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King of the Brooklyn Docks

Albert Anastasia (1902-1957)
Part I

By Thomas Hunt
Copyright 2005

Though history has focused on his explosive brutality and his short fuse, Anastasia was arguably a criminal visionary. With his Brooklyn friends Joe Adonis and Vincent Mangano, Anastasia brought a never-before-seen level of organization to waterfront labor racketeering. Over time, he came to control the International Longshoremen's Association and the entire Brooklyn waterfront.

Just as Anastasia began to set his sights on bigger and better rackets, he came into conflict with an old friend, a man who was just as ambitious and perhaps a bit more ruthless than Anastasia himself. The clash with Vito Genovese would result in Anastasia's death on a barber shop floor in 1957.

Umberto Anastasio was born in Tropea, a village in the Calabria region of southern Italy. The date of his birth is somewhat uncertain. February 26, 1902, appears to be the most reliable date. But some sources prefer September 26, 1902, and a few move his birthdate to 1903.

The Anastasio family grew to include nine boys and three girls. The family patriarch, a railroad worker, died some time before the start of the Great War in Europe. One of his sons and two of his daughters died at a young age.

As teenagers, Umberto and his brothers Giuseppe and Antonio found work as deck hands on tramp steamers. They sailed the Atlantic until deciding, apparently at different dates, to jump ship in New York City.

Umberto settled in Brooklyn on September 12, 1917. There he set to work as a longshoreman and came into daily contact with the toughs and racketeers of the waterfront. Al Capone, who did not head west to Chicago until 1919, was apparently one of Umberto's early contacts.

Umberto's brothers Giuseppe and Antonio eventually joined him at the Brooklyn docks. Another brother, Salvatore Anastasio, moved to New York and entered the priesthood.

In the 1920s, Umberto adusted his identity. He began to use the Anglicized first name of Albert. And he also changed the final vowel of his surname from an O to an A.

The reason traditionally given for his adoption of the name "Anastasia" is that he had deliberately chosen a life of crime and did not want to bring disgrace on the rest of his family. But that rationale is difficult to accept. If Anastasia wanted to distance himself from his kin, he could have done so more effectively by chosing a surname like "Jones." And, in fact, it appears he maintained relationships with his brothers in America after the name change. Their family connection was widely known.

It seems more plausible that Anastasia, like other gangsters of the period, used variant spellings of his name to create problems for law enforcement. The "Anastasia" spelling might have stuck merely because that name was constantly in the American news in the 1920s.

During that decade, an American widow named Nance Leeds married Prince Christopher of Greece. The new princess took the Greek name Anastasia because it sounded similar to her original given name. As an American link to royalty, Princess Anastasia of Greece and her family were celebrated in the media. By the middle of the 1920s, another Princess Anastasia was in the news. She was the daughter of assassinated Czar Nicholas II of Russia. It was believed by some that the Czar's daughter survived the violent takeover of the Bolsheviks and settled in Germany.

In March of 1921, Albert Anastasio (he apparently was still ending his name with an O at this time), was arrested along with another man. The two were charged with killing an Italian longshoreman. The victim was initially named Joe Turino in the newspapers, but later FBI reports called him George Turello.

Anastasia was convicted of murder in July. He was sentenced to die of electrocution and moved into a "death cell" at Sing Sing Prison in Ossining, New York.

As his attorneys pursued legal appeals, his friends on the outside sought to help the convicted murderer in other ways. The key witnesses in the state's case began to disappear. Some changed their stories, at least one moved away, and others reportedly met violent ends.

When a retrial was finally granted on some technical grounds, the state found that it had no case. In spring of 1922, Anastasia was discharged for lack of evidence.

He walked out of the Sing Sing "death cell" and back into a free life. The experience made him an instant underworld celebrity and taught him a method for dealing with law enforcement. Witness testimony was a prosecutor's main weapon. Threats and violence against witnesses were an effective countermeasure.

Anastasia's criminal record from 1922 on, is largely a collection of unsuccessful prosecutions. In August of 1922, he was arrested in connection with a July 16 homicide. The charge was dropped for lack of evidence. In April of the following year, police nabbed Anastasia for felonious assault. After the arrest, the witnesses against him suddenly changed their stories, and he was freed.

In the early 1920s, an underworld feud raged in New York City. Many of its battles were fought in the streets of Brooklyn and of Manhattan's Lower East Side. While some of the violence of the period was due to conflicts among bootlegging groups, much of it was a deliberate effort by Brooklyn-based boss of bosses Salvatore D'Aquila to hold onto his position.

D'Aquila had been voted into the boss of bosses role upon the incarceration of previous supreme underworld chief Giuseppe Morello in 1910. D'Aquila developed an underworld spy network in order to keep tabs on Mafia families across the United States. In some cases, he installed allies into leadership positions in other families to ensure their cooperation.

When Morello won an early release from prison, D'Aquila was more concerned for his status than ever. At a meeting of Mafia leaders in the early 1920s, D'Aquila backed Morello and members of his supportive faction into a corner. Rather than argue with the boss of bosses, Morello and his closest allies left the meeting. After they left, D'Aquila pronounced their exit a terrible offense and declared the group in open rebellion.

Morello and allies went into hiding to escape the D'Aquila sentence of death. But Morello loyalists remained in the city and conducted a guerrilla campaign against the D'Aquila faction.

Anastasia appears to have been involved in the feud. A newspaper report from April 1923 noted that an Albert Anastasio of Brooklyn was shot several times while driving on Sackett Street. The account noted that the same man had been taken into custody a month earlier in connection with the murder of Antonio Busardo of Bensonhurst. He was released for lack of evidence.

Busardo had been connected with another murder, and police assembled evidence of a vendetta feud that accounted for at least five deaths.

The 1923 Sackett Street incident occurs nowhere in published accounts of Anastasia's life and is noticeably missing from FBI files on the gangster. It is possible, though unlikely, that some other "Albert Anastasio" was involved.

Anastasia would not be around to continue the feud. In June of 1923, he was arrested for carrying a revolver. He was convicted and sentenced to two years at Blackwell's Island Penitentiary. By the time he was released, D'Aquila was a boss in title only. The real power in New York City rested with Morello champion Giuseppe Masseria.

By the later 1920s, Anastasia had entered into partnership arrangements with Joe Adonis (Giuseppe Doto), Willie Moretti and Augie Pisano (Anthony Carfano). He was friendly with fellow Calabrian Vito Genovese and others who worked closely with rising star Charlie Luciano. It appears likely that he was also acquainted with Frankie Yale.

His major criminal interest was at the waterfront. Anastasia gained control of union locals of the International Longshoremen's Association and could extort regular payments from both dock workers and their employers.

As 1930 arrived, another underworld war began. "Joe the Boss" Masseria, after disposing of D'Aquila in 1928, began following in the old boss of bosses' footsteps. He started to influence matters in other crime families and in other regions. Rather than strengthen his position as underworld leader, his meddling caused many American Mafiosi to oppose him.

Masseria imposed leadership changes on families in Detroit, Brooklyn and the Bronx. He took sides in an underworld conflict in Cleveland and also backed Al Capone in his war against established Sicilian family in Chicago.

Backed by families in Detroit, Philadelphia, Buffalo and Chicago, a Brooklyn group of Mafiosi who originated in the Sicilian town of Castellamare del Golfo rose in rebellion under the leadership of Salvatore Maranzano.

Luciano and his allies appeared to remain neutral in the early days of the conflict. In fact, they were actively encouraging both sides and playing each off against the other. It was in the interest of the up-and-comers to have the old "Mustache Pete" Mafiosi kill each other off.

Eventually, Luciano was forced to take sides and joined the Masseria outfit. But even then he served as a double-agent for Maranzano. In April 1931, he set up a hit on Joe the Boss himself.

Anastasia reportedly served as one of the gunmen who, at Luciano's behest, entered Scarpato's Nuova Villa Tamaro restaurant at Coney Island and pumped lead into Masseria on April 15th. (Just two months later, Anastasia was granted permanent residence in the U.S. under the Registry Act of 1929. An illegal entry into the country barred others from citizenship, but Anastasia would find a way around the restrictions.)

Maranzano immediately declared himself boss of bosses, in the tradition of Morello, D'Aquila and Masseria. But the younger Mafiosi would not stand for any more meddling in their affairs. Maranzano was killed in his Park Avenue offices in September of 1931.

In the new order initiated by Luciano, Anastasia performed a dual role. He served as underboss to the Brooklyn family led by Vincent Mangano (D'Aquila's old organization). He also played an intermediary role between a ruling Mafia commission set up by Luciano and the enforcement wing that became known as Murder Inc.

A group of paid killers, Murder Inc. was overseen by Louis "Lepke" Buchalter. The organization had member cells around the country. When a "hit" was ordered by the commission, a Murder Inc. killer would be sent out to do the deed with an ice pick, a rope, a stiletto or a firearm. The ice pick was a favorite weapon. As effective as a stiletto, the pick could be found virtually everywhere in the days before home refrigerators. It was quick and easy to use and could not be linked in any meaningful way to its wielder.

Murder Inc. was useful to the Mafia for two major reasons. First, by utilizing veteran assassins (the best known were drawn from the poor Jewish neighborhhood of Brownsville, Brooklyn), it assured that "hits" would not become misses. A level of professionalism was brought to the practice of murder. Second, law enforcement would be thwarted because the actual killer would have no relationship to the victim. Prosecutors would have great difficulty pinning the murder on the right party. Even when the perpetrator was caught, his motive would be largely a mystery.

Anastasia administered Murder Inc. at the commission level, where non-Italians like Buchalter were not permitted. Anastasia's leadership role in the group resulted in the nickname of "Lord High Executioner."

Law enforcement continued to have trouble getting charges to stick to Anastasia through the early 1930s.

He was suspected of involvement in the kidnapping of Isidore Juffe in 1932, but his role could not be proven in a courtroom. He was arrested twice in August of 1932 - first on suspicion of committing a Brooklyn homicide with an ice pick and then for consorting with known criminals. He was discharged both times. In August of 1933, witnesses identified him as the killer of a Brooklyn laundryman. Those witnesses later changed their stories, and Anastasia was let go.

While the police had a difficult time holding onto Anastasia, a Canadian-Italian woman managed to land him for good.

Elsa Bargneti, who was born in Ontario, Canada, in 1914, entered the United States through Detroit in 1934 and made her way to Brooklyn. She and Anastasia were married two years later, when he was 36 and she was 24. The couple had a son a year later. He was named Albert Jr.

The year 1939 turned out to be a troubling one for the leaders of Murder Inc. The murder of Peter Panto, a crusader against racketeer involvement in organized labor, caused much law enforcement energy to be focused on the Mafia's hit squad. Abe Reles, one of Murder Inc.'s hired killers, was charged with Panto murder and decided to betray his underworld associates rather than fry for the crime.

Reles testimony helped police to more fully understand dozens of previously unsolved murders and the roles of Anastasia and Buchalter. They were able to link Anastasia in particular to the killing of Panto and to the assassination of Teamster union official Morris Diamond.

With Reles as a witness, Brooklyn District Attorney William O'Dwyer was able to win convictions against a number of mob hit-men. Buchalter would eventually get the chair for his involvement in the murder for hire organization.

O'Dwyer felt certain of winning an important conviction against Anastasia as well. His feelings changed, however, when Reles was found dead five stories below his room window at the Half Moon Hotel in Coney Island. Reles had been held at the Half Moon under armed guard while awaiting trial. A few tied-together bedsheets draped out the window suggested that Reles might have been trying to escape from police custody. But the distance his body traveled away from the hotel wall indicated that he had been thrown.

Anastasia had managed to get to Reles even while he was guarded by lawmen.

O'Dwyer's case against the Lord High Executioner collapsed. But the Brooklyn D.A. kept the pressure on. The Mafia commission was forced to disband Murder Inc. and find another means of organizational discipline, and Anastasia was forced to change addresses for a while.

The beginning of American involvement in the Second World War provided Anastasia with a means to vanish from New York for a while and simultaneously improve his image.

He enlisted in the armed forces on May 18, 1942. With his experience on the Brooklyn docks, he proved valuable to the military as an instructor. He was made a technical sergeant and assigned to the education of military longshoremen at Indiana Gap. Pennsylvania.

The military turned out to be Anastasia's route to U.S. citizenship.

He took advantage of a special act of Congress, which granted speedy naturalization to aliens serving in the American armed forces, to become a citizen on June 29, 1943. He didn't mention any of his previous run-ins with the law on his citizenship application.

At the end of the following year, the army discharged him because he was overage. He was nearly 43 at the time.

In the mid-1940s, Anastasia decided to move away from Brooklyn and follow his longtime friend Joe Adonis to the country setting of Fort Lee, New Jersey. The Brooklyn home held in the name of his wife was sold for $25,000. The Anastasias built a new, 35-room, 5-bathroom house, valued at more than $75,000 at #75 Bluff Road in Fort Lee. The property was put in the name of Albert and Elsa Bargneti. The hillside mansion, just around the corner from Adonis's home, overlooked rolling hills and the Hudson River.

In October 1945, Anastasia showed the degree of his influence over New York's longshoremen. A strike, relating to an inter-union power struggle, crippled the city's docks from October 1 to 22. Anastasia then assembled his Brooklyn allies and brought them back to work. As the Brooklyn docks opened again, the strike collapsed, and the entire New York waterfront was opened for business.