The History of the Mafia by Nigel Cawthorne

Author:Nigel Cawthorne
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Arcturus Publishing Limited

ALBERT ANASTASIA

Born Umberto Anastasio in Calabria in 1902, he emigrated to the United States with his family in 1919. After working as a longshoreman, he then joined a gang that robbed and raped women. Early on in his criminal career he changed his name to avoid bringing shame on his family, although his brother, Anthony 'Tough Tony' Anastasio – who was also a gangster – kept the original spelling.

Anastasia set up his own bootlegging operation under the wing of Brooklyn gang boss Joe Adonis. He murdered at least five people in disputes over territory. In 1920 he killed Joe Torino in a quarrel over the right to unload ships with valuable cargoes, stabbing and strangling him in front of witnesses. He was convicted and sentenced to death. After 18 months on Death Row at Sing Sing he won a new trial. Some of the previous witnesses had mysteriously vanished and others had reversed their earlier testimony, allowing Anastasia to walk free. He was then taken on as Joe Adonis' enforcer, becoming known as 'The Lord High Executioner', 'The Mad Hatter' or simply 'Big Al'.

When Murder, Inc. was set up, it was Anastasia who came up with the new vocabulary of ‘contracts’, ‘hits’ and ‘marks’. Although the traditional Sicilian mafiosi were suspicious of his close association with Jewish gangsters, he was present at the first meeting of the national criminal cartel in Atlantic City in 1929. The event was hosted by the town's boss, Nucky Johnson. Also present were Capone, Luciano, Adonis, Torrio and Costello. They had all turned up to meet Moses Annenberg, who was setting up a national wire service for bookmakers, financed by Meyer Lansky.

During the Castellammarese War Anastasia earned the reputation of a cold-blooded killer. He was one of the team who killed Joe Masseria, reputedly delivering the coup de grâce. And when Dutch Schultz asked for Dewey to be killed, Anastasia staked out Dewey's apartment, posing as a loving father with a child. He reported that the special prosecutor was lightly guarded and could easily be eliminated.

Although Anastasia was fiercely loyal to Lepke, it was he who persuaded Lepke to turn himself in, a move that ultimately led to Lepke's execution. It is thought that Luciano put Anastasia up to it, because he was jealous of the power Lepke was accruing. When Abraham Reles informed on Lepke and Murder, Inc., Anastasia went into hiding. Fearing that he might be implicated in the murder of Reles he joined the army, but when his unit was posted overseas Anastasia bribed his way into a post in a transportation centre in Town Gap, Pennsylvania. He rose to the rank of sergeant and put it about that he had performed heroic deeds. He paraded around Brooklyn wearing his uniform after the war. Dangling from his chest was a row of medals he had bought from a pawn shop.

When Luciano was deported, his territories in Brooklyn were taken over by the Mangano family, with Anastasia as underboss. Then the Manganos began to disappear.

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