Albert Anastasia

Umberto Anastasio was born in Tropea, Italy on September 26, 1902, he was one of nine brothers, one of which, Anthony, also led a life of crime. Albert came to the U.S. around 1919, and worked in Brooklyn's waterfront operations and rose through the ranks of the longshormens union. It was here that he first demonstrated his ability to be ruthless, killing a few of his fellow longshormen in the 1920's. This led him to a year and a half prison sentence, which was cut short due to a trial that never took place, the witnesses turned up missing, never to be seen again.

Early Years

Albert served in the gang with Joe "the Boss" Masseria, although he was more devoted to others like Lucky Luciano and Frank Costello. When Luciano outlined his plan to kill Masseria to Anastasia, he hoped on and aggreed to take part. Albert was one of the men in the four man death squad that killed Joe Masseria in in Nuova Villa Tammaro, a resturant in Cooney Island.

For his services, Anastasia was promoted to Boss of Murder Inc, the enforcer of the National Crime Syndacate (made up of the boss of all the major families in the country.) Before a hit was taken place, it was suppose to be brought up before the commission, and then the task done by a member of Murder Inc. It has been estimated that Murder Inc was responsible for upwards of 700 deaths, most of which remain unsolved today. When it looked like a trial might take someone down, the witness would disappear.

The 1950's

In 1951 Anastasia, while the power of Murder Inc was fading (families were now doing there own killing,) became boss of the Mangano Family, which would later be known as the Gambino Family. Vincent Mangano, the Boss of the family, did not like how Albert would go to others for permission to carry out services and not him. They disputed this and other deals for years, then in 1951, Vincent went missing, and his brother was killed. Now Anastasia had control of the family, with the support of Frank Costello. All the other bosses also accepted this as Costello and Anastasia claimed that Mangano was planning to kill Albert, so his act was in self defense.

Now that Anastasia was Boss, he had to watch his back as Vito Genevese was itching to be the head of the Syndicate now that Lucky Luciano was in exile in Italy after the war. Vito's growing ambitions were starting to worry Lucinao and Costello, as he was secretly gaining the support of another powerful mobster, Carlo Gambino, Anastasia's underboss at the time. Although, without the support of one of the most powerful mobsters of all time, Meyer Lansky, Genovese could not go forward, as he would need Lansky's support to overthrow Anastasia.

With Lansky controlling huge amounts of the casino business in Cuba, Anastasia wanted a bigger piece of the pie, Lansky refused. Albert started to create his own rackets in Cuba which angered Lansky, and he now gave support to Genovesse's plan to get rid of him.

On October 25, 1957, Albert Anastasia entered a barbershop at the Park Sheraton Hotel in New York City. His bodyguard dropped him off, and then drove off for a little ride. While Anastasia was sitting in the chair, two armed men came in, got the barber out of the way, and started firing. Legand has it that Albert lunged at the two men, only to jump at a mirror with the reflection of the men shooting.