Gangland 12-7-2023

[Dr031718]

Murder Machine Gangster Anthony Senter Out Of Prison, In 'Halfway House'

Mobster Anthony Senter, a key member of the notorious Roy DeMeo crew of the Gambino family that butchered dozens of New Yorkers in the 1970s and '80s, has been quietly transferred from the prison where he was serving a sentence of life plus 20 years to a New York halfway house, Gang Land has learned.

The release comes two weeks after Gang Land disclosed that Senter was eligible for an early exit from prison despite what was intended to be a forever-and-a-day sentence after his conviction for the gruesome murders of 10 people during a killing spree that claimed more than 75 lives.

A spokeswoman for the U.S. Parole Commission refused to discuss the crimes committed by Senter, 68, or disclose any specifics about a hearing held on June 22, 2022. That's when the Commission "determined that he would be granted parole on June 22, 2024," she said. "The Commission determined that he had substantially observed the rules of the institutions and that his release in June 2024 would not jeopardize the public welfare."

The Manhattan U.S. Attorney's office, which did not oppose Senter's release, and declined to comment about the Commission decision to parole him last month, was also mum yesterday about the decision of the Bureau of Prisons to release him into a halfway house last Thursday.

The reaction to Senter's release by police and federal agents who assembled the case against Senter, however, was loud, long and angry.

"How do you let somebody out of jail who was part of a group that we can prove killed 79 people," said former NYPD detective Frank Pergola, whose work on Senter and the Roy DeMeo crew began in 1979. "Psychopaths don't change their spots," he said.

Pergola, along with former FBI agents who spoke to Gang Land about Senter's release from prison, said they were speaking as well for their late colleagues, Arthur Ruffels and Kenneth McCabe, who spent years of their lives bringing the mob crew of serial killers to justice.

"It's disgraceful to let him out," said Pergola.

The ex-detective said he believed he was also echoing the outrage of the families of the dozens of victims, many of whom disappeared without a trace and were dismembered and buried in city garbage dumps.

"It's more than 40 years ago, but I still can see the women who lost their husbands, or boyfriends, or sons and hear their sobs of grief," said Pergola. "We charged them with killing 25 people, but they said that was too much, so we only proved ten at the trial. You'd think that would be enough to send a guy to prison for life."

Pergola first encountered Senter and two other convicted DeMeo crew serial killers on May 11, 1979. It happened while he was investigating the murder of a guy found shot to death in his late model BMW parked on a main drag in the Flatlands section of Brooklyn. Pergola spotted a man in a Mercedes Sport Coupe parked nearby who said his name was Joey Testa.

Testa told Pergola he was shocked to see his friend Chris Rosenberg's car parked there and learn that Chris was dead. "Then you can identify the body for me," Pergola said. But Testa begged off, saying they were "friends all our lives."

As he walked away, Pergola recalled that Testa had been acquitted of the 1975 murder of Andre Katz, and that Rosenberg was an uncharged suspect in that murder. It was an interesting coincidence, he noted. Just then, he saw another Mercedes drive by very slowly as the driver eyeballed the scene. Pergola took down the plate number and asked a cop to run it for him.

When the cop told him it was registered to Anthony Senter, Pergola remembered that Senter was also an uncharged suspect in the Katz murder. "He said to himself," according to Murder Machine, the 1992 book by Gene Mustain and yours truly, "All we need now is what's-his-name, Henry Borelli," the other charged suspect who was acquitted along with Testa of Katz's murder.

An hour later, his needs were met when he went to speak to Rosenberg's widow. Borelli, Testa, and Senter were all present, consoling her about her hubby's death — murder which, it was later established, they had carried out along with the head of their crew, Gambino soldier Roy DeMeo.

The killers, Pergola learned, had made sure Rosenberg's murder made the newspapers so that the Cuban gangster who had ordered the hit would know he was dead.

After DeMeo and Senter fired killing shots into Rosenberg's head, "Joey and Anthony put an arm under each of Chris's shoulders and walked him out of their clubhouse as if they were taking a drunk buddy home and put him in the passenger seat," and they left it on Flatbush Avenue, where it would be found later that night.

DeMeo decided, as we wrote in Murder Machine, that Borelli's role in the caper was to fire scores of machinegun bullets into the car during a slow drive by so it would be unusual enough to make the newspapers in order to prove to the Miami-based Cuban drug dealer that Rosenberg was dead during a year when there was an average of 35 murders a week in New York.

As Gang Land reported last month, Testa, 68, is still serving his own life sentence for murder. Borelli, 75, was sentenced to 150 years for 15 counts of auto crime thefts. His mandatory release date is in 2082.

—
Pergola chased a few leads but they all led nowhere. Years later though, a joint task force of auto crime cops, NYPD homicide detectives, FBI agents and other federal and state cops that helped convict the trio, solved scores of killings and murders, including Rosenberg's.

DeMeo, whose body was found in the trunk of his black Caddy on January 20, 1983, was killed 10 days earlier on orders by Gambino boss Paul (Big Paul) Castellano, in an unsuccessful effort to stymie the task force case that was under way. But, according to Pergola, it didn't happen how Murder Machine had theorized, based on information that was available at the time.

Castellano had been unable to get John Gotti, Frank DeCicco, or even capo Nino Gaggi, DeMeo's mob superior who Murder Machine posited as the main shooter, to carry out the hit. According to Pergola, Big Paul then reached out to Anthony (Gaspipe) Casso, a Luchese skipper at the time. Casso, in turn, got Senter and Testa to kill their long time mentor, Pergola told Gang Land this week.

Murder Machine had the right location, the home of Patrick (Patty) Testa, but Pergola said it was his older brother Joey and Senter who surprised Roy and fired seven shots into his head, including several that went through his hands and into his face. Capo Frank (Big Frank) Lastorino "was outside, just in case, and told Gaspipe it was done," said Pergola.

Casso's payoff for killing DeMeo for Castellano was getting the Gambino family to release Testa and Senter to the Luchese family. There's a difference of opinion between Pergola, who says that only Testa was inducted in the family, and other Gang Land sources, who say that Senter passed the mob's Italian-only test, and was inducted as well.

Former FBI agents Marilyn Lucht and Anthony Nelson told Gang Land they had no opinion on the Luchese family bonafides of Senter, but each had an opinion abouit his release.

"Senter and his pal Joey Testa used to carry boning knives in their little fashion purses — to dismember the bodies after a murder," said Lucht. "This was the signature crime of the DeMeo Crew. They were 'stone cold killers' who could be relied on for their ghoulish services over and over again. It's hard to imagine that they could change their stripes," she said.

As for the Parole Commission's finding that Senter is now a low risk to society, ex-FBI agent Anthony Nelson, who partnered "unofficially" with McCabe for many years when he was an NYPD detective assigned to the Brooklyn District Attorney's office, said Senter had "committed unforgiveable crimes from a human standpoint" that many people "believe were worthy of the death penalty."

"I am not a fan of the death penalty, and not for any moral reason," Nelson continued. "I just always believed that someone like Senter would suffer much greater pain spending the rest of his life in prison reflecting back, in horrendous regret, about the pain he inflicted upon other people as well as himself."

Linda Sheffield, the attorney who won Senter his parole, reiterated what she told Gang Land three weeks ago, stressing that "Anthony is not the person he was. The Commission recognized that and decided that 35 years was sufficient punishment."

"He was a model prisoner, and like I said before," said Sheffield, "he received excellent recommendations from all the supervisors we could find."

"If he ever was a danger to the community that is not the case today," she said, "He's been rehabilitated. He's had help; his wife and kids have stood by him through the decades of incarceration. Their children are all productive, law-abiding citizens."

"Anthony has done very well in prison," said Sheffield. "He didn't just lay around, he worked," she said. "He worked hard. He rehabilitated himself," she said. "He did manual labor. Anthony saved the government a fortune with the jobs that he did in prison. His expertise was refurbishing the exercise equipment that they're not allowed to buy anymore."

"He repaired all kinds of things, in all the prisons he was housed," she continued. "The most important thing? Anthony showed up every day; he did his job; he was reliable. He became the kind of person that people could rely on to do the right thing. And the right thing in this instance, was not anything criminal," said Sheffield.

Gambino Gangster Serving Life For Murder Cites Senter's Parole, Says, 'Me Too Judge.'

The U.S. Parole Commission's decision to grant parole to Anthony Senter triggered a quick "me too" plea for a release from federal prison by Mark Reiter, another drug-dealing New York gangster who has also spent 35 years behind bars — for two 1980s murders, Gang Land has learned.

In a court filing with Manhattan Federal Judge Vernon Broderick last week, the lawyer for the 75-year-old wheelchair bound ex-Gambino gangster submitted a copy of Gang Land's November 16 column and argued that if Senter's release was "justified and warranted," his client's "release is also surely justified and warranted, perhaps even more than Mr. Senter."

Reiter, a John Gotti pal, was convicted of two 1982 murders at his 1988 trial. That was one year before Senter was found guilty of racketeering and 10 killings. The pair ironically spent time in the same California federal prison in the 1990s. In the photo at left, the duo are on vocals with Colombo boss Carmine (Junior) Persico on the drums, a gag shot snapped by a fellow inmate.

"The parallels between Mr. Reiter's case and Mr. Senter's case are undeniable," attorney Harlan Protass wrote in seeking a compassionate release from Broderick in the gangster's three-year-old motion based on his age, his medical ailments, his time in prison, as well as his rehabilitation.

"Both were convicted of violent criminal conduct (including murders) associated with organized crime elements in New York, both (have) served 35 years in prison" and "neither present any further danger to the community," wrote Protass.

The lawyer stated he did "not know the specific circumstances" of Senter's parole, but he argued that Reiter possesses "all of the generally accepted purposes of imprisonment, retribution, incapacitation, general deterrence, specific deterrence and rehabilitation" that enabled the Parole Commission to decide to grant parole to Senter.

Protass also reminded Broderick that "Reiter suffers from serious, significant medical conditions" in arguing that the aging and ailing inmate should be allowed to return home to his family that still supports and loves him. Reiter is "fully incapacitated" and "has been as rehabilitated as possible under the circumstances," the lawyer added.

The judge had seemed ready to grant Reiter compassion more than a year ago — or at least issue a ruling in the case — when the Manhattan U.S. Attorney's office opted not to name a federal agent who had expressed fears that Reiter "might harm" agents or others if he were released rather than identify the agent. Broderick had ordered the feds to do so if the government wanted him to consider that info against Reiter in his ruling on the gangster's motion for compassion.

Since then, however, Broderick, who assigned Protass, a noted appeals specialist to represent Reiter when he filed a pro se motion for compassion in 2020, has yet to render a decision, and has ignored several letters that Protass submitted pointing to similarities that Reiter has to other inmates who have been granted compassion in the past year. The judge has yet to respond to the defense lawyer's letter about Senter's parole.

FBI Agent Testifies: Rom Said He Punched Bruno Selimaj Because He Called Him A Washed-Up Italian

Over the objection of prosecutors, the lawyer for the 86-year-old wiseguy charged with using a one-punch assault against prominent Manhattan restaurant owner Bruno Selimaj was allowed to bring out that on the day the mobster was arrested, he told the FBI he had punched Selimaj — not over a gambling debt — but because he'd been called a "washed up Italian with no balls."

The testimony at the trial of Genovese mobster Anthony (Rom) Romanello and his codefendant Joseph Celso, who are both charged with using extortionate means against Selmaj and his brother Nino in order to collect $86,000 in gambling debts of relatives of the restaurant owners, came yesterday on the last day of testimony in the three day trial.

It was not a blockbuster ruling, but it's an important one that attorney Gerald McMahon had been pressing from the outset. It backs up the argument McMahon made in his opening remarks to the jury which he is sure to stress today in his summation. Testimony in the trial was put off until yesterday when one of the participants tested positive for Covid last Thursday.

Romanello volunteered the information about why he punched Selimaj at his restaurant as he was being driven to Brooklyn Federal Court for his arraignment for "extortionate collection of credit" charges after he was fingerprinted at the FBI building in Manhattan, according to the testimony of FBI agent Thomas Cribben.

Last week, Cribbin testified that Romanello "said that he felt like hitting the victim" and "that he punched him in the mouth" after Selimaj stated he wasn't going to pay the money that his relatives owed a bookmaker.

But when defense attorney Gerald McMahon asked Cribbin whether Romanello had told him "anything else that the victim said," Judge Eric Komitee sustained an objection by prosecutor Rebecca Schuman on the grounds that those words were "hearsay," namely self-serving out-of-court remarks by a defendant that are traditionally barred.

Under Schuman's direction, according to court records, Cribbin had withheld that Rom's statement from his direct testimony.

During oral arguments on the issue on Tuesday, McMahon argued that Rom's reason for punching Selimaj was proper under a "completeness" doctrine that applies to taped talks in which statements that defendants make that undercut their admissions are allowed. It should apply to his client's remarks to Cribbin since they were preserved in an FBI report by Cribbin, the lawyer argued.

Schuman cited numerous appeals court rulings that blocked subsequent remarks made by a defendant in taped conversations, but Komitee noted that the words she was looking to block were in the "same sentence" of the agent's report, not several pages or paragraphs away and permitted McMahon to question Cribbin about that yesterday.

In her closing yesterday, assistant U.S. attorney Irisa Chcn argued that the testimony by Bruno Selimaj about Romanello's one punch assault and the testimony by his brother Nino that Celso had told him to tell Bruno to withdraw the police report to ensure that the situation didn't get ugly, established that both wiseguys were guilty of extortion.

Attorney Gerard Marrone will surely repeat the point he made during his opening that Celso was a bystander to the one punch assault and his cross examination of Nino in which the restaurateur stated that he and Celso and their families were friends for 17 years, that Celso never threatened him, and that they have remained friends since the case began.

Editor's Note: Gang Land is off next week. We'll return with more real stuff about organized crime in two weeks, on December 21.

[Cheech]

Im sure the families are thrilled to read this. He worked hard? Disgusting

"Anthony has done very well in prison," said Sheffield. "He didn't just lay around, he worked," she said. "He worked hard. He rehabilitated himself," she said. "He did manual labor. Anthony saved the government a fortune with the jobs that he did in prison. His expertise was refurbishing the exercise equipment that they're not allowed to buy anymore."

"He repaired all kinds of things, in all the prisons he was housed," she continued. "The most important thing? Anthony showed up every day; he did his job; he was reliable. He became the kind of person that people could rely on to do the right thing. And the right thing in this instance, was not anything criminal," said Sheffield

[CornerBoy]

Crazy that they're letting this guy out, TK but not manna, amuso and guys like that. Hope he has a quarter oz to just stick his face in first thing when he gets home.

Whole thing is gross.

[dack2001]

Couple thoughts about todays article, prison is supposed to be about rehabilitation. Our law speaks of rehabilitation. Our literature speaks of reflection and rehabilitation. However, our culture treats prison like its a mental institution from the 1800's where people are shut away and never spoke of again. Bravo for Senter showing up everyday with no hope, doing the hard work and dedicating his prison life to improving the lot of the people he served with. It doesn't erase the horrible crimes he committed, but it is commendable.

I've seen many times in my life prosecutors fighting through the rules of evidence to prop up their own theory of a crime that fits the statute. The Judge would have been better here to let the jury hear everything that was said and let the jury judge whether it was a self serving statement or not. Cops and prosecutors are just like anyone who is competitive, they will do whatever they can to win their case including tunnel vision on a particular theory when they think the Defendant is a "bad guy" and beat a case years ago or when they have their eyes on a federal judgeship or a political career. Almost every federal prosecutor to a man (or woman) has their eye for being a judge or congress. Just the way it is.

[JohnnyS]

Thanks for posting.

I still can't believe Senter got out.

[Cheech]

Couple thoughts about todays article, prison is supposed to be about rehabilitation. Our law speaks of rehabilitation. Our literature speaks of reflection and rehabilitation. However, our culture treats prison like its a mental institution from the 1800's where people are shut away and never spoke of again. Bravo for Senter showing up everyday with no hope, doing the hard work and dedicating his prison life to improving the lot of the people he served with. It doesn't erase the horrible crimes he committed, but it is commendable.

I've seen many times in my life prosecutors fighting through the rules of evidence to prop up their own theory of a crime that fits the statute. The Judge would have been better here to let the jury hear everything that was said and let the jury judge whether it was a self serving statement or not. Cops and prosecutors are just like anyone who is competitive, they will do whatever they can to win their case including tunnel vision on a particular theory when they think the Defendant is a "bad guy" and beat a case years ago or when they have their eyes on a federal judgeship or a political career. Almost every federal prosecutor to a man (or woman) has their eye for being a judge or congress. Just the way it is.

I get what youre saying but the guy is a serial killer

[NickyEyes1]

People doing life for weed and this guy gets out. Unbelievable

[Ivan]

Couple thoughts about todays article, prison is supposed to be about rehabilitation. Our law speaks of rehabilitation. Our literature speaks of reflection and rehabilitation. However, our culture treats prison like its a mental institution from the 1800's where people are shut away and never spoke of again. Bravo for Senter showing up everyday with no hope, doing the hard work and dedicating his prison life to improving the lot of the people he served with. It doesn't erase the horrible crimes he committed, but it is commendable.

I've seen many times in my life prosecutors fighting through the rules of evidence to prop up their own theory of a crime that fits the statute. The Judge would have been better here to let the jury hear everything that was said and let the jury judge whether it was a self serving statement or not. Cops and prosecutors are just like anyone who is competitive, they will do whatever they can to win their case including tunnel vision on a particular theory when they think the Defendant is a "bad guy" and beat a case years ago or when they have their eyes on a federal judgeship or a political career. Almost every federal prosecutor to a man (or woman) has their eye for being a judge or congress. Just the way it is.

I get what youre saying but the guy is a serial killer

he emptied a gun into the head of a teenage beauty queen

[NorthBuffalo]

At 68, he's got plenty of life to live and memories to be made. That shouldn't be the case for someone who took that exact right from 75+ people. What would have been honorable morally was for him to disclose the details of these murders so the families get closure. I'm sure the families are sickened, even though I know most of those he killed were criminals themselves.

[Lefty Ruggiero]

At 68, he's got plenty of life to live and memories to be made. That shouldn't be the case for someone who took that exact right from 75+ people. What would have been honorable morally was for him to disclose the details of these murders so the families get closure. I'm sure the families are sickened, even though I know most of those he killed were criminals themselves.

Maybe by killing all those criminals, he inadvertently saved countless other lives that those guys themselves would have taken

[Stroccos]

Couple thoughts about todays article, prison is supposed to be about rehabilitation. Our law speaks of rehabilitation. Our literature speaks of reflection and rehabilitation. However, our culture treats prison like its a mental institution from the 1800's where people are shut away and never spoke of again. Bravo for Senter showing up everyday with no hope, doing the hard work and dedicating his prison life to improving the lot of the people he served with. It doesn't erase the horrible crimes he committed, but it is commendable.

I've seen many times in my life prosecutors fighting through the rules of evidence to prop up their own theory of a crime that fits the statute. The Judge would have been better here to let the jury hear everything that was said and let the jury judge whether it was a self serving statement or not. Cops and prosecutors are just like anyone who is competitive, they will do whatever they can to win their case including tunnel vision on a particular theory when they think the Defendant is a "bad guy" and beat a case years ago or when they have their eyes on a federal judgeship or a political career. Almost every federal prosecutor to a man (or woman) has their eye for being a judge or congress. Just the way it is.

I get what youre saying but the guy is a serial killer

I wonder he gave them to get out ?

[SonnyBlackstein]

Parole board needs to be sacked.

[slimshady_007]

Give me whatever that parole board was smoking.

[newera_212]

Couple thoughts about todays article, prison is supposed to be about rehabilitation. Our law speaks of rehabilitation. Our literature speaks of reflection and rehabilitation. However, our culture treats prison like its a mental institution from the 1800's where people are shut away and never spoke of again. Bravo for Senter showing up everyday with no hope, doing the hard work and dedicating his prison life to improving the lot of the people he served with. It doesn't erase the horrible crimes he committed, but it is commendable.

I've seen many times in my life prosecutors fighting through the rules of evidence to prop up their own theory of a crime that fits the statute. The Judge would have been better here to let the jury hear everything that was said and let the jury judge whether it was a self serving statement or not. Cops and prosecutors are just like anyone who is competitive, they will do whatever they can to win their case including tunnel vision on a particular theory when they think the Defendant is a "bad guy" and beat a case years ago or when they have their eyes on a federal judgeship or a political career. Almost every federal prosecutor to a man (or woman) has their eye for being a judge or congress. Just the way it is.

I pretty much agree with you here. Don't think I could have said that better myself. I'd like to know the criteria that goes into this type of decision though, because there are a ton of prisoners who have done way less egregious and heinous acts, have spent the same (or more) amount of time inside, and are model prisoners just like Senter turned out to be - and they keep consistently getting turned down. Like Mark David Chapman...I'm not saying I think he should be released, but he killed one person, and his 13th parole hearing will be coming up in early 2024...which is sure to get declined.

I don't know much about Senter (read Murder Machine over 20 years ago) , but does he have kids, nephews, etc... a support system for when he gets out, basically? That has to be a factor in the decision, where as someone like Chapman I mentioned above would potentially be coming home to nothing, still hell-bent on being anti-social, etc.

I also think that if they had more manpower, we'd probably see more "Senters" come out. It has to take a lot of work and a long time to dot the i's and cross the t's on a decision like this

[Blunts]

Thanks for posting. Insane that Senter is out. Joey must be trying to get that lawyer to work her magic for him. Hope they throw that Rom case out. The old fella was just defending his dignity. Such a waste of resources trying this case.