Umberto Albert Anastasia rose from the Brooklyn waterfront to become one of the most feared figures in American organized crime, helping to build the modern Mafia and leading the infamous Murder Incorporated execution squad. By the 1950s, he controlled the docks, the unions, and one of New York’s most powerful crime families. But on the morning of October 25, 1957, the man known as the Lord High Executioner walked into a Midtown Manhattan barber shop and never walked out alive. Anastasia was born Umberto Anastasio on September 26, 1902, in Parghelia, Calabria, Italy.
His father, a railway worker, died after World War I, leaving behind nine children. In 1919, Anastasia and his brothers deserted a freighter they were working aboard in New York and entered the United States illegally. They soon found work as longshoremen on the Brooklyn waterfront. His criminal record began early.
In March 1921, he was convicted of murdering fellow longshoreman George Torino after a quarrel and was sentenced to death. He was transferred to Sing Sing State Prison to await execution, but a legal technicality won him a retrial in 1922. By then, the original prosecution witnesses had disappeared, and Anastasia was released. He changed his surname from Anastasio to Anastasia and, in June 1923, was again convicted, this time for illegal possession of a firearm, and sentenced to two years in prison.
By the late 1920s, Anastasia had become a top leader in the International Longshoremen’s Association, controlling six local union chapters in Brooklyn. He associated with powerful Mafia boss Joe “the Boss” Masseria and grew close to men who would later rule the underworld: Joe Adonis, Charles “Lucky” Luciano, Vito Genovese, and Frank Costello. The Castellammarese War broke out in early 1931 between Masseria and Salvatore Maranzano. Luciano agreed to engineer Masseria’s death in exchange for receiving Masseria’s rackets and becoming Maranzano’s second-in-command.
On April 15, 1931, Masseria was killed at a restaurant on Coney Island. Luciano allegedly excused himself to go to the bathroom, and gunmen entered. Reportedly, Anastasia, Genovese, Adonis, and Benjamin “Bugsy” Siegel were among them, with Ciro “the Artichoke King” Terranova driving the getaway car. As payment for Anastasia’s loyalty, Luciano gave him and Louis “Lepke” Buchalter, the nation’s top labor racketeer, control over Murder Incorporated.
The group, also called the Brownsville Boys, was made up of Jewish and Italian contract killers who operated out of the basement of Midnight Rose’s, a candy shop run by mobster Louis Capone in Brooklyn’s Brownsville neighborhood. It is estimated that Murder Incorporated committed thousands of murders during its decade of operation, many never solved. Anastasia earned the nicknames “the Mad Hatter” and “the Lord High Executioner” for his leadership. The Mafia’s ruling commission faced its first major test in 1935 when Dutch Schultz was ordered to abandon his plan to kill special prosecutor Thomas E.
Dewey. Luciano believed a Dewey assassination would trigger a severe law enforcement crackdown. An enraged Schultz left the meeting threatening to kill Dewey anyway. When Anastasia informed Luciano that Schultz had asked him to monitor Dewey’s Fifth Avenue apartment, the commission convened a secret meeting.
After six hours of deliberation, they decided to eliminate Schultz. Luciano was convicted on 62 counts of forced prostitution in June 1936 as a result of an investigation by Dewey’s office and was sentenced to 30 to 50 years in prison. Genovese took over as acting boss but fled to Italy in 1937 after being charged with a 1934 murder. Costello then became acting boss of the Luciano crime family.
Anastasia was allegedly responsible for several high-profile killings during this period. Morris Diamond, a Teamsters Union official who had resisted Buchalter’s attempts to control the garment district, was reportedly murdered by Anastasia in May 1939. Anastasia was also accused of planning the murder of Peter Panto, an International Longshoremen’s Association activist who led a push for democratic reforms and refused to be intimidated by union officials. Panto vanished on July 14, 1939, and his body was not found until later, on a New Jersey farm.
Murder Incorporated was effectively dismantled when Abe Reles, a Brownsville gang leader who had been supplying hitmen to the organization for ten years, was arrested and decided to cooperate with the government to avoid execution. His testimony led to the conviction of seven Murder Incorporated members. Reles also had knowledge linking Anastasia to the murders of Panto and Diamond. Concerned about legal action, Anastasia offered a $100,000 reward for Reles’ murder.
Reles was found dead on a restaurant roof outside the Half Moon Hotel in Coney Island on November 12, 1941. He had been guarded in a sixth-floor room during a trial. A grand jury determined in 1951 that Reles had accidentally died while descending to the fifth floor using sheets fastened to a heating radiator. Many officials, however, continued to believe he had been killed.
During World War II, Anastasia reportedly came up with the idea of using the war effort to secure Luciano’s release from prison. In exchange for the Mafia’s protection of the waterfront and Luciano’s assistance with his associates in Sicily, Anastasia orchestrated a deal that won Luciano lighter treatment and eventually parole. America needed allies in Sicily to advance the invasion of Italy, and the US Navy wanted to devote its resources to the war. Anastasia enlisted in the American army in 1942, possibly to distance himself from the judicial proceedings dismantling Murder Incorporated.
He trained at Fort Indiantown Gap in Pennsylvania, attained the rank of technical sergeant, and was granted American citizenship in 1943 as payment for his military service. After receiving an honorable discharge the following year, he moved his family to a ranch home on Bluff Road in Fort Lee, New Jersey. Genovese was sent back to the United States in 1945 by American military officials in Sicily to stand trial for the 1934 murder of Ferdinand Boccia. However, all charges against him were dropped after the key prosecution witness died.
The federal government swiftly deported Luciano to Italy after Governor Dewey commuted his sentence in 1946. In 1948, Anastasia bought a dressmaking factory in Hazelton, Pennsylvania, and left his waterfront activities under the control of his brother Anthony. Although Anastasia was a powerful mobster in his own right, he was formally the underboss of the Mangano crime family, reporting to Vincent Mangano. Mangano resented Anastasia’s close relationships with Luciano and Costello throughout his 20-year rule, especially the fact that they had hired his services without Mangano’s consent.
The two mobsters had several heated, almost physical arguments over business-related issues. Vincent Mangano vanished on April 19, 1951, and his body was never found. The body of his brother Philip was discovered in Jamaica Bay the same day. Although no one was ever arrested in connection with the Mangano killings, it has been widely speculated that Anastasia was behind them.
Anastasia appeared before the commission and claimed the brothers wanted to kill him but would not confess to their murders. The commission agreed to his elevation to family head. Costello wanted Anastasia as an ally against the ambitious and resentful Genovese. Joseph Bonnano, who merely wished to prevent a gang war, also backed Anastasia.
In March 1952, Anastasia was allegedly linked to the killing of Arnold Schuster, a New Yorker who had helped apprehend wanted bank robber Willie Sutton. Schuster had identified Sutton, and after seeing Schuster being interviewed on television, Anastasia allegedly said, “I can’t stand squealers. Hit that guy. ” Schuster was shot dead on a street in Borough Park, Brooklyn, on March 8, 1952.
No one was ever arrested in connection with the murder. On December 9, 1952, the federal government filed suit to denaturalize Anastasia and deport him, claiming he had lied on his citizenship application. Genovese needed to remove Costello to seize power over the Luciano family. Unable to do so without also eliminating Anastasia, he searched for allies.
He portrayed Anastasia as an unstable killer whose brutal actions threatened to bring legal pressure on the entire organization. Genovese also cited Anastasia’s sale of memberships in his crime family for $50,000 each as a clear violation of commission rules, which infuriated many high-ranking mobsters. The FBI claimed Anastasia had been losing large sums of money on horse races, making him even more irritable and unpredictable. Over the following years, Genovese gradually gained Carlo Gambino’s support by promising him control over Anastasia’s family in exchange for cooperation.
Genovese decided to move against Costello in early 1957. Costello was shot and wounded by Vincent Gigante outside his apartment complex on May 2, 1957. Although the injury was minor, Costello was persuaded to hand over control to Genovese and stepped down. Genovese now controlled the family that would become known as the Genovese crime family.
Frank Scalise, Anastasia’s underboss and the man allegedly directly in charge of selling the memberships, was assassinated on June 17 of the same year. On the morning of Friday, October 25, 1957, Anastasia entered the barber shop of the Park Sheraton Hotel at 56th Street and 7th Avenue in Midtown Manhattan. His driver had left the car in an underground garage and gone for a walk, leaving Anastasia without protection. As Anastasia sat calmly in the barber chair, two men with scarves covering their faces burst in, pushed the barber aside, and opened fire.
After the initial barrage of shots, Anastasia allegedly lunged at his attackers. In reality, he had been attacking the gunmen’s reflections in the barber shop’s wall mirror. The shooters kept firing until Anastasia collapsed and fell dead on the floor.
The men escaped and were never identified.