Anthony Senter was one of 24 people named in a 78-count federal indictment filed in the Southern District of New York in October 1984. The indictment described a Brooklyn crew, an enterprise that the Second Circuit later summarized as a component of the Gambino organized crime family. Its alleged activities ran from the early 1970s into the 1980s and included kidnapping, loansharking, narcotics distribution, extortion and an international stolen car operation, backed by what the court called calculated violence against people the crew saw as threats. In 1989 Senter was convicted and sentenced to life in federal custody plus 20 years. In December 2023 the U.S. Parole Commission set his release for June 2024.
The case was filed as United States v. Castellano on October 4, 1984. It charged the crew as an enterprise "associated in fact" over a period from January 1, 1972 to February 28, 1983, with a racketeering count that listed some 80 racketeering acts. Pretrial rulings in 1985 tested the charges against individual defendants. Senter was named in counts concerning the interstate transport of stolen cars, and in Count Four, which charged him, Joseph Testa and others with conspiring to deprive two men, Ronald Falcaro and Khaled Daoud, of their right to be witnesses against the defendants. The court held that some stolen-car counts naming Senter fell outside the limitation period and dismissed them, while keeping others.
Falcaro and Daoud died in Brooklyn. The government alleged that this happened on October 12, 1979, and the Second Circuit later described both men as having been murdered by a group of men that included Joseph Testa and Anthony Senter. The charge was brought under 18 U.S.C. § 241 as a violation of Falcaro's civil right to be a witness in a federal proceeding.
A first trial before Judge Kevin Thomas Duffy began on September 30, 1985 and lasted until March 5, 1986. On the § 241 count the jury convicted one co-defendant and could not reach a verdict as to Testa and Senter, so a mistrial was declared as to them. In January 1987 the Second Circuit reversed the co-defendant's conviction because no rational jury could have found Falcaro to be a citizen beyond a reasonable doubt. Judge Vincent L. Broderick then ordered a retrial of the count against Testa and Senter on December 30, 1987. In 1988 the Second Circuit held that double jeopardy did not bar that retrial, affirming as to Testa and Senter.
The racketeering charges were tried in a jury trial that the Second Circuit described as lasting sixteen months. Senter was convicted of engaging in a racketeering enterprise in violation of 18 U.S.C. § 1962(c) and of conspiring to do so under § 1962(d), and, with Joseph Testa, of the § 241 count concerning Falcaro. In June 1989 five crew members were found guilty of racketeering and of taking part in 11 murders, and Senter and Testa each received life sentences plus 20 years. An Assistant U.S. Attorney, William Mack Jr., said after the sentencing that the crew was the most violent ever prosecuted in federal court.
Senter and Testa argued on appeal that the length and complexity of the trial denied them a fair trial, that evidence of other members' violence had prejudiced the jury against them, and that the § 241 count required proof that they intended to interfere with Falcaro's status as a federal witness in particular. On January 22, 1992, a Second Circuit panel rejected each argument. It held that knowledge of the specific federal right was not required, only knowledge of the underlying federal crime, knowledge that Falcaro had evidence of it, and action to interfere with his providing that information. Senter's convictions were affirmed.
In December 2023, at the age of 68 and held in Pennsylvania, Senter was approved for release on parole by the U.S. Parole Commission, which set the date for June 2024. A Department of Justice spokeswoman said the commission found that he had substantially observed the rules of the institution and that his release would not jeopardize the public welfare. Rudy Giuliani, who had brought the case as a federal prosecutor, said Senter should die in jail. Whether he walked out on the scheduled date has not been reported.
Section 241 of Title 18 makes it a crime for two or more persons to conspire to injure, oppress, threaten or intimidate any citizen in the free exercise or enjoyment of a right secured by federal law, and the Second Circuit treated the right to be a witness in a federal proceeding as such a right. That requirement of citizenship is why the 1987 reversal turned on Falcaro's status. The racketeering counts rest on 18 U.S.C. § 1962, under which the government must prove an enterprise and a pattern of racketeering activity.
The § 241 count concerning Falcaro is the only murder count tied to him by name. The other murders behind the figure of 11 in the 1989 verdict are not itemized in any published court opinion. No count tied to Daoud's death is identified for Senter. The enterprise's total number of deaths is given as 75 by federal and city authorities and as more than 200 in other estimates, and none of those totals is attributed to a conviction.
January 1, 1972: start of the period charged for the enterprise.
October 12, 1979: date the government alleged for the deaths of Falcaro and Daoud in Brooklyn.
February 28, 1983: end of the charged period.
October 4, 1984: 78-count indictment filed in the Southern District of New York.
September 30, 1985 to March 5, 1986: first trial; jury unable to reach a verdict on Count Four as to Testa and Senter.
January 21, 1987: Second Circuit reverses a co-defendant's § 241 conviction.
December 30, 1987: retrial of the § 241 count ordered.
1988: Second Circuit affirms as to Testa and Senter on double jeopardy.
June 1989: convictions and life sentences plus 20 years reported.
January 22, 1992: Second Circuit affirms Senter's convictions.
December 2023: U.S. Parole Commission sets release for June 2024.