Curse Of The Chippendales · The Toolbox Killer
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The crime
In the eighties, the Chippendales male stripping troupe were an oiled-up and extremely tan pop-culture phenomenon. Coming out of the Los Angeles club scene in the waning days of disco, they had sold-out tours, best selling calendars, and were daytime talk-show staples. But behind the buns and pecs there was a vicious power struggle between the man who founded the club, Somen “Steve” Banerjee, and the show’s choreographer and creative force, Nick DeNoia.
DeNoia’s murder in 1987 by a contract killer wouldn’t be the last hit taken out to defend the Chippendales empire. There would be arson attempts, attempted poisonings, and huge amounts of cocaine, before an FBI sting brought the final curtain down.
The story
The new four-part documentary from Discovery+, The Curse of the Chippendales, is far from the first property dealing with DeNoia’s killing. The 2000s TV movie The Chippendales Murder and this year’s podcast Welcome to Your Fantasy (reviewed here)