Vince Mangano had never been pure in these matters anyway. In April 1931, Mangano betrayed his boss Joe Masseria by joining Salvatore Maranzano. Then, after Maranzano's assassination in September 1931, Mangano became boss of the Brooklyn waterfront by pushing aside Frank “Cheech” Scalise.30 It was not exactly a pristine rise to power.
The flaw was present in the Mafia since the very beginning. The Mafia families were well-structured to allow their members to make money. The Commission provided a forum to arbitrate ordinary disputes and preserve general standards for the Cosa Nostra. But the Mafia, like other crime syndicates, really had no peaceful means to resolve severe conflicts among its top leaders. They could not call the police or bring a civil action in court. Rather, they took matters into their own hands. Take the case of Anastasia's underboss Frank Scalise.
THE UP-AND-DOWN LIFE OF FRANK “CHEECH” SCALISE
After a lifetime in the mob, Frank “Cheech” Scalise had reason to be cynical.
He had once been a boss. Back in 1930, Scalise was one of the first to answer Salvatore Maranzano's calls for a revolt against Joe Masseria. As reward, Maranzano offered Scalise the opportunity to become a boss on “the condition that he would eliminate [Vincent] Mangano at the first opportunity.” Scalise took the deal to become boss.31
Then, Scalise delayed the hit. Growing impatient, Maranzano demanded to know why Mangano was still alive. Scalise tried to explain that he was unable to develop “any pretext to kill [Mangano] in order to justify his action with his countrymen.” The boss of bosses was extremely unhappy with Scalise.32
Fearing that Maranzano would send killers after him, Scalise spilled the beans about the murder scheme to Mangano's allies. This further fueled the conspiracy against Maranzano. As we saw, Charles Luciano's hit men killed Salvatore Maranzano in his Park Avenue office on September 10, 1931. Although Scalise probably saved his own life by revealing the scheme, he was not going to be a boss anymore. “Scalise's star fell. Scalise had been too close a supporter of Maranzano,” explained Bonanno. Scalise was demoted from boss and replaced by Vince Mangano. Scalise had gone from boss to has-been in a few months.33
Frank Scalise as Underboss: Franchising the Mob
It took twenty years for Scalise to claw his way back. Ironically, he returned over the dead body of Vince Mangano. Albert Anastasia made Scalise his new underboss in 1951. The mob's rackets were booming at the time. Crooks all over New York wanted in on the Cosa Nostra.
By 1956, Scalise decided it was his turn to cash in on his position as underboss. “Frank Scalise was accused, which was true, of commercializing this Cosa Nostra,” Joe Valachi explained. Scalise used his authority as underboss to sell memberships in the Mafia for cash payments. “It was rumored amongst us boys that he received about 40,000” dollars from each payee to become a soldier, recounted Valachi. Selling mob memberships was resented by the existing wiseguys. “We were all stunned when the word got out,” said Valachi. “In the old days a man had to prove himself to get it.”34
Scalise's actions offended not only their pride, but also their power and money. Albert Anastasia reportedly felt threatened by all the new men that Scalise was turning into soldiers. All these newly minted soldiers were beholden to Scalise. They might someday be used in a revolt against Anastasia.35 In addition, Scalise's rapid sale of mob memberships probably reduced the value of existing mob memberships. Although the soldiers would never put it in raw economic terms, as we saw earlier, much like a guild system or a franchise, “made men” could make more money by excluding others from the rackets.36 Lots of wiseguys wanted Scalise to be stopped.
Monday Afternoon, June 17, 1957, Produce Store, Arthur Avenue, The Bronx: Punishing Frank Scalise
Frank Scalise was always drawn to the Belmont/Arthur Avenue neighborhood, the Little Italy of the central Bronx. Unlike the Cosa Nostra, the residents there lived up to their Italian customs. Frank's brother Jack Scalise still ran a candy store in the neighborhood. Even after Frank moved out to City Island, on the water, he drove to the Italian shops along Arthur Avenue.37
On Monday afternoon, June 17, 1957, Frank Scalise was grocery shopping at a produce store on Arthur Avenue. He bought some fresh peaches and lettuce for ninety cents. As Scalise was stuffing the change back into his pocket, a pair of men brushed past the grocery proprietor. Before anyone knew what was happening, the gunmen took aim at Scalise and fired shots into his cheek, the side of his neck, and his larynx. He fell down dead atop his scattered change. The gunmen ran to a black sedan out front. A couple weeks later, Frank Scalise's other brother Joseph went missing and was presumed dead.38
Unlike after the attempt on Costello, Albert Anastasia did not bother going to the Commission to avenge the shooting of his underboss Scalise. After all, Anastasia had personally approved it. Carlo Gambino, a low-profile caporegime originally from Palermo, Sicily, was promptly named as his underboss. Despite the elimination of the despised Scalise, tensions were still growing in the Anastasia Family.39
THE LIFE OF A MOB BOSS: ANASTASIA'S DUAL FAMILIES
The NYPD's files on Albert Anastasia are stored at the New York Municipal Archives in Manhattan. Barely touched fifty years later, the files paint a rich portrait of Anastasia's life in the mid-1950s. What comes across in the files is how Anastasia compartmentalized his life. There was the Anastasia family of the New Jersey suburbs. Then there was the Anastasia Family of the New York underworld. Though he tried to keep his dual lives separate, they were never that far apart.
After the Second World War, Anastasia moved his wife and children to suburban Fort Lee, New Jersey. Anastasia bought a spacious Spanish-style house for $75,000 (about $650,000 in 2013 dollars) on the bluffs overlooking the Hudson River. It was surrounded by a steel perimeter fence and guarded by a pair of Doberman Pinschers. Fort Lee was a well-heeled New Jersey suburb with something of a mob enclave. Around the block was his mobster friend Joe Adonis. Anastasia soldiers Ernesto Barese, Paul Bonadio, and Sebastiano Bellanca had also moved to the neighborhood.40
9–3: House of Albert Anastasia on the bluffs overlooking the Hudson River in Fort Lee, New Jersey, 1957. (Photo from the New York Daily News Archive, used by permission of Getty Images)
Given Anastasia's obscene violence, it is often forgotten that he had a home life. He carried pictures of his wife and children in his wallet, and he phoned them whenever he was coming home late. On May 12, 1957, only ten days after the attempt on Costello, Anastasia went ahead with a christening ceremony of his new baby girl at the Essex House Hotel off Central Park, just a few blocks from the site of the Costello shooting. Albert had his brother Father Salvatore Anastasio perform the christening before hundreds of guests. That fall, his son Albert Anastasio Jr. entered his first year of law school at New York Law School.41
When asked about his work, Albert Sr., as well as members of his family, would point to his garment factory. “He is in the dress business in Pa.,” his son would say. Anastasia indeed owned a garment factory 130 miles away in Hazelton, Pennsylvania. It was a nonunion factory in the heart of coal country in the Wyoming Valley, a region rife with mob influence. The International Ladies’ Garment Workers’ Union struggled to organize the workers in the face of a depressed economy and intimidation by mafiosi like Russell Bufalino and Tommy Lucchese. Anastasia let his underlings run his factory and keep out the union organizers.42
Anastasia spent most of his days across the Hudson River in New York City. What he did in the city was often a mystery to his family. As his son later said, his father “was not the type of man that was asked about his personal business.”43
ANASTASIA'S GAMBLING PROBLEM
In 1957, Anastasia was spending a lot of his time in New York wagering on sports. Anastasia had a gambling problem.
“Albert was losing heavy at the track, he was there every day, and he was abusing people worse than ever on account of that,” Joe Valachi recalled.44 Police investigators later discovered that Anastasia had fallen four months be
hind on the mortgage payments on his house in 1957. This despite the fact Anastasia was carrying around ample cash from his income from his garment factory and underworld sources.45
Anastasia's gambling was enabled by his sidekick Anthony “Cappy” Coppola. They met when Coppola was making a delivery for his family's business and hit it off immediately. Although the press dubbed Anthony Coppola his “bodyguard,” that is an overstatement. Coppola was Anastasia's driver and errand boy, personal bookie, and goodtime pal. Mostly, Albert and Cappy bet on the ponies during the day and spent nights out in Manhattan. “Cappie is a clown and a bookie,” described an ex-boxer who knew them from the racetrack.46 Another mafiosi deep into gambling recalled how Anastasia and Cappy were always asking for his opinions on sports bets. Whenever the telegraphed results of sporting events came in, they would be promptly relayed to Cappy's hotel room. “Invariably, [Albert] was in the room,” the mafiosi remembered.47
ANASTASIA'S ENCROACHMENTS
Anastasia's steep gambling losses may have had bigger consequences for the mob. Although Anastasia had always been an avaricious boss, he began acting more aggressively in his dealings with the other New York families.
According to multiple sources, Albert Anastasia began encroaching on the interests of others in 1956 and 1957. For example, Anastasia tried speaking to Vito Genovese and even Frank Costello about some internal matters in their mob syndicate. “We will take care of our family, you take care of yours,” he was told brusquely.48
Anastasia was eyeing the casino business in Cuba, too. This was the territory of Tampa Bay boss Santo Trafficante and his gaming partner Joe Silesi. One night over dinner with Joe Silesi in New York, Anastasia brought up Trafficante's bid for gambling concessions at the new Havana Hilton in Cuba. “I understand you’[ve] got a chance to get the Hilton casino,” asked Anastasia, who wanted a piece of the action. This surprised Silesi. Although he knew others were interested in the Havana Hilton, Silesi never guessed that the New York boss was among them. Anastasia later brought this up directly with Trafficante. “I hear you've got an application in for the Hilton,” Anastasia pried. “It looks like a big thing.”49
Meanwhile, the soldiers were still unhappy that Anastasia had let Scalise bring in so many new members into their ranks. There were rumors that Anastasia had taken a cut of Scalise's fee for new members. Anastasia was increasingly abusive to some of his own men, too. “Albert Anastasia was doing so much wrong and it was up to his family to act,” said Joe Valachi, recalling the view of the wiseguys.50
News of Anastasia's overreaching spread through the Mafia. In New England, members of the Patriarca Family began worrying that their old ally Anastasia might turn on them. Vinnie Teresa of Boston recalls that they “were afraid he wanted to take over the whole mob, become the boss of bosses.” An FBI informant close to the mob in Cuba said that “the very size of his organization posed a control threat to the Mafia itself,” which feared “an eventual bitter struggle for power” if Anastasia's family kept expanding. Another source based in Los Angeles said the Commission felt Anastasia “was too power-hungry and would be picking off the ‘Bosses’ one by one.”51
If this sounds vaguely familiar, recall how the plots began against Joe Masseria and Salvatore Maranzano. The rebellion of 1928–1931 started as reactions against the boss of bosses abusing his power and interfering with other Mafia families.52 In 1956–57, Anastasia was starting to act like a boss of bosses. Toppling overly powerful bosses seems to have been a natural response of the wiseguys.
A WEEK IN THE LIFE OF A MOB BOSS: MONDAY, OCTOBER 21–THURSDAY, OCTOBER 24, 1957
Anastasia regularly kept suites at the luxurious Warwick Hotel and the San Carlos Hotel in Manhattan for himself and his pals and business associates. So when Tampa Bay boss Santo Trafficante flew into town the week of October 21, 1957, Anastasia reserved a suite at the Warwick. Although we do not know if they reached any agreements, Anastasia and Trafficante used the rooms to hash over the casino business in Cuba.53
On Thursday, October 24, Coppola spent the afternoon gambling in a room at the Warwick with Anastasia and Anthony “Little Augie Pisano” Carfano. They poured over horse scratch sheets, placed bets, smoked cigarettes, and waited for news of the winners. It was a rainy Thursday night in New York. Anastasia and Carfano wanted to eat out at a restaurant anyway. Coppola begged off, saying he was tired. After finishing dinner, Anastasia took Coppola's car and drove himself home that night to Fort Lee, New Jersey.54
9–4: Anthony “Cappy” Coppola was Anastasia's bookie and goodtime pal in 1957. (Used by permission of the NYC Municipal Archives)
FRIDAY MORNING, OCTOBER 25, 1957, FORT LEE, NEW JERSEY, AND MIDTOWN MANHATTAN
Albert Anastasia woke up in his own bed on Friday morning, October 25, 1957. He saw off his son Albert Jr., the law student, on his way out the door at 7:30 a.m. The mob boss got dressed in a brown suit, white shirt, and tie. He was going to meet up with his caporegime Vincent Squillante, and get a haircut at Arthur Grasso's barbershop at the Park Sheraton.55
At about that same time, Santo Trafficante was checking out hurriedly from the Warwick Hotel. He had an early morning flight. Trafficante would be in Florida by the afternoon.56
Before he left his house in Fort Lee, Anastasia made a phone call to Coppola in his room at the San Carlos Hotel, instructing him to place some bets. “He wanted to place some doubles,” Coppola recalled. Cappy was supposed to meet up with Albert about 11:30 a.m., on the way to place bets at the race track. Anastasia stuffed $1,900 in cash into his pockets (about $15,000 in 2013 dollars), got into Coppola's borrowed car, and drove himself to Manhattan.57
At 9:28 a.m., Anastasia pulled into a rental garage on West 54th Street. It was a brisk fall morning in Manhattan. Anastasia met up with Vincent Squillante, and they walked over to the Park Sheraton Hotel on the corner of West 56th Street and 7th Avenue.58
On the ground floor of the Park Sheraton that same morning was boxing manager Andrew Alberti and his fighter Johnny Busso, who had a room at the hotel. At about 9:15 a.m., they went downstairs to the hotel restaurant for breakfast and mingled in the lobby. Alberti was not supposed to be managing boxers. The New York Athletic Commission had officially banned him from boxing because of his ties with mobsters. Andy Alberti was especially close to Steve Armone and Joseph Biondo of the Anastasia Family.59
10:15 A.M., OCTOBER 25, 1957, BARBERSHOP OF THE PARK SHERATON HOTEL, MANHATTAN
Albert Anastasia's favorite place for a haircut was Arthur Grasso's barbershop at the Park Sheraton. The proprietor ran an old-style barbershop with mirrored walls, chrome-and-baby-blue barber chairs, shoe shines, and skilled Italian barbers. Anastasia went there twice a month for a trim.60
At 10:15 a.m., Anastasia and Squillante walked into the barbershop and hung up their jackets. “Haircut,” Anastasia nodded. The barber escorted Anastasia over to barber chair number four with a corner window. Squillante eased into another chair for a shave.61
The proprietor Arthur Grasso came over to greet Mr. Anastasia. As the barber spread the cloth over Anastasia's white shirt, and the shoeshine polished his brown shoes, Grasso pulled up a stool to catch up with his friend. At about 10:20 a.m., Grasso got up from his stool to check the soap machine. Anastasia let his head hang limply forward so that the barber could clip behind his neck. He was completely relaxed….62
Two men in hats and aviator glasses slipped across the threshold of the barbershop, black gun barrels poking out from their coats. The lead gunman walked briskly up to the rear right side of Anastasia's chair and fired away—BANG BANG BANG! “They went off fast; sounded like firecrackers,” recalled Grasso. Anastasia bolted out of his chair in pain, breaking the chair's foot rest as he lunged toward the mirrors. Rushing up to the left side of the chair, the second gunman emptied his revolver at the wobbling mob boss—BANG BANG BANG BANG! But it was the lead gunman who fired the fatal round: a .38-caliber bullet struck the back of Anastasia's head and lodged in the left side of h
is brain. Anastasia collapsed between his barber chair and the next chair to the right.63
9–5: Police photo of Anastasia Family associate Andrew Alberti, 1957. (Used by permission of the NYC Municipal Archives)
The assassins made their escape. They tried exiting through the side door, but the door was locked. The lead gunman turned around and backtracked through the main doors. “Nobody move,” warned the second gunman to the barbers crouching down in fear.64 The lead gunman dumped his .38-caliber Colt revolver in the glass vestibule of the hotel before exiting onto the sidewalk of West 55th Street. They scurried down the steps of the nearby subway station and escaped on a departing train. A city worker later found the second gunman's .32-caliber Smith & Wesson revolver in a waste box in the station.65
Back at the barbershop, the employees were in shock. The proprietor Arthur Grasso had literally crawled out of the shop to a ticket office next door. The only person with the presence of mind to try to help Anastasia was a physician who happened to be getting a haircut. Anastasia's upper torso was twisted over, his white shirt splattered in blood, and his face pressed onto the cold floor. The doctor checked for a pulse. Anastasia was gone.66
THE NYPD INVESTIGATION
Police responded to the scene within minutes. Flocks of newspaper reporters descended on the barbershop to cover the daytime murder of a mobster. Anthony “Tough Tony” Anastasio was notified about his brother while at his office at the International Longshoremen's Association in Brooklyn. He sped over to Manhattan. After seeing his brother on the floor, Tony left the barbershop weeping in despair.67
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