Joseph Testa was a member of a Brooklyn crew attached to a Gambino organized crime family, and in June 1989 a federal jury in Manhattan convicted him of racketeering and of taking part in murders charged as racketeering acts. Seven men of the crew were convicted at the same trial. Five of them, Testa among them, were found guilty of taking part in at least ten murders. Judge Vincent Broderick sentenced him to life in federal custody plus 20 years.
The crew carried out killings for money between the late 1970s and the early 1980s. He was released on parole in 2024, after about 35 years, and died in January 2026 at the age of 71.
Testa was born in the mid-1950s and was in his twenties when the killings began. The crew he belonged to worked out of Brooklyn and was linked to the Gambino organized crime family. Prosecutors described it as a murder-for-hire group whose members were also charged with extortion, drug trafficking and car theft. Testa worked alongside Anthony Senter, a man of nearly the same age, who was tried with him at the same trial and received the same sentence. Senter's own release on parole was announced in December 2023, with the date set for June 2024.
Federal prosecutors in the Southern District of New York, whose office was led at the time by Rudolph Giuliani, charged the crew under the racketeering statute known as RICO. The statute allows the members of an enterprise to be tried together on a pattern of crimes committed for it, and the Manhattan prosecutors had already used it against the leaders of the Mafia Commission, who were convicted in late 1986.
The trial began in 1988 and lasted about 17 months. Murders were alleged as racketeering acts within the racketeering counts. Prosecutor William Mack Jr. later described the crew as the most violent ever prosecuted in federal court.
In June 1989 the jury found seven members of the crew guilty of racketeering. Five of them, Testa and Senter among them, were also found guilty of taking part in murders charged as racketeering acts, at least ten in all.
Judge Broderick imposed life plus 20 years on Testa. He said the crimes were "so horrendous and so inhumane and so unbelievable" that Testa had to be kept from committing more of them. Senter received the same term.
Testa appealed together with other co-defendants, and the Second Circuit decided the appeals on January 22, 1992, in a decision reported as United States v. DiNome, 954 F.2d 839. He remained in federal custody for about the next three decades.
Testa was paroled in 2024, at the age of 69, after about 35 years in federal custody. Senter was released in June 2024.
Testa died in January 2026, aged 71, about two years after his release.
Under the racketeering statute, prosecutors charge a defendant with taking part in an enterprise through a pattern of listed crimes, and murder is one of the acts that can be alleged. The Manhattan federal prosecutors of the 1980s used it to try organized crime figures as members of an enterprise. In the Mafia Commission case, prosecutor Michael Chertoff called the case the first against the Mafia as a criminal enterprise, and a jury convicted eight men in late 1986. The trial of Testa's crew followed in 1988 and 1989 with murders as the alleged acts.
An investigator connected Testa's group to 79 murders. Authorities have cited at least 75 deaths for the crew as a whole, and independent researchers have given higher totals. These are estimates, and none was put to a jury as a conviction of Testa beyond the murders in the 1989 verdict.
Late 1970s to early 1980s: the crew's murders for hire in and around Brooklyn.
1988: the federal racketeering trial begins in Manhattan.
June 1989: seven members of the crew are found guilty; Testa is convicted of racketeering and of murders as racketeering acts.
1989: Testa is sentenced to life plus 20 years.
January 22, 1992: the Second Circuit decides the appeals (954 F.2d 839).
December 2023: Senter's parole is announced, with release set for June 2024.
2024: Testa is paroled after about 35 years.
January 2026: Testa dies at the age of 71.