Mangano was planning to kill Anastasia and that Albert had a right to act in self-defense. Faced with a fait accompli the other bosses could do nothing but accept Anastasia's elevation.
It appears Costello had other motivation for wanting Anastasia in control of the crime family. Costello at the time was facing a concentrated challenge from Vito Genovese for control of the Luciano family now that Luciano was in exile. Up until 1951 Costello had depended for muscle on New Jersey crime family boss Willie Moretti, but Moretti was in the process of losing his mind and would soon be a rubout in a "mercy killing" by the mob. That meant Costello needed new muscle and Anastasia, with a family of gunmen behind him, would make a strong foil to Genovese.
Unfortunately, as a crime boss Anastasia turned even more kill-crazy than ever. In 1952 he even ordered the murder of a young Brooklyn salesman named Arnold Schuster after watching Schuster bragging on television about his role as primary witness in bank robber Willie Sutton's arrest. "I can't stand squealers!" Anastasia raged to his men. "Hit that guy!"
In killing Schuster, Anastasia had violated a cardinal crime syndicate rule which ran, as Bugsy Siegel once quaintly put it, "We only kill each other." Outsiders—prosecuters, reporters, the public in general—were not to be killed. Members of the general public could only be hit if the very life of the organization or some of its top leaders were threatened. This certainly was not the case with Arnold Schuster, a man whose killing generated much heat on the mob. Like other members of the syndicate, even Luciano in Italy and Costello were horrified, but they could not disavow Anastasia because they needed him to counter Genovese's growing ambitions and power. Genovese cunningly used Anastasia's kill-crazy behavior against him, wooing supporters away from Anastasia on that basis. Secretly over a few years time Genovese won the cooperation of Anastasia's underboss, Carlo Gambino. Gambino in turn recruited crime boss Joe Profaci to oppose Anastasia.
Still, Genovese dared not move against Anastasia and his real target, Costello, because of Meyer Lansky, the highest-ranking and the most powerful member of the national syndicate. Normally Lansky would not have supported Genovese under any circumstances, their dislike for each other going back to the 1920s. But in recent years Lansky was riding high as the king of casino gambling in Cuba, cutting in other syndicate bosses for lesser shares. When Anastasia leaned on him for a piece of the action, Lansky refused. So Anastasia started working on plans to bring his own gambling setup into Cuba. That was not something Lansky took lightly. Anyone messing with his gambling empire went. That applied to Lansky's good friend Bugsy Siegel and it certainly applied to Anastasia. Up until then Lansky had preferred to let Anastasia and Genovese bleed each other to death, but now he gave his approval to the former's eradication.
Anastasia's rubout was carried out with an efficiency that the former lord high executioner of Murder, Inc., would have approved. On the morning of October 25, 1957, Anastasia entered the barbershop of the Park Sheraton Hotel in New York for a quick going over. Anastasia's bodyguard parked the car in an underground garage and then most conveniently decided to take a little stroll. Anastasia relaxed in the barber chair, closing his eyes. Suddenly two men, scarves covering their faces, marched in. One told the shop owner, Arthur Grasso, who was standing by the cash register: "Keep your mouth shut if you don't want your head blown off."
The pair moved on Anastasia's chair, shoving the attending barber out of the way. Anastasia still did not open his eyes. Both men shot Anastasia, who after the first volley jumped to his feet. Anastasia lunged at his killers or what he thought were his killers, trying to get them with his bare hands. Actually he attacked their reflection in the mirror. It took several more shots to drop him, but he finally fell to the floor dead.
Like virtually all gang killings, the Anastasia murder remains unsolved. It is known, though, that the contract was given to Joe Profaci who passed it on to the three homicidal Gallo brothers from Brooklyn. Whether they did it themselves or let others handle the actual gunning was never determined.
The double-dealing did not cease with Anastasia's death. Gambino now secretly deserted Genovese and joined with Lansky, Luciano and Costello in a plot that would entrap Genovese in a narcotics conviction and send him away to prison for the rest of his life. In that sense Anastasia was avenged, but it was not with the abrupt finality that the kill-crazy executioner would likely have preferred.
See also: Normandie, S.S.; Tenuto, Frederick J.
Anastasia Crime Family: See Gambino Crime Family.
Anastasio, Anthony "Tough Tony" (1906–1963): Waterfront racketeer For about three decades, until his death in 1963, Tough Tony Anastasio ruled the New York waterfront with an iron fist. A vice president of the International Longshoremen's Association and head of Local 1814, he had other, more important, unofficial offices. Although never officially connected to Murder, Inc., and brother
