Albert Anastasia: Difference between revisions

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Albert Anastasia (1902-1957)

Albert Anastasia (February 26 1902 - October 25, 1957), also known as the "Mad Hatter" and "Lord High Executioner", was an a Mafia boss chiefly remembered for running the contract killing syndicate known as Murder, Inc..

Early Years

Born Umberto Anastasio in Tropea, Italy—one of nine brothers—Anastasia moved to New York City around 1919. He became active in Brooklyn's dock operations and rose to a position of authority in the longshoreman's union. It was here that Anastasia first demonstrated his penchant for murder at the slightest provocation, killing a fellow longshoreman in the early '20s--an offense which led to an 18-month sentence he served at the famed Sing Sing Prison. However, he was released early, being granted a new trial which would never take place, as four important witnesses turned up missing—a situation that proved permanent.

Early in his organized crime career, Anastasia served in a gang led by Giuseppe "Joe the Boss" Masseria. Anastastia was always a devoted follower of others, primarily Charles "Lucky" Luciano and Frank Costello. His devotion to Luciano knew no bounds.

Anastasia's Rise to Power

Loyalties during the Castellammarese War

In 1930, Luciano finalized plans to take over crime in America by destroying the two old-line Mafia factions headed by Masseria and Salvatore Maranzano, he outlined his plot to Anastasia. Anastasia joined Luciano, and Bugsy Siegel in the plot, and assured Luciano that he would kill everyone for Luciano to be on top. Anastasia, always hungry for power, knew that if Luciano were head of the National Crime Syndicate that he would eventually get a "piece of the action." Anastasia was personally part of the four-man death squad that mowed down Masseria in Nuova Villa Tammaro, a Coney Island restaurant, on 15 April 1931 during the Castellammarese War.

The outcome of the Castellammarese War and the subsequent murder of Salvatore Maranzano, Luciano assumed control of organized crime across America. In order to avoid the power struggles and turf disputes that led the Castellammarese War, Luciano sought to establish the National Crime Syndicate (more familiarly known as the "Commission") consisting of the bosses of major families around the country, including especially, the so-called "five families" of New York. This "Commission" would serve as a deliberative body to solve disputes, carve up and distribute territories as well as lucrative illegal activities such as prostitution, racketeering, gambling, and bootlegging (which would soon come to a close with the end of Prohibition in 1933).

Murder, Incorporated

For his loyalty, Luciano placed Anastasia in a position of power, combining his talents with those of Louis "Lepke" Buchalter, the nation's leading labor racketeer, as the operating heads of the National Crime Syndicate's enforcement arm, Murder, Incorporated. Murder, Inc. was a group of mainly Jewish killers operated out of the back room of the Brownsville (in Brooklyn, New York) candy store, Midnight Rose's. Some estimates have it that Murder, Inc., may have taken in a decade of operation a toll estimated between 400 and 700 victims. Many of these murders remain unsolved. Unlike Lepke and many other members of Murder, Inc., Anastasia was never prosecuted for any of the murders. When indictments and trials loomed, key prosecution witnesses would disappear.

After the arrest and execution of Buchalter in 1944, Anastasia became the sole leader of Murder, Inc.

World War II

In 1936, Prosecutor Thomas Dewey was successful in convicting Luciano on the charge of pandering, to which he secured a 30-to-50 year sentence. During World War II, Anastasia appeared to have been the originator of a plan to free Luciano from prison by winning him a pardon for "helping the war effort."

To accomplish the goal, Anastasia set out to create problems on the New York waterfront so the United States Navy would agree to any kind of deal to stop sabotage. The French luxury liner S.S. Normandie, in the process of being converted into a troopship, mysteriously burned and capsized in New York harbor. While newspaper accounts suggested it was the act of German agents who infiltrated the United States, it was actually Anastasia, who ordered his brother, Anthony "Tough Tony" Anastasio, to carry out the sabotage.

With America needing allies in Sicily to advance the invasion of Italy, and the desire of the Navy to dedicate its resources to the war, Anastasia orchestrated a deal to obtain lighter treatment for Luciano while he was in prison, and after the war, a parole, in trade for the mafia protecting the waterfront and Luciano's assistance with his associates in Sicily.

Boss

Anastasia's violent ways could be contained as long as Luciano and Costello pulled the strings. In 1951 Costello may well have been the prime mover in Anastasia's rise to boss of the Mangano (later Gambino) crime family in which he was technically an underling. Through the years, boss Vincent Mangano had fumed at Anastasia's closeness to Luciano, Costello, Adonis and others and that they used him without first seeking Mangano's approval. Frequently Mangano and Anastasia almost came to blow over family affairs, and it was considered only a matter of time until one or the other was killed. In 1951, Vincent's brother, Phil Mangano, was murdered and Vincent himself became another in Anastasia's legion of the permanently missing. Anastasia then claimed control of the Family with Costello's active support. At a meeting of all the bosses of New York families, Costello backed up Anastasia's claim that Mangano was planning to kill Anastasia and that Albert had a right to act in self-defense. Faced with a fait accompli the other bosses could do nothing but accept Anastasia's elevation.

In appears Costello had other motivation for wanting Anastasia in control of the crime family. Costello at the time was facing a concentrated challenge from Vito Genovese for control of the Luciano family now that Luciano was in exile. Until 1951, Costello had depended for muscle on New Jersey crime family boss Willie Moretti, but Moretti was in the process of losing his mind and would soon be a rubout in a mercy killing by the mob. That meant Costello needed new muscle and Anastasia, with a family of gunmen behind him, would make a strong foil to Genovese.

Unfortunately, as a crime boss Anastasia turned even more kill-crazy than ever. In 1952 he even ordered the murder of young Brooklyn salesman named Arnold Schuster after watching Schuster bragging on television about his role as primary witness in bank robber Willie Sutton's arrest. "I can't stand squealers!" Anastasia raged to his men. "Hit that guy!"

In killing Schuster, Anastasia had violated a cardinal crime syndicate rule which ran, as Bugsy Siegel once quaintly put it, "We only kill each other." Outsiders - prosecutors, reporters, the public in general - were not to be killed. Members of the general public could only be hit if the very life of the organization or some of its top leaders were threatened. This certainly was not the case with Arnold Schuster, a man whose killing generated much heat on the mob. Like other members of the syndicate, even Luciano in Italy and Costello were horrified, but they could not disavow Anastasia because they needed him to counter Genovese's growing ambitions and power. Genovese cunningly used Anastasia's kill-crazy behavior against him, wooing supporters away from Anastasia on that basis. Secretly, over a few years time Genovese won the cooperation of Anastasia's underboss, Carlo Gambino.

Executing the Executioner

Still, Genovese dared not move against Anastasia and his real target, Costello, because of Meyer Lansky, the highest-ranking and most powerful member of the national syndicate. Normally, Lansky would not have supported Genovese under any circumstances, their dislike for each other going back to the 1920s. But in recent years Lansky was riding high as the king of casino gambling in Cuba, cutting in other syndicate bosses for lesser shares. When Anastasia leaned on him for a piece of the action, Lansky refused. So Anastasia started working on plans to bring his own gambling setup into Cuba. That was not something Lansky took lightly. Anyone messing with his gambling empire went. That applied to Lansky's good friend Bugsy Siegel and it certainly applied to Anastasia. Up until then Lansky had preferred to let Anastasia and Genovese bleed each other to death, but now he gave his approval to the former's eradication.

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Albert Anastasia, murdered 25 October 1957, in the basement barber shop of the Park Sheraton Hotel, New York City

Anastasia's rubout was carried out with an efficiency that the former lord high executioner of Murder, Inc., would have approved. On the morning of October 25, 1957, Anastasia entered the barbershop of the Park Sheraton Hotel (now the Park Central Hotel, on 56th Street and 7th Avenue) in New York City. Anastasia's bodyguard parked the car in an underground garage and then most conveniently decided to take a little stroll. Anastasia relaxed in the barber chair, closing his eyes. Suddenly two men, scarves covering their faces, marched in.

The pair moved on Anastasia's chair, shoving the attending barber out of the way. Anastasia still did not open his eyes. Both men shot Anastasia, who after their first volley jumped to his feet. Anastasia lunged at his killers or what he thought were his killers, trying to get them with his bare bands. Actually he attacked their reflection in the mirror. It took several more shots to drop him, but he finally fell to the floor dead.

Like virtually all gang killings, the Anastasia murder remains officiallly unsolved. It is was originally alleged that the contract was given to Joe Profaci, who passed it on to the three Gallo brothers from Brooklyn. However, recent evidence has pointed the finger at a three-man hit team selected by Joseph "Joe the Blonde" Biondo, who became Carlo Gambino's underboss after the murder. Biondo is alleged to have selected Stephen Armone, Arnold "Witty" Wittenberg, and Stephen "Stevie Coogin" Grammauta. Grammauta, a convicted drug dealer and heroin smuggler, is currently regarded as a capo (captain) in the Gambino crime family.

The double-dealing did not cease with Anastasia's death. Gambino now secretly deserted Genovese and joined with Lansky, Luciano and Costello in a plot that would entrap Genovese in a narcotics conviction and send him away to prison for the rest of his life. In that sense Anastasia was avenged, but it was not with the abrupt finality that the kill-crazy executioner would likely have preferred.

Trivia

• It is generally regarded that the barbershop murder of Albert Anastasia inspired a scene in the 1972 film The Godfather, based on a novel by Mario Puzo where character Moe Green is gunned down in a massage chair.

• Anastasia was buried in Green-Wood Cemetery in Brooklyn, New York, in Section 182, Lot 38325.

• Anastasia's business card claimed he was a "sales representative" for the Convertible Mattress Corporation in Brooklyn, New York.

External Links

• Gang Land: The Men who Hit Albert Anastasia
• a brief history of the Gambino crime family