AN Irishman who co owned a bar in New York was found brutally murdered in what police believe was a revenge killing involving a Mafia family.
Mr Patrick Fahey (34), from Co Mayo, was found sexually mutilated and shot in the head along a roadway in Queens.
Police have told the New York media that Mr Fahey, who co owned a Queens bar frequented by Mafia members, was dating the wife of a member of the Luchese crime family.
Mr Fahey was last seen on November 2nd leaving his bar, Backdrafts. The next day, his brother, Mr Sean Fahey, also a co owner of the bar, reported him missing. On Friday, November 8th, the body was found by a motorist along the Belt Parkway in Queens, just a few miles from Backdrafts.
Police say the body was naked except for underwear and that Mr Fahey had been "sexually tortured and mutilated" before being shot in the head.
Mr Fahey was reportedly dating the wife of an unidentified member of the Luchese mob, one of the five infamous "families" which comprise the New York Mafia.
The Luchese member is in prison, police said, and his friends killed Mr Fahey for dating the man's wife.
"That's why they whacked him", one police officer was quoted as saying to the New York Daily News. No one had been arrested for the crime.
From the time he opened Backdrafts in November, 1994, Mr Fahey had problems with members of organised crime.
He told the Irish Voice newspaper in New York he believed a fire in the bar was arson in revenge for not buying bar equipment from certain people.
His body is being flown, home for burial in Co Mayo.