Robert Senter

Henry Robert Senter (c. 1936 Sea Girt, New Jersey) was a Italian-American Gambino crime family mafioso and eventual stool pigeon who was convicted of murdering Emanuel Gambino, the son of Joseph Gambino, and paternal nephew of Gambino patriarch Carlo Gambino. Robert pleaded guilty on June 1, 1973 and was sentenced to fifteen years in prison for Gambino's [...] before being released in 1988. His fellow mob associate and captain, James McBratney was murdered for his own role in orchestrating the kidnapping by Angelo Ruggiero, John Gotti and Ralph Galione. Robert was also an associate of the notorious DeMeo crew with his paternal nephew Anthony Senter, headed by Roy DeMeo.

Biography

Henry Robert Senter was born to Italian-American emigrants from Rovereto, Italy. He started the Canarsie Recycling Company that is located at 8029 Foster Avenue in Canarsie, Brooklyn. While Canarsie Recycling was under his management, Senter was involved in waste management and union racketeering. Robert is a maternal uncle of Dominic Vulpis and the paternal uncle of Irish-Italian mob associate Anthony Senter. Later, after Anthony's father died of a blood clot Henry became the legal guardian of Anthony. Anthony was not under strict parental supervision and abandoned by his father, he soon became involved in organized crime with his uncle Robert. He is the brother of Michael Senter, the father of Anthony Senter and would later be the great uncle of Anthony M. Senter Jr., the son of his nephew.

Senter was a pathological gambler who was a loanshark customer of Emanuel Gambino. On June 1, 1973 Robert pleaded guilty to carrying out the [...] of Emanuel Gambino and was sentenced to fifteen years in prison. Anthony worked as a "numbers runner" for Emanuel Gambino to whom he was indebted for $70,000. It is suggested by crime author Jerry Capeci that Robert associated himself with Roy DeMeo and the DeMeo crew. They used his Canarsie Recycling Company as a burial ground for [...] victims of Roy DeMeo and the Gambino crime family, which his nephew Anthony later became affiliated with. When his uncle Robert went to prison for the [...] of Emanuel Gambino, Anthony was eighteen years old. He was released in 1988.

Kidnapping crew

Sometime in October 1972, Senter was recruited to become a part of the kidnapping-ransom ring with McBratney, along with fellow Irish-American Warren Schurman, Edward Maloney and John Kilcullen and Colombo crime family mob associate Thomas Genovese. The Miano brothers had told McBratney and the others that they only wanted 10% of the ransom payment and had thought up the kidnapping plan for what they called "revenge." He participated in the successful ransom kidnapping of Lucchese crime family made man Francesco Manzo in front of mob associates Jimmy Burke and Henry Hill while dining at a Forest Hills, New York dinner club, The Suite. The crew received a ransom of $150,000 from acting boss Carmine Tramunti from Manzo's safe return. Following the kidnapping of Manzo, Senter and the others were involved in three other successful ransom kidnappings.

The [...] of James McBratney

In response to the kidnapping and [...] of his nephew, Carlo Gambino put a contract for the [...] of the gang's ring leader, James McBratney. He handed the contract to Aniello Dellacroce and offered the person who murdered McBratney immediate initiation into the Gambino crime family as a "made man." On May 22, 1973, Angelo Ruggiero, John Gotti and Ralph Galione entered a bar where McBratney sat. They began pulling McBratney up and away from the bar. Galione told him, "You're under arrest. You've been this route before; don't give us any trouble." After a patron attempted to intervene, Galione fired two shots into the ceiling of the restaurant. Galione ordered the other patrons to stand against a wall, but a waitress had slipped away and called the police from a payphone. McBratney struggled with his attackers and managed to drag all of them several feet toward the end of the bar, could not get free. Galione walked toward McBratney, and fired three times at close range, [...] him.

Gambino [...] investigation

FBI Agent Anthony Villano, in his autobiography Brick Agent, later wrote AbOUT the [...] investigation:

"It took five InterViews with him (Robert Senter) over a period of months before we reconstructed the entire venture. The snatch began as a hoax. Manny Gambino worked out a scenario with his debtor Senter, a friend of Senter's, and two others. Midway through the plot, Gambino's accomplices began to have their doubts. They could see that if things went sour Manny Gambino would give them up, either on a contract to LCN (La Cosa Nostra) friends or to the law. There was an argument in Gambino's Cadillac Eldorado and Senter settled the dispute with a bullet to the back of Manny's head."

Along with confessing to his participation in the kidnapping and [...], he revealed the identity of his two accomplaces, Richard Chaisson and Warren Schurman.

References

• [...] Machine by Gene Mustain and Jerry Capeci
• Tough Guy: The True Story of "Crazy" Eddie Maloney by William Hoffman and Eddie Maloney
• "Men Charged With Kidnapping of a Nephew of Carlo Gambino", The New York Times, Morris Kaplan, December 5, 1972
• "TWO PLEAD GUILTY IN GAMBINO KIDNAP", The New York Times, February 17, 1973
• "Suspect in Slaying of Gambino Admits He Demanded Ransom; Body Found Jan. 26", The New York Times, Morris Kaplan February 6, 1973