Anthony Center and Joseph Testa, known together as the Gemini Twins, were among the most feared figures in the New York underworld before their convictions in 1989 on racketeering charges and ten counts of murder, which brought their criminal careers to an abrupt end with life sentences in federal prison. Before their association with the Lucchese crime family, the pair were prominent members of the Deo crew, a violent faction within the Gambino crime family. The crew, led by Roy Deo, was suspected of committing anywhere from 75 to 200 murders throughout the mid-1970s and into the 1980s, cementing a reputation for extreme brutality. Anthony Center was born in the Canarsie neighborhood of Brooklyn into a family of Italian immigrants.
His father, Michael Center, hailed from Northern Italy, while his mother originated from a small town in the Italian Alps. The family name was originally Senter but was later anglicized. His uncle, Robert Center, was a known associate of both the Gambino and Colombo crime families and owned a recycling company that became a hub for criminal connections. As a young man, Center split his time between his father’s debris removal business and his uncle’s more lucrative sanitation company, gaining early exposure to the criminal underworld.
In 1977, he married at a grand ceremony in Canarsie attended by several organized crime figures, including Roy Deo himself, solidifying his ties to the mob. Joseph Testa was born in 1955, one of nine children. His brother Pat also became a mobster and joined the Deo crew. Center and Testa became close friends in their youth, bonding after a series of violent incidents, including an attack on a neighbor and a bar fight that left Testa with a punctured lung.
Center hunted down his friend’s assailant and nearly beat him to death. By age 15, Center had already accumulated three auto theft convictions, though his status as a juvenile led to all charges being dismissed. The pair’s constant companionship earned them the nickname the Gemini Twins, a reference to the Gemini Lounge, the central gathering spot for the Deo crew. Their rise in the underworld began when Chris Rosenberg, a trusted associate of Roy Deo, hired them for odd jobs, including detailing cars and stealing vehicles.
Rosenberg eventually introduced the duo to Deo himself, who invited them to join his crew. Center played a key role in generating substantial revenue through auto theft operations, though he was not universally liked. Albert Deo, Roy’s son, harbored personal disdain for him, remarking that there was something slick and phony about Center that he couldn’t trust. On April 19, 1979, Roy Deo mistakenly identified college student Dominic Ruchi as a Cuban hitman and executed him in a public display of violence.
The aftermath forced Deo’s crew into hiding, with Testa and Center fleeing to California. Following the murder of fellow crew member Chris Rosenberg, Testa rose to prominence as Deo’s trusted right-hand man. On January 10, 1983, Roy Deo attended a meeting at Patrick Testa’s auto body shop in Canarsie. Ten days later, his body was discovered in the trunk of his Cadillac in a boat club parking lot, with a chandelier resting atop his corpse.
He had been shot multiple times in the head, and a bullet wound on his hand suggested he had tried to shield himself from the gunfire. Law enforcement initially suspected Anthony Gaggi, a known associate, but no charges were ever brought. Former Lucchese acting boss Anthony Casso later claimed the hit was orchestrated by Joseph Testa and Anthony Center under a contract issued by Gambino boss Paul Castellano and his underboss Frank DeSimone, after earlier attempts to eliminate Deo had failed. Sammy “The Bull” Gravano later revealed that Castellano had grown alarmed by Deo and his crew, who had descended into a killing spree that tarnished the Gambino family’s reputation.
Castellano ordered the elimination of the entire Deo crew, but DeSimone devised an alternative plan. He approached the Gemini Twins, informed them of the hit on their crew, and offered them a choice: turn on Deo and kill him themselves, or die with the rest. The deal sealed Deo’s fate. After the assassination, the Gambino family spared the lives of Testa and Center but refused to formally induct them, viewing their continued association as a liability.
This led to their eventual alignment with Anthony Casso and the Lucchese crime family. Casso later implicated the pair in the June 13, 1986 killing of Vladimir Reznikov, a Russian-American gangster who had reportedly made death threats against Marat Balagula, a dominant figure in the Russian mafia of Brighton Beach. Balagula was also behind a multi-million dollar gasoline bootlegging scheme that had become a significant source of income for the five families. Later that same year, Center and Testa faced legal troubles unrelated to the Reznikov case.
They stood trial for conspiracy to transport stolen vehicles and were also accused of murder. The jury acquitted them of the conspiracy charges but failed to reach a unanimous decision on the murder allegations, leaving the case unresolved. On September 14, 1989, the pair received life sentences for their involvement in multiple murders. Center was incarcerated at the federal penitentiary in Allenwood, Pennsylvania, while Testa served his sentence on Terminal Island.
Their imprisonment did not end the controversy. In 1994, an unusual discovery came to light involving Center’s cousin, who owned a garbage disposal company. Pension contributions had been made to a Teamsters pension account under Center’s name despite his life sentence. An investigation revealed that over $30,000 had been deposited into the account over six years.
The Teamsters Union disqualified Center as a member, and the pension fund rejected his claim. Years later, in a surprising turn, the United States Parole Commission granted Center parole on June 22, 2022, with his release scheduled for June 22, 2024. In December 2023, he was transferred to a halfway house in New York to prepare for reintegration into society. In February 2024, the commission ordered Testa’s release, and he was officially paroled on April 30, 2024, concluding decades of incarceration for both men.
Center and Testa were integral to the Deo crew’s operations and were directly involved in countless murders. The crew is estimated to have killed over 100 people, with the pair often playing key roles in the “Gemini method,” a systematic way of killing and disposing of victims to avoid detection. Their efficiency and brutality set a standard for organized crime enforcement, showing how violence and fear could be used to maintain control, settle disputes, and silence threats. The duo and the Deo crew symbolize the extreme lengths to which organized crime groups went during the mafia’s peak years in the United States.
Their actions contributed to public fear of the mafia and led to intensified law enforcement efforts to dismantle organized crime families. Their downfall highlighted the inevitable collapse of even the most feared mafia figures when faced with relentless government scrutiny. The legacy of Anthony Center and Joseph Testa remains a grim reminder of the violent nature of organized crime during the late 20th century.
Their brutality attracted intense law enforcement attention, and while their actions strengthened the mafia’s grip in the short term, they also hastened its downfall by exposing its vulnerabilities and internal chaos.