Former Gemini Twin Joseph Testa RIP

Joseph Testa—one of the "Gemini Twins," who was released from prison on April 30, 2024, and retired to Nevada—died on January 26. He was 71.

The Gemini Twins Anthony Senter, left, and Joey Testa.

Testa had been dealing with medical problems for years.

His longtime partner (the other Gemini Twin), Anthony Senter, 70, was released on June 21, 2024. (See video below for a peek at the DeMeo crew enjoying a barbecue at their boss's Long Island home.)

Both Testa and Senter had served about 35 years in prison, a fraction of the well-earned, life-plus-20-year sentences they were slammed with in 1989 after they were convicted of participating in nearly a dozen murders.

The once-fearsome Gemini Twins—they got the nickname from the Gemini Lounge, a bar once located on Flatlands Avenue in Canarsie, Brooklyn—were first associated with the Gambino family, where they were part of the Roy DeMeo crew, made famous by the book Murder Machine: A True Story of Murder, Madness, and the Mafia by Gene Mustain and Jerry Capeci. The two moved over to the Luchese family in the mid-1980s.

In 1989 prosecutors in Federal District Court in Manhattan won “a sweeping victory” against the Gemini Twins in the second of two trials stemming from a 1984 indictment that originally included charges against then-Gambino boss Paul Castellano. The cases included evidence of 25 murders; Senter and Testa got life sentences after being convicted for 10 of them.

The Murder Machine crew's MO was to first lure the intended victim inside the little apartment behind the Gemini Lounge, which was the crew’s main hangout. The victim would be shot in the head — and in quick succession, they were “turbanned” (a towel was wrapped around the head) and stabbed once through the heart. Both efforts were attempts to minimize blood flow. The crew would then chop the body up, package the pieces, and toss the pieces in city dumpsters. More often than not, those packages vanished forever in the ever-rising mounds of garbage comprising the Fountain Avenue dump.

Murder Machine's authors documented 75 victims, while the FBI suspects the crew committed between 100 and 125 slayings.

Another DeMeo crew heavy hitter, Henry Borelli, 77, is at Gilmer FCI in West Virginia. His release date is December 15, 2083. 

DeMeo was last seen wearing a leather jacket over a shotgun when on January 10, 1983, he went to a meeting. That night, he failed to attend his daughter Dione's birthday party. Exactly 10 days later -- on January 20, DeMeo's Cadillac was found in the parking lot of the Veruna Boat Club in Brooklyn. Shot in the head, DeMeo's partially frozen body was in the trunk. In an odd twist, a chandelier had been placed and left on top of his body. Theories abound regarding who killed DeMeo. Gambino boss Paul Castellano likely ordered it, according to Salvatore (Sammy the Bull) Gravano.

Aside from the Gemini Twins, other members of the DeMeo crew included Joseph (Dracula) Guglielmo (a DeMeo cousin); Freddie DiNome (DeMeo's driver); Borelli; and Chris Rosenberg.

In the video above, Roy is seen first, telling "Freddy" to shut the camera off, twice he says it, then quietly adds "I'm gonna shoot ya!"

Henry Borelli, in the black T-shirt, offers us a rendition of the "Ben Dover" speech. (THAT's a real Brooklyn accent).

Next, someone off-screen says: "I think I had the machine on the whole while"... Author's book promotion

Someone else replies, with apparent disappointment: " Oh really? "

Then the sound abruptly (and eerily) stops... We cut to the Gemini Twins.
Testa eats a hot dog, mouths stuff into the camera.

Operating the camera is likely Freddy, whom Roy talks to in the beginning.

Chris Rosenberg, Roy's troubled "adopted" son isn't seen, which means this may have been filmed after his murder. Or that he hadn't shown up yet, of course....

The crew's downfall began with an anonymous tip to Brooklyn detectives.

"A lot of people are disappearing in Canarsie," an unidentified caller said.

Roy DeMeo.

A key source for the book Murder Machine was DeMeo crew member Dominick Montiglio, who died on June 27, 2021. We once interviewed Montiglio, who told us that the book Murder Machine had "missed a hell of a lot," though he didn't tell us exactly what had been left out.

After working for years as an understudy to his uncle, Gambino capo Nino Gaggi—who supervised DeMeo and his crew, which operated a massive, highly profitable stolen car ring—Montiglio became a government witness in 1983 following his arrest for extortion. Years later, Montiglio returned to Brooklyn to become an artist.

Montiglio gave fascinating insight into the history of the DeMeo crew as well as the Gambino family itself, including what happened after Carlo Gambino died when it seemed the family was poised for civil war between  Paul Castellano, Gambino's cousin/brother-in-law and chosen successor, and longtime underboss Neil Dellacroce.

Gambino capo Nino Gaggi.

After Gambino died of natural causes in 1976, the ruling members of the Gambino family, including Castellano and Dellacroce, met at Nino and Dominick's Brooklyn home ("the bunker") to formally name the new boss. As per Murder Machine, before the meeting began, in case things didn't go Big Paul's way, Gaggi taped a gun under the kitchen table and sent Dom upstairs to watch the front of the house from an upper-story window armed with a machine gun.

If there was shooting, he told Dom, take out anyone who departs through the front door.

Dom was prepared to carry out his uncle's orders, even speculating how he'd be on the run for the rest of his life.

Despite the tense build up, there was only a brief, somber discussion. Castellano was named new Gambino boss. In turn, Dellacroce remained underboss (by rights, many believed, Dellacroce should have ascended to the top spot).

Gaggi was promoted to capo of Castellano's old crew and remained close to Castellano, hoping to become underboss eventually. However, the trouble that Roy caused Castellano (after ordering DeMeo's murder, Paul was later indicted because of Roy's massive car-theft ring) precluded Gaggi from ever assuming the position. Gaggi died in prison of natural causes in1988.

As for Roy, in our Q&A, Dom told us: "Roy was a man who after a murder, would be in a rush to bleed the body out & chop it up so he could go home & eat dinner with his family, make love to his wife & then sleep like a baby! I mean that's how detached he was from killing people. It didn't bother him in the slightest & I think murder ended up becoming an adrenaline rush for him, he needed it. But when it came to family & friends he was fiercely loyal.

Dominick Montiglio.

"After my uncle Nino ordered him to murder his protégé Chris Rosenberg, he locked himself in his office & cried for 2 days cause he loved him so much. So he truly had two sides absolute remorseless killer & then absolutely 100% caring family man who would do anything for his family. Although I know that he got his son Albert to do a few things that really messed him up, I mean the kid wasn't cut out for that life & I think he ended up in a mental asylum."

Roy’s son Albert wrote about his struggle coming to terms with the reality of having Roy DeMeo for a father in his riveting memoir For the Sins of My Father: A Mafia Killer, His Son, and the Legacy of a Mob Life.