Frank Amato, a 38-year-old Sicilian-American, was killed on September 20, 1980, in a slaying tied to the Gambino crime family. According to accounts, Amato, who had been involved in truck hijacking, was summoned to the Gemini Lounge in Flatlands, Brooklyn, for a supposed business talk with Roy DeMeo. The meeting was an ambush: DeMeo and his crew — named as Henry Borelli, Anthony Senter, Joseph Testa, and Frederick and Richard DiNome — shot Amato to death with a machine gun.

After the killing, Amato’s body was allegedly dismembered and placed on a cabin cruiser owned by Richard DiNome, then dumped miles offshore. The slaying has been portrayed as an execution ordered by Amato’s father-in-law, Gambino boss Paul Castellano, who reportedly viewed Amato as a liability. Charges were later brought against Castellano, DeMeo and others, but no convictions in Amato’s death were obtained.