On April 7, 1987, Nicholas DeNoia, a 45-year-old Emmy Award-winning producer and choreographer for Chippendales, was shot dead at his desk on the 15th floor of 264 West 40th Street in Manhattan. A man posing as a messenger entered the office and shot DeNoia in the face with a large-caliber pistol in a brazen daytime execution.

Initial theories suggested a crime of passion, but the case ultimately pointed to a business rivalry. DeNoia held a lucrative licensing agreement that gave him 50 percent of profits from the touring Chippendales show, creating deep tension with founder Somen Steve Banerjee. Years later an unrelated murder-for-hire investigation into threats against a rival troupe led the FBI to Ray Colon, who implicated Banerjee and identified gunman Gilberto Rivera Lopez as the killer. Rivera Lopez was convicted of second-degree murder and sentenced to 25 years to life.

What details about DeNoia’s life or business dealings might still help clarify the motive or the planning behind the killing?