In the gritty landscape of 1970s Brooklyn, Edward Danny Grillo, a 44-year-old man, navigated the treacherous currents of the criminal underworld. After a prison stint for hijacking, he was recruited into the notorious DeMeo crew, a faction of the Gambino crime family led by the ruthless Roy DeMeo. Grillo became involved in the crew's various criminal enterprises, including hijacking truck cargoes from the nearby John F. Kennedy International Airport.
He also played a role in forging a powerful and violent alliance between the Gambino family and an Irish-American gang known as the Westies.
However, Grillo's life began to spiral out of control as he succumbed to gambling and cocaine addictions. He quickly fell into severe debt, owing significant amounts of money to DeMeo and other loansharks. His mounting debts and increasingly erratic behavior made him a liability in the eyes of his associates. DeMeo and his superiors grew concerned that Grillo's instability would make him a weak link, likely to cooperate with law enforcement if he were ever arrested. The decision was made that he had become too great a risk to the crew's operations.
On November 14, 1978, Grillo received a fateful phone call from DeMeo, summoning him to the Gemini Lounge, the crew's infamous headquarters. Aware of the potential danger, Grillo said goodbye to his wife and children, leaving his wallet and other personal items behind. At the lounge, his fate was sealed. He was shot and then dismembered by Roy DeMeo, Chris Rosenberg, Anthony Senter, and Joseph Testa. This gruesome method of murder and body disposal was a signature of the DeMeo crew, designed to ensure their victims vanished without a trace. While this method was effective in the short term, and no immediate arrests were made for Grillo's murder, the relentless criminal activities of the DeMeo crew eventually led to a major law enforcement crackdown years later, ultimately bringing an end to their reign of terror.
