps the most stunning, or the most unbelievable, part of the story was that Dellacroce never asked for some kind of a payoff – most Mafia informers want legal clearance for themselves or money or both.
Not unsurprisingly the New York media seemed underwhelmed by Time‘s disclosures, ignoring the story pending some additional proof. It can be speculated whether the story would have appeared if Castellano’s murder had become known first. Some observers looked on the story as a form of FBI disinformation. It was possible that the FBI – clearly the source of Time’s account – was seeking to rattle the boys in general or quite possibly was intent on using the story as a ply to cover up its real informers. There had been for many weeks some feeling in the underworld that Castellano might break or indeed might have already broken, that he was not tough enough to take a long prison term at the twilight of his life. Maybe the FBI was carrying out a “dirty trick” operation to plant suspicions on all the elderly dons it was bringing to trial? That could make them hit candidates and perhaps more interested in accepting a deal with the government.
Generally, little attention has been paid to these rumors -- although we must say that today, when we know the government has had killers like Greg Scarpa and Whitey Bulger on its payroll, it is not as difficult to believe.
But how can anyone know for certain? Only the Feds would...
Back to DeMeo: we think the Feds have a very good reason to hide a relationship with Roy. Read the first two graphs of this story again... Roy was, basically, a mass murderer, widely reviled... The Feds would've taken heat, most likely, for forming a relationship with Roy DeMeo. But if Roy gave them evidence and was then whisked off to a WitSec program, they could possibly never have to reveal Roy was even alive... (But how would they get the tapes admitted if there was a trial?)
This information is historical; Roy has been gone for decades, so any revelations would strictly have their greatest impact among the academics of Cosa Nostra.
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| DeMeo mugshot |
Gambino boss Paul Castellano at least at first rejected the idea of straightening Roy out, but in the end was too greedy not to. Roy was bringing in too much cash to simply dismiss.
Roy combined his skills with a blood lust that drove him to commit torture murders not common even among mobsters. (Or so we have been lead to believe.)
Roy had a crew of young wannabes, some of whom would eventually be given buttons, such as Gemini Twins Anthony Senter and Joey Testa, who hooked up with the Lucheses after leaving Roy. Others wound up dead. (Like Roy when the Gemini Twins left him.)
An FBI bug installed in the home of Gambino soldier Angelo Ruggiero picked up an intriguing conversation between Angelo and Gene Gotti, a brother of John Gotti.
When Castellano finally decided he wanted DeMeo hit, he had difficulty finding someone willing to do the hitting.
On the phone with Ruggiero, Gene Gotti said that brother John was wary of taking the contract because Roy had an "army of killers" around him. It is also mentioned in this same conversation that, at that time, John had killed fewer than 10 people, while DeMeo had killed at least 38.
Jerry Capeci uncovered the transcript of the conversation and has written that it was the idea of Gotti fearing this crew, whom many outside law enforcement had never even heard of, that ignited the book Murder Machine, a kickass, deeply researched biography of the DeMeo crew and its crimes, which Capeci and coauthor Gene Mustaine christened MURDER MACHINE.
A private researcher contacted this blog and discussed DeMeo. We wondered, why didn't the FBI warn Roy DeMeo of the murder threat. It's SOP for the FBI to notify any person -- criminal or not -- when they gain information that said a person's life was in danger. Now the FBI may have notified Roy, but there is nothing in the literature, in Capeci's book or even in DeMeo's son's book, which is an absorbing read, too.
Was he so despised the Feds didn't tell him? Though for all we know the FBI did warn Roy -- but if they did it has not been publicly revealed.
Jerry Capeci uncovered the transcript of the conversation and has written that it was the idea of Gotti fearing this crew, whom many outside law enforcement had never even heard of, that ignited the book Murder Machine, a kickass, deeply researched biography of the DeMeo crew and its crimes, which Capeci and coauthor Gene Mustaine christened MURDER MACHINE.
A private researcher contacted this blog and discussed DeMeo. We wondered, why didn't the FBI warn Roy DeMeo of the murder threat. It's SOP for the FBI to notify any person -- criminal or not -- when they gain information that said a person's life was in danger. Now the FBI may have notified Roy, but there is nothing in the literature, in Capeci's book or even in DeMeo's son's book, which is an absorbing read, too.
Was he so despised the Feds didn't tell him? Though for all we know the FBI did warn Roy -- but if they did it has not been publicly revealed.
The researcher, who has a deep fascination for the DeMeo story, began contacting law enforcement officials whose names he got from Murder Machine
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| Screen shot of text message |
Rather than give a direct reply, the official responded:
"Roy was offered a deal. When Roy was killed he was dumped in the trunk of his Cadillac. There was a microphone leading from the backseat to the trunk of his car. The tape recorder [and the tape] was gone when we got there; what does that tell you? The word on the street was Joey Testa whacked him because Joey took over Roy's loan shark operation."
The former detective seems to be saying that he believed Roy was informed of Castellano's contract and had agreed to turn informant.
If this is true, mob history books may need some revising.
Jerry Capeci, for one, wrote in "Murder Machine" that Roy had grown exceedingly paranoid and had taken to tape recording his own conversations -- Capeci never wrote that Roy had flipped or that Roy was making tapes for anyone but himself.
DeMeo's son Albert also wrote that in his final days, his dad seemed a bit paranoid -- one of the few points on which the two books do agree.
 |
| John Gotti; Neil Dellacroce |
Capeci does reveal that, when Roy's body was found in the trunk, the tapes had been removed from the recording device. These tapes have never been found.
Now let's assume the Feds did flip Roy -- why would they hide it? They usually love to demoralize the mob by trumpeting all the turncoats they have under their protection. They also like to screw with mobsters' heads by putting out false information. For example, Time magazine, for one, ran an obit for Neil Dellacroce, Gotti's mentor, revealing that Dellacroce had been a federal informant. You have to be a subscriber to read the full article but here is a summary.
Seize the Night: A curious story in Time magazine, datelined on the day of Castellano’s murder but printed earlier, declared that Dellacroce had been an informer for the FBI for some two decades. Among other things, it claimed Dellacroce had tipped off the FBI when Carmine Galante, a would-be boss of bosses, was marked for death.
He also was said to have given the FBI leads on the long-unsolved murder of Teamsters boss Jimmy Hoffa and that he helped to break some major narcotics cases. Perhaps the most stunning, or the most unbelievable, part of the story was that Dellacroce never asked for some kind of a payoff – most Mafia informers want legal clearance for themselves or money or both.
Not unsurprisingly the New York media seemed underwhelmed by Time‘s disclosures, ignoring the story pending some additional proof. It can be speculated whether the story would have appeared if Castellano’s murder had become known first. Some observers looked on the story as a form of FBI disinformation. It was possible that the FBI – clearly the source of Time’s account – was seeking to rattle the boys in general or quite possibly was intent on using the story as a ply to cover up its real informers. There had been for many weeks some feeling in the underworld that Castellano might break or indeed might have already broken, that he was not tough enough to take a long prison term at the twilight of his life. Maybe the FBI was carrying out a “dirty trick” operation to plant suspicions on all the elderly dons it was bringing to trial? That could make them hit candidates and perhaps more interested in accepting a deal with the government.
Generally, little attention has been paid to these rumors -- although we must say that today, when we know the government has had killers like Greg Scarpa and Whitey Bulger on its payroll, it is not as difficult to believe.
But how can anyone know for certain? Only the Feds would...
Back to DeMeo: we think the Feds have a very good reason to hide a relationship with Roy. Read the first two graphs of this story again... Roy was, basically, a mass murderer, widely reviled... The Feds would've taken heat, most likely, for forming a relationship with Roy DeMeo. But if Roy gave them evidence and was then whisked off to a WitSec program, they could possibly never have to reveal Roy was even alive... (But how would they get the tapes admitted if there was a trial?)
We are speculating here, and this is a complicated issue. It could be that we are "over-thinking" this.
When we tried to contact the law enforcement official on our own to follow up on the information our friend received and then shared, the official would not return our phone calls or an email.
If anyone in law enforcement out there reads this, please email us at cosanostranews@gmail.com.
When we tried to contact the law enforcement official on our own to follow up on the information our friend received and then shared, the official would not return our phone calls or an email.
If anyone in law enforcement out there reads this, please email us at cosanostranews@gmail.com.
This information is historical; Roy has been gone for decades, so any revelations would strictly have their greatest impact among the academics of Cosa Nostra.