The Making of a Mob Monster: Roy DeMeo's Dark Origins

Title: The Making of a Mob Monster: Roy DeMeo's Dark Origins
Original Publication Date: 8/23/2023
Transcript URL: share.descript.com/view/Dl1OmvVefjj
Description: In this episode, Mustache Chris and Steve delve into the intriguing early life and career of the notorious Roy DeMeo, whose journey into organized crime paved the way for an empire built on fear and brutality. From his humble beginnings on the streets of Brooklyn to his calculated entrance into the Gambino crime family, we uncover the pivotal moments that shaped DeMeo's transformation into a ruthless enforcer and prolific contract killer. Join us as we unravel the layers of deception, ambition, and ruthlessness that defined DeMeo's ascent to power, and explore the shadowy world of organized crime that he would come to dominate with an iron fist. #TrueCrimeTales #MafiaChronicles #CriminalMasterminds #roydemeo #serialkiller
You can learn more about Organized Crime and Punishment and subscribe at all these great places:
atozhistorypage.start.page
email: crime@atozhistorypage.com
www.organizedcrimeandpunishment.com
Parthenon Podcast Network Home:
parthenonpodcast.com
On Social Media:
youtube.com/@atozhistory
facebook.com/groups/atozhistorypage
facebook.com/atozhistorypage
twitter.com/atozhistorypage%0d
instagram.com/atozhistorypage
Music Provided by:
Music from "5/8 Socket" by Rico's Gruv
Used by permission.
© 2021 All Rights Reserved.
youtube.com/watch?v=210vQJ4-Ns0
open.spotify.com/album/32EOkwDG1YdZwfm8pFOzUu
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.
I'm excited again to be joined by Chris to talk about the background of a really infamous and in a sick way. Intriguing Mafia figure Roy DeMeo. Chris and I are jumping into a really the deep end of the Mafia pool here, and we're really glad you joined us today. This episode and the previous episode on Richard Kuklinski, the Iceman, is going to build a lot of background that we'll use to talk about the 2012 movie Iceman.
So let's really get into [00:01:00] it. And I think Roy DeMeo is maybe not a Mafia. He's probably not one of the names that really comes up as one of people's first, like, most known Mafia figures, especially, uh, compared to his contemporary of somebody like John Gotti, but he was really extremely influential in his time, and maybe one of the most intriguing Mafia characters of all time.
What do you think, just like, your first brush and your first blush, I guess you might say, of Roy DeMeo? Yeah, as Luke pointed out, Roy DeMeo isn't, um, as particularly, particularly well known as some of these other Mafia guys. I think one of the reasons is where Hollywood and popular culture tries to present the Mafia as kind of glitz and glamorous to a degree where it almost seems like kind of like a fun thing.
Where, like, when you start reading about Roy DeMeo, it's the exact opposite of that. It's the... Kind of really, [00:02:00] really what the mob is, you know, boiled down to its essence and Roy kind of perfectly represents that where it's, it's not glitz and glamour, uh, glamour, it's, it's rough, it's dirty, it's kind of vile and disgusting.
It's a horror story, really. I mean, if you, if you took away and said that this wasn't real and you just told somebody about a, I mean, not to give away too much, but a place where people go in, they get murdered, and dismembered, and just disappear. It's literally a scene from a horror movie, Ray D'Ameo's life.
Yeah, you know, and it's, it really does come across, yeah, his entire life is, it's like a, kind of like what you would think would be like, almost like a cheesy B kind of horror film. Um, where, you know, this guy is, he's one thing, uh, to certain group of people, but then like when he's not away, when he's [00:03:00] away from those people, he's, he's an upstanding citizen.
It's a really, but you know, this is real. It's a, it's a hundred percent real. I am doing a little bit of ancestry. com. I knew from my family that there was de Mayo's that sort of overarching, uh, family that my family belongs to as my. Great grandmother was, her maiden name was DeMeo, and I tried so desperately to see if I was some connection to Roy, I didn't find it, but it's not that uncommon, it's not that common of a name, I, I'm gonna keep finding out, maybe we'll do an update at some point and see if there's, in some weird way I'm distantly related to Roy DeMeo, but um, really the, the best way to start out trying to dig into Roy DeMeo and try and learn something about him is, His kind of messed up childhood.
Tell us, tell us about Roy DeMeo's really screwed up childhood. Yeah, it [00:04:00] wasn't as bad. It wasn't like, don't get, it wasn't anything like Richard's, but it's, it's, yeah, it's a pretty weird childhood. Like, Roy was, uh... I mean, he would struggle with weight issues his entire life, but growing up, he was picked on for being overweight, but from the other kid, his brother was kind of looked upon as the golden child.
He was going to become the doctor and the family kind of devoted their attention to him and Roy really looked up to him too. And pretty early on, he went to go serve in Vietnam. I believe he volunteered. He wasn't drafted or anything. And he was, uh. He was killed in Vietnam and Roy had a really hard time dealing with this because he didn't really have his older brother there to protect him from the bullies.
So he learned to protect himself. This is he started weightlifting and took up boxing and became. You know pretty known as pretty ruthless street fighter, [00:05:00] but then, you know shortly after his brother, uh passes away he uh, his father dies unexpectedly, too And this is a really weird thing is his mother came up with this idea that she was gonna go back to Italy, you know to be around friends and family and kind of left roy by himself and his you know What was he in his early 20s at the time not even right?
Yeah, that whole thing with Roy's childhood, he's the de Mayo's and they, they kind of spell this out and it's, it's hard to psychoanalyze somebody who's been dead for 40 years and, uh, you know, things that happened 60 years ago, but he, um, he's. His family was successful. His one uncle was a, uh, uh, high ranking prosecutor in Brooklyn.
Another was the head medical examiner of New York City or some part of New York City government. [00:06:00] Uh, so doctors, lawyers. Roy's father was working class, and they lived in a pretty rough and tumble, rough and, uh, rough part of Brooklyn, but a lot of successful people came out of there, so you can't necessarily just say that Roy came from a rough family like Richard Kuklinski, like you had mentioned, but you also can't say it.
So it wasn't all just his background. There was something in Roy, I think, that he, he was mean. And all these things like his brother getting killed in Vietnam and the, the mafia thing that was kind of floating around this rough part of Brooklyn that he lived in, it all kind of got boiled down in him and just.
Brought out the very worst in Roy, I think. Yeah, for sure. And I mean, he, he had to learn to take care [00:07:00] of himself at a pretty young age. And, you know, in comparison to Richard, yeah, this seems like a cake walk, but I mean, that's pretty tragic. His brother died. In Vietnam, and then his father passing away pretty, uh, when he was still young, and then his mom leaving for Italy, and I mean, that to me, I really, I just can't understand the logic in her head, but I mean, maybe she talked to Rory, and Rory told her, you know, just go, but it seems like a really weird choice to make, and Yeah, you know, and he, I believe he ends up becoming like a butcher's apprentice and a delivery driver.
And he does really good at that. And he actually …