Nick De Noia: The Chippendales Murder and Its Aftermath

Nick De Noia, the Emmy-winning producer who built the Chippendales touring show into the brand’s most profitable arm, was shot dead in his Manhattan office on April 7, 1987, in a murder-for-hire orchestrated by Chippendales founder Somen “Steve” Banerjee to seize back control of the touring rights. The Chippendales murder of Nick De Noia went unsolved for years and was only cracked after an unrelated cyanide-poisoning scheme against rival dancers unraveled and pointed investigators back to Banerjee.

Who Nick De Noia Was

De Noia was a director and choreographer who had already won two Emmy Awards for producing and directing Unicorn Tales, a series of musical short films that aired as children’s programming on NBC.¹ In 1980 he met Steve Banerjee, the Bombay-born entrepreneur who had founded the Chippendales male strip club in Los Angeles. Banerjee hired him to rework the routines and help push the brand nationwide.²

The two men split the work. Banerjee ran the business and picked the dancers. De Noia handled production values, choreography, and showmanship, turning what had been a local nightclub act into something closer to a professional stage show.²

The Napkin Deal That Set Up the Killing

De Noia moved to New York to build a touring version of the show. As the partners clashed over creative direction, they carved up the company. Banerjee kept the clubs. De Noia got the rights to the tour and fifty percent of its profits. The agreement, by most accounts, was written on the back of a napkin.³

Under De Noia’s direction, the touring show took off. The FBI would later call it “the most lucrative part of the business.”³ Banerjee grew resentful and came to suspect that De Noia was shorting him on his cut. Instead of going to court, he decided to have De Noia killed.

The Shooting on April 7, 1987

Banerjee turned to Ray Colon, a former Palm Springs police officer who had done odd jobs for him. On FBI recordings made later, Banerjee’s instruction was simple: “I need someone taken care of.”⁴ He gave Colon $500 to buy guns.⁵

Colon recruited an accomplice, Gilberto Rivera Lopez. On April 7, 1987, the two flew from Los Angeles to New York. Colon confirmed De Noia was at the Chippendales office. Rivera Lopez walked in and shot De Noia in the face with a large-caliber pistol as he sat at his desk. De Noia was 45.¹ Rivera Lopez was gone before police arrived, and nothing at the scene pointed to Banerjee.⁶

With De Noia dead, Banerjee bought the touring rights back from the De Noia family for $1 million, reuniting Chippendales under his sole ownership.³

How the Case Broke Open

The De Noia killing sat cold for four years. What eventually cracked it was a separate plot.

Several former Chippendales dancers had started a rival London-based troupe called Adonis. Banerjee wanted the three leaders killed: Read Scot, Michael Fullington, and Steve White. He went back to Colon, who recruited a man known to authorities as “Strawberry” to carry out the attacks using cyanide injections.⁷ Colon handed Strawberry an eyedropper bottle of cyanide and sent him to England. Strawberry lost his nerve, came home, and walked into the FBI.⁵

Agents arrested Colon and searched his home, where they recovered 46 grams of cyanide, which they said was enough to kill 230 people.⁵ After seven months in jail, Colon agreed to cooperate. He told the FBI that Banerjee had not only ordered the Adonis plot but had also been behind De Noia’s 1987 murder.⁶

The Zurich Sting

Colon’s word alone would not be enough. FBI Special Agent Scott Garriola went looking for a recorded confession. A first attempt at an IHOP in Santa Monica on June 23, 1992, collapsed when Banerjee, suspicious, wrote his answers on Post-it notes and flushed them down the toilet. An Italian tailor had sewn a micro-cassette recorder into the flap of Colon’s boxer shorts, and it caught nothing useful.⁸

Garriola then built a cover story. Colon, the FBI told the world, had been released for a medical emergency involving his kidneys and had fled the country. Colon contacted Banerjee from overseas, and Banerjee agreed to meet him in Zurich. In a wired hotel room, agents captured three to four hours of conversation. Banerjee referred to De Noia using the code “the D” and asked Colon, “Do they know that I gave you the money to buy the guns?”⁸ The tape caught him admitting his role in the De Noia killing and in the planned Adonis attacks.

Banerjee’s Plea and Death in Custody

Banerjee was arrested on September 2, 1993, initially charged with conspiring to kill three former business associates. A federal grand jury later added the De Noia murder-for-hire, along with racketeering and arson charges tied to attempts to sabotage competing clubs. On July 29, 1994, he pleaded guilty to racketeering, which included the De Noia murder, and attempted arson. He agreed to forfeit his ownership of the Chippendales parent company, Easebe Enterprises Inc., and faced a 26-year prison sentence.⁹

He never served it. On October 24, 1994, hours before formal sentencing, Banerjee was found dead in his cell at the Metropolitan Detention Center in Los Angeles, having hanged himself with a piece of bedsheet tied to a wall-mounted jacket hanger.¹⁰ He was 47. His defense attorney argued the case should be abated by his death, which would block the government’s planned asset forfeiture.⁹

What Happened to the Others

Gilberto Rivera Lopez, the gunman inside De Noia’s office, was convicted of second-degree murder and sentenced to 25 years to life.⁵

Ray Colon pleaded guilty to conspiracy and murder-for-hire. Because of his cooperation, his sentence was substantially reduced. After Banerjee’s death he served two additional years in federal prison and a period of house arrest, and was released in June 1996. He has kept a low profile since, but reflected on the killing in the A&E documentary Secrets of the Chippendales Murders, saying, “I should have at that point stopped it, but I didn’t,” and describing the act as the moment he “sold his soul.”¹¹

1
Newsweek. Nick De Noia Welcome to Chippendales Death Murder
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Yahoo Lifestyle. Welcome to Chippendales Nick De Noia Shot
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ABC News. What Happened Offstage Lead Detective Performer Recount Chippendales Murder
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The Sun. Hired Chippendales Founder Kill Partner Chilling Words
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ABC News. Chippendales Glam Founder Orchestrated Murder Hire Plots
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ABC7 New York. Chippendales Murders ABC News Read Scott
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Newsweek. Steve Banerjee Murder Chippendales Dancers Read Scott
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ABC7 San Francisco. Chippendales Murders ABC News Read Scott
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Los Angeles Times. Somen Banerjee Dies
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Washington Post. Somen Banerjee Dies
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Newsweek. What Happened to Ray Colon Now Welcome to Chippendales