By the end of the 1920s the Castellammarese war broke out between two powerful bosses, Joe The Boss Masseria
and Salvatore Maranzano. In 1931 upcoming mob leader Lucky Luciano would devise a
plan to take out both bosses and restructure the way the Mafia operated
as too much bloodshed and public attention was raining down on them.The
first step was taking out Joe the boss and Lucky called on one of his most
trusted hitmen to help him Albert Anastasia. Joe The Boss, his bodyguards
and Lucky Luciano all met at a seafood restaurant at 3:00 p.m. on April 15 1931
the restaurant was one that Masseria visited on numerous occasions called the
Nuova Villa Tammaro on Coney Island Luciano excused himself from a card game
they were playing to pay a visit to the bathroom, this was the signal for the
hitmen to come in Anastasia was seen with Bugsy Siegel pulling up outside the
restaurant next to Joe the boss's armored plated car. Also on the hit was
Vito Genovese and Joe Adonis. Over 20 shots were fired from 32 and 38 caliber
pistols, four of which went straight into the back of Masseria and one into his
head. Months later another hit team went after Maranzano putting an end to the
war and allowing lucky and his aides to restructure the mob and create a
governing body known as the Commission The only thing missing was an
enforcement wing to carry out the orders. Not long after a new mafia gang would
appear on the streets of New York that would strike fear and terror into the
underworld. That gang was Murder Incorporated and at the top of the chain was Albert Anastasia a formidable hitman who controlled the New York waterfront and
the dock worker unions. The press would eventually go on to label him with the
intimidating nickname the Lord High Executioner. Tropea, a small fishing village on the
east coast of Calabria tucked away down in southern Italy. On September 29th 1902
with a peaceful and picturesque seaside town would see the birth of a future mob
leader unlike no other, a man with a volatile temper, a man who used violence
to work his way up the mob ladder, a man would go by the birth name of Umberto
Anastasio, who would go on to lead Murder Incorporated and stamp his mark as one
of history's most feared mafia leaders. Albert was one of 12 children eight
brothers and three sisters his father Rafaela who was a railroad
worker died when Albert was 10 years old he would soon quit school to work as a
deckhand on tramp steamers at the local shipping yard, which helped support his
family. This was a dangerous job and he had to be both mentally and physically
strong something which Albert was. At the age of 15 he left Italy as a stowaway on
a ship bound for New York with his brother Anthony Anastasio. Anthony later
would be known as tough Tony and was the only other member of the family to make
inroads into organized crime. Albert touched down in New York in 1917
with no money, tattered clothes and hardly any education. What he did have
was strength and determination which helped him land a job moving ship cargo
as a longshoreman on the Brooklyn docks. This was a place where he would grow in
stature and power, and a place that in 1942 where he would find himself helping
with the war effort. Those who work the docks had to kick
back part of their wages to the mob but one of the perks of working down the
docks was that the Mafia who controlled it looked the other way when it came to
workers stealing some of the cargo. There would often be confrontations when
workers fought over cargo but nothing compared to what we would see in 1920.
Another worker by the name of Joe Torino got into an argument with 18-year old
Albert over cargo, the verbal agreement turned physical and punches were thrown
before the future mob boss brandished a knife and stabbed Torino to death. Witnesses to
the incident commented on the look on Albert's face and how his eyes looked
cold and dark. A characteristic that would appear years later. He was quickly
convicted of murder and sent up the river to Sing Sing prison to await
execution in the electric chair. He would never make it to the chair
after 18 months his conviction was overturned. Jimmy the Shiv DeStefano was serving time in Sing Sing during the early 1920s. As well as working as the prison barber he was also an aide to the upcoming
Lucky Luciano, DeStefano would report back to the soon-to-be chairman of the
mob that Albert would be a perfect addition to his young group of mobsters
and he was a guy he could really use. Lucky essentially saved Albert's life and
before a new retrial could begin Lucky's hitmen got rid of the witnesses and
Albert walked free from prison on a technicality and into a new life as part
of the Mafia, learning one important key point if you have witnesses get rid of
them. After stepping out of sing-sing as a
free man Albert would soon realize that the world
around him had changed, Prohibition had kicked into force by 1920 and would be
exploited by the mob for years to come The 20 year old Albert Anastasio had
also decided to change his name to Anastasia.
He was now connected to the mob surrounded by the likes of Lucky Luciano,
Meyer Lansky, Frank Costello, and Lepke Buchalter. Anastasia went back to the
waterfront but this time he was controlling local gambling and taking
care of the mobs loan sharking rackets In the 1920s his position and power in
the Longshoremen's Union grew during 1920 to 1923 Anastasia was associated
with some 30 assassinations but wasn't indicted or convicted on any of them. In
April 1923 Anastasia and Biaggio Giordana an early Black Hand member were fired
upon from a ground-floor window as they drove down Sackett Street in Brooklyn
Giordana was killed but Anastasia had a lucky escape, albeit he was badly wounded in the attack. In the same year Anastasia was
caught on a gun possession charge which would see him go back behind bars until
1925. By the end of the 1920s the Castellammarese war broke out between two powerful bosses by the name of Joe The
Boss Masseria and Salvatore Maranzano both men were born in the town of
Castellammare del Golfo in Sicily and both were from the mustache Pete era of
the mob who ran the Mafia in the old-world ways.
Over the next two years we would see one of the bloodiest eras in mob history as
both men fought for power and control on the streets of New York. Lucky Luciano
was the man who managed to put an end to the war in 1931 and restructure how the
Mafia worked, the first step was taking out Joe The Boss with the help of mob
hitman Albert Anastasia. Joe The Boss was dining with Lucky Luciano at his
favorite seafood restaurant on Coney Island at 3:00 p.m. on April 15 1931.
Luciano excused himself from the table to go to the bathroom, at the same time
the hit team rushed the building and fired off shots at the unsuspecting
Masseria. Over 20 shots were fired four of which went straight into the
back of Masseria and one in his head killing him. Later that year it was
Maranzano's turn, but Anastasia was to sit this one out.
Maranzano was taken out in his Manhattan office which paved the way for lucky to
take control of New York. Soon after Luciano created a group
called the Commission which consisted of five mob bosses who all shared equal
power in the hope that this new group would help to avoid any gang wars in the
future by settling disputes in a voting style system. "The Mafia Commission was
created in the wake of the destruction of the old way of doing things basically a Monarchy. Luciano and
his associates despised that concept. The board of directors was comprised of all
the top brass in the mob. Jewish and Italian gangsters were on the board of directors. 1929 Lucky Luciano with the help of his
close associates put together a governing body called the Mafia
Commission. The Commission was made up of New York's top mob bosses with the aim
of helping to settle conflicts between families and to sanction murders, but they
needed an enforcement arm to carry out the hits. A new mafia gang would soon
appear on the streets of New York that would strike fear and terror into the
underworld, that gang was Murder Incorporated and it operated from a
candy store in Brooklyn. At the top of the chain were Lepke Buchalter a labor
racketeer and contracted killer and Albert Anastasia an intimidating hitman
who controlled the New York waterfront and the dock worker unions. Murder Inc
was responsible for over 1,000 estimated mob hits during their active years and
Anastasia would take great pleasure from being a central part of the hits that
were handed down from the Commission Murder Inc was made up of some of the
most ruthless, organized, efficient and effective hitmen under Anastasia's
leadership. Mendy Weiss, born July 1906 in New York. Weiss was one of Lepke Buchalter's most trusted men and was on the scene in the 1935 Dutch Schultz hit. Died March
1944 at the age of 37 in old Sparky Sing Sing prisons electric chair. Harry "Happy" Maione born October 1908 in New York Maione was called happy because he
constantly wore a frown on his face. In 1931 Maione and Abbandando, helped Abe Reles and Martin Goldstein eliminate
the three Shapiro brothers. Died February 1942 at the age of 33 in old Sparky.
Martin Bugsy Goldstein, born October 1905 in New York. Goldstein was a prominent
member of Murder Inc and actually had the tip of his nose blown off during a
shootout with the Shapiro brothers. Died June 1941 at the age of 36 in old
Sparky. Charles "The Bug Workman born October 1908 in New York, responsible for
the Dutch Schultz murder in 1935 and one of the few hitmen that didn't end up
sitting in old Sparky or slain, he did however end up with life imprisonment
but was released in 1964. Died in 1979 at the age of 70 of natural causes.
Harry "Pittsburgh Phil" Strauss, born 1909 in New York Strauss was one of the most
prolific killers in the gang using a variety of methods that included
shooting, stabbing with ice picks, drowning, live burial, and strangulation.
Died 1941 at the age of 31 in old Sparky. Frank "The Dasher" Abbandando. Born 1910 in New York, Abbandadno loved to stab his victims through the heart with an
ice pick as his favorite method of killing. It was reported he displayed no
fear and seemed to find a morbid humor in the proceedings surrounding his fate.
Died February 1942 at the age of 31 in old Sparky. Abe "Kid Twist" Reles
born 1906 in New York. Perhaps one of the most famous members who turned informant
was Reles, he was responsible for the executions of many key Murder Inc
members including one of the bosses Lepke. He was ultimately the reason for
the downfall of Murder Inc, however he wouldn't live for long himself. Died
November 1941 at the age of 35 from falling out of a window before he could
give evidence that would have led to the conviction and possible execution of
Albert Anastasia. Lepke Buchalter, born February 1897 in
New York. Lepke was the oldest member of the squad
and was one of the premiere labor racketeers in New York City during that
era, he was also a close friend of Anastasia's and is the only American mob
boss to have received the death penalty. Died March 1944 at the age of 47 in old
Sparky. One thing that Anastasia made sure of during his time with Murder Inc
was the valuable lesson he learned in prison. Get rid of your witnesses. 1932
Anastasia was indicted on charges of murdering another man with an icepick
but the case was dropped due to the lack of witnesses. 1933 Joe Santoro a laundry
man working in New York didn't like paying kickbacks to the mob so the mob
taught him a lesson. Santoro was gunned down by Anastasia in
front of witnesses but suddenly the witnesses suffered from amnesia or went
missing. 1939 Pete Panto a longshoreman who organized a rank-and-file revolt to
rid the Union of racketeering was silenced by Anastasia it was strangled
and buried in a lime pit. it was 1935 that would be a year when
Murder Inc would be tested and that would come from the assassination of
Dutch Schultz the beer Baron of the Bronx, it was in fact Anastasia that got
the ball rolling in the plot to try and assassinate Thomas Dewey who was an
emerging threat to the mafia and their operations.
Anastasia staked out Dewey's Fifth Avenue apartment and noted his morning
routine, he even borrowed a baby carriage to walk past his apartment acting as a
doting father just to get closer to Dewey. As soon as the Commission got wind
of what he was up to they pulled him in and told him not to take out Dewey
because of the intense heat it would bring down on the mobs hierarchy.
Anastasia took the hint but the Dutchman didn't. Dutch Schultz who was under
investigation by special prosecutor Thomas Dewey was on the verge of being
convicted for tax evasion, in an effort to avert his conviction Schultz asked
the Commission for permission to take out Dewey, The Commission denied his
request as it would bring down too much heat on the mob but Schultz who had a
fiery temper decided he would find a way to take Dewey out of the game and
approached Albert Anastasia for help. Anastasia aware of the repercussions
took his information to Luciano and the Commission who held an emergency meeting. The
result of that meeting equalled a contract on the Dutchman. Dutch Schultz
was shot once below the heart in the bathroom of the palace Chop House
restaurant but managed to stagger out and sit at a table. The hit was carried
out by Murder Inc members Charles Workman and Mendy Weiss acting on orders
handed down from Lepke Buchalter despite Anastasia and Luciano attempting to
avert law enforcement interest by taking Schultz out of the equation it backfired, Dewey needed someone else to focus on and that man was now Lucky Luciano. On
June 7th 1936 Luciano was convicted on sixty two counts of forced prostitution
and was handed a 30 to 50 years sentence. This would rock the underworld,
the chairman of the mob had been scooped up and if they could get him they could
get anyone. During 1937 things were quiet and Anastasia took this opportunity to
marry the 19 year old Elsa Barnesi see Elsa 18 years Anastasia's junior had moved
from Canada to New York and together they had two sons and two daughters. When
asked about her husband and his connection to the New York underworld
she refused that he was anything but a hard-working, honest and law-abiding
citizen. Anastasia would claim that he owned a dress Factory and was a mattress
salesman. Elsa claimed that he was a regular churchgoer, that he never drank
and that he was home by 9:00 p.m. every night. Their marriage would last right up
until Anastasia's assassination in 1957. It is then alleged that Elsa changed her
name back to Barnesi and moved back to Canada sometime in the late 1950s. Married life certainly didn't get
between him and the mob though and Anastasia was once again called upon.
Murder Inc frontman Lepke Buchalter was on the verge of being convicted on
racketeering and narcotics charges and asked for Anastasia's help in hiding him
and disposing witnesses. Anastasia did just that.
Over a dozen witnesses disappeared and Lepke went into hiding over the next few
years. A national and international manhunt was organized to find Buchalter
with the government offering a $5,000 reward for information leading to his
capture. Sightings were reported from Poland and the UK but Anastasia had
hidden him right under everyone's noses in Brooklyn. May 25th
1939 Murder Inc hitmen and close associate of the Lord High Executioner
Jack "The Dandy" Parisi was given the job to kill teamster official and Buchalter witness Morris Diamond. Diamond was a key witness in one of Buchalter's cases and needed to be removed. 6:15 p.m. Diamond is spotted walking
down the street on his daily commute Parisi approached him from the other
side of the street, his gun concealed by a newspaper. As Parisi got closer he
lowered his paper and blasted Diamond. Anastasia watched the events unfold from
further down the street. The murder wasn't enough though and the heat from
law officials on the mob was getting hotter by the minute. The Commission
pushed Anastasia to give up Buchalter. It was time for Anastasia to pick
between his friend and the mob, he chose the mob.
Anastasia would speak with a now unrecognizable Buchalter who had been
in hiding for over three years sporting a mustache and having put on an extra
few pounds of weight. Anastasia told him the lawyers had managed to cut him a
deal with the FBI and he would only have to serve a few
years behind bars. On August 24th 1939 Buchalter turned himself in. Radio
broadcaster Walter Winchell negotiated the deal and
sent out a broadcast across the airwaves to Lepke to hand himself over.
Lepke phoned Winchell and the radio broadcaster told Lepke to be at 28th
Street and Fifth Avenue at just after 10:00 p.m. that evening and to be alone.
Unknown to Winchell more than two dozen agents had the corner under surveillance.
Having picked up Lepke several blocks away Winchell pulled up beside J Edgar Hoover's
car which was parked in front of a Manhattan hotel. Winchell and Lepke left
their vehicle and jumped in the back of Hoover's limousine, this was the end of
the road for Buchalter he was later charged with a 1936 killing of Joseph
Rosen a Brooklyn candy store owner who refused to leave town when told to buy
Buchalter. The conversation to kill Rosen was overheard by mob turncoat Abe
Reles. By 1944 Lepke was sitting in old Sparky and would make history as the
first mob boss who ever been put to death by execution. The downfall of
Murder Inc came in 1940 when one of Anastasia's best hit men turned
government informant giving up everything on Murder Inc including
unsolved murders all in an effort to save himself from going to the electric
chair after being implicated in several murders. Key Murder Inc members all ended up in the electric chair based on Reles' testimony including
Lepke Buchalter. Next on the cards was the Lord High Executioner and Reles had
plenty of dirt on the Murder Inc boss including the 1939 murder of Morris
Diamond and the 1939 murder of Union longshoreman Pete Panto. However unlike
Lepke, Anastasia had connections and power within the mob and it would be
this key element that would help him in 1941. " Frank's nickname was the prime
minister of the underworld that'll tell you a little bit about what
kind of a mobster he was. He wasn't known to be prone to violence he liked to
solve problems diplomatically when he could but he was living in a world where
that wasn't always possible and when you're swimming in such deep waters you
got to make friends with some sharks and that's what he did and he made alliances
with guys like Albert Anastasia who provided him with muscle and in turn he
provided them with political support and political cover" November 1941 Abe Reles was staying at the Half Moon Hotel on Coney Island, his room was under 24-hour
FBI protection guards were everywhere and no one could get close to the former
Murder Inc hitman. The FBI were under strict instructions to keep him safe
until he could testify against Anastasia the last mobster he would testify
against and send to the chair. November 12th 1941 Abe Reles was found dead on the roof of the hotels restaurant in what was believed to have been a suicide
attempt from his window up on the fifth floor, others believe he was pushed from
the window and the knotted bed sheets that hung from his room were simply a
diversion to make it look like suicide. In a grand jury testimony all five
policemen who were placed in charge of keeping Reles safe all claimed to have
fallen asleep, as events unfolded they knew nothing heard nothing saw nothing.
With no evidence of who killed him charges on Anastasia were dropped, but what we do know is that an attempt to kill Reles could not have been sanctioned
without Anastasia's approval. District Attorney William O'Dwyer said the
perfect case on Anastasia had collapsed. During 1942 Anastasia had signed up to
the army as a tech sergeant a job that would help him with his application to
become a naturalized citizen that he was granted a year later in 1943, before
being discharged from the Army due to his age in 1944. By 1945 Anastasia had
moved to a fortress of a mansion located on the Palisades cliffs at 75 Bluff Road
Fort Lee New Jersey with sweeping views of Manhattan and just around the corner
from Joe Adonis. The 1.3 acre estate had 34 rooms five bathrooms and had barbed wire
across the perimeter of the compound complete with two large Dobermans, his
new mansion was one giant leap up from Pioneer Street in red Hook's Little
Italy where he lived during the 1920s and 1930s after stepping out of Sing
Sing. The mansion some 20 miles north of his pioneer Street routes would soon
become a focal point in an upcoming tax evasion scandal in the 1950s and would
see more bodies lining the streets of America. Anastasia claimed to have earned
$145 and listed his occupation as a dress contractor for the Madison Dress
company, he also listed a few other occupations over the years including a
four-year stretch between 1936 to 1940 where he was in the cheese business,
however none of these jobs could have given him the financial backing to
purchase a $100,000 property with the eyes of the law on him and the FBI
questioning everyone around him Anastasia called on his first ever
lesson get rid of potential witnesses. In April 1954 his bodyguard Vincent Macri
was killed, Macri knew too much about Anastasia's financial affairs and could
have been a witness in his tax evasion trial. A year later in May 1955 plumber
Charles Ferri and his wife were killed Ferri was on the verge of testifying on
the services he had provided Anastasia in his Fort Lee mansion,a
total cost of services which were around $9,000. Ferri was never found, his house
and yard were covered in blood and a pair of blood-soaked shoes were the only
things found. With many witnesses dead or having disappeared Anastasia's charges
were reduced and he was given a one-year prison sentence. With Murder Inc no longer operating
Anastasia would go back to being just an underboss to Vincent Mangano, however
after being the leader of his own gang for years Anastasia wasn't about to
settle as an underboss to a boss he didn't respect or see eye-to-eye with. A
Power Move was about to take place in the Mafia that would enrage the
Commission and cause friction between families, and once again Anastasia was at
the center of it. Vincent Mangano who sat at the top of what is now known as the
Gambino crime family since 1931 back when Lucky Luciano had restructured the
mob and created a governing body to settle disputes and feuds between
families, after 20 years enough was enough for Anastasia, the heated tension
between the two mobsters stirred in with a resentment that Mangano had with
Anastasia's close ties to Lucky Luciano and Frank Costello finally hit boiling
point. In April 1951 mob boss Vincent Mangano and his brother Philip Mangano
were declared missing in 1951. Philips body was found and recovered in April of
that year from a Brooklyn swamp, he had been shot once in each cheek and once in
the neck. As for Vincent, his body was never found.
Anastasia if found guilty had just broken an important mafia rule that was
punishable by death. The killing of a mob boss. After
Vincent's disappearance and a confirmed death of Philip, Anastasia declared
himself boss of the family, however he wasn't in the clear just yet as the
Commission had called him to a meeting. Anastasia went into the meeting claiming
that the Mangano brothers wanted to kill him and he acted in self-defense.
With the backing of his ally Frank Costello and other members of the ruling panel, the Commission officially confirmed Albert Anastasia as the new family boss. Just months after taking the helm at the
top of the crime family tree Anastasia found himself in hot water and having to
answer to the Commission once again, this time with fellow mobster Willie Moretti
who was underboss to his cousin and current boss of the Luciano family Frank
Costello. Anastasia and Moretti were acting as emissaries for the purpose of
paying off a convicted bookmaker to keep him silent. Moretti was given the job of
handling the payment which was said to have been $200,000, the only problem that
wasn't the amount already handed over, and the Commission wanted to know why.
Anastasia claimed that he had nothing to do with a payoff so his life was spared,
Moretti he wasn't as lucky. On October 4th 1951 Moretti attended a lunch time
sitting with four other mobsters at Joe's Elbowroom Restaurant in New Jersey,
at 11:28 a.m. the restaurant staff heard shots fired and ran into the dining room,
Moretti was lying dead on his back on the floor with bullet wounds to the face
and head. The hit was said to have been a mercy killing orders passed down by Vito
Genovese, which it was in many ways but the Moretti killing was much more than
that as well, he had double-crossed the mob, something
that didn't go too well for Bugsy Seigel a few years earlier in 1947. It wasn't long until Anastasia was once
again in the limelight and once again for all the wrong reasons, this time he
had broken another mafia rule, the killing of a citizen. In 1952 Albert
Anastasia was living in a fortified mansion in New Jersey and for the first
time since the Murder Inc days he was a mob boss, he was also becoming more
uncontrollable, more volatile, and was on the verge of putting another nail into
his coffin. February 20th 1952 Willie Sutton a Mafia
connected bank robber is captured by police after being spotted on a subway
and then followed on foot by 24-year old clothing salesman an amateur detective
Arnold Schuster, the news of the capture made it not only to the front of
newspapers but also onto national TV. Schuster was interviewed on TV near his
home discussing the apprehension of the bank robber, the broadcast was seen by
many including the Lord High Executioner who was said to have been outraged that
Schuster had ratted out Willie Sutton. According to government informant Joe
Valachi during the 1963 McLellan hearings Anastasia had issued the order
to silence the clothing salesman and it was carried out less than a month after
his TV appearance. On the 9th of March 1952 Schuster was shot twice in the groin
and once in each eye, the mob punishment for squealing. May 1955 the Lord High Executioner is
found guilty of tax evasion for under reporting the income he earned from
the late 1940s, despite his best efforts to get rid of witnesses and dodge the
case that was building against him, he was finally sentenced to a year behind
bars. While he was serving the first two months of his sentence the government
were also pursuing a petition to revoke Anastasia's citizenship so he could be
deported back to Italy, by late 1955 the deportation ruling had been overturned
and Anastasia was free to remain in the US. After Anastasia's tax evasion stretch
was up in 1956 he came out in the middle of a new power grab.
Lucky was gone. Lepke was gone. Murder Inc was no more. There was just him and
Costello, but Costello was about to have a close encounter of his own kind in May
1957 with a power-hungry and violent mobster called Vito Genovese, who was
conspiring a power move with Albert Anastasia's underboss Carlo Gambino. Vito
Genovese had patiently waited ten years to attempt to hit on Costello and that
time came in 1957. Genovese had ordered Vincent "Chin" Gigante to assassinate
Costello as he was walking to the elevator in the lobby of his Manhattan
apartment, as Costello got closer to the elevator
Gigante who was behind him shouted out "This is for you Frank!" Frank then turned
around quickly and the bullet somehow inflicted minor damage across his head.
Gigante thinking he had just killed Costello fled the scene. If Gigante
hadn't alerted Costello he would have been killed. This close shave was enough
to make Frank step down his boss and hand the family over to Genovese, and as
Lucky was still held up in prison he was powerless to stop Genovese.
This now left Albert Anastasia open to attack as he had lost all of his allies.
"Well when it comes to the hit on Frank Costello depending on what you read
and what time frame that was written, you get vastly different reports on the
subject, if you read stuff from the early days like some of the early
newspaper articles that were written around the time that the hit on Frank
Costello happened which was in 1957 and some of the earlier books on him like this
one, they claimed that they were actually enemies and that it was Albert Anastasia who orchestrated the hit on Frank. People accept that Vito Genovese had
orchestrated the hit on Frank Costello. A lot of times what you'll, you'll hear too
is that Vito got rid of Albert Anastasia to kind of weaken Frank Costello and
then went after Frank, but when you look at those hits it's actually backwards
Frank Costello was hit first and it was Albert Anastasia that was hit a few
months afterwards." With Genovese turning mobsters against Anastasia and gaining
followers of his own the Lord High Executioner's place at the top was
becoming much more unstable, so much so that he started to encroach on Meyer
Lansky's territory and take control over some of the Havana casino operations.
Meyer had always been part of that core group of allies but this new bid to
muscle in on his turf had angered Lansky. Vito Genovese and Carlo Gambino were now
primed to take out the former Murder Inc mob boss and instill Gambino as the new
leader of the Anastasia family. 26th October 1957 the evening before
Anastasia was gunned down Santo Trafficante
a mob boss and powerhouse who operated in Florida had come into town to discuss
business with Anastasia. The two mobsters were looking to make inroads into a new
hotel in Cuba, an area where Trafficante already had interests. Information later obtained speculated that Trafficante was trying to convince
Anastasia to invest in a casino within the Hilton Hotel in Havana it was also
alleged that Trafficante had major involvement in the murder plot on
Anastasia due to the Mad Hatter's attempt to shoulder in on fellow mob
leaders Cuban interests. The meeting ended in the evening, Anastasia would
return home for the last time. October 27 1957 10:00 a.m. it was around 40 degrees
Fahrenheit that morning in Manhattan, Anastasia and his bodyguard Anthony
Coppola pulled up outside the Park Sheraton. The Park Sheraton was built in
the pre-depression late 20s with its grand opening taking place on June 12th
1927. Just over a year after the opening it would hit the newspapers as being the
site of a high-profile mob shooting. On November 1928 the 46 year old
businessman and mob kingpin Arnold Rothstein was gunned down during
a business meeting at the hotel which resulted due to his failure to pay
gambling debts exceeding three hundred thousand dollars (over four million
dollars in today's money) twenty nine years later it was home to another
high-profile mob hit... Anastasia stepped out of the car and
entered Arthur Grasso's barber shop for his regular haircut, shave, and hot towel
Coppola parked the car in the underground garage
leaving Anastasia on his own with the barber. He was in the process of having a
hot towel shave, the barber had just applied the towel to his face as two
gunmen walked into the shop. The two men, faces covered with scarves to protect
their identity, ushered the barber to one side.
With Anastasia in a state of relaxation and the barber safely out of the way the
gunman unleashed a tirade of bullets at the chair.
Anastasia leapt up pulling the towel off his face, he lunged forward at what he
thought were the attackers but in that moment of complete confusion,
disorientation and panic what he actually lunged at was the mirror
showing their reflections as they stood behind the Lord High executioner firing
at him. Bullets ripped through his back, hip and hand and as the Lord High
Executioner dropped a final bullet was fired into his head. The air fell quiet as
the gunman made their escape and on the floor, on his back, in a pool of blood
swathed in white towels was Albert Anastasia, dead. His funeral took place just 24 hours
later on 28th October at Greenwood Cemetery in South Brooklyn. Just 12
people attended the ceremony including his oldest son Albert jr. His Wife and
bodyguard Anthony Coppola were arrested after the
funeral to undergo questioning. There wasn't any spectacular send-off
like you would see with most mob bosses or mobsters with notable power, no key
mafia members attended either, which sent a clear message that Anastasia had been
outcasted by this time. In February 1958 a few months after the hit on the Lord
High Executioner word got out that the Irish mob were in a war with him over
control of the Brooklyn waterfront. With orders coming down from Carlo Gambino to Joe Profaci, two hitmen were said to have disposed of Anastasia. Allegedly the
Gallo crew headed by crazy Joe gallo were given the contract. The hitmen fled
to Cleveland not long after the barbershop event, and it is said that the
fate of the two mobsters were to be discussed at the infamous Apalachin
meeting a few months later. To this day though no one truly knows who the hitmen
were. Months after the death of Albert Anastasia, Vito Genovese summoned all the
mobs top echelon to a meeting in Apalachin The purpose of the meeting was to
announce his leadership of his own crime family and to also discuss Mafia
operations. Over 100 high-profile mobsters attended the meeting which
roused suspicion from the local police who in turn notified the FBI. During the
meeting the house was raided and 58 arrests were made. Rather than helping
propel Vito Genovese into the mafia limelight as the new boss of bosses, this
was to be the beginning of the end for Don Vito, as many mobsters blamed him for
the unwanted press and attention that the mafia had as a result of this police
raid. Vito Genovese was eventually set up by Lucky Luciano in the year following
the Apalachin disaster and was indicted on charges of conspiring to
import and sell narcotics. He was jailed in 1959 for 15 years
and eventually died from a heart attack in 1969. As for Carlo Gambino, he went on
to make a great success of his position at the top of the crime family changing
its name to what we know it as today the Gambino crime family. He lived until 1976
aged 74. That day in 1957 in the barber shop at the Park Sheraton brought a
close to one of the most violent eras of organized crime and as one chapter in
mob history drew too close it left the door wide open to a whole
new chapter in the Mafia "Did Lucky Luciano setup Vito Genovese?
well it wouldn't be surprising if he did
considering the Genovese, one-time friend had basically turned against another
close friend Frank Costello, and tried to have him assassinated. So it really
wouldn't be a surprise if Lucky Luciano and Meyer Lansky
would have set up or assisted in law enforcement
setting up Vito Genovese." "Now whether or not I think Albert
Anastasia and Frank Costello were allies or enemies, I think that there were more
more likely allies. There's a lot of stories that came out after from Frank
Costello's lawyer. This one here Prime Minister of the underworld by George Woolf
who you can see in this cool picture with Frank Costello. He seems to think
that they were friends and he was a lawyer to both of them so I think he would
have known probably if they would have been enemies. He would have written about
that, that would have been something good to to write about. And Ed Bennett Williams he
says the same thing in his book - and he was a lawyer to both of them as well. He's
got stories in there of the two of them being together and seemingly getting
along so I think you know as far as what I believe I think that they were
actually allies."
