On a spring afternoon in 1987, Nicholas DeNoia, a 45-year-old male, was fatally shot in his Manhattan office. The Emmy Award-winning producer and choreographer for the popular male dance troupe Chippendales was sitting at his desk on the 15th floor of 264 West 40th Street on April 7th when a man posing as a messenger entered and shot him in the face with a large-caliber pistol.
The brazen daytime execution remained a mystery for years, with initial theories pointing towards a crime of passion. However, the truth was rooted in a bitter business rivalry. DeNoia had been the creative force that transformed Chippendales into a global phenomenon. He had a lucrative licensing deal, signed on a napkin, that gave him 50 percent of the profits from the touring version of the show. The immense success of the tour created tension with the founder of Chippendales, Somen 'Steve' Banerjee, who grew increasingly resentful of DeNoia's earnings and creative control.
The investigation into DeNoia's murder stalled for years until a separate murder-for-hire plot unraveled the conspiracy. In 1990 and 1991, Banerjee, facing competition from a rival dance troupe called Adonis, which was comprised of former Chippendales dancers, plotted to have them killed. An informant tipped off the FBI, leading them to a man named Ray Colon, a former police officer.
Colon, upon being apprehended, confessed to his role in the Adonis plot and revealed that he had also arranged the murder of Nicholas DeNoia at the behest of Steve Banerjee. Colon had hired the gunman, Gilberto Rivera Lopez, to carry out the assassination. Faced with a mountain of evidence and the testimony of his accomplice, Colon agreed to cooperate with the FBI. In a meticulously planned operation, Colon met with Banerjee in Switzerland, wearing a wire and successfully recording Banerjee confessing to orchestrating DeNoia's murder.
In September 1993, Steve Banerjee was arrested and subsequently pleaded guilty to charges of attempted arson, racketeering, and murder for hire. He accepted a plea bargain that would have sentenced him to 26 years in prison. However, on October 23, 1994, just hours before his formal sentencing, Banerjee was found dead in his jail cell, having taken his own life. Gilberto Rivera Lopez, the man who pulled the trigger, was convicted of second-degree murder and sentenced to 25 years to life in prison. For his cooperation, Ray Colon received a significantly reduced sentence, pleading guilty to conspiracy and murder for hire and serving just over two years in prison.
