NY businessman arrested for slayings

NEW YORK, Sept. 24 (UPI) -- A New York millionaire business owner was arrested Wednesday on charges of orchestrating three slayings, authorities said.

Prosecutors say Christian Tarantino, 40, of Dix Hills, N.Y., the longtime owner of a string of fitness centers in New York City and Long Island, was involved in the killings of an armored car guard and two potential informants, Newsday reported.

In addition to his life as a businessman, authorities allege Tarantino was involved in such illegal activities as burglaries, car thefts and armed robberies.. They say he and several associates fled with $100,000 after the 1994 robbery of an armored car in which guard Julius Baumgardt, 47, was shot and killed.

Robbery crew member Louis Dorval, 30, the alleged trigger man in Baumgardt's death, was shot to death later that year because he was believed to be "too soft," authorities said.

Vincent Gargiulo, 34, brother-in-law of Twisted Sister singer Dee Snider was killed in 2003 after he and business partner Tarantino fell out over the fortunes of the gyms, prosecutors allege. They say Gargiulo had an incriminating tape recording in which Tarantino allegedly discussed the first two slayings.