Mob's Grim Reaper: Roy DeMeo's Violent Odyssey

Title: Mob's Grim Reaper: Roy DeMeo's Violent Odyssey
Original Publication Date: 8/30/2023
Transcript URL: share.descript.com/view/bkHR55zM1qY
Description: In this episode of Organized Crime and Punishment, Mustache Chris and Steve delve into the chilling tale of Roy DeMeo, a ruthless figure who left an indelible mark on the world of organized crime. Join us as we trace DeMeo's meteoric rise through the ranks of the Gambino crime family, his notorious "DeMeo Crew," and their involvement in a string of gruesome murders and criminal enterprises. From his reputation as a cold-blooded enforcer to his ties with powerful crime syndicates, we explore the factors that fueled DeMeo's dominance and the empire he built. However, as the walls closed in and law enforcement tightened their grip, his empire began to crumble, leading to his eventual demise in a hail of bullets. Tune in to unravel the complex web of power, violence, and justice in the underworld, and don't miss our expert analysis on the legacy that Roy DeMeo leaves behind. #OrganizedCrime #TrueCrime #RoyDeMeo #CriminalEmpire #GambinoFamily #DeMeoCrew #RiseAndFall #ColdBlooded #PodcastEpisode #TrueCrimeStory
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Begin Transcript:
[00:00:00] Welcome to Organized Crime and Punishment, the best spot in town to hang out and talk about history and crime with your hosts, Steve and Mustache Chris.
Let's talk a little bit about Paul Castellano because Paul Castellano, he came up in our last episode about the Iceman. To me, he seemed like the... Really the most unlikeliest of mafia guys, because he had a huge legitimate business in meatpacking that, uh, the, his business was in selling meat and chicken, and he made tons and tons of [00:01:00] money.
If I'm not mistaken, both of his sons were involved in the business and they were completely legit. And I. Don't understand why someone like Paul Castellano would want to be involved in this really dirty, nasty. Underworld element of the, the mafia when he could have just been involved completely in the white collar part of the mafia, which in the 60s and the 70s and the 80s.
Sure. If you were. In labor unions, or if you were in something like meatpacking, yeah, you were connected to the mafia, but you didn't have to be in the nitty gritty of being around people like Roy DeMeo and the Westies, and the really gritty, nasty part of the mafia and the organized crime. No, I just, I think.
It's because he just kind of grew up with it and kind of got pulled into it. And [00:02:00] because he was such a good earner, I mean, it, it would make kind of sense that you would want that guy to be the head of the family because nobody knew how to like make as much money as Paul and do it somewhat. I mean, do it legitimately for the most part and not attract like police attention, but.
I don't like Paul wasn't really cut out for the job to like, I don't think he really understood like stuff that was coming down the pipe in terms of like week, uh, Rico and like wiretapping. Cause he would have all the dude, you would have all the guys like show up at the, I believe it was like the veterans club that they called every two weeks, every week to sit down and talk about, you know, what was Gambino family.
And it's the cops are just kind of sitting there laughing at them and say, well, I mean, really, they're all going to show up at the same time. We're just. I'm going to stand out here and take pictures and, you know, and his own house was wiretapped at one point. He just doesn't seem, it seemed like probably like a good idea in theory.
This guy's a great [00:03:00] earner and he seems to keep his nose pretty clean. Like who better to run the family, but. In practice, it didn't really work out all that well. And I mean, he was so like white collar too, that he, he really kind of pissed off the guys that were, you know, like the street guys. And if you're going to be the head of a mafia family, you have to be able to strike a balance between the two where.
The street guys are happy because you do need them. At the end of the day, the mafia is kind of built on muscle. If you don't have that, um, the threat of violence, if, um, the rest of it doesn't really work all that well. I mean, especially in like, you know, labor unions and like the construction business and even.
I mean, even Paul's chicken and poultry business was built on kind of loan sharking where, you know, he was successful at it and then he would lend out loans to like other, you know, butcher shops and what have you. And then they obviously wouldn't be able to pay. And then he would just take like, 25 or 50% of their business.
And that's kind of how it grew up. That doesn't work. If you don't [00:04:00] really have the guys like Roy DeMail showing up at, you know, Joe Schmoe's butcher house saying, you know, this is how it's going to go down. If it doesn't go down in the next couple of days like this, um, you know, we're going to take care of business.
If they're not afraid that these guys are going to take care of business, the whole thing doesn't really work. Does that make sense? Yeah, I think that, uh, definitely in somebody like Paul, he was perfect as the boss in that he had this really. Good knowledge of the, um, of the white collar part. But at that point in the Gambino family, you had the Gambino family was really the Mafiaa in New York City.
There was still the five families. And if we go a little bit further, the de Caval canes in New Jersey right next door. But it was really, the Gambinos were the game. They were the biggest family and they were divided between the Manhattan. Faction under Neil Della [00:05:00] Croce and Nino Gaggi in the, uh, the Brooklyn Faction.
It was a family that was really split between these two regional factions, plus the white collar faction and the more blue collar faction. So they, it was a. It was a very tough, or it was a huge umbrella, you might say, and it was maybe too big for its own good. Yeah, and it's, there's a lot of different theories about, like, if Neil Delacroix had been made boss instead of, uh, Paul Castellano.
Oh, like, how history would have been different, like, does John Gotti come around? And, you know, like, there's... It's interesting, but, yeah, like, Paul... Paul just wasn't the guy for the job, in my opinion. He didn't, you can't look down on the street guys because without them, the rest of it just doesn't work. And the, the, the intimidation of is like essential to the mafia.
That doesn't, you [00:06:00] can't, you got to treat those guys fairly because they're just as important as the guys, you know, doing, you know, running the concrete business, which is pretty much. The mob ran the entire concrete business. It's crazy to think that in New York, if you poured any concrete, you're the that was the mob's concrete.
You're paying the mob one way or another. Now, the other thing. So we have this really that somebody it's Paul Castellano is like one of those people with the plates trying to like, spin them on sticks and keep this whole thing of the Gambino crime family going. Then you have, if we zoom in on Paul DeM or on Roy DeMeo, looking at his personal life, he was somebody who, for the most part, Kept lived two separate lives that he didn't live in Brooklyn.
He lived in …