Editing Thomas DeSimone (section)

== Murders of Gianco, Cersani, and Jerothe ==
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DeSimone's {{Clarify|date=January 2025|reason=Only one murder is mentioned above, what was the second?|text=third murder}}, described by Hill, was of a young man named Michael "Spider" Gianco, who was serving as a bartender at a card game. Gianco and DeSimone had an argument, after Gianco forgot DeSimone's drink, that resulted in DeSimone pulling out a handgun and shooting him in the thigh. A week later, when Gianco was again serving drinks and sporting a full leg cast, DeSimone started to goad him about his wounded leg, spurring Gianco to tell DeSimone to "go fuck [himself]". After a stunned silence, an impressed Burke, having now developed a respect for Gianco for sticking up for himself, gave him some money before jokingly teasing DeSimone, who hadn't said or done anything in retaliation, about "going soft". DeSimone lost his temper and fatally shot Gianco three times in the chest, angrily demanding of Burke if that was "good enough for [him]". Burke, furious with DeSimone, made him bury Gianco's body in the cellar by himself.

Hill stated after he witnessed this incident that he was convinced that DeSimone was a psychopath. It is believed that Gianco's body was subsequently moved because it was not found in that location. On ''[[The Howard Stern Show]]'', Hill said that Gianco was buried next to Robert's Lounge along with other bodies.

DeSimone's fourth murder, according to Hill, occurred when he and another associate named Stanley Diamond got carried away after being asked to "rough up" a witness to a robbery. After a truck heist, a foreman had refused to allow Burke to unload the stolen cargo in his warehouse and vehemently protested because they had no [[labor union|union]] cards.{{huh|date=August 2024}} Burke attempted to reason with the foreman, who stood his ground and refused to be intimidated. Burke later sent DeSimone and Diamond to the foreman's house in rural New Jersey, with instructions to "rough up" the man to ensure he would cooperate with Burke in the future. DeSimone and Diamond, angry and worked up about having to drive all the way to New Jersey, ended up beating the man to death.{{cn|date=February 2021}}

DeSimone's fifth murder occurred when Burke ordered the murder of his best friend, Dominick "Remo" Cersani. Burke got suspicious about Cersani and later found out from contacts in a Queens DA's office that he was talking to the New York City Police Department (NYPD), and that they were going to arrest Burke on a truck hijacking charge. DeSimone and Burke met Cersani at Robert's Lounge and said to him, "Let's take a ride". DeSimone strangled Cersani with piano wire. Hill said in ''Wiseguy'': "Remo put up some fight. He kicked and swung and shit all over himself before he died." Burke had Cersani's body buried next to the bocce court behind Robert's Lounge.{{citation needed|date=February 2021}}

On December 18, 1974, DeSimone killed [[Ronald Jerothe]], a protégé of then-Gambino associate [[John Gotti]]. DeSimone had dated Jerothe's sister and had beaten her up, prompting Jerothe to threaten to kill him. When DeSimone heard about the threat, he went to Jerothe's apartment and killed him.{{citation needed|date=February 2021}}