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King of the Brooklyn Docks

Albert Anastasia (1902-1957)
Part II

By Thomas Hunt
Copyright 2005

As the 1950s opened, Anastasia was a focal point for state and federal racketeering investigations. Government officials named Anastasia as one of the leading figures in a national crime syndicate that ran rackets in major U.S. cities and sentenced its own members to death for disobedience.

Anastasia's name was in the newspapers regularly, causing a great deal of concern for his underworld partners. He was labeled as the Mafia's chief thug, as a smuggler of heroin, as a corruptor of the labor movement.

At the same time, Anastasia's old buddy Willie Moretti was getting himself into trouble. According to legend, Moretti's mind was going (some say it was the result of syphilis), and he was talking too much, about too much, to too many people. With government investigators calling mobsters to televised hearings all across the country, Moretti was becoming a great liability.

Curiously, Anastasia and Moretti were reportedly trusted with a sensitive assignment in October 1951. The syndicate wished to provide a handsome payoff to a jailed bookmaker to ensure that he would not rat out his underworld colleagues. Anastasia and Moretti were asked to take the money to the bookmaker's representative. Moretti's "thing" was gambling (he also dabbled in entertainment, reportedly helping Sinatra become a star), so he was a natural choice. But Anastasia's inclusion in the assignment smells like a setup.

Some of the money disappeared on the way.

Anastasia insisted to the bosses on the Commission that he knew nothing about the missing money. The Commission, dominated at the time by a conservative Sicilian faction, decided to give him the benefit of the doubt, just for the moment.

On Thursday, Oct. 4, 1951, Anastasia was warned to stay away from restaurant called Joe's Elbow Room, which was located near his home on Palisades Avenue in Cliffside Park, New Jersey. Late in the morning, Willie Moretti was killed at that restaurant. Some sources suggest that Anastasia was forced to take a role in setting up the murder of his old friend. Anastasia reportedly asked for and was granted the use of Moretti's driver/bodyguard for the day.

Four men, already at the restaurant when Moretti arrived alone, invited him to their table. The group joked in Italian and laughed for a while together. Two of the men then drew handguns and fired into Moretti's head and face.

According to the press, the old chief of Murder Inc. received word that he should retire at once or he would be next. It seems Anastasia looked into the possibility of retiring to the resort town of Hot Springs, Arkansas. But the community convinced him he was not wanted there.

Apparently deciding against retirement, Anastasia opted instead to improve his stature in the Sicilian-Italian underworld. He moved against his conservative family bosses, the Manganos, and seized control of the organization.

Philip Mangano was found dead in a Canarsie swamp. Vincent Mangano was not found at all. Ever. Anastasia became boss of the family and shifted the balance of power on the Commission.

His new prestige as boss coupled with his influence at the Brooklyn docks made him a considerable force in organized crime. He also had investments in clothing companies and a small interest in garment workers unions. Through his brother Antonio - a longshoreman union official known at the time as "Tough Tony" - Anastasia was gaining influence with the Manhattan dockworkers. With ally Anthony "Tony Bender" Strollo (a capo in Costello's group), he was also becoming a force on the New Jersey shore.

Left unchecked, Anastasia might have come to own all of the New York-New Jersey waterfront and to threaten the lucrative garment district rackets jealously guarded by other crime families. In a short time, his power and wealth might have entitled him to the old designation of boss of bosses.

On the commission, Anastasia became a strong supporter of Frank Costello. Costello had become the boss of the old Morello-Masseria-Luciano family after Luciano was deported and underboss Vito Genovese exiled himself to Italy to avoid a U.S. murder prosecution. With help from Tommy Lucchese, who succeeded to the leadership post in the Reina-Gagliano family, Costello and Anastasia could counter the influence of New York's ultra-conservative Mafiosi like Joe Bonanno and Joe Profaci.

The new Fort Lee home turned out to be a problem for Anastasia. He could not have afforded to build such a structure on the income he claimed on his tax documents. Federal treasury agents hoped to succeed where local and state law enforcement officials had failed so many times before.

A case for tax evasion was assembled against Anastasia beginning in 1948. At issue were his tax returns for the years 1947 and 1948. During that period of time, Anastasia paid $2,788 in taxes on a reported income of $18,769. The government estimated that it was owed $14,521 in taxes on income that must have been at least $51,075.

One of the more damaging witnesses against Anastasia was a Fort Lee plumber/pipefitter named Charles Ferri. According to Ferri, he did $8,700 worth of work on Anastasia's home. He linked Anastasia directly to payments for the work by noting that he was handed $1,000 from Anastasia himself.

One of the scheduled witnesses in the federal trial did not appear. Anastasia bodyguard Vincent Macri, expected to testify against his boss, was found dead April 25, 1954, in the trunk of his automobile parked in the Bronx.

The jury in the case decided it was hopelessly deadlocked on November 21, 1954, and a mistrial was declared by Judge Albert E. Mondarelli.

The Treasury reloaded and took another shot at Anastasia in spring of 1955. Oddly, Charles Ferri could not be located. After the first trial, he and his wife quickly left Fort Lee and headed south, settling in Miami, Florida. But, even when tracked to the Sunshine State, the Ferris could not be found.

Investigators did find blood spatters in the Ferri's Miami home. They concluded that Anastasia, free on $10,000 bail, was using his favorite legal defense technique.

Just as the second tax evasion trial was set to begin, federal prosecutors received a surprise. Anastasia's attorney Anthony A, Calendra of Newark announced that his client had decided to plead guilty to tax evasion.

The move was a strange one. The Treasury had managed only a mistrial in the first go-round, and its case had not improved with the loss of Ferri. Perhaps things in New York were getting a little hot for Anastasia, and he needed an extended vacation.

Judge Thomas M. Madden imposed a sentence of one year in jail and a $20,000 fine. The punishment was considerably shorter than the maximum of five years per count. On June 14, 1955, U.S. Marshal Joseph Job took Anastasia by airplane to federal prison at Milan, Michigan.

While he was fighting the IRS, Anastasia came under attack from the INS - the Immigration and Naturalization Service of the federal Justice Department.

The first round of that bout was won by the government. On April 27, 1954, federal district Judge William A. Smith signed a denaturalization order against Anastasia. It was decided that the longtime racketeer had lied about his background in his citizenship application. Assistant U.S. Attorney Pierre Garvan was forced to wait for the appeals process to run its course before beginning a formal deportation proceeding.

Three months after he entered prison on the tax evasion conviction, Anastasia received word that the U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Philadelphia had sided with him. By a 2-1 ruling, the court reversed Judge Smith and restored Anastasia's citizenship.

Efforts to remove Anastasia from the United States continued into 1956. On May 14 - a month and a half after his early release from Milan - the United States Supreme Court refused to hear the case, essentially backing the decision of the Appeals Court.

Anastasia's celebratory mood was dampened by news of the death of his brother Giuseppe Anastasio. Giuseppe had risen to the position of pier hiring boss. He was a popular man at the docks. Anastasia saw to it that his brother had a lavish funeral. The cortege was said to be a mile long.

In 1957, the Mafia Commission became aware that Anastasia's crime family was selling Mafia memberships. Underboss Frank Scalise was known to be filling his pockets through the practice. The sale of membership was expressly forbidden, as it exposed the organization to untrustworthy individuals and to law enforcement infiltration.

It appears that Anastasia attempted to rectify the situation himself by ordering the execution of Scalise. Because Scalise was a friend of Luciano and the recently deported Adonis, Anastasia decided to send word to his two old colleagues in Italy before the deed was done.

Mafiosi have never been particularly strong in the forgive-and-forget department. Though Anastasia was taking proper corrective action, the Scalise problem - coupled with the earlier Moretti problem - left Anastasia with two black eyes. Anastasia was momentarily weakened.

Luciano and Adonis were learning of Scalise's death sentence just as New Yorkers became aware of an assassination attempt on Frank Costello. Costello was fine - the bullet just grazed his scalp.

Some in the city believed that the botched hit at Costello's apartment house was the result of a falling out between Costello and Anastasia. Those in the know suggested that it merely indicated that Vito Genovese's patience was at an end.

Genovese left the United States before the Second World War, hiding out in Mussolini's Italy. After the war, he came back across the Atlantic. Upon his return, he was more ambitious, more ruthless and more impatient than ever. He was kept in check for a while only through threats (and some say there was an actual physical beating) from exiled Charlie Luciano, but eventually he sought to take family leadership from Costello and decided that a hit was the easiest way.

Even the screwup turned out to be sufficient. Costello got the message, along with a new part in his hair. He retired as family boss. Genovese took over the family and next moved to take over the Commission.

Anastasia and Lucchese remained as a voting block on the ruling council. Anastasia, devoted friend of Costello, became instantly opposed to Genovese and vaguely swore revenge on whoever was responsible for the hit on Costello. Though Bonanno and Profaci also had little use for the uncouth and unSicilian Genovese, they saw an opportunity to break up the alliance that had been their nemesis. They cooperated as Genovese moved against Anastasia.

At 10:20 in the morning on Oct. 25, 1957, Anastasia stopped into the barber shop at the Park Sheraton Hotel (the same hotel at which Arnold Rothstein was killed years earlier) for a shave and haircut. He frequented the establishment operated by Arthur Grasso. That morning, he sat in the fourth of twelve barber chairs and leaned back as barber Joseph Bocchino placed a hot towel on his face.

Two masked gunmen burst into the shop and unloaded handguns into the 55-year-old Anastasia's body. The former Murder Inc. chief was hit in his head, back, right hip and left hand. Witnesses said he lunged from the chair and attacked the reflection of his attackers in the mirror in front of him before collapsing dead in a pool of blood on the floor.

Police investigators puzzled over the absence of Anastasia's driver and bodyguard Anthony Coppola. Coppola would say nothing to police except that he was at his home in Fairhaven, New Jersey, when he learned of Anastasia's death. Police held Coppolain custody as a material witness.

With Anastasia responsible - directly and indirectly - for so many deaths, vendetta was certainly a possible motive for his assassination. Underworld competition was another possibility. Police set to the task of sorting through the long list of the mob boss's enemies.

Eventually, the story of the Anastasia hit came together. It suggests that Genovese cultivated a momentary alliance with Bonanno and Profaci and a similarly conservative Sicilian named Carlo Gambino, who was Anastasia's underboss, in order to rid himself of Anastasia.

Without a Murder Inc. entity to assign the job to, the Commission allegedly handed responsibility to Profaci's family. Joe Profaci is said to have assigned the task to "Crazy Joe" Gallo and his brothers. Gallo, who subsequently led a revolt within the Profaci-Magliocco-Colombo family, seemed to admit involvement in the assassination later in his life.

An alternative history has been proposed in more recent years. In that account, the assignment is handed to Joe Biondo, a member of Anastasia's own family. Biondo reportedly directed members of his crew to eliminate the boss.

With Anastasia gone, Gambino became boss of the family. Biondo became his underboss. The conservative Sicilians - Bonanno, Profaci and Gambino - gained some strength and prestige (though not enough to keep Genovese in check).

The press published many theories relating to the Anastasia assassination. Some suggested that the crime lord had fallen victim to his own ambition, running into a conflict over the numbers racket with Vito Genovese or over garment district rackets with Johnny Dioguardi. Some felt Anastasia was bumped off by an Irish mob looking to establish its influence along the docks or by a young faction in the Mafia trying to wipe out the old guard.

An intriguing speculation published in New York newspapers in January 1958 involved Anastasia being disciplined for attempting to move into Havana gambling without permission from Santo Trafficante (Tampa) and Meyer Lansky, who controlled that racket. It seems that Anastasia did meet with representatives of the Cuban government just before meeting his end.

One simple theory seemed to capture the truth: Anastasia had gotten too big.

There was no Mass of Christian Burial for Anastasia. His family did not request one, feeling that it would be inappropriate considering the way he lived his life and his unrepentant nature. As many as 30 murders were directly attributed to Anastasia. The Murder Inc. organization he helped to found and to run was believed to be responsible for many more deaths.

A poorly attended Sunday night wake was held in Parlor C on the second floor of Andrew Torregrossa's funeral home at 1305 79th Street in Brooklyn. Police were keeping an eye out for underworld characters who might choose to pay their respects. They identified only Augie Pisano.

Early the next morning, the press noted that William V. Bradley and Thomas W. Gleason, officials of the International Longshoremen's Association, showed up to pay their respects. Neither man would speak with reporters.

A simple ceremony was conducted in front of an inexpensive coffin (the press said it cost $900, in contrast with the many thousands of dollars spent on brother Giuseppe's coffin). Elsa wept loudly and nearly collapsed. She was led to a chair by Albert Jr., then in his twenties and recently graduated from college. Father Salvatore Anastasio prayed over his brother's corpse and the placed two rosaries in the dead man's hands. The priest did not travel to the cemetery.

The coffin was closed at 10:40 a.m. and a small crucifix was placed on it. The funeral cortege consisted of one car of flowers, the hearse and four cars for family members.

Anastasia could not be buried in a Catholic cemetery. He was interred in Brooklyn's Green-Wood Cemetery.

In February 1958, Elsa Bargnesi Anastasia left the family home in Fort Lee, New Jersey, and returned to Canada. Reporters located her at a large, two-story brick house in the North End neighborhood of Toronto's North York suburb. Her decision to leave was apparently a hasty one. On March 10, 1958, a Newark, New Jersey, court dismissed her application for U.S. citizenship because she did not appear for a hearing.

"Tough Tony" Anastasio remained a force on the New York waterfront until his death after a heart attack on March 1, 1963.