In the criminal underworld of 1980s Brighton Beach, Brooklyn, Vladimir Reznikov, a 44-year-old male of Russian-American descent, made a name for himself as a formidable and feared figure. His life, however, came to a violent end on Friday, June 13, 1986, in a meticulously planned assassination.
Reznikov's death was rooted in a power struggle with Marat Balagula, a prominent figure in a massive gasoline bootlegging scheme.
Just a day before his murder, on June 12, 1986, Reznikov had confronted Balagula at his Odessa nightclub, demanding a significant sum of money and a partnership in the lucrative operation. This brazen move proved to be a fatal miscalculation. Feeling threatened, Balagula sought the help of his allies in the Lucchese crime family, one of the major Italian-American Mafia families in New York City.
Lucchese underboss Anthony 'Gaspipe' Casso took charge of the situation. Balagula was instructed to lure Reznikov back to the Odessa nightclub with the promise of his money. When Reznikov arrived on June 13th, he was ambushed. As he returned to his car, he was fatally shot by Joseph Testa and Anthony Senter, two notorious hitmen from the DeMeo crew, acting on Casso's orders.
For years, Reznikov's murder remained officially unsolved. The silence was finally broken in 1994 when Anthony Casso, after his own arrest, became a government witness. In his debriefings, Casso confessed to his role in a multitude of crimes, including orchestrating the murder of Vladimir Reznikov. He detailed how the hit was planned and identified Testa and Senter as the men who pulled the triggers. While Casso was ultimately sentenced to 455 years in prison for a litany of charges including racketeering, extortion, and multiple murders, the specific legal outcomes for Testa and Senter in relation to Reznikov's death are less clearly documented in public sources.
