Ep.5: Uncontrollable

Who was your normal studio 54 crew who did you go with? A guy's name who I won't mention was like the closest to me that I ever had. We brought Paul there one night and he lasted about five minutes. He went in this place is insane and we brought him out. Is the person you won't mention Buzzy Skeely? How's you know that? I call him Buzzy. You really did. Did he talk to you? You want to know what he said? What? Hi, is this Buzzy Skeely? Who's this? Hi, my name is Celia Annascovitch. Sorry, you don't know me, but I'm just giving you a ring because I am working on a podcast about the Dimeo crew and Dominic Montiglio. And I was wondering- I don't know any of them. Yeah, that's exactly like Buzzy. I'm just surprised you heard of Buzzy because me and him were like brothers. None of them could stand up to Buzzy. I miss him a lot. But again, can't call him, can't get in touch with him. And that hurts because like I said, we were so close and he taught me a lot. Are you surprised he hung up on me? No. As soon as you mentioned that name, it doesn't surprise me at all. From ID, I'm Celia Annascovitch, and this is Mafia Tapes. Episode 5. Uncontrollable. I'm still in Dominic's living room in the vast desert of the American Southwest. Dominic is sitting across from me on his blue love seat with a white doily draped over the back of the couch. He's wearing a new shirt and shorts that Josh picked up for him this morning. A baseball cap on his head and a cigarette in his hand. The flies that have taken up residence in his home are still buzzing around us. I'm not as nervous as I was yesterday. Josh finally made it to town, and he's seated to the side, a casual observer as Dominic and I talk. If you remember, Josh was pretty much raised by Dominic. He looks up to him, idolizes him, and even went to jail for him. As the three of us talk, Dominic keeps referencing one particular story from his days as an associate in the Gambino Mafia family. I still want to get to the vacuum cleaning. Yeah, no, that one's really important. What vacuum cleaner? Oh, don't tell the story now. We'll start with that next time. Probably heard it, not just for good. Yeah, pretty sure you've heard it. When I decided I wanted to meet Dominic in person, I wasn't interested in hearing the same recycled mob stories. I'd already interviewed many people connected to Dominic. I felt like I understood the chaos, the mayhem, the blood. The vacuum cleaner story is different. Yes, that was just terrible. It's not just the bad guys that these monsters killed. Oh, yeah. Oh, gee, who is? How could I forget that? Absolutely. I mean, you want an example of why the mafia should not be at the top of your heroes in America list? In order to understand the importance of this story, I need to take you back, back to the late 70s. New York City is practically lawless, on the verge of bankruptcy. Crime is running rampant. Times Square is littered with pornography, drugs, and prostitution. And fires are engulfing the Bronx. Dominic, looking to make more money, is breaking mob rules by selling drugs, and the Dimeo crew are at their peak. They've perfected not only their car ceiling operation, but also their method of murder. But with every rise comes a fall. But then you had somebody like Chris Rosenberg, who wanted to change his last name to Dimeo. Dimeo was his idol. He wanted to be part of Roy Dimeo's family, literally. And he used to call himself Chris Dimeo. Harvey Chris Rosenberg is best known for being Roy Dimeo's protege. Like a lot of the Dimeo boys, he's handsome, dark featured, usually with some sort of facial hair, a thick mustache or beard. He's Jewish, but longs to be Italian. And when utilizing the Gemini method, Chris is the one who would reportedly stab the victim in his tidy whiteies. Not wanting to ruin his fine suits with blood splatter. In January of 1979, Chris finds his way down to Miami. He's in pursuit of the perfect drug deal. This is Frank Pergola. He also grew up in Brooklyn, and had to decide if he'd become a cop or a mobster. He chooses law enforcement and eventually finds himself investigating the Dimeo crew. So he goes to Florida and hooks up with this man that he knows, but he name a podnic. And podnic had some friends that were Cuban drug dealers. And he makes a deal to purchase a couple of keys at cocaine, I think it was. And they were supposed to bring it to New York. So he uses Roy Dimeo's name. He tells him his name is Chris Dimeo. Using the name Chris Dimeo, he makes a deal. A massive mistake. Now, this guy, podnic, comes to New York with the drugs and three Cuban people, a female and two Cubans. Anyway, Harvey Rosenberg, Joey Testini, Anthony Santan, Henry Barrelli. Make a deal for them to come over to Santan's house. And they get these people in a basement in Santan's house and they kill them all or take their drugs. That they dismember the four bodies and take the body parts to the fountain they really don't. The Gemini method, utilized once again. Roy and his crew are proficient killers. They have no problem making a body disappear. But this hit is different. This is a huge error in judgment. In killing the Cubans while calling himself Chris Dimeo, Chris invites Mayhem into New York City. They were really a crew that was totally out of control and now Chris brings this drug deal from Florida with the Cubans right up to Roy Dimeo's doorstep out in Massapico Long Island. This period in the Dimeo cruise history is known as the Cuban crisis and foreshadows the start of a downfall. Not only for Roy Dimeo and his band of misfits, but for Dominic as well. Now the Cuban is looking for his friends and he reaches out to a Cuban drug dealer here for the name of Pedro Paz, who Dominic Montiglier is very friendly with. And he wants to know who's responsible for this thing he wants retribution. So Dominic gets involved in the negotiations and when he hears the name Chris Dimeo, he knows it's Chris Harvey Rosenberg. Dominic is now involved. He steps in and tries to negotiate. But the Cubans demand blood for blood. So they get worried back to the Cubans that they'll take care of this good Chris. It becomes Roy's responsibility to clean up Chris's mess. Chris is one of his boys. It doesn't matter if the two are close. It doesn't matter if Chris thinks of Roy as a father. And it doesn't matter if Roy doesn't want to. It's his duty. Chris is summoned to the Gemini lounge, Roy's bar and flatlands. The Dimeo crew would often gather there. So Chris probably thinks this is just another meeting. At that night, Roy had a paper bag that he used to keep the cash in. And he handed it to Chris. Chris opened it so pistol inside and looked around the table like what the fuck is going on. I can't imagine what Chris is feeling when he opens that bag and sees the gun. Does he know he's about to die? That his closest friends would be the ones to pull the trigger. And he had to be shot of in the head, you know, which the fuck still got up. He was on his hands and knees. And Joey put the rest in him. Chris's shot made an example of. But a sacrifice isn't enough. The crew has to do one more thing to appease the Cubans. Why did it have to be in the newspapers? The CQBs wouldn't take Roy's word that they killed him. So they had to make it a big deal, you know. And according to Roy, the only way they could do it was the violence. So they took his car and they parked it at the Marine Park Bridge. And Henry went by with a machine gun, just machine gun, the car. But the guy that figured it out was Frank Pugola. So we could call him and we go out. And there's Chris sitting in the car. One leg over the console and then the BMW. Which means that he wasn't shot there, you know. And there was no blood coming out of the bullet wounds. And it looked like machine gun bullets had hit the car. As Frank is examining the bullet raked BMW, he notices a couple of cars slowly pass by. Gawking at the scene or admiring their handiwork. He becomes suspicious and runs the plates. One of them was Joey Tess, the one of the people that was responsible for killing him. Another one was Henry Borrelli. And when I get to Rosenberg's house in Howard Beach to tell it about the murder, they're all in a house. And so look at this, they're all together. They're all sitting around, you know, crying, you know, like they were very upset. Joey, Anthony and Henry are all in the living room, playing the part of concerned friend. They're all in a living room, playing the part of the scene. They're all in the living room, playing the part of the scene. It was Roy. Oh, Chris Rosenberg, Roy the Mayo killed him. And Joey Tester and Anthony sent him with his always Henry Borrelli. Roy didn't want to kill him, but he had to. He had no choice. And he didn't push them. I find it interesting that no one can agree on this crucial detail. Who ended Chris's life? Is it just the tricky nature of memory? Or is it something more? Chris was a creep. He was, I didn't like him at all. And he didn't like me. You know what? And I told Henry Borrelli, I told him all along. I said, "Don't worry, we're going to get even with this guy." Henry Borrelli is the happy, go-lucky guy we heard about in episode two. Henry was my best friend. He was a maniac. But he was my maniac, you know. We were very close. And Henry, you could tell Henry, "Look, I don't like this guy." Henry would tell you, "Don't worry about it. He'll be gone by tomorrow." You know? And he meant it, you know. Ross told me that Henry used to play classical music. Yeah. He used to love Tchaikovsky. He had this brand new Mercedes and put Tchaikovsky out all the time. And he just go, "Henry again with this fucking guy." We're also that he used to play classical music after he'd do something bad. Yeah. He always played it, you know. And he always did something bad. And there was no good way, Henry. The only good way for Henry was when you were dead. And he made sure that he was very good at that. Hearing Dominic Wax poetic about his friendship with Henry and his vendetta against Chris makes me wonder, does Dominic know more about Chris's death than he's letting on? Was he there, too? I've told you about the Cuban crisis and the murder of Chris Rosenberg, because you have to understand. In the spring of 1979, Roy is under an incredible amount of pressure. And he's starting to unravel. Roy is not slick like Nino or careful like Embino family boss Paul Castelano. Roy is a mess. Roy has always fascinated me because he's not your typical mobster. He's disheveled, erratic, and sloppy. And all of these characteristics are catching up with him. His antics and the antics of his crew are making his mafia superiors nervous. Unfortunately for Dominic, it's his job to keep this pack of murderers in check. Paul Castelano and Nino Gadji, although they were making a lot of money from Roy's crew, they were really starting to get concerned about them. They were out of control. They were just killing people. Which leads us to the vacuum cleaner story, according to Dominic Montiglio. Even though Roy did exactly what the Cubans demanded, he remains on edge, jumpy, paranoid, looking over his shoulder at every moment. On April 19, 1979, Roy is at his home in Massapico, Long Island, with his cousin Joey. We used to call this cousin. We used to call him Joey Dracula. For context, Joey Dracula is not only Roy's cousin, but also resides in the apartment above the Gemini Lounge. Nick named the horror hotel. Because how could you have all that happening in your apartment, then clean up and go to sleep and cook dinner? You know, you're doing that in the place that has just a horror written in it. Somebody people died in there. So tell me from start to finish. Well, the kid was a college kid. He was selling vacuum cleaners, house to house. Roy just would happen to be looking out the window. And so I'm walking down the block with the vacuum cleaning case. And because the rooster was paranoid, he thought it was some Cuban hitman. The rooster is Dominic's nickname for Roy De Mayo. Where you know what a rooster is, that's where they used to call him the rooster. Because he was fat like a rooster, you know. And he used to hate that name. If you call them that, he'd kill you. And I used to constantly call him that. So him and Dracula both got pistols, and they went out to talk to him. And he panicked. He ran for his car. And he got in his car and he took off the rooster and his cousin got in the Roy's Cadillac. And took off after him. Now this is a mass of people. I don't know how well you're doing the whole island. It had to be a 40 mile run. So for 40 miles they were shooting at him. Nobody called police because they were all scared. And Roy and Dracula were shooting at this kid all the way there. Finally panicked. And he stopped. Bed move. He got out of his car trying to explain that he was a vacuum cleaner salesman. And they killed him right there on the spot. They shot him to death. Then they got in their car and they drove home to mass of people. So what happened then is the kids' parents were beside themselves. And they couldn't understand why he got chased for 40 miles with blazing gunfire and then killed. They couldn't get it. Throughout my interviews with Dominic, this is one of the few times he expresses regret. Yeah, that was the only one that probably stuck with. He didn't know anything about the Cuban sort of cocaine. He didn't know nothing about it. But they killed him anyway. That to me was just disrespect. You don't kill somebody for something they know nothing about. The kid looked like a teenager from the pictures I saw in the paper. He had his outfit on. He was going to school outfit on. You know, there was no way he looked like a Cuban hitman. The kid died for absolutely no reason. Everything went fine until Paulie found out. How did they find out it was Roy? Because the roots couldn't help but brag about it and eventually that got back to Paul. He had a fit. I never saw him that pissed off ever. And I'm sure Nino emptied the bucket by telling Paul how much money they were getting from him. Paul didn't care. You know, he said he's got to go. According to Dominic, Paul makes the call. Roy the rooster is officially on the chopping block. And if Roy and his tomato crew are in jeopardy, what does that mean for Dominic? The vacuum cleaner salesman's name was Dominic Ragucci. He was your typical college kid from Long Island. He was only trying to make an honest buck. The first time I heard this story, it horrified me. I couldn't get the image out of my head. An innocent kid in the wrong place at the wrong time. He didn't deserve to die. Paul cast Salano wasn't going to let Roy slide for this blunder. But some people I interviewed seemed to give Roy the benefit of the doubt. They chalk up Dominic Ragucci's death to a numbers game. Saying, essentially, shit happens. They give Roy a pass. I mean, that whole Dominic Ragucci thing was a tragedy. And there was definitely like collateral damage that happened. There's always collateral damage that happened. Okay. But that is literally a random killing that you wouldn't say is sanctioned by the mob. It wasn't part of the mob's business. That's the kind of thing that can literally can happen to anybody. Why do we give mobsters a pass? Why do we say it's just business and accidents happen? And why don't we think of Roy De Mayo and his crew as serial killers? I mean, you can schmooze the mobster. You could appeal to his sense of culture, the Italian sense of culture. You could appeal to his love of food. You can appeal to the family and tell him about your family. A serial killer does want to hear about anything. They just want to kill you. There are no nonsense sociopath that just wants one thing. So no, I'd much rather be with the mobster. Plus my last moments will be a lot more fun with the mob than with a serial killer. At least I'll get a drink and some laughs before they kill me. I think that comes from their individuality and their willingness to live so honestly as themselves. Like if you want to talk about Henry Hill or Tony Soprano, he's so uniquely himself. Pure, he's pure. He's trying to do their best he can for his family, but he's doing it his way. He's making it up his own rules. He's living by the sword and he's powerful, right? And he's got respect and he's got money and he's in control. And all of these things appeal to our sensibility as men and women. Because ultimately they feed into a part of our humanity that we can't help but respect. Right? No, they weren't serial killers. Serial killers are people that, you know, it's different. They did oldest under the cap of the Mafia. They're supposed to be, they were unauthorized hits within the Mafia. They weren't just killing girls coming home from work like the Jack the Ripper or innocent people in the subway. They were killing other mobsters basically, but they didn't have the right to kill them. They didn't get the authority to kill them. They were killing them against the mob code. They didn't get an okay to wipe them out. They were just, you know, just killing them. Former Assistant US Attorney Mary Lee Warren worked directly with the families of victims. She understands more than most the profound grief these families endure. For instance, one of the early homicide victims was Andre Katz. And his parents were first generation immigrants to the United States. And where Andre was their whole life. And then the homicide was uncovered and body parts were found. And the family was more than devastated. I don't know what the word is that would describe them. But I understood from the homicide detectives that the elder Mr. Katz used to handcuff his wife, Andre's mother, to the bed at night because otherwise she would run out in the middle of the night and throw herself on his grave on her son's grave. To marry Lee, this is just one story that exemplifies why mob hitmen are no different from serial killers. Their brutality creates a domino effect of suffering. These were just monsters and they would kill anyone and sometimes killed the wrong person, killed their own without stopping. There's no code, no honor in the death of Andre Katz left to rot in the back of a pantry pride supermarket. Or the young and innocent Dominic Ragucci, a kid who never had a chance. Ross says I have to ask you guys about the red ant story in Florida. You tell that one. You want to tell it? Sure, pardon my voice, I've been kind of hoarse the last few days, but you have to say that. Well, so the audience knows the audience. We're back in Dominic's living room. 42 years after the Cuban crisis and the death of Dominic Ragucci. The story you're about to hear may feel like a bit of a non-sequitur. But to me, it encompasses a key aspect of who Dominic Montiglio is. A man who spent a lifetime trying to break free. There was no puppeteer up here, including Nina, including Paul Castellano. Nobody pulled my fucking strings. You know, and anybody will tell you that. Nobody controlled me, because I was uncontrollable. I'm so uncontrollable. So without further ado, the red ant story, as told by Josh. We all were supposed to have some kind of family outing, then turn out that way so much. It's the 1990s and a young Josh is living in Florida, with his mother, Dominic, and Dominic's children. They're all outside together, fishing in a nearby creek. When Dominic, after one too many, decides to take a seat. And he sat on top of this big mound that he thought was a dirt hill that he could take a rest on. Instead, it was a huge ant hill that he sunk into. And at that time, he had a white shirt on. And after he got up out of that ant hill, his whole body, the shirt was moving. His whole body was covered. And he thought it would be a good idea to start grabbing the ants and putting them in his mouth and chewing on them. Yup, you heard that correctly. Dominic is grabbing the red ants and eating them. Trying to show everybody what kind of tough guy he was, and that red ants or nobody faces him. So he decides to eat the ants. And by that time, I think the poison started to take its toll. So, Dom Jr. takes him into the water, attempts to wash off and brush off all the ants that are still stuck to his face inside of his mouth all over his body. And I guess Dominic at the time said, "Okay, I'm good. Just leave me out here." So Dom Jr. swims back to shore. But Dominic is not okay. And all of a sudden, we see him start to sink. He starts to pass out, swell up, and starts to drown. Essentially, I guess. Dom Jr. jumps in, swims out there, pulls him back to shore. They call the ambulance because at this point, he's starting to throw up. And his lips are swollen shut. His head is three times the size. It's a horse show. It is so traumatizing, especially to me. Josh is a young kid at the time, and the man he idolizes is now on death's store. He said, "Hey, finally, sit him in the car seat as the ambulance are on their way." And he's sitting on the side throwing up because the poison is just running rampant through his body. I'm underneath the car at this point, hiding because I'm so terrified and traumatized from this individual. And this traumatic experience that I just out wasn't enough to do with it, so the ambulance gets there, they take him away. Apparently, he flatlines in the ambulance. And they have to bring him back to life. They say later on that he had enough poison in him of the equivalent of a rattlesnake bite. It was that bad. I can't believe what I'm hearing, and yet I can almost picture it. A young Josh hiding underneath the car worried about Dominic. What was Dominic thinking? How could a parent behave in this way, especially around his children? Dominic doesn't have anything to prove to Josh, to Camarie, to Dom Jr., to Marina. He lashes out to prove something to himself. But he's tough. But he's still got it. Then I realize, this is Dominic in a nutshell. I can trace a line from this Dominic, shoveling ants into his mouth while his young children look on in horror, to the Dominic in our story, the artist, the Vietnam vet, the gangster. Dominic's a man who's impulsive. He's also a man who has always felt controlled. By his uncle, by the mob, by the feds. And maybe the benders, the drugs, and the fire ant story showcase the ways Dominic has tried to break free. From his uncle, from the mob, and from himself. So he joked about it, and say he survived the Vietnam, the streets of Brooklyn, the mob, but the red ants took him out. And that's that. So someone you went to Studio 54 with was Maddie Raga. Tell me about Maddie Raga. Do we have to talk about him? Is I don't like him? It's 1979. We're in Brooklyn again. And trouble is on the horizon for Dominic. The crew he's meant to keep an eye on has gone off the rails. They killed an innocent kid. They almost started a war. And maybe even worse for Dominic. He believes a former Studio 54 friend, Maddie Raga, is spreading lies. He made up stories about me. He did all kinds of stuff to get me killed. A boy loves to know where he is today. Just to give him a good old Brooklyn beating. According to Dominic, Maddie Raga, a friend and associate of the Gambino family, starts to tell lies about him. When Nino comes to Maddie to collect a debt, Maddie tells him that he's already paid it. He gave that money to Dominic. He said, "I just saw a quarter of a million dollars over the family." After years of selling drugs behind the Gambino family's back, word gets all the way to Paul Castelano. Dominic has become the thing he hates most. A drug dealer. Paul authorized killings for far less. I knew I was next on the list. When I didn't want to die in Brooklyn over nothing, over what Maddie Raga said. You know, nobody believes him. But there was belief enough to put me in hot water. You know, because I had a lot of enemies that jumped on the ship to get me killed. Was Dominic's life really in danger? Would Paul and Uncle Nino have authorized to hit? Or is this just another one of Dominic's stories? Whatever the truth might be, one thing is certain. In December of 1979, Dominic starts packing. And my father shook me away and he said, "Can we get up, get up, get up." You know, we're going on an adventure. So I remember because I remember wearing a heavy coat and getting in the car in the middle of the night and leaving. And I had no idea we were not coming back. Mafia Tapes is produced by gigantic pictures for ID. The show is hosted, written, and produced by me, Celia Aniskovich. Story producers are Caitlin Kohlford and Maggie Robinson Katz. Producers are Pamela Ryan and Jeff Speeback, music by Alison Layton Brown. Sound designer is Sam Bear. [BLANK_AUDIO]