May 11, 1979
Harvey Rosenberg, aka Chris Rosenberg, aka Chris DeMeo, was a member of the DeMeo crew, a branch of the Gambino family. In fact, he was so tight with the crew’s boss, Roy DeMeo, that he was practically a son to the mobster as well as his second-in-command.
In the 1970s, cocaine, hashish and Quaaludes all flowed freely, and represented big money. Rosenberg was heavily into drug trafficking, and in 1979 had the opportunity to score a big haul from a loan shark in Florida—one Charles Padnick who, through a Cuban intermediate, had connections with a Colombian drug cartel. As a general rule, Colombian drug lords are not the kind of people to mess with, but Rosenberg thought he’d pull a fast one.
Padnick, the Cuban and several representatives of the Colombian cartel flew to New York to seal the deal. But as soon as the two groups met, Rosenberg and some others of the DeMeo crew plugged the opposition full of holes. They then took the drugs and the money. When news of the double-cross reached the Colombians they demanded prompt restitution and they held the Gambino family responsible. In fact, the Colombians promised war unless Rosenberg was executed. The drug lords also demanded that the killing be sufficiently high profile that it would hit the papers. That way they could be sure the job had actually been done.
The Gambinos agreed. After all, the stunt Rosenberg pulled was bad for business, making it seem as if the Mafia could not be trusted. No one wanted that.
The order came down—Rosenberg had to go, and Roy DeMeo had to do it. This was bad news for DeMeo, who put off the killing and waited, in the hope that maybe things would blow over.
They didn’t, of course, and the Colombians became impatient. They sent over some enforcers to stir things up if Rosenberg wasn’t executed soon. DeMeo got so twitchy that he accidentally killed a young college student who was selling vacuums door to door, thinking he might be a Colombian enforcer. After that, Gambino boss Big Paulie Castellano said time was up, Rosenberg had to go.
So on May 11, 1979, when Rosenberg met with the rest of the DeMeo crew as usual, the meeting took a slightly different turn than expected. He was shot five times in the head and his body was left in an abandoned car by the side of the road. Then the car was blasted with bullets, ensuring that the murder would be sensational enough to hit the papers. It’s said that Roy DeMeo was terribly distraught at having to kill his protégé, but pragmatism won the day.