Anthony Michael Senter was born to Michael Senter, an Italian immigrant from
Rovereto,
Trentino, and his wife. He had one sibling, a sister. According to the authors
Jerry Capeci and Gene Mustain in the book
Murder Machine, Senter is a "full-blooded Italian".
Philip Carlo, however, wrote in
Gaspipe: Confessions of a Mafia Boss that he is of only partial Italian descent and thus "could not be
made" into the
Mafia. Senter grew up in a turbulent home. His parents divorced when he was eight years old then remarried each other when he was fourteen. Senter's uncle,
Gambino and
Colombo associate Robert Senter, owned the Canarsie Recycling Company. Because they spent so much time together and frequented the Gemini Lounge, the duo became known as the "Gemini twins". DeMeo, Rosenberg, Senter and Testa became the core of the DeMeo crew, and became notorious for their ruthless violence. The crew was suspected of involvement in 75 to 200 murders throughout the mid-1970s and into the 1980s. 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". 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. After the murder of Rosenberg, Joseph Testa became Roy’s right hand man. Chris had previously held that position within the crew.
Murder of DeMeo 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. In March 1986, Senter and Testa were acquitted of conspiracy to ship stolen cars; the jury was deadlocked on charges of murder against the pair. 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. Senter and Testa were inducted in to the Lucchese family as "
made" members during an
initiation ceremony conducted by Amuso and Casso at a residence in Canarsie in mid-to-late 1988.
Arrest and aftermath During the second trial, Senter and Testa were arrested on drug possession charges after they were discovered using cocaine in a
Foley Square Courthouse bathroom in October 1988. 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. While imprisoned at the
United States Penitentiary, Lompoc, California during the 1990s, Senter was part of an Italian Cultural Club along with several other prominent mobsters, including
Carmine Persico,
Joseph "J. R." Russo, Michael "Mickey Boy" Paradiso, Nicholas "Nicky Blades" Virgilio, Mark Reiter and Kevin Kelly. Senter and Testa became eligible for parole after serving ten years of their sentences because the crimes they were convicted of took place prior to 1987, when
federal parole was abolished. He was transferred from the
United States Penitentiary, Canaan, Pennsylvania to a
halfway house in New York in December 2023. He was paroled on April 30, 2024. Due to ill health, he was not required to reside in a halfway house. ==References==