I was hired by the Chippendales founder to kill his partner – here are his chilling words to me
A FIXER has chillingly revealed how he was hired by the creator of the Chippendales to kill his business partner and two male strippers.
In never-before-seen FBI footage, Ray Colon told how he was coldly asked by founder of the male stripper group Steve Banerjee to kill creative director Nick De Noia and two former employees.
Cyanide poison plot
Power-mad strip club entrepreneur Banerjee ordered the hit against De Noia because he was jealous that he was earning millions from tour rights.
But even before that, middle-man Colon was used by “competitive lunatic” Banerjee to go after other rivals during the 80s – including trying to poison two of his former dancers with cyanide on stage in England.
Colon, who turned on his buddy to become an FBI informant, discusses how Bannerjee callously told him: “I need something taken care of”
In an upcoming documentary, A&E Network’s Secrets of the Chippendales Murders, Colon explains how ruthless Bannerjee ordered him to oversee the hits “to help a friend out.”
‘I sold my soul’
Colon, who cooperated with the FBI after he was ratted out for the planned killings of the two male dancers, exposes how the hit went down on camera: “Steve says: ‘I need someone taken care of! [I said] you mean killed?
“He said, ‘Yeah Nick DeNoia’. He says: ‘This guy is killing me..hey man help a friend out. That kind of deal’.
“‘Look into it. I want you to get someone to do it.’
“That is when I sold my soul. I should have at that point stopped it, but I didn’t.”
Colon then approached a man named Gilbert Rivera Lopez, who agreed to kill De Noia for $25,000.
‘You’re dead’
After jetting to NYC in April 1987, Colon called De Noia’s office under the premise of becoming a dancer to confirm he was at work.
Colon revealed that Lopez, headed to the 15th floor office where, “Nick was sitting behind a desk, and he said: ‘Are you Nick De Noia?’. He said, ‘Yes’, and he [Lopez] said: ‘You’re dead.”
The NYPD probe found nothing, leading to Bannerjee, now dealing with a growing love for cocaine, to feel invincible.
Four years passed before FBI agents offered Colon a lighter sentence if he got Lopez and Bannerjee to confess their roles in De Noia’s murder.
Jailhouse confession
Colon secured Lopez’s confession during a jail visit where he boasted how De Noia “started smiling” because he believed having a gun pointed at him “was a joke”
“He looked up and then when he saw I meant business Holmes, his whole expression, his whole face just changed,” Lopez can be heard saying in an FBI recording.
“He got the fear man. It took about five second from smiling to sheer panic.”
With Lopez indicted, Colon, still working as an FBI informant, persuaded Bannerjee to fly to Switzerland, which he felt would be safe from US authorities, to help him out with money issues.
Bombay-raised Bannerjee confessed to the entire plot during their meeting.
After he was arrested, the businessman hanged himself in his prison cell in Los Angeles.
The shocking video and audio confessions, from a 1996 deposition given by Colon, feature in the four-part show exploring the rise of the first male strip outfit The Chippendales.
‘Burn it down’
New York-raised failed singer and actor Colon had struck up a close friendship hanging out with Bannerjee at his LA-based Chippendales club.
Bannerjee saw Colon as a confidante for his plans to make millions from the strip act, but also to extinguish competitors.
He urged him to take down another LA club – Osko’s – run by a friend, which he saw as “taking away business”
Colon revealed: “He asked me if I could burn it down. I could understand why he wanted it [burned], because it was packed, but it was humongous – three times as big Chippendales.
“So he threw $7000 down…. I just took it.”
Colon and some friends threw molotov cocktails at the club, but so little damage was done the venue stayed open for business.
Murder for hire
Bannerjee also paid Colon to destroy another rival spot Red Onion in 1984, which also failed.
Furious Bannerjee then told Colon to “make good” by murdering two former employees – dancers Read Scot and Steve White – who had created the strip group Adonis and gone on a UK tour.
Colon then hired a man called “Strawberry” to inject Read and White with cyanide for $50k during a Blackpool event.
Strawberry flew to the UK with cyanide and syringes, but changed his mind, before confessing all to the FBI in Las Vegas in 1991.
His admission led agents to begin the probe of Colon, which eventually led to Bannerjee’s downfall.
‘Orgy room’
During the documentary, ex-strippers also spill the beans on the wild lives they led during their heyday.
Chippendales creative director Eric Gilbert described life inside the LA club as a “f***athon.”, while another dancer Hodari Sababu said: “We would have the orgy room, sometimes there were 10 to 15 naked girls in there. I am like, ‘This is f***ing crazy.”
A&E Network’s 4-part documentary event Secrets of the Chippendales Murders begins Monday, March 14 at 10pm ET/PT.
