Roy DeMeo: The Gambino Enforcer Whose Own Crew Killed Him
Roy DeMeo built the most efficient killing operation the Gambino crime family ever produced. The FBI suspected his crew of between seventy-five and two hundred murders across a single decade. Almost none of the bodies were ever found. Operating out of a blue-collar bar in Flatlands, Brooklyn called the Gemini Lounge, DeMeo and his crew perfected what became known as the Gemini Method — a system for killing, dismembering, and disposing of victims that left no physical evidence behind.
The Gemini Lounge and the DeMeo Crew
DeMeo recruited Anthony Senter and Joseph Testa — later known as the Gemini Twins — while they were still teenagers. Along with Henry Borelli and Joseph Guglielmo, this crew operated with mechanical precision from the back rooms of the Gemini Lounge. Their methods were so effective that law enforcement struggled for years to connect the disappearances to a single operation. DeMeo’s credo was straightforward: no body, no crime.
Stolen Cars, Cocaine, and Castellano’s Money
DeMeo was not just an enforcer — he ran one of the largest stolen car operations in New York history, shipping luxury vehicles overseas to the Middle East and South America. He brokered an alliance between the Gambinos and the Westies, and generated tens of thousands a week for boss Paul Castellano. But DeMeo ignored every rule the family gave him. He dealt cocaine out of the Gemini Lounge. He killed without permission. He shot a nineteen-year-old college student selling vacuum cleaners door to door, mistaking him for a Cuban assassin.
Gotti Refused the Contract
When FBI informant Vito Arena began cooperating and the chain of evidence pointed straight to Castellano, the boss decided DeMeo had to go. John Gotti was offered the contract and turned it down — on a wiretap, Gene Gotti said his brother believed DeMeo had “an army of killers.” Frank DeCicco found the solution inside the crew itself. Senter and Testa agreed to help kill DeMeo in exchange for their own lives.
Killed by His Own Method
On January 10, 1983, DeMeo walked into a body shop in Canarsie, Brooklyn. His mentor Nino Gaggi opened fire. DeMeo was shot seven times, wrapped in a chandelier box, and frozen in the trunk of his own Cadillac — the same disposal method he had taught his crew. The men DeMeo had recruited as teenagers outlived him by decades. Joseph Testa died on January 26, 2026. Anthony Senter was paroled in 2023. Nobody ever stood trial for DeMeo’s murder.
Sources: Murder Machine by Jerry Capeci and Gene Mustain (1992), For the Sins of My Father by Albert DeMeo (2002), federal court testimony of Dominick Montiglio and Vito Arena, FBI wiretaps from Angelo Ruggiero residence.