The hulking ex-NYPD cop who killed himself in front of FBI agents probing a quadruple murder was drowning in debt and battling depression, according to court records and friends.
Gerard Benderoth, 48, shot himself in the head on a Rockland County road Wednesday after being pulled over by agents probing his ties to an upstate cop charged with executing four men in a drug deal gone bad.
Benderoth and his wife Amy owed Citizens Bank $349,901 after they stopped making mortgage payments on their Stony Point home in June 2014, according to court records obtained by the Daily News.
The bank’s lawyers filed papers seeking a default judgment against the Benderoths after filing suit in 2015.
The couple bought the brick-and-siding ranch house five years earlier for $310,000. They lived there with their four kids.
“You are in danger of losing your home,” read a warning in one of the bank’s court motions.
Benderoth reached out to a friend over the summer, saying he was struggling financially.
“He has four kids, a wife and a mortgage,” said the pal John Livesay, 63. “That's a lot of responsibility. It required a lot of work. He had a lot of pressure on him.”
Benderoth — a former world-class strongman competitor nicknamed the “White Rhino” — also had other problems. Livesay said Benderoth, a 9/11 first responder who lost his best friend in the attacks, never got over the trauma of working at Ground Zero.
“He stayed there for three days putting body parts together on the sidewalk,” Livesay said. “I don’t think you can see that and come away normal.
Another friend, Albert Thompson, told The News that Benderoth’s battle with depression prompted him to leave the NYPD in 2004 for the Haverstraw police department.
“The last time I talked with him, a year ago, he was not good. He suffered from 9/11 related depression,” said Thompson, a Philadelphia-based sports writer who knew Benderoth through his years competing in strongman competitions.
“He went to the Haverstraw Police Department because of the trauma. He couldn’t be a cop in New York.”
Thompson said his efforts to get Benderoth help were complicated by his reputation — the beefy cop’s size and strengh made grown men fawn over him. The 360-pound goliath was named the 10th strongest man in the nation in 2008, capable of lugging 450-pound stones and deadlifting 825-pound cars.
“He was revered. He was a God,” Thompson said, adding that Benderoth was a longtime steroids user. “It just broke my heart. I knew his life would end in some horrible way.”
Sources said the FBI was investigating Benderoth in connection with former Westchester County cop Nicholas Tartaglione, who’s accused of murdering four men at a Hudson Valley bar last April over five kilos of cocaine.
Federal prosecutors say the muscular Tartaglione, 49, then took the bodies 30 minutes north to his 178-acre farm and buried them, authorities said.
Authorities using a backhoe dug up the bodies in December after Tartaglione was arraigned in federal court.
Benderoth’s wife greeted a stream of well wishers on the family’s front stoop Thursday.
Linging the steps were four racist statues of caricature black people — including one smiling wide while holding a watermelon.
Two other statuettes portray “lawn jockeys” in white pants and red vest and cap, while the fourth depicts a shoeshine boy. An undated photo posted on Instagram shows the 48-year-old Benderoth sitting shirtless exposing his massive frame, including a Nazi-era Iron Cross tattoo on his chest.
Multiple friends of Benderoth took to social media to pay tribute to the man they described as a “gentle giant.”
“As strong as he was, his biggest muscle was his heart!” Peter Skae wrote on Facebook.
Gerard Benderoth, 48, shot himself in the head on a Rockland County road Wednesday after being pulled over by agents probing his ties to an upstate cop charged with executing four men in a drug deal gone bad.
Benderoth and his wife Amy owed Citizens Bank $349,901 after they stopped making mortgage payments on their Stony Point home in June 2014, according to court records obtained by the Daily News.
The bank’s lawyers filed papers seeking a default judgment against the Benderoths after filing suit in 2015.
The couple bought the brick-and-siding ranch house five years earlier for $310,000. They lived there with their four kids.
“You are in danger of losing your home,” read a warning in one of the bank’s court motions.
Benderoth reached out to a friend over the summer, saying he was struggling financially.
“He has four kids, a wife and a mortgage,” said the pal John Livesay, 63. “That's a lot of responsibility. It required a lot of work. He had a lot of pressure on him.”
Benderoth — a former world-class strongman competitor nicknamed the “White Rhino” — also had other problems. Livesay said Benderoth, a 9/11 first responder who lost his best friend in the attacks, never got over the trauma of working at Ground Zero.
“He stayed there for three days putting body parts together on the sidewalk,” Livesay said. “I don’t think you can see that and come away normal.
Another friend, Albert Thompson, told The News that Benderoth’s battle with depression prompted him to leave the NYPD in 2004 for the Haverstraw police department.
“The last time I talked with him, a year ago, he was not good. He suffered from 9/11 related depression,” said Thompson, a Philadelphia-based sports writer who knew Benderoth through his years competing in strongman competitions.
“He went to the Haverstraw Police Department because of the trauma. He couldn’t be a cop in New York.”
Thompson said his efforts to get Benderoth help were complicated by his reputation — the beefy cop’s size and strengh made grown men fawn over him. The 360-pound goliath was named the 10th strongest man in the nation in 2008, capable of lugging 450-pound stones and deadlifting 825-pound cars.
“He was revered. He was a God,” Thompson said, adding that Benderoth was a longtime steroids user. “It just broke my heart. I knew his life would end in some horrible way.”
Sources said the FBI was investigating Benderoth in connection with former Westchester County cop Nicholas Tartaglione, who’s accused of murdering four men at a Hudson Valley bar last April over five kilos of cocaine.
Federal prosecutors say the muscular Tartaglione, 49, then took the bodies 30 minutes north to his 178-acre farm and buried them, authorities said.
Authorities using a backhoe dug up the bodies in December after Tartaglione was arraigned in federal court.
Benderoth’s wife greeted a stream of well wishers on the family’s front stoop Thursday.
Linging the steps were four racist statues of caricature black people — including one smiling wide while holding a watermelon.
Two other statuettes portray “lawn jockeys” in white pants and red vest and cap, while the fourth depicts a shoeshine boy. An undated photo posted on Instagram shows the 48-year-old Benderoth sitting shirtless exposing his massive frame, including a Nazi-era Iron Cross tattoo on his chest.
Multiple friends of Benderoth took to social media to pay tribute to the man they described as a “gentle giant.”
“As strong as he was, his biggest muscle was his heart!” Peter Skae wrote on Facebook.