Albert Anastasia
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Albert Anastasia (born Umberto Anastasio; September 26, 1902 – October 25, 1957), was an Italian Gangster in New York known for controlling Murder Inc and later the Gambino crime family through 1951 to 1957. His assassination is still today one of the most notorious mob slayings in history.
Early years in America
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Albert Anastasia was born in Tropea, Calabria, Italy. His father died when Albert was only 10 and lived with 12 other family members. Shortly after his fathers' death he left school and worked on building large ships. In 1917, he illegally moved away from Italy and came into New York aged 15. Anastasia came to America poor and attended school but couldn't read or write. He later looked for work at a waterfront looking for a job as a longshoreman. Later he got a job but was owned by mob bosses and had to pay tribute, so gave them half of his salary. Anastasia lost his temper over a man on the waterfront over cargo business, pulled a knife out and stabbed him several times, eventually killing him. He was sentenced to death at Sing Sing prison. In prison he had to fight his way through and got the attention of a barber at Sing Sing, Jimmy "The Shiv" DeStefano, who was very connected to The American Mafia and to Lucky Luciano. The Barber told Luciano that he needed someone like Albert Anastasia. Luciano managed to have a re-trial for Anastasia and killed many witnesses for Anastasia and a judge set Anastasia free.
On April 6, 1923 felonious assault involving a shooting (discharged).
On June 6 1928 carrying a gun, sentenced to an indeterminate term on Blackwell’s Island.
FamilyEdit
Anastasia married a 19 year old Canadian woman in 1937. In 1938, Albert Anastasia Jr. was born. Anastasia covered his crime life and told his wife that he owned a mattress shop and a suit factory in Philadelphia. Albert Jr. had an illegitimate son, Carl, in Harlem by his black housekeeper in 1959.
Criminal powerEdit
New York boss, Albert Anastasia.
Albert Anastasia soon worked with Meyer Lansky, Louis Buchalter and Frank Costello. He became a hit man and enforcer for Luciano and his associates and soon earned his nickname "Lord High Executioner." After Salvatore Maranzanoand Joe Masseria were killed, Lucky Luciano formed The Commission and appointed Vincent Mangano as boss of the Gambino crime family. Mangano made Anastasia underboss in 1931 and head of his Brooklyn rackets. He soon became Leader of Murder, Inc. and Abe Reles became an enforcer. Charles Luciano used Murder Inc for murder and to enforce his authority. Joe Santora worked in laundry and when he didn't pay his tribute to Anastasia, he shot and killed Santora on August 2, 1933 and was suspected of murder. The witness changed his story in court and denied Anastasia killed him because he was frightened of his reputation. Thomas Dewey, who closed down on organized crime and convicted Charles Luciano of prostitution, tried to convict Louis Buchalter of Racketeering. Anastasia helped Buchalter hide in his Brooklyn neighborhood. Anastasia helped his friend and murdered around 14 key witnesses and 1 secretary to Dewey. Louis Buchalter was convicted of racketeering and drugs by J. Edgar Hoover and was sentenced to 14 years in prison. Thomas Dewey convicted him of murder on November 30, 1941 and was sentenced to death by electric chair. Facing the death penalty, Reles became an informant and was scheduled to testify, but was found murdered on the roof of a hotel where he was staying.
In 1932 Anastasia was reportbly involved in the kidnapping of Isidore Juffe for which Joe Adonis was indicated; despite the fact Juffe recognized Anastasia as an assailant, he was not indicated or convicted (three witness turned up dead).
From 1942 to 1944 he was a member of the US Army and reached the rank of Technical Sgt. His specialty was teaching soldiers to be longshoremen in Indiantown Pa; he was honorably discharged (for being over age) and given US Citizenship.
Gambino crime familyEdit
By 1951, Anastasia turned the New York Harbor into whole Crime. He had been serving Vincent Mangano for 20 years as underboss. Anastasia soon invested in legitimate business in real estate and bought a mansion above the Hudson River in New Jersey. Philip Mangano (Vincent's brother) was found shot in Jamaica Bay, Brooklyn river. He had been shot twice in the face and once in the neck. Vincent Mangano was never found. Albert Anastasia became boss and broke Lucky Luciano's rule against killing a boss. Anastasia claimed Mangano had attacked him and he had killed him in self defense. Vito Genovese then marked Anastasia as a dead man because he killed his own boss. But in 1954 the FBI attempted to convict him of tax evasion as they did with Al Capone. Anastasia soon got involved in gambling in Cuba. Meyer Lansky warned him against it but Anastasia refused. Lansky went to The Commission, and Vito Genovese and the other bosses agreed to get rid of Anastasia.
DeathEdit
Albert Anastasia after his haircut
Vito Genovese asked Carlo Gambino to set it up. On October 25, 1957 at about 10 a.m., Anastasia walked into a barber Shop in Manhattan and sat at chair No. 4. After his bodyguard went outside for a walk, two men walked into the shop and shot him. Anastasia lunged toward the shooters reflection in a mirror but collapsed and died.
People murdered by Albert AnastasiaEdit
Order: Nº. Name/Rank/Affiliation/When/Involvement/Reason
- George Turino/None/Independent/March 17, 1921/Personal/Anastasia had an argument with Turino and killed him.
- Carmello Ferraro/None/Independent/August 16, 1922/Personal/Anastasia "discharged"; reportably case was dropped due to lack of evidence and witnesses
- Carmine Centatiempe/None/Independent/August 13, 1928/Personal/Anastasia was charged with a murder in brooklyn but the case was dropped due to a lack of evidence and witnesses.
- Peter Morello/Boss/Morello crime family/August 15, 1930/Personal/Anastasia killed him in the Castellamarese war.
- Giuseppe Masseria/Boss/Masseria crime family/April 15, 1931/Personal/Anastasia was on the team of hitmen that murdered Masseria to end the Castellamarese war.
- John Bazzano Sr./Boss/Pittsburgh crime family/August 5, 1932/Personal/Anastasia personally murdered Bazzano with an ice pick because of a dispute between the Pittsburgh crime family and the Mangano crime family.
- Joseph Santori (Santora)/None/Independent/August 10, 1933/Personal/The victim was a laundry worker who had an argument with Anastasia, he murdered the laundry worker, case was dropped due to a lack of evidence and witnesses.
- Morris Diamond/None/Independent/May 1939/Ordered it/Anastasia had Diamond a truck drivers union official killed to take control of the Garment District in Manhattan.
- Pietro "Peter" Panto/None/Independent/July 14, 1939/Ordered it/Anastasia had Panto killed because he was in charge of a union representing dock workers on the waterfront, and because he was being extorted. Panto was strangled and his body put into a lime pit
- Irving Feinstein/None/Independent/September 4, 1939/Ordered it/Anastasia was in charge of murder inc and someone hired Murder, Inc. to murder Feinstein, so Anastasia handed out the contract.
- Abel Reles/Soldier/Murder, Inc./November 12, 1941/Ordered it/Reles was murdered for being an informant, his death looked like an apparent suicide. It is alleged that a NYPD Policeman Charles Burns who was a "bodyguard" for Reles is also alleged to have been involved in the disappearance of New York Justice Joseph Force Carter August 6, 1930
- Anthony Romero/Associate/Gambino crime family/Spring 1942/Ordered it/Anastasia had Romero murdered to cover his tracks and to prevent Romero becoming an informant.
- Vincent Mangano/Boss/Gambino crime family/April 19, 1951/Ordered it/To become boss of the Gambino crime family.
- Phil Mangano/Consigliere/Gambino crime family/April 19, 1951/Ordered it/To become boss of the Gambino crime family.
- Arnold Schuster/None/Independent/March 8, 1952/Alleged to have ordered it/Schuster was a citizen who had recognized bank robber Willie Sutton and helped Police capture him. An associate of Sutton, Frederick J Tenuto is alleged to have killed Schuster on Anastasia orders.
- Frederick J. Tenuto/Hitman/Gambino crime family/After March 1952{?}/Alleged to have ordered it/Tenuto was Placed on the FBI's "Ten Most Wanted List" as 14 May 1950-but never captured. Reported to have "Vanished". Joseph Valachi claimed that Anastasia had Tenuto kill Schuster on the grounds that he "couldn't stand squealers" and then had Tenuto killed as well. Tenuto name removed from 10 Most Wanted list March 9, 1964.
Popular cultureEdit
- After the Anastasia assassination, the barber chairs at the Park Sheraton Hotel were repositioned to face away from the mirror. The Anastasia chair was later auctioned off for $7,000. In February 2012, the chair became an exhibit at the Mob Museum in Las Vegas.
- Anastasia's murder, as well as the 1957 Apalachin Meeting, were referenced in the 1999 film Analyze This, starring Robert De Niro and Billy Crystal.
- The fictional character Johnny Friendly (played by Lee J. Cobb) in the classic 1954 American film On the Waterfrontwas partially based on Anastasia.
- Mayra Montero's novel Son de Almendra (English Title: Dancing to "Almendra") is based on Anastasia's murder.
- In The Day of The Jackal, a 1973 novel by Frederick Forsyth, a detective considers Marco Vitellino, a fictitious bodyguard who was absent during Anastasia's assassination as one of several suspects who could be an assassin contracted to kill French President Charles de Gaulle. The bodyguard is ruled out because he doesn't fit the description of the assassin.
- In the TV series The West Wing Season 4, Episode 10 "Holy Night," Jules Ziegler, the estranged father of White House Communications Director Toby Ziegler, visits Toby at the White House. Following a query from the Justice Department, Toby asks his father, a former member of Murder, Inc. when Albert Anastasia was killed. Jules answers, "October 1957," and later tells his son, "You should know when Anastasia was killed." Toby retorts, "I know when Anastasia was killed!"
- In an episode of The Sopranos, Uncle Junior says that he wishes the mob were like they were in the 1950s when it was peaceful. Tony replies by saying he remembered seeing the picture of Anastasia "all amicably" in a pool of blood on the barbershop floor.
- Anastasia's murder is mentioned in Harold Robbins book, The Raiders. Although in the book the hit is carried out by an obfuscated assassin known only by the pseudonym Milditesta (Italian for a greatly painful headache).
- MMG rapper Rick Ross entitled his 2011 mixtape, "The Albert Anastasia EP".
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I'm writing a book on the Anastasia criminal operations and keep seeing this story about Albert Jr. siring an illegitimate son, but no source is ever cited. Can anyone offer proof it ever occurred?
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