Daily News from New York, New York • 7

DAILY "NEW SV3 Monday, September St' 1992 Era imsm dawk j-f EEKIXG only to make money for college, an 18-year-old part-time I vacuum cleaner salesman named Dominick 2 lllilliilillSBii iTnw llOTifoTiEB GBGD raiiffiiTTEB TRAIL OF BLOOD: Dominick Ragucci (above), an 18-year-old vacuum-cleaner salesman, and Chris Rosenberg (left) were both victims of Mafia hit crew in 1979. volunteered to "do the work." but Roy said he had to. "I loved that kid," he said, in a deliberate past tense, and with glumness the others had never seen before. The regular Friday-night shapeup of the DeMeo crew occurred two days later, on May 11. 1979.

Roy arrived at the clubhouse early and put a handgun into a brown paper bag on the kitchen table. Henry Borelli and Freddy DiNome had been told to make themselves late, but Chris and Joey Testa and Anthony Senter all arrived at about the usual time, eight o'clock. Inside, as he normally did when greeting Roy, Chris kissed him on the cheek: he then said hello to the others and sat down at the kitchen table, utterly at ease. Roy smiled, reached into the bag. pulled out the pistol and in one smooth movement shot Chris in the head.

Chris fell to the floor. Feeling remorse for once. Roy was slow to react when Chris even staggered to one knee, but Anthony rose to the occasion and fired four more bullets into Chris" head, putting an end to his misery and dream of becoming the first "made" Jewish member of the Mafia. Alter wiping the blood from their old friend's head wounds. Joey and Anthony put an arm under each of Chris' shoulders and walked him out of the clubhouse and put him in the passenger seat of his wife's BMW.

To meet the Florida gang's demand that the murder make the newspapers, Roy-knew that something more unusual than leaving Chris and the car on a road somewhere was necessary. So Anthony drove the BMW with the body propped against the passenger window and abandoned it a couple miles away. Freddy and Henry followed in a separate car; after Anthony had exited the BMW and joined Roy in yet another car, Freddy drove by and-Henry raked the BMW machine-gun fire. 1 The following afternoon. Roy called Dominick to Hie QDflniEESG A.

Ragucci wandered into Roy's paranoid realm on Thursday evening. April 19, 1979. Ragucci lived with his parents in Massapequa. which was adjacent to Massapequa Park, where at 159 White-wood Drive, nervous-wreck Roy was holed up with his cousin. Joseph Guglielmo.

Ragucci was a student at Nassau Community College; he wanted to be a cop. He had just begun selling vacuum cleaners door to-door He had an appointment that night at a home down the street from Roy. Afterward, he pulled over to the curb in front of Roy's house, probably to record notes. Dominick Ragucci's mother was Puerto Rican. his father Italian.

He was dark, smallish and fresh-faced. In the gathering dusk, through the lens of the security camera outside Roy's home, Ragucc i could have, and did, pass for a Cuban assassin. When Ragucci saw Roy and Guglielmo walking toward him with what appeared to be guns, he slammed his car into gear and sped away. Roy and his cousin hustled into Roy's Cadillac and gave chase. Ragucci might have thought they were just a couple of lunatics trying to frighten him until he turned off White-wood Drive and sped into Amityville.

In Amityville. with Roy behind the wheel, the Cadillac came up behind Ragucci's car. Roy fired several shots. The young salesman zoomed off again, but over seven more miles of busy streets he could not shake the wild men who inexplicably kept firing bullets into his car. Car Hit 20 Times Roy blazed away, endangering the lives of countless motorists and bystanders, hitting Ragucci's car 20 times.

His cousin Dracula kept reloading the pistdr-asihc cars raced into Suffolk County. the house of his Mafia boss. Nino Gaggi. to explain. "The guy looked like a killer and when I tried to talk to him, he took off." 'An 18-year-old vacuum cleaner salesman, eh, Roy?" To appease the cocaine gang in Florida.

Nino again ordered Roy to kill Chris Rosenberg. Roy agreed, but stalled for two more weeks. Finally, an emissary of the Florida gang confronted Gag-gi nephew. Dominick Mon-tiglio. about the Chris situation.

"Is this gonna happen or what? If it ain't, we're gonna take care of it." Professional Choice Dominick spoke to Roy. The situation was comparable to a hangman whose own son's neck was in the noose. But Roy was a professional hangman and finally he resolved to open the trap door. Finally, Ragucci's car crashed into another; despite two flat tires, he pulled away and drove another 500 feet before his disabled vehicle came to a halt and Roy's car pulled alongside. Roy jumped out and kept shooting until the teenager was dead.

Hundreds of people saw parts of the fanatical tragedy, but police reported that no one saw enough to help them make much sense of what happened. Some witnesses said only that the shooter returned to his car with executioner-like poise. The next day, Roy read a Gemini Lounge in Flatlands If Roy was feeling grief or guilt, it no longer showed We Took Care Of It "We took care of the problem last night." he said, handing over a newspaper clipping describing how a 29-year-old car thief with reputed organized crime ties had been found in a luxury tar raked by machine-gun fire. "Chris kept try ing to get Roy was compeikd to add "but Anthony shot him and he stayed dow That night, minus Chris, he Long Island Newsday torv convened an emergency and realized, as he later saidj. nyjetiiyj.pjf his Seeing that he made a "mistake." 'ft'oy cbnTC-'tb' 'grips with the Portrayrngtrimseif a-ictrm -matterr the crew did too.

It of circumstances, Roy went to was easiest for Henry, who.