Crime History, Jan. 10, 1983: Hit man who perfected ‘Gemini Method’ of killing gets whacked by his own crime family

Roy DeMeo

On this day, Jan. 10, in 1983, Mafia hit man Roy DeMeo, suspected of killing between 75 and 200 people by what became known as the Gemini Method, was assassinated by his own Gambino crime family.

DeMeo perfected a method of execution named for the Gemini Lounge in Brooklyn where the killings were carried out.

Typically, DeMeo approached the target with a silenced pistol in one hand and a towel in the other. After shooting the victim in the head, he’d use the towel to stanch the flow of blood. Another person immediately would stab the victim in the heart to prevent the blood from pumping out of the bullet wound.

DeMeo, a former butcher’s apprentice, also dismembered the bodies. The parts were put into plastic bags, then placed in cardboard boxes and dropped into Brooklyn’s Fountain Avenue Dump.

After the FBI began linking the killings to DeMeo and the Gambinos, crime bosses ordered DeMeo’s death. His body was found riddled with bullets inside the trunk of his abandoned car.

– Scott McCabe