MOB BADA-SPRING
Gambino killer serving life out in April
Notorious Gambino crime family hitman Joey Testa will be out on the streets in April after 35 years behind bars, the Federal Bureau of Prisons announced — just weeks after The Post reported on the release of Testa’s partner Anthony Senter, the other half of the murderous duo known as the Gemini Twins.
Testa, 69, and Senter, 68, were paroled after serving a fraction of the life-plus-20-year sentences they were handed in 1989 for participating in at least 11 murders, the feds confirmed.
“Joey’s had serious medical problems for years, and he has done well in prison,” Testa’s attorney Linda Sheffield told The Post. “Those are things that play into setting a release date.”
In the 1970s and 1980s, Testa and Senter belonged to a mob crew run by Gambino made man Roy DeMeo. The crew used the Gemini Lounge in Flatlands, Brooklyn, as the launchpad for murders, car thefts, drug trafficking and other crimes.
“It was a regular blue-collar place,” a onetime Gemini Lounge regular recalled of the bar, which has since become a storefront church. “You didn’t know that there was a murderous maniac running around.”
The inseparable Testa and Senter, pals since childhood, spent so much time at the hangout that they were dubbed the Gemini Twins.
Federal and city authorities traced at least 75 deaths and disappearances to DeMeo’s crew — and independent researchers put their savage toll at more than 200.
Witnesses for the prosecution in Testa’s 1989 trial revealed that those marked for death would be lured to an apartment-turned-slaughterhouse next to the Gemini Lounge.
“When the [victim] would walk in, somebody would shoot him in the head with a silencer,” former gang member Dominick Mantiglio told the court. “Somebody would wrap a towel around to stop the blood and somebody would stab him in the heart to stop the blood from pumping.”
Crew members would haul their prey into the bathtub to let his blood drain away, then “take him apart and package him,” Mantiglio testified — dumping the body parts in a nearby landfill. Many of the gang’s alleged targets were never found.
But because his crimes were committed prior to 1987, when new federal sentencing guidelines kicked in, Testa became eligible for parole after serving just 10 years of his lifetime term, according to the US Parole Commission.
Nephew and godson Tony Testa, 44, said the family is thrilled to see the ex-mobster set free.
“The Lord is amazing,” said Testa, a real-estate developer in Commack, LI. “Uncle Joey did his time, he never complained. And the parole board saw that he’s served his penance.”
While Senter, scheduled to be released in June, is already living in a New York City halfway house, Testa will likely reside with his wife JoAnn, 71, in Nevada, Sheffield said.