 |
Anthony Senter and Joseph Testa, better known as the Gemini twins, [1] are two mobsters in the Lucchese crime family. Senter and Testa are former members of the DeMeo crew in the Gambino crime family. In 1989, both Senter and Testa were found guilty of racketeering and 10 counts of murder, and each was sentenced to life in federal prison. [2]
Anthony Senter | |
|---|---|
| Born | Anthony Michael Senter March 31, 1955 Midwood, Brooklyn, New York, United States |
| Nationality | American |
| Occupation | Unemployed United Brotherhood of Carpenters and Joiners of America carpenter's assistant |
| Criminal status | Released |
| Children | Daughter |
| Allegiance | Gambino crime family - DeMeo crew Lucchese crime family |
| Conviction(s) | Racketeering, 10 counts of murder |
| Criminal penalty | Life imprisonment |
Anthony Michael Senter was born in Canarsie, Brooklyn, New York, to immigrants Michael Senter (Northern Italian) and wife from Rovereto, Italy. The original family name was "Sente", but was later anglicized to "Senter". His uncle, Gambino and Colombo associate, Robert Senter, owned the Canarsie Recycling Company in Canarsie. As a young man Anthony worked at both his father's small debris removal business and his uncle's sanitation company.
Anthony Senter married an Italian-American woman on July 24, 1977, at a catering hall in Canarsie, Brooklyn. The wedding was attended by many criminals including Gambino crime family member Roy DeMeo.
Joseph Carmine Testa | |
|---|---|
 Joseph Testa and Roy DeMeo in a 1982 FBI surveillance photo. | |
| Born | January 24, 1955 |
| Nationality | American |
| Criminal status | Released |
| Allegiance | Gambino crime family - DeMeo crew Lucchese crime family |
| Conviction(s) | Racketeering, 10 counts of murder |
| Criminal penalty | Life imprisonment |
Joseph Carmine Testa was born in 1955 in the United States. Testa was one of nine children born to a transport truck driver and a housewife. His brother Patrick Testa also became a mobster, joining the DeMeo crew.
Growing up, Anthony Senter became close friends with Joseph Testa. When Testa was fifteen, a thirteen-year-old neighbor was mugged by a knife-wielding Puerto Rican man from East New York. The assault victim complained to Testa, who gathered Senter among others and led the group in a borrowed car, spending the day searching for the assailant. In 1973, Testa was nearly killed in a bar fight with a Puerto Rican opponent, when the assailant's knife punctured his lung. Senter hunted down the Puerto Rican and nearly beat him to death with his fists.
By 1970, at the age of 15, Senter had already been convicted of auto theft three times. Testa and Senter had all of their cases dismissed because they were juveniles at the time. Testa and Senter eventually became known as the "Gemini Twins," because they were always together, and the primary hangout of the DeMeo crew was the Gemini Lounge. [2]
Chris Rosenberg hired Senter and Testa to wax his Corvette and Porsche and steal cars for him. Rosenberg introduced his friends Senter and Testa to Roy DeMeo, who asked them to join his crew. DeMeo, Rosenberg, Senter and Testa became the core of the DeMeo crew, and became notorious for their ruthless violence. The crew was suspected to be involved in 75 to 200 murders throughout the mid-1970s and into the 1980s. [3]
Senter gained a reputation for providing the crew with significant revenue from auto theft. Although Senter was a large earner for the Gemini Lounge crew, he was highly disliked by Albert DeMeo, the son of Roy DeMeo. Albert's personal judgment of Senter was that "there was something slick and phony about him". [3]
Roy DeMeo publicly executed college student Dominick Ragucci on April 19, 1979 after mistaking him for a Cuban hitman and the crew subsequently went into hiding, with Senter and Testa fleeing to California. [3] After the murder of Rosenberg, Joseph Testa became Roy’s right hand man. Chris had previously held that position within the crew.
On January 10, 1983, Roy DeMeo went to crew member Patrick Testa's bodyshop Patrick Testa Motors Inc. in Canarsie, Brooklyn for a meeting with his men. On January 20, he was found dead in the trunk of his Cadillac Coupe DeVille, a chandelier placed on top of his body. The car was left abandoned at the Varuna Boat Club parking lot. He had been shot multiple times in the head and had a bullet wound in his hand, assumed by law enforcement to be from throwing his hand up to his face in a self-defense reflex when the shots were fired at him. Anthony Gaggi was originally suspected by law enforcement officials of being the one who killed DeMeo. Gaggi was not charged with the crime. [2]
According to former Lucchese acting boss Anthony Casso, DeMeo was killed at Patrick Testa's Canarsie home by Joseph Testa and Senter following an agreement with Casso, who was given the contract by Gambino crime family Boss Paul Castellano and Frank DeCicco after they were unable to kill DeMeo in the fall of 1982. DeMeo was seated, about to receive coffee, when Testa and Senter opened fire. Anthony Gaggi was not present. [4]
According to Sammy 'The Bull' Gravano, Paul Castellano wanted to have the whole DeMeo crew killed, because they had all turned into serial killers. He gave the contract to John Gotti, who gave it to Frank DeCicco. Realising how difficult it was going to be, DeCicco went to the Gemini Twins, Testa and Senter, and told them about the contract on them, but promised them that they would get a pass if they killed DeMeo.
After DeMeo was hit, the Gambino family kept their word about sparing Senter and Testa, but didn't want them on their books. That's why they were passed to Anthony Casso and the Luccheses.
After the murder of Roy DeMeo, Senter and Testa drifted into the Lucchese crime family. According to Casso, they were responsible for the murder on June 13, 1986, of Russian-American gangster Vladimir Reznikov. Reznikov had reportedly threatened the life and family of Marat Balagula, a Ukrainian immigrant who ruled the Russian Mafia in Brighton Beach. Balagula, who was then masterminding a multimillion-dollar gasoline bootlegging operation, had been paying tribute to the Five Families, who regarded him as their biggest moneymaker after drugs.
In 1986, Senter and Testa were acquitted of conspiracy to ship stolen cars; the jury was deadlocked on charges of murder against the pair. [5]
On September 14, 1989, Senter and Testa were both sentenced to life imprisonment. Senter served his sentence at the United States Penitentiary (USP), Allenwood, Pennsylvania. Testa served his sentence at the Federal Correctional Institute in Terminal Island for crimes that include multiple murders. [2]
In 1994, Senter's cousin, Dominic Vulpis, whom owned a garbage company, discovered that pension contributions were being paid into a Teamsters pension account in Senter's name. A court investigator determined that $30,000 of contributions had been paid into the account over a six-year period, while Senter was in prison on a life sentence. Union officials said Senter could have qualified for a pension of $1,400 a month if the payments by Canarsie Recycling had continued for another five years.
Senter will not collect the pension. The Teamsters disqualified Senter as a member and the Pension Fund rejected his pension claim. It is unclear whether Senter's cousin, Dominic Vulpis, or the garbage company he owns, received a refund of the fraudulent contributions. [6]
On June 22, 2022, Senter was granted parole by the United States Parole Commission (USPC) and scheduled for release on June 22, 2024. [7] [8] [9] He was transferred from the United States Penitentiary, Canaan, Pennsylvania to a halfway house in New York in December 2023. [9]
In February 2024, the USPC also ordered the release of Testa. [10] [11] He was paroled on April 30, 2024. [12] [13]
John Joseph Gotti Jr. was an American mafioso and boss of the Gambino crime family in New York City. He ordered and helped to orchestrate the murder of Gambino boss Paul Castellano in December 1985 and took over the family shortly thereafter, leading what was described as America's most powerful crime syndicate.
Constantino Paul Castellano was an American crime boss who succeeded Carlo Gambino as head of the Gambino crime family of New York City. Castellano ran the organization from 1976 until his murder on December 16, 1985.
The Gambino crime family is an Italian-American Mafia crime family and one of the "Five Families" that dominate organized crime activities in New York City, within the nationwide criminal phenomenon known as the American Mafia. The group, which went through five bosses between 1910 and 1957, is named after Carlo Gambino, boss of the family at the time of the McClellan hearings in 1963, when the structure of organized crime first gained public attention. The group's operations extend from New York and the eastern seaboard to California. Its illicit activities include labor and construction racketeering, gambling, loansharking, extortion, money laundering, prostitution, fraud, hijacking, and fencing.
Roy Albert DeMeo was an American mobster in the Gambino crime family in New York City. He headed a group known as the "DeMeo crew", which consisted of approximately twenty associates involved in murder, car theft, drug dealing, prostitution and pornography. The DeMeo crew became notorious for the large number of murders they committed and for the grisly way they disposed of the bodies, which became known as "the Gemini Method". The crew is believed to be responsible for up to 200 murders, many of which were committed by DeMeo himself.
Stephen Caracappa and Louis Eppolito were former New York City Police Department (NYPD) detectives who committed various illegal activities on behalf of the Five Families of the American Mafia, principally the Lucchese and Gambino crime families. The two subsequently became known as the "Mafia Cops".
Harvey "Chris" Rosenberg, also known as Chris DeMeo and Christopher Rosalia, was an American gangster who was a member of the DeMeo crew run by Gambino crime family soldier Roy DeMeo. The gang is suspected of between 75–200 murders in the mid-1970s to the early 1980s. Following a failed narcotics deal with a Cuban drug cartel that Rosenberg stole from, DeMeo killed Rosenberg as restitution.
Anthony Frank Gaggi, better known as Nino Gaggi, was an American mobster who was a caporegime in the Gambino crime family. Based in Canarsie, Gaggi was a criminal mentor to Roy DeMeo and a longtime partner of the infamous DeMeo crew.
Dominick Montiglio was an American soldier, mobster and associate of the Gambino crime family who eventually became a government witness. In later years he became an artist and podcaster many of which chronicled his life story. He's also appeared and been featured on various national television shows related to the American Mafia.
This article is about events in organized crime in 1984.
Alphonse "Little Al" D'Arco was an American mobster who became the acting boss of the Lucchese crime family in New York City. He was the first boss, acting or otherwise, of a New York crime family to become a government witness.
Anthony Salvatore Casso, nicknamed "Gaspipe", was an American mobster and underboss of the Lucchese crime family. During his career in organized crime, he was regarded as a "homicidal maniac" in the Italian-American Mafia. Casso is suspected of having committed dozens of murders, and had confessed to involvement in between 15 and 36 murders.
Vittorio "Little Vic" Amuso is an American mobster and the boss of the Lucchese crime family. He was described as "The Deadly Don" by Assistant United States Attorney Charles Rose. Amuso's reign is considered one of the bloodiest periods in American Mafia history during the late 1980s and early 1990s, alongside his former underboss and close protégé Anthony Casso, who turned informer against him in 1994. Since the death of Colombo crime family boss Carmine Persico in March 2019, Amuso is currently the longest-serving crime family boss of the Five Families and American Mafia, dating back to 1987. Amuso has been serving a life sentence since 1992 and is currently located at the Federal Correctional Complex, Butner, in North Carolina, on murder and racketeering charges.
Steven L. "Stevie" Crea is an American mobster and former underboss of the Lucchese crime family. In August 2020, Crea was sentenced to life imprisonment for murder and racketeering.
Frank DeCicco, also known as "Frankie D" and "Frankie Cheech", was an American mobster and eventual underboss for the Gambino crime family in New York City.
The Lucchese crime family is an Italian-American Mafia crime family and one of the "Five Families" that dominate organized crime activities in New York City, within the nationwide criminal phenomenon known as the American Mafia. Members refer to the organization as the Lucchese borgata; borgata is Mafia slang for criminal gang, which itself was derived from a Sicilian word meaning close-knit community. The members of other crime families sometimes refer to Lucchese family members as "Lukes".
Frank Amato was a Sicilian-American mafioso who was the son-in-law of Gambino crime family boss Paul Castellano.
Vladimir Reznikov was a Russian American gangster. After attempting to retrieve money owed to him for a fraudulent gas license provided by Marat Balagula, for whom he sold bootlegged gasoline in a western New York gas station, among many other enterprises, Reznikov was shot dead by the Lucchese crime family, to whom Balagula was paying street tax. Reznikov's murder remained unsolved until the 1994 cooperation of Lucchese acting boss Anthony Casso. According to Casso, the shooting was committed by Joseph Testa and Anthony Senter, two veterans of the DeMeo crew.
BoP Register Number 07555-054
BoP Register Number 07556-054
Sources
