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I think often times bad things happen to gays and some people do notice but a lot more people notice when it's a straight or non-gay who is affected. Their target by and large was gay men at clubs. I think a lot of that was facilitated because gay men would have more embarrassment over reporting it. pure evil, you know, for you to have that little regard for someone's life because it's multiple people who they did this to. I'm in Hell's Kitchen on Manhattan's west side. It's over one mile of bars and restaurants boasting some of the best night life in this city, especially to the LGBTQ community. But as the city was coming out of the COVID pandemic,
the community was under threat as groups of men were praying upon bar patrons, drugging them, and then robbing them. in some cases leading to fatalities leading the local press to call it the roofy murders. For Inside Edition Digital, I'm Salono and this is New York Gritty. Hell's Kitchen is rose and rows upon some of the greatest night life for queer communities across the world. The gay New York nightife scene today is a little bit different than in the old days. It's not so much based on large dance clubs. It's more about smaller gay bars where you stand around, have happy hour, maybe cruise, watch a
screening of Drag Race or whatever. Well, as people started slowly and cautiously coming back out of their cocoons and entering night life again, here come the roofy murders to make it scary again. 25-year-old social worker Julio Ramirez would be the first fatality. Julio was very outgoing, happy guy, funny, kind, smart, hardworking. He was allaround like good man. Not just cuz he was my brother, but he lived an exemplatory life. We were seven years apart. So in the beginning, it was a little different, you know. I was in my teens and early 20s and he was still like a pre-teen, you know, he was young younger and, you know, I was out living my life and he was just my little brother at home. Throughout the
years, we definitely got a lot closer and you know um especially during co he came home when the whole thing happened. We were back all together like the whole family like for a good four or 5 months and um I'm actually really grateful for that time when he graduated summer of 2021 when he finished grad school and everything. He moved to New York City like right after June of 2021. So he was really happy. Um, it was very exciting and it was cool. It was really cool to see him just like grown and and you know, uh, a whole like therapist. Carlos says he spoke to his brother on April 20th. It was a quick call like he and Julio did every day. He never thought it would be the last time he spoke to his brother, who mentioned he
was going out that night. Julio was outside a bar when three men approached him and as he tried to get away, he got into a cab, but they forced themselves into the taxi with the social worker and gave him a substance. It was a Friday when we found out. So, it was like a whole 24 hours after he had passed away. Like, he had already been on for um over a day. That's when my dad got a call and it was like the uh medical examiner, you know, asking him if he had a son named Julio Ramirez. They gave him the bad news and um and then that's you know he was still at work and he came home and he told my mom they called me and um he's like you got to come home like you know um something's going on
with your brother and it was probably like the hardest day of my life. I couldn't believe what I heard. At first police called his death an overdose but his family wasn't convinced of that. Yeah, that was really like it was unbelievable. I couldn't like I couldn't process that at first. I'm like, "What? How? How is this? How did this happen in the beginning? It was very like uncertain because we were told that they found him in a cab. The cab driver just flagged down a police officer because his passenger was unconscious. They came and they tried to like CPR and everything, but it was uh he was already gone. They just pronounced him dead at the at the hospital, but he
passed in the cab. So, initially um the cops and then they were just like, "Oh, uh he overdosed. It was an accidental overdose." And I'm like, "No, that's not right. Like, my brother doesn't do drugs." And they're like, "Oh, well, you know, sometimes you don't know what your family is doing, which is valid." Yeah. But like, no. I He was my best friend. Like, I knew my brother. Like, I would have known if he was doing anything like that. So, um, you know, I was like, "No, that's not what happened." Like, there's got to be another explanation. Julio's phone and wallet were stolen. So, Carlos and his family began raising awareness about Julio's death by canvasing Hell's Kitchen and speaking to the media to figure out what happened to
their loved one and challenged the narrative that he overdosed. Carlos said he was able to log into his brother's computer and then found thousands of dollars missing from Julio's bank accounts, sparking police to investigate this further. In my mind, I think that they thought it was an easy way to make money and I think they almost looked at it as if it was like a victimless crime because I don't think that their intention and I still say this to this day and I've said this all along. I don't think that their intention was to kill anybody. I think their intention was to make as much money as they possibly can without working for it. And I think that they got more and more greedy and more and
more brazen. And I think that they started just being careless. And they came into two people who unfortunately had underlying issues that caused them to have more severe effects than a lot of the non-fatal victims or uh they were given too much of something and they ultimately died. One month after Julio's murder, 33-year-old political consultant John Umbberger, who was visiting the city from Washington DC, was found dead in a Manhattan townhouse his company owned. Similarly, police thought it was an overdose. But much like Julio's family, John's kin did not buy that. John was a delightful son, an amazing person. He was a blessing. He was unusual. John brought life to anything. never adult moment on many different
levels. And this is a child who if it was his turn to set the table with three younger siblings, he would spend more time trying to negotiate with them to set the table for him and trade instead. I'm like, John, you could have had the table already set instead of trying to do this. But John was an executive functioning person at a young age. Always very curious. And to me, John was a genius. And he was a genius. His creativity and everything because he was gay. I cannot imagine a heterosexual man being able to do all the different things that John could do. Now granted, we would cross swords on difference of opinions, especially when he was an adult and we didn't agree on things. Um, but yeah, John, it was a delight
and I miss him every day. He was the director of diplomacy and government programs for a nonprofit focused on sort of law and justice issues from a conservative perspective. And so they were trying to set up um having office space as well as hospitality space and meeting space in New York to begin more interaction with the UN. And John was tasked with doing that. And he was so excited about being in New York because of that. I mean it just it was a new place to conquer and it was so exciting and diverse. He was working in New York on Thursday, doing a couple of things on Friday. Had things even lined up for the Monday of Memorial Day before he was going back to DC. And he decided to stay Memorial Day
weekend in New York to experience and enjoy the city. And um he had a pretty busy uh schedule. He was actually um with friends at a club called Tao. Then they left and they went to the queue and the friends left. Uh one friend may have been invited to leave. I'm not sure what happened there, but John stayed and he uh then left but remembered that he had forgotten his umbrella and he went back to the queue, got the umbrella, then left again. And it was kind of around that point that somehow he connected with two men. And it was the concept of let's keep the party going. And so they got in a car that one of the two men had rented and drove and came to the townhouse. They did kind of drive around Manhattan for 45 minutes.
We're not clear what actually happened, what went on. Um they did stop at, you know, a little market that was 24 hours uh to get some drinks, uh you know, juice, uh bottled water, things like that. And then they arrived at the townhouse on E61. And um it is there that uh John was given and consumed the drugs that were laced with fentanyl lidocaine and um died. And it, you know, the goal of the group was not necessarily to kill people. The goal was to steal from them, to take their phones and their wallets, to use their credit cards, empty bank accounts, and other accounts. They didn't care whether they killed somebody or not. And so, um, you know, they came with John into the townhouse into the very top floor
apartment, but they, uh, recorded basically John dying. They did a 13-second video and they're kind of snickering and laughing while John is on the bed dying and then they proceed to stay in the townhouse 45 minutes after he is clearly dead. So again, um you know, they you're dealing with people who just do not have a regard for human nature and you know that I hate that for them as human beings. I hate it for those of us that were uh friends and family of victims and especially for their victims. When the criminals left the digital paper trail, it was evident to police and John's mother that they were big spenders.
These people spent money on Clausa Oul. They just blew the money away. They spent money on Prada bucket hats. So that it's like my gosh, John's life was worth so much more and we would have all given you all so much more money. Um that it's hard. It is painful. A Johnsized hole in your heart. Yeah. And John was a big guy and so it's a very big hole. With two suspicious deaths in the span of a month, the LGBTQ community was put on high alert and the press called it the roofy murders. These were called the roofy murders. Was fentinol in this. So, why did the reputation of roofy murders come across in the news? And why is the these cases called that? That's a media thing, man. I have no idea. That's the spin that they spun. I don't know.
I don't know where they got that from. I don't know if they think because it originated out of a bar, so that was the term that was just, you know, everybody's used to using, oh, they got roofed and robbed. Yeah, it wasn't roofy. At least in my case, it was a combination of uh fentanyl, lidocaine, and uh cocaine. The New York Antivviolence Project began canvasing Hell's Kitchen and raised awareness to people in the Hell's Kitchen neighborhood to be vigilant after what happened to John and Julio. They also worked with law enforcement to help make sure this didn't happen in the area again. This ensures that we can put aside all the bureaucracy and engage directly with the liaison, the
LGBTQ liaison to the commissioner to ensure that we are getting the information that we need, that we're working in tandem when it comes to safety and we're respecting each other's spaces. And that is something that I believe we have gotten in the last several years. The NYPD was putting the puzzle together as other victims in the area were reporting similar circumstances but survived to tell the tale. I didn't really hear about what was happening until I started investigating John's case. Um, this isn't really the type of crime that I deal with on a regular basis in uh in Northern Manhattan. We usually deal with a lot of gun violence and street crime. Whenever you have a death and there's something missing or
there's credit cards being used or there's something happen happening postumously after the person has died, it requires you to look into it just a little bit more. Right? You can't just deem something an overdose if you have another issue happening, right? Like it if it's it's an overdose and he has everything in his pocket and you can say he was out the night before partying and he maybe took something he wasn't supposed to take or anybody this goes for. If all their credit cards are with them and all their properties on them and there's no other significant or suspicious factors happening after, then fine. Okay. You
know, maybe it was an overdose. Maybe. But you have two individuals now whose financial information is being accessed, whose credit cards are being used to the extent of thousands of dollars, you know, um, at the very minimum, it requires a uh, a second look. I just think they didn't care. I think they didn't care. And when I saw that video, that was actually one of the defining moments in the case because then I knew that I had them dead to rights, you know? I knew I had them in the apartment with him and that, you know, unfortunately John was visibly deceased in that video. Um, I don't think that their intent I don't think I thought their intention changed.
I think they just didn't care, right? I think it was more of like, okay, well, you know, there's nothing we can do about this, so, you know, let's move on type of attitude. While Detective Rose and his colleagues were giving Jon and Julio's case a closer look, and another Manhattan neighborhood, another casualty surfaced. 2 months after Jon's murder, 35-year-old Katherine Gallagher was found dead in the Lower East Side in her apartment in July 2022. Like Julio and John's death, at first it was ruled an overdose, but months later in March 2023, the medical examiner said it was a homicide. Gallagher's death made her the first female to die under similar circumstances like the roofy murders.
She was a rising name in fashion, creating designs for Lady Gaga, Rita Ora, and Leverne Cox, giving her case national and global attention. When these murders started happening, including Katherine Gallagher, I was horrified because these people went out for a good time. They went out on a very light, you know, lightheaded kind of notion of let's just go out and have a drink and have fun, never thinking you could end up dead. Many in the community accused the police of not prioritizing the deaths as they targeted gay men. Some said the police only felt pressure because Gallagher was a high-profile casualty.
Detective Rose says otherwise. I'm going to tell you something right now. I have my share of gripes with the way that the Bomb has run, but I have had a pretty good career in 20 years and I can tell you with 100% certainty that nothing gets pushed under a rug. Um, I think people want to say that because things don't actually happen as fast as they want them to. Um, but the thing that people don't realize is that everything takes time. You know, I th the this country and society has what we call the uh the NCIS effect, right? Where like everybody watches television, they watch these programs and they expect Manhattan North Homicide to have like this gigantic smartboard where we just swipe around pictures and zoom in and get video instantaneously. You
know, it doesn't happen like that, you know. Um, it takes subpoenas. It takes people cooperating with video. It takes a bar manager who's off for 3 days to come back and give us access to the DVR. It all takes time. It's one thing to lock somebody up. You can go out as soon as you get probable cause and throw handcuffs on someone. Will that arrest hold up at trial? Nearly one year after Julio Ramirez's killing, police arrested three men, two who they say were also involved in John Umbberger's killing. Jaquin Hamilton and Robert Deo were arrested and charged with murder, robbery, burglary, and conspiracy in both the Umbberger and Ramirez cases.
Jacob Barroso was charged in Ramirez's killing. In May 2025, all three were found guilty by a jury and were later sentenced. Hamilton and Deo received sentences of 40 years to life in prison, while Barroso was sentenced to 20 years to life. At the time of conviction, lawyers representing those found responsible for the debts of Umbberger and Ramirez say they would appeal the jury's verdict. However, the Manhattan DA's office has told Inside Edition Digital that as of June 2026, no formal appeal has been filed. Hamilton and Barroso spoke at the sentencing and maintained their innocence. As well, Jaquin Hamilton, Robert Deo, and Jacob Barroso look straightforward throughout.
Two of the three spoke Wednesday before sentencing. I'm sympathetic toward the victims and their families. However, I disagree with the verdict. My condolences goes out to the family. Judge Felicia Menon delivered the max sentence to all three defendants. 40 years to life for Hamilton and Deo, 20 years to life for Barroso. I pity your lack of humanity and empathy for your fellow human beings. It was emotional. It's definitely an emotional moment. Uh it's like one of those times where you're like you just feel it. You feel it in your gut. You know, it's like a pit in your stomach
almost. Like it's bittersweet. You know, it's you know, you know that you knew it was coming, but uh to hear, you know, guilty on all counts is uh is pretty good. You know, I don't take pride in sending anybody away for the rest of their lives. I don't take pride in pulling anybody away from their family, but you know, what's right is right. I do feel like John was with us in the courtroom when the jury's verdict was read and you know was clapping and saying, "Okay, you did the mission." Um, and I do believe the view from the other side of heaven where things make sense whereas they don't make sense. this side of heaven is very powerful and that John would want nothing more than to see the men who killed him um be changed and
be different people because of his death. In June 2023, an arrest was made in the death of Katherine Gallagher. Police suspect that the man who they say is responsible for her death is also responsible for crimes similar to those guilty of killing Ramirez and Umbberger. Police said that suspect is part of another group, a similar MMO. Um but they there was no relation between the two groups that were uh targeting people. The groups that were targeting people in my case had absolutely no connection with the group that was targeting Gallagher. You can't trust anybody. You can't, you know, don't take anything from anybody.
Everything that's coming in here has fentanyl in it. Everything, you know. Um, I mean, that's it. Like, but the best thing I can say is like, go out, have a couple of drinks, you know, do what you're going to do, but, you know, don't don't put anything up your nose. The lesson is to always be extra careful. Don't lose control of yourself. Don't just leave your drink. Don't don't babysit your drink with somebody you don't know. Your whole night doesn't have to be looking back at your drink and being worried. have a good time. Just be vigilant and take care of yourself. In the wake of John's passing, his family started a foundation in his name.
We started it to carry on John's legacy. John made a difference in so many people's lives. The stories I would like to direct everyone to the jacu.org website where you can get more information and join us as we try to speak into safety, provide safety as well as wellness and support because one of the big issues for me is continuing to support the LGBT community um as well as a couple of scholarships that we have that come under support. I love Miss Clary. She's great and she gives me a lot of credit probably more than is really due. Uh but I appreciate her uh and I appreciate her involvement with the case and her family's involvement with the case and Julio's family as well because without them you know without of so like
look victims can't talk right homicide victims can't speak so we need somebody to speak for them so we can find out as much about them as we possibly can. So without their cooperation and their help, it would have been so much more difficult to go on. I think about him every day. Every single day I miss my brother. And that's always going to be there. That void is always going to be there. I know that he would he wants me to keep going and live my life and do you know what's best for me and um you know keep thriving and everything and that's what I'm doing and a lot of times like he gives me that drive to do more and things have been okay things are different I have a daughter now fortunately she's not going to meet her uncle and
and he didn't get to meet her like physically But I know that he like sees her and you know he knows her and times like that it's when it's hard when things are really good. It's hard because you're like really happy and you're enjoying the moment but then it's like my brother's not here to see this. That's hard. Holidays are hard. We're learning to live with it. My parents are and um you know they've been doing okay. But um you [clears throat] know this will never go away. like they took away someone from our family. They uh in a sense they kind of destroyed that part a part of my life, my only sibling, you know, they took my like childhood away in a way because you share that with your
siblings, your childhood, you know, things that only they you and your sibling will know inside jokes and memories that you have and that's gone. But again, I am learning to live with that now. and um miss him every day, but um he also just gives me the drive to keep going and live my life and you know do my best to be happy, you know, while we're here. So these guys, they robbed your brother, but they also robbed you. For sure. Yeah, they did.
