https://theirishmob.com/the-james-mcbratney-murder/

According to Jerry Capeci the so-called kidnapping and murder of Emanuel “Manny” Gambino was not a kidnapping at all. In fact, it was a robbery-murder by a gambler who owed Gambino $76,000 and lured him to a deserted Navy base in Monmouth County, NJ where he claimed to have money hidden. Instead, the gambler, Robert Senter, who was the uncle of a future DeMeo crew member and Lucchesse associate Anthony Senter, who owned a sports memorabilia store, shot Gambino in the head and killed him.

A week later, on May 25, 1972, after enlisting three thugs to carry out a kidnap scam, Senter demanded a ransom. Ultimately, Senter pleaded guilty, and gave up the names of his accomplices, and was sentenced to 15 years. His cohorts pleaded guilty to extortion charges, and received lesser prison terms. Warren Schurman and Richard Chaison were named as his accomplices, both of who had worked with James McBratney, McBratney’s name was never mentioned in any account.

In response to the murder of his nephew, Carlo Gambino put a contract for the murder 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.”

The most remarkable part of the whole story is that Senter whacked a Carlo Gambino’s nephew and survived. There was one incident on November 22, 1974, while Senter was housed in the old Federal House of Detention on West Street, he drank strychnine-laced cocoa that someone had kindly offered him. He fell violently ill and was rushed to hospital. There, doctors pumped his stomach, and nursed him back to health.

At least they tried to kill him the strange is that tried only once,maybe the fact that Don Carlo died 2 years after is what saved Senter.