Sites of Mafia History

BROOKLYN, NEW YORK - AUGUST 12: A staircase leads to the back offices of a local church, as seen on August 12, 2021 in the Canarsie neighborhood of Brooklyn, New York City. These same apartments are behind what used to be the Gemini Lounge, a bar run by Gambino family soldier Roy DeMeo in the 1970's and 1980's. Perhaps no building in all of New York City has such a nefarious history, and there is nothing there to mark it. Roy DeMeo was a Gambino associated thief and killer who ran such a violent and unruly crew of gangsters that he had trouble getting inducted into the Gambino family, which at the time was run by Paul Castellono, a boss who favored white collar criminal enterprises. It is estimated that DeMeo executed over 100 people in the apartment behind the Gemini lounge, and that he killed over 200 people, before he himself was murdered by his own crew in 1983. After inviting his victims to the bar, he and his crew of killers would take them upstairs, shoot them in the head, plunge a knife in their heart to stop the blood flow, and chop them up in the bathtub, disposing of the remains in the nearby Fountain Avenue garbage dump. Having perfected this way to kill his friends and enemies alike, it was given a name, after the bar he owned, the Gemini Method.(Photo by Andrew Lichtenstein/Corbis via Getty Images)