Albert Anastasia

Albert Anastasia
Anastasia's 1936 mugshot
Born
Umberto Anastasio

(1902-09-26)September 26, 1902
Tropea, Calabria, Italy
DiedOctober 25, 1957(1957-10-25) (aged 55)
New York City, New York, U.S.
Cause of deathGunshot wound
Resting placeGreen-Wood Cemetery, Brooklyn, New York, U.S.
NationalityItalian
Other namesThe One-Man Army
Mad Hatter
Lord High Executioner[1]
Don Umberto[2]
CitizenshipAmerican
OccupationCrime boss
PredecessorVincent Mangano
SuccessorCarlo Gambino
Spouse
Elsa Bargnesi
​
(m. 1937)​
Children4
RelativesAnthony Anastasio (brother)
Anthony Scotto (nephew-in-law)
AllegianceAnastasia crime family
Murder, Inc.
Conviction(s)Murder (1921)
Illegal possession of a firearm (1923)
Tax evasion (1955)
Criminal chargeMurder (1928, later dropped)
PenaltyDeath penalty (1921, but released in 1922 during retrial) 2 years' imprisonment (1923)
1 year imprisonment (1955)
Military career
AllegianceU.S.
Service / branchU.S. Army
Years of service1942–1944

Umberto "Albert" Anastasia[3] (/ˌænəˈsteɪʒə/, Italian: [umˈbɛrto anastaˈziːa]; né Anastasio [anaˈstaːzjo]; September 26, 1902 – October 25, 1957) was an Italian-American mobster, hitman and crime boss. One of the founders of the modern American Mafia, and a co-founder and later boss of the Murder, Inc. organization, he eventually rose to the position of boss in what became the modern Gambino crime family. He also controlled New York City's waterfront for most of his criminal career, mainly through the dockworker unions. Anastasia was murdered on October 25, 1957, on the orders of Vito Genovese and Carlo Gambino; Gambino subsequently became boss of the family.

Anastasia was one of the most ruthless and feared organized crime figures in American history; his reputation earned him the nicknames The Earthquake, The One-Man Army, Mad Hatter and Lord High Executioner.

Early life

Albert Anastasia was born Umberto Anastasio on September 26, 1902, in Parghelia, Calabria, Italy, to Bartolomeo Anastasio and Marianna Polistena.[4][5] Anastasia's father was a railway worker who died after World War I, leaving behind nine children.[6] Anastasia had seven brothers: Raffaele; Frank; Anthony; Joseph; Gerardo; Luigi (who moved to Australia) and Salvatore Anastasio; and a sister, Maria.[6][7]

In 1919, Anastasia, with his brothers Joseph, Anthony, and Gerardo, illegally entered the United States after they deserted a freighter they were working aboard in New York City. They soon started working as longshoremen on the Brooklyn waterfront.[7]

On March 17, 1921, Anastasia was convicted of murdering longshoreman George Turino as the result of a quarrel. He was sentenced to death and sent to Sing Sing State Prison in Ossining, New York, to await execution. Due to a legal technicality, Anastasia won a retrial in 1922; four of the original prosecution witnesses had since disappeared, and Anastasia was released from custody.[7] During that time, he legally changed his surname from "Anastasio" to "Anastasia". On June 6, 1923, Anastasia was convicted of illegal possession of a firearm and sentenced to two years in prison.[7] In 1928, he was charged with a murder in Brooklyn, but the witnesses either disappeared or refused to testify in court.[3]

In 1937, Anastasia married Elsa Bargnesi and they had two sons, Umberto and Richard; and two daughters, Joyana and Gloriana.[8]

Rise to power

By the late 1920s, Anastasia had become a top leader of the International Longshoremen's Association (ILA), controlling six local chapters of the labor union in Brooklyn. He allied himself with Giuseppe "Joe the Boss" Masseria, a powerful Sicilian-born mafia leader in Brooklyn. He soon became close associates with future Cosa Nostra bosses Joe Adonis, Charles "Lucky" Luciano, Vito Genovese and Frank Costello.[3]

Castellammarese War

In early 1931, the Castellammarese War broke out between Masseria and Salvatore Maranzano. In a secret deal with Maranzano, Luciano agreed to engineer the death of his boss, Masseria, in return for receiving Masseria's rackets and becoming Maranzano's second-in-command.[9] On April 15, 1931, Luciano lured Masseria to a meeting at the Nuova Villa Tammaro restaurant on Coney Island, where he was murdered.[10][9] While they played cards, Luciano allegedly excused himself to the bathroom. Anastasia and other gunmen, reportedly Adonis, Genovese, and Benjamin "Bugsy" Siegel,[11] then shot Masseria to death. Ciro "The Artichoke King" Terranova drove the getaway car; legend has it that he was too shaken up to drive away and Siegel had to shove him out of the driver's seat.[12][13][14] Luciano took over Masseria's family, with Genovese as his underboss.

In 1932, Anastasia was indicted on charges of murdering another man with an ice pick, but the case was dropped due to lack of witnesses. The following year, he was charged with killing a man who worked in a laundry; again, there were no witnesses willing to testify.[3]

Murder, Inc.

To reward Anastasia's loyalty, Luciano placed him and Louis "Lepke" Buchalter, the leading labor racketeer in the country, in control of the National Crime Syndicate's enforcement arm, Murder, Inc. The troop, also known as "The Brownsville Boys", was a group of Jewish and Italian contract killers that operated out of the back room of Midnight Rose's, a candy store owned by mobster Louis Capone in the Brownsville neighborhood of Brooklyn. During its ten years of operation, it is estimated that Murder Inc. committed thousands of murders, many of which were never solved. For his leadership in Murder, Inc., Anastasia was nicknamed the "Mad Hatter" and the "Lord High Executioner".[15]

In 1935 the Commission, the governing body established by Luciano following Maranzano's murder in 1931, ordered Dutch Schultz to drop his plans to murder Special Prosecutor Thomas E. Dewey out of fear for the law enforcement crackdown that would inevitably follow. An enraged Schultz refused and walked out of the meeting.[16] Anastasia approached Luciano with information that Schultz had asked him to stake out Dewey's apartment building on Fifth Avenue. Upon hearing the news, the Commission held a discreet meeting to discuss the matter. After six hours of deliberations the Commission ordered Buchalter to eliminate Schultz.[17][18] On October 23, 1935, before he could kill Dewey, Schultz was shot in a tavern in Newark, New Jersey, and succumbed to his injuries the following day.[19][20]

On June 7, 1936, following a prosecution by Dewey's office masterminded by Eunice Carter, Luciano was convicted on 62 counts of forced prostitution.[21] On July 18, he received a 30 to 50-year sentence in state prison. [22] Genovese became acting boss, but he fled to Italy in 1937 after being indicted on a 1934 murder. Costello now became acting boss of the Luciano crime family.

In May 1939, Anastasia allegedly ordered the murder of Morris Diamond, a Teamsters Union official in Brooklyn who had opposed Buchalter's attempts to maintain control of the Garment District in Manhattan.[23][24] In the summer of 1939, he allegedly organized the murder of Peter Panto, an International Longshoremen's Association activist who had been leading a movement for democratic reforms in the union's local chapters, and refused to be intimidated by ILA officials. On July 14, 1939, Panto disappeared; his body was later recovered on a farm in New Jersey.[25][26]

In 1941, Abe Reles, a gang leader from Brownsville, Brooklyn who had been supplying Anastasia and Murder, Inc. with hitmen for the previous decade, was arrested by law enforcement, effectively ending Murder, Inc. Reles decided to testify for the government to save himself from the death penalty, leading to the conviction of seven members of Murder Inc. Reles also had information that could implicate Anastasia in the Diamond and Panto murders. Fearful of prosecution, Anastasia offered a $100,000 reward for Reles's murder.[27] On November 12, 1941, Reles was found dead on a restaurant roof outside the Half Moon Hotel in Coney Island. Reles was being guarded in a sixth-floor room during an ongoing trial. In 1951, a grand jury ruled that Reles accidentally died while climbing down to the fifth floor using sheets tied to a heating radiator. However, many officials still suspected that Reles had been murdered.[24]

In the spring of 1942, Anastasia allegedly ordered the murder of an associate, Anthony Romeo, who had been arrested and questioned in the Panto killing. At the end of June, Romeo's body was discovered near Guyencourt, Delaware; he had been beaten and shot a number of times.[28]

World War II

During World War II, Anastasia reportedly conceived the plan to win a pardon for the imprisoned Luciano by contributing to the war effort. With the United States needing allies in Sicily to advance the invasion of Italy, and the desire of the U.S. Navy to dedicate its resources to the war, Anastasia orchestrated a deal to obtain lighter treatment and eventual parole for Luciano, in exchange for the Mafia's protection of the waterfront and Luciano's assistance with his associates in Sicily.[29]

In 1942, Anastasia joined the U.S. Army, possibly motivated by a desire to escape the criminal investigations that were dismantling Murder, Inc. Attaining the rank of technical sergeant, he trained soldiers to be longshoremen at Fort Indiantown Gap in Pennsylvania. In 1943, as a reward for his military service, he received U.S. citizenship.[7] The following year, Anastasia was honorably discharged and moved his family to a ranch house on Bluff Road in Fort Lee, New Jersey.[3]

In 1945, U.S. military authorities in Sicily returned Genovese to the U.S. to be tried for the murder of Ferdinand Boccia in 1934. However, after the death of the main prosecution witness, all charges were dropped against Genovese. In 1946, New York Governor Thomas E. Dewey commuted Luciano's sentence, and the federal government immediately deported him to Italy.[30]

In 1948, Anastasia bought a dressmaking factory in Hazleton, Pennsylvania and left his waterfront activities in the control of his brother Anthony.[3]

Boss

In 1951, the U.S. Senate summoned Anastasia to answer questions about organized crime at the Kefauver Hearings. Anastasia refused to answer any questions.[7]

Despite being a mob power in his own right, Anastasia was nominally the underboss of the Mangano crime family, under boss Vincent Mangano. During his 20-year rule, Mangano had resented Anastasia's close ties to Luciano and Costello, particularly the fact that they had obtained Anastasia's services without first seeking Mangano's permission. This and other business disputes led to heated, almost physical fights between the two mobsters.[31] On April 19, 1951, Mangano went missing and his body was never found. The same day, the body of Vincent's brother Philip was discovered in Jamaica Bay.[32] No one was ever arrested in the Mangano murders, but it was widely assumed that Anastasia had them killed.[33]

After the deaths of the Manganos, Anastasia, who had been serving as acting boss of their family, met with the Commission, claiming that the brothers wanted to kill him, yet did not admit to killing them.[34] With Costello's prodding, the Commission confirmed Anastasia's ascension as boss of the renamed Anastasia family; Costello wanted Anastasia as an ally against the ambitious and resentful Genovese. Anastasia was also supported by Joseph Bonanno, who simply wanted to avoid a gang war.[31][34]

In March 1952, Anastasia allegedly ordered the murder of Arnold Schuster, a New York man who successfully identified fugitive bank robber Willie Sutton, resulting in Sutton's arrest. When Anastasia saw Schuster being interviewed on television, he allegedly said: "I can't stand squealers! Hit that guy!" On March 8, 1952, a gunman shot Schuster to death on a street in Borough Park, Brooklyn. In 1963, government witness Joseph Valachi accused Anastasia of ordering the murder, but many people in law enforcement were skeptical of it. No one was ever arrested in the Schuster murder.[35][36]

On December 9, 1952, the federal government filed suit to denaturalize Anastasia and deport him because he lied on his citizenship application.[37]

Conspiracy

To take control of the Luciano family, Genovese needed to kill Costello. Unable to do so without also eliminating Anastasia, Genovese looked for allies. He used Anastasia's brutal behavior against him in an effort to win supporters, portraying Anastasia as an unstable killer who threatened to bring law enforcement pressure on the Cosa Nostra. In addition, Genovese pointed out that Anastasia had been selling memberships to his crime family for $50,000, a clear violation of Commission rules that infuriated many high-level mobsters. According to Valachi, Anastasia had been losing large amounts of money betting on horse races, making him even more surly and unpredictable.[33]

Over the next few years, Genovese secretly won the support of Anastasia caporegime Carlo Gambino, offering him the leadership of Anastasia's family in return for his cooperation.[38]

On May 23, 1955, Anastasia pleaded guilty to tax evasion for underreporting his income during the late 1940s.[39] On June 3, 1955, Anastasia was sentenced to one year in federal prison and a $20,000 fine.[40] After his conviction, the federal government successfully petitioned to revoke Anastasia's citizenship so he could be deported. However, on September 19, 1955, a higher court overturned this ruling.[41]

In early 1957, Genovese decided to move on Costello. On May 2, 1957, gunman Vincent Gigante shot and wounded Costello outside his apartment building.[42] Although the wound was superficial, it persuaded Costello to relinquish power to Genovese and retire. Genovese then controlled what is now called the Genovese crime family. Bonanno later credited himself with arranging a sitdown, where he kept Anastasia from immediately taking Genovese to war in response.[43]

On June 17 of that year, Frank Scalice, Anastasia's underboss and the man identified as directly responsible for selling Gambino memberships, was also murdered. According to Valachi, Anastasia approved the hit, and the subsequent murder of Scalice's brother Joseph, after offering to forgive his threats to avenge Frank.[44]

Death

On the morning of October 25, 1957, Anastasia entered the barber shop of the Park Sheraton Hotel, at 56th Street and 7th Avenue in Midtown Manhattan. Anastasia's driver parked the car in an underground garage and then took a walk outside, leaving him unprotected. As Anastasia relaxed in the barber's chair, two men with scarves covering their faces rushed in, shoved the barber out of the way, and fired at Anastasia. After the first volley of bullets, Anastasia reportedly lunged at his killers. However, the stunned Anastasia had actually attacked the gunmen's reflections in the wall mirror of the barber shop. The gunmen continued firing until Anastasia finally fell dead on the floor.[45]

The Anastasia homicide generated a tremendous amount of public interest and sparked a high-profile police investigation. According to The New York Times journalist and Five Families author Selwyn Raab, "The vivid image of a helpless victim swathed in white towels was stamped in the public memory".[46] However, no one was charged in the case.[47] Speculation on who killed Anastasia has centered on Profaci crime family mobster Joe Gallo, the Patriarca crime family of Providence, Rhode Island, and certain drug dealers within the Gambino family. Initially, the NYPD concluded that Anastasia's homicide had been arranged by Genovese and Gambino and that it was carried out by a crew led by Gallo.[46] At one point, Gallo boasted to an associate of his part in the hit, "You can just call the five of us the barbershop quintet".[48] Elsewhere, Genovese had traditionally strong ties to Patriarca boss Raymond L. S. Patriarca.

Anastasia's funeral service was conducted at a Brooklyn funeral home; the Diocese of Brooklyn had refused to sanction a church burial. Anastasia was interred in Green-Wood Cemetery in Greenwood Heights, Brooklyn, attended by a handful of friends and relatives. It is marked "Anastasio".[49] In 1958, his family emigrated to Canada, and changed the name to "Anisio".[8][50]

Aftermath

Gambino was expected to be proclaimed boss of Anastasia's family at the November 14, 1957, Apalachin Meeting, called by Genovese to discuss the future of Cosa Nostra in light of his takeover.[51] When the meeting was raided by police, to the detriment of Genovese's reputation, Gambino's appointment was postponed to a later meeting in New York City.[52] Under Gambino, Anthony Anastasio saw his power curtailed, and in frustration, he began passing information to the FBI shortly before his 1963 death.[53][54]

Genovese enjoyed a short reign as family boss. In 1957, after the disastrous Apalachin Meeting, Luciano, Costello, and Gambino conspired to entrap Genovese with a narcotics conviction, bribing a drug dealer to testify he had personally worked with Genovese.[55] On July 7, 1958, Genovese was indicted on narcotics trafficking charges.[56] On April 17, 1959, he was sentenced to 15 years in state prison.[57]

Anastasia lived in the 25-room, 6,529-square-foot, hilltop mansion located in Fort Lee, New Jersey from 1947 until his murder.[58] In 1958, less than a year after his death, comedian Buddy Hackett and his wife purchased the mansion,[59] and after renovations, lived there through most of the 1960s.[60] The mansion sold for $6.9 million in late December 2017.[58] The house was last sold in December 2018, for $3.6 million, and demolished in March 2019.[61][62] Actor and former heavyweight boxing contender Jack O'Halloran claims to be Anastasia's illegitimate son.[63]

After the Anastasia murder, 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.[64]

Movies

Television

  • The TV series M*A*S*H makes a reference to Anastasia's death, anachronistically, as the Korean War had already been over for four years when Anastasia was killed.
  • In the TV series The West Wing Season 4, Episode 11 "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, still angry at his father for having been involved in organized crime, retorts, "I know when Anastasia was killed!".
  • In an episode of The Sopranos, mob boss Junior Soprano tells his nephew Tony Soprano that he wishes problems were settled amicably like they were in the 1950s when it was peaceful. Tony replies he remembered seeing the picture of Anastasia "all amicable" on the barbershop floor. "There were exceptions", Junior replied.
  • The brutal title character of the Netflix series Dirty John claims to be a descendant of Anastasia.[citation needed]

Literature

  • 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 murder as one of several suspects who could be contracted to kill French President Charles de Gaulle. The bodyguard is ruled out because he doesn't fit the description of the contract killer.
  • A fictional payback hit for Anastasia's murder is described in "Before the Play", the prologue of The Shining. In the book, the fictional Overlook Hotel was a popular meeting place and neutral ground for organized crime figures in the post-war era. The target was a powerful mobster who was guarded by two gunmen he had borrowed from New York City. Three hit-men with shotguns took out the bodyguards. They then shot down the target in his room and castrated his corpse as proof they had killed him.[67]
  • Anastasia's murder is mentioned in the Harold Robbins book The Raiders (1995). In the book the hit is carried out by a contract killer known only by the pseudonym Malditesta (Italian for headache).
  • Mayra Montero's novel Son de Almendra (English title: Dancing to "Almendra") is based on Anastasia's murder.[68]

Videogames

  • In Mafia II, Don Alberto Clemente is partially based on Anastasia, particularly his known violations of Mafia code by trying to "sell" made men. Clemente's death was based on a combination of Anastasia's assassination and the attempted murder of Adolf Hitler at the Wolf's Den.

Music

See also

References

  1. ^ Lord High Executioner is the title given to the character Ko-Ko in The Mikado
  2. ^ Raab, Selwyn (2005). Five Families: The Rise, Decline, and Resurgence of America's Most Powerful Mafia Empires. p. 72.
  3. ^ a b c d e f "Albert Anastasia Part 01 of 04". FBI Records: The Vault. Retrieved May 5, 2020.
  4. ^ Newton, Michael (March 23, 2020). Boss of Murder, Inc.: The Criminal Life of Albert Anastasia. pp. 3–4.
  5. ^ Anastasio, Salvatore (1967). "Così hanno ammazzato mio fratello Alberto". Tropea Magazine (in Italian). Retrieved May 5, 2020.
  6. ^ a b Zampa, Fabrizio (October 5, 1973). "Cosa nostra, Chiesa mia". Tropea Magazine (in Italian). Retrieved May 5, 2020. in origine eravamo nove: Raffaele, Francesco, Alberto, Antonio, Giuseppe, Gerardo, Luigi e io. Poi c'è una sorella, Maria.
  7. ^ a b c d e f Freeman, Ira Henry (October 26, 1957). "ANASTASIA ROSE IN STORMY RANKS; One of 4 Feared Brothers, He Survived Death House and Violent Rackets Six Came To America Offered Plot on Dewey". The New York Times. Retrieved May 5, 2020.
  8. ^ a b Newton, Michael (March 23, 2020). Boss of Murder, Inc.: The Criminal Life of Albert Anastasia. p. 213.
  9. ^ a b Raab, Selwyn (2005). Five Families: The Rise, Decline, and Resurgence of America's Most Powerful Mafia Empires. New York: St. Martin Press. ISBN 0-312-30094-8.
  10. ^ "RACKET CHIEF SLAIN BY GANGSTER GUNFIRE; Giuseppe Masseria, Known as Joe the Boss, Shot Mysteriously in Coney Island Cafe."BIGGER THAN AL CAPONE" Police Say He Was Leader in Every Kind of Racket--He Escaped Death Many Times. Shooting Still a Mystery. RACKET CHIEF SLAIN BY GANG'S GUNFIRE Became Leader as Youth. Escaped Second Ambush". The New York Times. April 16, 1931. Retrieved May 5, 2020. It took ten years and a lot of shooting to kill Giuseppe Masseria—he was Joe the Boss to the underworld—but his enemies found him with his back turned yesterday in a little Italian restaurant in Coney Island, and when they walked out into
  11. ^ Pollak, Michael (June 29, 2012). "Coney Island's Big Hit". The New York Times. Retrieved October 31, 2012.
  12. ^ Sifakis, (2005). pp. 87–88
  13. ^ Gosch, Martin A.; Hammer, Richard (1975). The Last Testament of Lucky Luciano. Little, Brown and Company. pp. 130–132. ISBN 978-0-316-32140-2.
  14. ^ Davis, John H. (1994). Mafia Dynasty: The Rise and Fall of the Gambino crime family (1st Harper paperbacks ed.). New York: HarperPaperbacks. p. 40. ISBN 0-06-109184-7. Albert Anastasia.
  15. ^ Davis, p. 57
  16. ^ Gribben, Mark (October 9, 2008). "Murder, Inc.: Dutch gets his". Crime Library. Archived from the original on October 9, 2008. Retrieved May 5, 2020.
  17. ^ Gosch, Martin A.; Hammer, Richard (2013). The Last Testament of Lucky Luciano: The Mafia Story in His Own Words. Enigma Books. pp. 223–224. ISBN 9781936274581.
  18. ^ Newark, p. 81
  19. ^ "SCHULTZ IS SHOT, ONE AIDE KILLED AND 3 WOUNDED; ATTACK IN NEWARK CAFE Beer Runner and Three Companions Assailed by Two Gunmen. HIS CONDITION IS GRAVE He Is Hit in Abdomen by Two Machine Gunners as His Henchmen Return Fire. LINK TO BROOKLYN KILLING Witnesses in Broadway Shooting Pick Picture of Stern, Man Sought in Amberg Death. SCHULTZ IS SHOT, ONE AIDE KILLED". The New York Times. October 24, 1935. Retrieved May 5, 2020.(subscription required)
  20. ^ "SCHULTZ'S MURDER LAID TO LEPKE AIDE; Workman, Witness in Brooklyn Syndicate Slayings, Indicted in Essex County EXTRADITION TO BE SOUGHT O'Dwyer to Cooperate in Action by Jersey Prosecutor, Who Reopened the Case". The New York Times. March 28, 1941. Retrieved May 5, 2020.
  21. ^ "LUCANIA CONVICTED WITH 8 IN VICE RING ON 62 COUNTS EACH; Verdict at 5:25 A.M. Sunday Finds Racketeers Guilty of Compulsory Prostitution. ALL FACE LONG SENTENCES 25 Years on Every Charge Is Maximum -- Life Terms Loom for Two Old Offenders. DEFENDANTS ARE SHAKEN Dewey Says Organized Vice Was One of Lesser Rackets That the Gang Controlled. LUCANIA GUILTY WITH 8 OF GANG". The New York Times. June 8, 1936. Retrieved December 30, 2011.
  22. ^ "LUCANIA SENTENCED TO 30 TO 50 YEARS; COURT WARNS RING; Retaliation Against Witnesses Will Result in Maximum Terms, McCook Says". The New York Times. June 19, 1936. Retrieved May 5, 2020.
  23. ^ Perlmutter, Emanuel (April 1, 1951). "STORY OF MURDER, INC.: BIG BUSINESS IN CRIME; Kefauver Revelations Disinter Sordid Account of 'Combination' at Work". The New York Times. Retrieved May 5, 2020.
  24. ^ a b "Inquiry Discredits O'Dwyer For Calling Reles Important; Witness in Diamond Case JURORS DISCREDIT O'DWYER ON RELES New Details Disclosed Other Factors Established". The New York Times. December 22, 1951. Retrieved May 5, 2020.
  25. ^ Davis, p. 58
  26. ^ Ward, Nathan (September 24, 2010). "EXCERPT; 'Dark Harbor'". The New York Times. Retrieved December 31, 2011.
  27. ^ Elmaleh, Edmund (2009). The canary sang but couldn't fly : the fatal fall of Abe Reles, the mobster who shattered Murder, Inc.'s code of silence. New York: Sterling Pub. Co., Inc. p. 14. ISBN 978-1-4027-6113-3.
  28. ^ Turkus, Burton B.; Feder, Sid (2003). Murder Inc.: The Story of The Syndicate Killing Machine (2nd ed.). Cambridge, Massachusetts: Da Capo Press. ISBN 0-306-81288-6. Retrieved May 5, 2020.
  29. ^ Davis, pp. 59-61
  30. ^ "DEWEY COMMUTES LUCIANO SENTENCE; Governor Also Ends Jail Terms of Six Other Convicts-- All Will Be Deported". The New York Times. January 4, 1946. Retrieved May 5, 2020.
  31. ^ a b Davis, pp. 62-64
  32. ^ "AIDE OF JOE ADONIS IS FOUND SHOT DEAD; Waterfront Racketeer 'Taken for a Ride, Then Dumped Out in a Brooklyn Marsh Glasses Spattered With Blood". The New York Times. April 20, 1951. Retrieved May 5, 2020. The body of Philip Mangano, described by the police as a waterfront racketeer, who had been shot three times in the head, was found yesterday near Jamaica Bay in the Bergen Beach section of Brooklyn.
  33. ^ a b Gage, Nicholas (October 16, 1976). "Carlo Gambino, a Mafia Leader, Dies in His Long Island Home at 74". The New York Times. Retrieved May 5, 2020. Mr. Gambino and his cousins became "soldiers" in the family headed by Philip and Vincent Mangano. The two men were murdered in 1951 on orders of Albert Anastasia, who succeeded them as family boss.
  34. ^ a b Raab, p. 101
  35. ^ Duffy, Peter (May 5, 2020). "CITY LORE; Willie Sutton, Urbane Scoundrel". The New York Times. Retrieved May 5, 2020.
  36. ^ Bigart, Homer (October 3, 1963). "Police Deride Valachi Data As Stale Rumor and Gossip; O'Connor Disagrees CITY POLICE SCORN VALACHI 'RUMORS' Lawyers Also Jeer Said He Took Oath Phrase Relayed to F.B.I. Disgust Is Expressed Confirmation Found". The New York Times. Retrieved May 5, 2020.
  37. ^ "U. S. Files Suit as First Step to Deport Albert Anastasia". The New York Times. December 10, 1952. Retrieved January 2, 2012.
  38. ^ Davis, pp. 78-79
  39. ^ "Anastasia Admits Evading U. S. Taxes; ANASTASIA GUILTY OF EVADING TAXES". The New York Times. May 24, 1955. Retrieved May 5, 2020.
  40. ^ "ANASTASIA GETS YEAR IN TAX CASE; Albert Also Fined $20,000 as Costello Penalty Is Used as Evasion Yardstick". The New York Times. June 4, 1955. Retrieved May 5, 2020.
  41. ^ "ANASTASIA WINS PLEA; Citizenship of Racketeer Is Upheld by Supreme Court". The New York Times. May 15, 1956. Retrieved May 5, 2020.
  42. ^ "COSTELLO IS SHOT ENTERING HOME; GUNMAN ESCAPES; Gambler Suffers Superficial Scalp Wound--Attacker Flees in Darkened Car Eyewitness' Story Costello Suffers Slight Wound In Shooting in Lobby of Home 20 Policemen on Hand". The New York Times. May 3, 1957. Retrieved May 5, 2020.
  43. ^ Raab, pp. 110-111
  44. ^ Maas, Peter (1968). The Valachi Papers. New York: G. P. Putnam's Sons. pp. 205–206. ISBN 978-0399108327.
  45. ^ "ANASTASIA SLAIN IN A HOTEL HERE; LED MURDER, INC.; Victim's Brothers". The New York Times. October 26, 1957. Retrieved May 5, 2020. Death took The Executioner yesterday. Umberto (called Albert) Anastasia, master killer for Murder, Inc., a homicidal gangster troop that plagued the city from 1931 to 1940, was murdered by two gunmen.
  46. ^ a b Raab, p. 116
  47. ^ Raab, p. 726
  48. ^ Gage, Nicholas (July 10, 1972). "The Mafia at War". New York Magazine. Retrieved January 1, 2012.
  49. ^ Perlmutter, Emanuel (October 29, 1957). "Anastasia Is Buried In Stark Ceremony; ANASTASIA BURIED WITH STARK RITES Linked to Narcotics". The New York Times. Retrieved May 5, 2020.
  50. ^ "Elsa (Bargnesi) Anisio". Legacy.com. June 25, 2008. Retrieved May 5, 2020. ANISIO, Elsa (nee Bargnesi) Passed away at Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre on Wednesday, June 25, 2008. Elsa, beloved mother of Richard, Gloriana (Kenneth), Joyana (Larry) and Bert (Betty).
  51. ^ Davis, pp. 83-84
  52. ^ Davis, pp. 88-90
  53. ^ Maas, p. 208
  54. ^ "The Smoking Gun: Tough Love". New York Magazine. 20 September 1999. Retrieved May 8, 2013.
  55. ^ Davis, pp. 92-93
  56. ^ "U.S. Jury Indicts Genovese, Gigante in Narcotics Plot; Genovese and Gigante Indicted By U. S. Jury in Narcotics Plot". The New York Times. July 8, 1958. Retrieved May 5, 2020.
  57. ^ Feinberg, Alexander (April 18, 1959). "Genovese Is Given 15 Years in Prison In Narcotics Case; Genovese and 14 Others Given Stiff Terms in Narcotics Case". The New York Times. Retrieved May 5, 2020.
  58. ^ a b "Mafia kngpin's hilltop mansion sells for $6.9million". Jackson Observer. Archived from the original on December 30, 2017. Retrieved May 5, 2020 – via Wayback Machine.
  59. ^ "COMEDIAN BUYS HOME; Buddy Hackett New Owner of Anastasia House in Fort Lee". The New York Times. August 30, 1958. Retrieved March 30, 2011. Mr. Hackett lives at 581 Nordhoff Drive, Leonia. He intends to take possession as soon as improvements are completed. The house was built in 1945 by Anastasia at a cost said to be $100,000
  60. ^ "Rubber-faced funnyman whose talent stretched far". The Sydney Morning Herald. July 11, 2003. Retrieved May 5, 2020.
  61. ^ "75 Bluff Rd, Fort Lee, NJ 07024 | Zillow".
  62. ^ "Property Detail". Archived from the original on 2021-10-06. Retrieved 2019-12-04.
  63. ^ O'Halloran, Jack (2011). Family Legacy. MP Publishing. ISBN 978-1-84982-106-3.
  64. ^ "Mob Museum Unveils Historically Significant Artifact, Announces Partnership with Major Collector". The Mob Museum home page. Archived from the original on December 22, 2011. Retrieved January 2, 2012.
  65. ^ ""On the Waterfront" (1954); Trivia". IMDb. Retrieved May 5, 2020. Johnny Friendly was based on mobster Albert Anastasia.
  66. ^ ""Analyze This" (1999); Memorable Quotes". IMDb. Retrieved May 5, 2020. 1957 was a big year [...] the Gallo brothers whacked Albert Anastasia in the barber shop of the Sheraton View hotel. It was total chaos. With Anastasia out of the way, Vito Genovese figures he's the big boss. But Carlo Gambino and Joe Bananas, they had other ideas. So they called a meeting. A big meeting.
  67. ^ King, Stephen (1982). "Before the Play". Whispers. Vol. 5, no. 1–2. pp. 19–47.
  68. ^ Montero, Mayra (2007). Dancing to "Almendra": a Novel. New York: Picador. ISBN 978-0-312-42673-6.
American Mafia
Preceded by Gambino crime family
Underboss
1931–1951 		Succeeded by
Preceded by Gambino crime family
Boss
1951–1957 		Succeeded by