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Hulu’s new miniseries “Welcome to Chippendales” tells the story of the rise and fall of Somen “Steve” Banerjee, the person behind the Chippendales empire, and the intense measures he took to maintain his enterprise, acknowledged because the fist male strip membership, on the high.

Throughout his profession because the supervisor of Chippendales, Banerjee partnered up with Nick De Noia, a producer and choreographer whose edge introduced Chippendales to worldwide acclaim. However inventive variations and frequent disputes with Banerjee finally led to him branching off and beginning his personal Chippendales firm.

The enlargement of the Chippendales empire underneath De Noia, nonetheless, ended abruptly when he was murdered in April 1987. The circumstances of his demise would stay a thriller for years, till a hitman linked to Banerjee got here ahead with info connecting the businessman to De Noia’s homicide.

Right here is the unsettling story of De Noia’s homicide.

Who Was Nick De Noia?

Nick De Noia was an Emmy-winning tv producer and choreographer when he was employed by Banerjee to assist improve and increase the Chippendales empire within the early Nineteen Eighties, in response to ABC Information. De Noia had a imaginative and prescient for what Chippendales might turn into and have become the brains behind the membership’s dance routines. When the troupe grew more and more profitable, De Noia advisable that he and Banerjee take Chippendales exterior of the LA bubble and open up one other membership in New York Metropolis, in response to the New York Submit.

In New York Metropolis, Chippendales as soon as once more grew to become an enormous hit, and it was at this level that De Noia not solely wished to create a troupe, however he additionally wished to legitimize his partnership with Banerjee. Someday within the mid-Nineteen Eighties, the 2 made a deal detailed on the again of a serviette that gave De Noia 50 p.c of the Chippendales touring earnings.

Banerjee, nonetheless, was rising jealous of his enterprise companion and extra possessive of his enterprise on the time. Chippendales affiliate producer Candace Mayeron recalled in an interview with Elle that “Steve and Nick had come to loggerheads. Nick was a silver-tongued New Yorker, who was consistently happening TV to speak about Chippendales. He began being known as ‘Mr. Chippendales.’ I feel that helped gasoline the anger that Steve had towards Nick. Their verbal fights grew to become vicious.”

Not lengthy after De Noia minimize his cope with Banerjee, he was murdered.

The Homicide of Nick De Noia

On April 8, 1987, De Noia was discovered useless in his New York Metropolis workplace from a gunshot wound to the face, in response to The New York Instances. On the time of his demise, authorities believed there was no signal of a wrestle and that De Noia was at his workplace desk when he was shot. Throughout their investigation, police had been looking out for a mysterious man who was seen on the workplace earlier than and after the crime came about.

Who Murdered Nick De Noia?

After a number of leads led to nothing, the demise of De Noia went chilly, however a hitman linked with one other murder-for-hire involving Chippendales staff would come ahead years later with info connecting none apart from Banerjee to De Noia’s violent demise.

How Was Somen “Steve” Banerjee Caught For the Homicide of Nick De Noia?

After De Noia was killed, Banerjee purchased the touring rights from the De Noia household and continued to handle Chippendales. By the early Nineteen Nineties, a former Chippendales worker began Adonis, a competing touring group in London.

In keeping with The Impartial, Banerjee wished to wipe out his competitors and employed a hitman referred to as “Strawberry” to kill members of the group with cyanide, however Strawberry obtained chilly toes.

In 1991, Strawberry went to the FBI to inform them about Banerjee’s plot, which led investigators to Ray Colon, the person who equipped Strawberry with the cyanide. Upon looking out Colon’s residence, the FBI “discovered 46 grams of cyanide, sufficient to kill 230 individuals,” and he was arrested and later charged with conspiracy and homicide for rent in 1993, per ABC Information.

Whereas in jail, Colon cooperated with the authorities and later confessed that Banerjee got here to him with the request to kill De Noia, and Colon later gave $25,000 to Gilbert Rivera Lopez to drag the set off, as reported by The Solar.

The FBI was lastly capable of take Banerjee down with the assistance of Colon. In September 1993, Banerjee was arrested and charged with racketeering and homicide for rent, however he hanged himself a day earlier than his sentencing in 1994.

The true story behind the Chippendales empire is stuffed with surprising twists and turns. Watch all of it unfold in “Welcome to the Chippendales,” streaming now on Hulu with new episodes airing Wednesdays.