The Underworld Podcast - The Lord High Executioner of Brooklyn: Albert Anastasia

Episode Date: December 3, 2024

You don't earn a nickname like The Lord High Executioner by not killing a whole lot of people. And Albert Anastasia, one of the most psychotic gangsters to ever come out of New York City, was alleged to have participated in at least 60 murders as part of his role as one of the leaders of Murder, Inc., the hitmen organization that Lucky Luciano and the other members of The Commission tasked with doling out mafia justice. Anastasia's rise to power in the violent mob wars of the 1920's and 1930's is the stuff of mafia lore, but there is such as thing as being too violent, even for someone who became the boss of one of the five families. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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This is before everything gets divided up with the five families. Now, Salvatore Maranzano, another major boss, has arrived from Sicily and threatens to take power from Masaria. But it's not just a battle for control between two bosses. There's undercurrents at play, too. These two dons are mustache peas, a name used to describe older mafiosos who grew up in Italy and are stuck in the old country ways of doing things. And they're starting to be questioned by their younger soldiers. There's a generational split in the New York mob.

And the younger mafia guys, many of whom grew up in the United States, see things differently. They recognize a changing world. And they want to do business with everyone, not just southern Italians. and they want to do it in a more organized and profitable way, not by having bloody gang wars in the streets all the time. Leading the charge of these young mobsters is Salvatore Lucky Luciano, a name that anyone remotely failure with organized crime is going to know. Luciano knows what needs to be done for the future of the mafia,

and that is the elimination of both of these old-timers. It doesn't matter who wins this initial war. All that matters is that both end up getting dealt with. So he cuts a deal with the boss of the faction that is supposed to be his rival. Lucky's going to hit his boss, Joe Masaria, and then he gets to become his rival, Salvatore Maranzano's, second in command. It's a pretty devious plan. And to pull off this hit, he needs some very trusted killers. One of the men he turns to is a ruthless killer by the name of Albert Anastasia.

Anastasia's got to be careful, though, because if word of this gets out before the move is made, Luciano and Estasia, they're all finished. A decade earlier, Luciano had actually rescued Anastasia from Death Row after hearing about its potential as a mafia soldier. He knows that the vicious Anastasia can be trusted to carry out all types of violence. You don't eventually get the nickname the Lord High Executioner for being a friendly guy who doesn't know how to get a murder done. The plan is set, and Luciano calls a meeting with his boss, the target Masseria, at his favorite Coney Island restaurant. They enjoy the meal, and afterward, Luciano excuses himself to go to the bathroom. You know what's coming.

As soon as he disappears, Anastasia and three other gunmen rush in and kill the boss man who had been sitting opposite Luciano. The hit, as big of a deal as it seems in the moment, is actually even more important than it first appears. It's going to pave the way for the foundation of the modern mafia as we know it. It's also the beginning of the rise to power of Albert Anastasia, one of the most ruthless and psychotic bosses in American history, who eventually heads up the Italian and Jewish Murder for Higher Agency, known as Murder Inc.

This is the Underworld podcast. Welcome back, folks, to The Underworld podcast, an audio experience that takes you, the listener, on a journey through the wild and wacky world of international organized crime of the past, present, and future, hosted by two journalists, myself Danny Gold, and Englishman, Sean Williams. We've reported on this sort of stuff around the globe for years and years and years, and every week we trade off hosting duties while the other chimes in with the occasional terrible joke or words of insight. Sean, how goes it? You got a lot of assignments these days, huh?

Making those long-form writing dreams work. Yeah, just living the dream one disgusting. chopped up Google Doc at a time. I mean, I'm all good over here. Just like, looking forward to the test match on the weekend, which I have a ticket to, so that's eight hours on my backside, talking about batting averages from the 1920s with a pal. And that, that is the dream.

Also, here's an exclusive. Actually, this is a pretty cool news. I just found out my partner got a posting to Buenos Aires. So we're actually moving there in, I think, 15, 16 months from now. So that's pretty exciting. Hey, so my Spanish pronunciation is going to get better, and we're going to be doing like bonuses from that, I don't know, Bolivian prison where they make cocaine and stuff like that. So that is going to be quite fun.

Yeah, what's the, what's that gang there that guy keep? Los Manos. You should, you know, you got 16 months, make some friends. Get involved, you know? Maybe get involved. Maybe like go through a midlife crisis and actually join the gang. I feel like that would be good for our audience and just getting. More listeners. Yeah, I, you know, I'm back from Tokyo. I saw a friend of the show, Jake Aylstein, the Tokyo Vice guy, you know, and he has a new book out called Tokyo Noir, which is excellent. So go ahead and buy that. But I got to tell you, man, coming back from Tokyo into New York City, just a trash jump. Like, I got to get out of here, at least, like move apartments, maybe go south for the winter. Do we have any listeners with like villas and Key West or somewhere where it's going to be 80 degrees and the internet works? Just, you know, get at me. But as always,

We have bonus episodes at patreon.com slash generalopodcast You can also sign up on Spotify or on Apple podcast Email us at the Underwall Podcast At gmail.com with tips or compliments No complaints and buy our merch at underworldpod.com Then click on the merch category Some solid clothing items and more

For all your holiday shopping needs Yeah speaking of holiday shopping My mom just sent us one of those elves on a shelf Which sorry mom, you don't listen to this But I'm not playing ball with that bullshit shit. It actually got me down a really weird rabbit hole of trying to find out where they're from. So if anyone knows where elves on the shelves are made in China and where they actually come from, is that organized crime? It kind of is, right? Just drop me a line because I can't figure

it out and it's become an obsession. So yeah, I can always hear you frowning down the line at me now, Danny, so I'll let you carry on. Yeah, we're getting, we're getting carried away. And I had a whole segment I wanted to do on Japanese toilets. But this was done. So this episode, this was done Thanksgiving week. So, um, you know, maybe not, not our, not my best work. I got back from Japan. I was delusional. But you know what I am thankful for Sean? Is our listeners who help us get our download numbers up and all of our patrons who allow me to spend way too much money on Japanese denim. No worries. I'm going to make it all back gambling. Yeah, Danny's now walking around Crown Heights and turned up if he's two jeans and flat caps and taking photos on

he's like a Japan ruined him. Now, Umberto Albert Anastasia is born in Calabria in 1902, into a big family of nine children. We don't know a lot about his childhood, but as you hear more, you'll probably think that he was one of those kids who tortured cats or something along those lines. His father dies in World War I, and Anastasia and three of his brothers, the site the jump ship in New York City. They've been working on a freighter, and I think it had docked there. They were deckhands.

So he arrives in New York City illegally in 1919 at the age of 17, which coincidentally is the year another majorly influential mobster pulls off his greatest move, Arnold Rothstein and fixing the World Series. Yeah, which we should also do a show on, by the way, because it would at least give me another excuse to read the original shoeless Joe, which is the book that Field of Dreams became. And it is amazing. You should read it. It's almost nothing like about 100 pages, but it's incredible. People do like the historical episodes like this. put it on the list. Anastasia gets to work on the docks. He becomes a longshoreman. And the docs in New York, I believe he's based in Brooklyn at this time, you know, they are bustling. And they're a

rough place to work, a lot of hardened dudes that, you know, if there were disputes, they were going to settle them with violence. They would scrap with those sort of, those big-ass cargo hooks. You know what I'm talking about with the handles attached to them? Jeez. Yeah, and you would see dudes with just big scars on their face. I guess it was like the buck 50 of that era. It was almost a lawless place and there was a lot of crime. Some of it of the organized variety. And Anastasia quickly established himself as a guy you don't want to mess

with there, which says a lot about how dangerous he was, even when he's young. He's big, he's strong. He has these tremendous big hands and he can knock people out with just one punch and just break faces, which is actually you know, back then they'd have boxing matches for like 117 rounds.

So they were just tougher. So if you can knock somebody out with one punch, that is formidable. After getting a pretty serious rep, he ends up heading up a gang of dock workers. I think his brothers were involved as well, who are involved in stealing cargo and other such sort of port crimes. But it doesn't take long before a different gang leader comes by and threatens him, tells him that he's the one who controls that area. And Anastasia needs to be paying him tribute, giving him a cut. And, you know, Albert is not the kind of guy that takes lightly that.

They get into it. He erupts in a rage. His temper is going to become sort of like a calling card. And in this rage, he beats the guy to death in front of a bunch of people. He gets convicted of murder in March of 1921 and is sentenced to death by electric chair. He's sent to the infamous Sing Sing Sing Prison in upstate New York to await his judgment day. Is that place still going? Is Sing Sing to exist? Yeah, yeah, yeah. It's an awesoning. It's like, I don't know, maybe an hour north of the city depending on traffic.

And if you're heading up to the Catskills, you will pass. I got friends that live in Austin still, I think. But yeah, it is still there. So Albert Anastasia is in prison, and he's still as violent as ever, which, you know, usually the guy named Albert, you figure he's going to be not be a psychotic murderer, but this Albert, he is. He's wilding out. He's beating up other prisoners, terrorizing the other harding criminals, and just being a real

lunatic. Even though he's been sentenced to death, he does not calm down, which actually, you know, I guess kind of makes sense when you think about it. just like the docs, he quickly gains a reputation for violence, even in prison, and it's noticed by a man named the barber who is also known as Shiv, which, you know, if that's your nickname in prison, you know, you and everyone else know, like, what it is. I feel like this is the guy who all modern barbers with beards who wear leather belts actually think they are. But, yeah, this guy sounds pretty serious. You know, I support barbers, man. You can find a good barber, so I'm not going to tolerate your...

insulting with them. You find a good barber. Your life is, I'm looking for one right now, dude. It's tough going. The barber serves as sort of like a scout for criminal organizations. I guess a recruiter, maybe headhunter, whatever you want to call it. He thinks Anastasia has a lot of potential and would be the perfect guy for one of the mobsters that he's scouting for, who is Charles Lucky Luciano. This is the early 1920s, so Luciano isn't quite the famous mob legend he eventually becomes.

And he's going to be a big part of this episode, too. it's almost like an episode on him. He's a rising star at the time, though, and all the various mobs and organized crime groups are currently battling it out during Prohibition, which is hands down probably the bloodiest time for organized crime in America, as everyone fights over control

over the massive profits in the bootleg liquor market, which is actually kind of interesting to think about, which I was doing as I was reading about this, like you look at the profit margins on cocaine right now, and you think about the percentage of the population that regularly uses it, It's got to be under 1% Probably under one-tenth of 1%

Yeah, I mean, even, you know, you've got North Brooklyn and Berlin doing a lot of heavy lifting, but still, I guess, I guess we're talking about the US, but yeah, you've got North Brooklyn doing a lot of living in L.A., but still, Miami, whatever.

Think of how many people were probably drinking booze back then. Like, that is a market, bro. Yeah, that is nuts. I mean, this is wildly off course, right? But one of the deadlines that I'm chronically failing to make right now is about Pacific drugs. And I hadn't figured out quite how insane the markups are in this part of the world.

So a key of meth in Mexico, right? You can get it for 500 bucks over there. And you can sell it here in New Zealand or like in Australia for up to 180 grand. I mean, even your crypto wallet isn't doing that well. Yeah, they actually did the opposite. I invested $108,000 and I ended up with $500. I'm the only person who's ever repeatedly lost money. Well, probably not the only.

But anyway, yeah, I mean, it's, I always wonder, you know, they talk about the prices for this sort of stuff. And I know there's, there's some money in New Zealand, right? But it's like, is the market really that big that people are spending that much money on meth, you know, for that much of a markup? It's pretty insane. It's estimated that 1.3% of the people take it regularly, which is a lot. And that, but that would only be like a few thousand people. So, I don't know, it's like 50, 55, 60,000 people or something. But that's enough that they could lose all these shipments still make a profit and they, like, still come in.

So, yeah, it's nuts. Do you think you arriving there bump it up to 1.4%? Like, you're a massive amount of intake? I like to think so. Yeah, I mean, how else would I survive? How many discounts does USAA auto insurance offer? Too many to say here. Multi-vehicle discount.

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And remember, stay safe. Anyway, the barber sees Anastasia's potential for violence and learns about his background controlling things on the docks and figures he's going to be an immense help to Luciano, especially since a lot of moonshine is coming through those docks. So the barber sends word back to Luciano that he's got just the guy. And Luciano does this thing, which involves hiring fancy lawyers to get this conviction overturned on technicality.

eventually forcing a retrial, which they win. And oh yeah, also four witnesses from that first trial are murdered before the start of the second trial. And in 1922, Albert Anastasia is released from prison and heads to a new career in proper organized crime with the mob, a proper villain. He gets out and goes right back to work on the Brooklyn Docks, where Italian organized crime groups are battling Irish runs for control. He proves to be quite a good soldier for the Italians, and Luciano right off the bat because, you know, he's a violent psycho who can fight really well. I mean, he is perfect for a gang war. Soon, the Italians and Luciano, they seize control of the docks.

I believe Anastasia and his brother would maintain control for something like the next 20 or 30 years or more. But in 1923, he actually ends up going back to prison for a two-year stretch on a gun charge. The peers in Brooklyn at this time are some of the busiest in the world. They're five miles long. And anything within five blocks deep of them

is controlled by Anastasia. Whether it's a shoe shine, boy, a candy store, a bar. Everyone, everything is paying. A nickel bag is sold in the piers. He is in on it. And when we when we talk about the Brooklyn piers, like where, where are they? They down from the promenade or by Coney Island or something? I mean, even easier for me would be if you could triangulate by Cafe Grumpy branches. Oh, Jesus. No, I think, you know, Brooklyn Navy Art, I think was a part of it. And then those areas along, I guess where Brooklyn Heights is right now, a lot of those soccer fields, you know,

so that whole area, I believe, were, you know, active peers at the time. You know, all those neighborhoods were just neighborhoods of people who worked on those docks on the peers. You know, these sort of like working class Italian and Irish neighborhoods, maybe Greek too. So, you know, it was like,

it was probably the biggest employer. I'm completely making that up, but I assume there's true to it. One of the biggest employers in the city at that time. Not like, I guess it's not one employee. We know what I'm saying, like, biggest industries, whatever you want to. Yeah, yeah, yeah. You can see down in the heights they've got all those, like, wood-framed.

They call them like Sailor Homes or Doc Homes or something like that, right? Yeah, and that's exactly why. For like 10-mill. Yeah. I think Bay Ridge, I don't know if it went all the way down to Bay Ridge, but that whole area, you know, it was Docs. In the 1920s, he also links up with a guy by the name of Louis Capone or Louis Capone, a mid-level gangster who basically acts like a mentor of sorts to the Brooklyn gangsters who are going to turn into murder incorporated.

The Italian Ocean Hooligans is one facet and the Jewish Brownsville troop. Capone runs a restaurant. He feeds these kids, he advises them, he teaches them, all that, and they do some errands for him. And there's going to be a bunch of names in this episode, but they're like kind of, you know, pretty famous guys,

so I feel like we can get away with it. We usually try to keep the names to a minimum. By the late 1920s, Anastasia is one of the leaders of the International Longshoremen's Association, which is the dock workers union. This is, you know, right around the time the mob is really getting involved in labor rackets. And he controls six of the local chapters.

We spent, I think, a decent amount of time over the years talking about the importance of controlling ports and unions. So I'll just leave it at that. Him and Luciano, though, who's powerful, but not one of the main bosses just yet. They align themselves at first with Joe the boss Maseria. He's in that war that we talk about in the cold open with Salvatore, Maranzano. You know, that's sort of ongoing, I believe. Late 1920s, early 1930s is really when it's kicking off.

This is before the commission or the syndicate, which we'll talk about in a minute, before the five families. New York is one big sort of, it's yours for the taking city. What happens, though, with these younger guys is Arnold Ralstein, who many claim helped invent sort of modern organized crime. He takes on a bunch of these guys, kind of like street kids, they're dogs, gangsters from downtown. And there's some of the most famous mobsters out there. Young guns, including Meyer Lansky, Bugsy Siegel, Frank Costello, Leipke, Buchalter, and Lucky Luciano and he basically cultures them, teaches them how to think, how to do business. Rossin ends up getting killed and those guys are kind of working together and decide they want

to follow his lead and do things a new way. Not like the sort of off-the-boat mustache Pete's Maranzano, Maseria, all their people who were stuck in this, you know, only Southern Italians, you know, bloody wars, all that sort of stuff. They want to be a different type of mobster. It's kind of like a quintessential America coming of age story, right? You've got these young up-and-comers. They think there's a better way.

Of course, you still have the two main bosses who are vying for complete control, and that's where we get that war, the Castellamari. Did I say that right, John? Castellamari War, which kicks off... Castamari? Casaslamari. Yeah, in early 1930. Soon enough, bodies are piling up on the streets,

and Luciano, with Albert and Anastasia, as a sort of apprentice, really doesn't like how either the old-time bosses are carrying themselves. He thinks this type of war is just bad for business, and also that the old-time bosses are making a mistake by refusing to do business with non-Italians. He's especially close Luciano with Meyer-Lansky and Bugsy Siegel

and he sees that the new breed of criminal needs to modernize in the changing world and that they would do better if they did business with Jews, Irish, basically anyone to make sense with financially. And it wasn't just non-Italians, generally these guys didn't want to work with. The old-time Sicilians

didn't even particularly like dealing with non-Cicilians, even though some of them had like Calabrians and other Southern Italians working with them. It shocks Luciano when one of the old-timers refers to one of his associates, Frank Costello, as a dirty colobrian. See, even Italian, I feel like even today down there, they would call someone from a different village, like a pig or, I know, some Italian cuss that's like the curdled milk from the breasts of the Virgin Mary or something like that. You know, these soft Americans, man, they don't understand good-fashioned, like European, let's wage a 200-year war on the village next to us. and then have a holiday to remember this, this like battle from 1276, you know? That's the way proper Europeans get down.

There's actually a really underrated mafia movie about this whole situation and the alliance between Luciano, Frank Costello, Meyerlansky, and Bugsie Siegel. It's called Mobsters, and it's really, I love it. It's really worth watching. You got a young Christian Slater's Luciano, just fresh off gleaming the cube. And, you know, it's terrific. So Luciano makes this secret. deal with Maranzano to take out his boss, Joe Maseria, and then become Maranzano's second

in command. That's where we get that scene from the cold open and Masaria gets whacked. With Maseria out of the picture, the mafia is organized under the five-family model that we know of today, with Luciano becoming one of the bosses, and Maranzano proclaiming himself, Capo de Tutti, the boss of all bosses. Love that ice cream flavor. Yeah, the pistachios really make it. But Luciano isn't finished. His plan from the start has always, been to get rid of both those guys. And it's not long before Maranzano is going to get taken out too. Marizano, he's in the union game and he promises lucky he won't start anything with his

buddy, the Jewish mobster Lepkeke Bacolter, who eventually is going to co-lead murder ink with Albert Anastasia. Because, you know, he knows Lepke and Luciano are tight and Maranzano is going to fake this sort of, you know, I'm going to leave your friends alone. But of course, Maranzano doesn't respect Lepke because he's not Southern Italian and violence breaks out. So Lepke is finding like, lucky, let's move. move on this guy.

Maranzano, though, is no slouch, and he recognizes that Luciano was gunning for him. So he brings in a top-notch killer, the Irish gangster Mad Dog Cole to protect him and take out Luciano and Luciano's boys. But Luciano's sharp. When Maranzano calls him to his office for a meeting, Luciano thinking he's done for if he shows up, organizes the hit, finally. He gets some Jewish gangsters to pose as police, fearing Maranzano won't recognize them, and they show up to his office building in disguise and get close enough to kill him.

At night, Luciano and the crew, they take out a bunch of other old-time mustache gangsters as well. They're solidifying their takeover of the underworld in New York, and it's a new day, and Anastasia is along for the ride right near the top. Luciano has ideas, and this is where we get famously the commission, which is, you know, this thing where you've got the five New York families, some other big families, I think Buffalo, Chicago, Tampa Bay. They're part of the original commission, where the mafia starts being run like a board of directors. They have votes. They need to agree on things like hits. who gets what rackets and settle their differences in a more corporate, peaceful way. I'm not going to spend too much time on it, but there's a ton written and filmed on it if you want to look into it.

But it was Luciano's way of doing away with the wild west the streets that turned into. It's not that he was against violence. He was just against disorganized chaos and thought it benefited no one. Of course, it's the mob, so there's always a need for violence. And to dispense this violence, he creates a separate entity that will do the mafia killings and everything else, which is eventually dubbed Murder Incorporated. And to head it up, none other than one of his most trusted killers, Albert and his station. And in keeping with this new progressive mafia style of governing, it's also co-led with a Jewish gangster, Leppkebu Calter.

Luciano goes over the rules with them. They're here to do contract killings, no killing of civilians or journalists or politicians or judges or mob bosses. It's like American democracy in action. Like kind of is, no joke. I mean, it was a pretty innovative way of doing things and it was very successful for the time. This is just one more facet of the commission, or the syndicate has it sometimes called. These are the men who basically made organized crime what it is today in America. When a gangster had a beef anywhere in the country and needed it resolved, they would come to the syndicate.

And when the syndicate issues a ruling, like it's done. There's no, there's no saying no. Maybe it's a threat. Maybe it's money divvied up. Maybe it's a death sentence. To this day, there's never been anything like Murder Incorporated, which I think they said had upwards of a thousand bodies all over the United States over a decade or so. murdering carried out the sentence whatever it was. It had to be respected and you had to do the job.

Killers were chosen by the commission, I guess actually by Anastasia and by Buchalter, and so was the methodology. They'd be flown out sometimes or drive across the country and it wasn't just New York mobsters. You had L.A., Kansas City, Detroit. The guy would get there, steal a car, or have an underling steal one for them,

stake out the target. They usually have a local gangster there as the guide or fixer to make sure you got the right guy. all the local goons would make sure they had an alibi for when it went down. Then they would do it and fly home. Remember, this is the 1930s. No one knew what these guys looked like. Police departments weren't connected.

There was barely a national police force. So if you did the deed and took off, it could be pretty hard to solve that crime, especially if you knew what you were doing and how to cover your tracks. Remember, this is the 1930s. No one knew what these guys looked like. Police departments were connected. There's barely a national police force. So if you, you know, came at the murder.

than take off, it's going to be pretty hard for them to solve that crime, especially if, you know, these are guys that knew what they were doing and had to cover their tracks. Anastasia could have probably just sat back in order to hits left and right, but he's a guy who seems to enjoy getting his hands dirty. He actually went out there and killed himself. He was said to be involved personally in about 60 murders, which is where he got the nickname Lord High Executioner, which is, you know, pretty, pretty solid nickname, I think, one of the, one of the gnarliest ones in organized crime history. Another one of his nicknames is the Matt Hatter, which, I mean, yeah, you guys get it.

Yeah, it's been a while since we had some solid gang nicknames on here. And again, it comes from a century ago. I mean, all the things that social media has done to the world, it's screwing up gang names. A better, simpler time. Trouble for all the mobsters, though, starts brewing when Thomas Dewey, a prosecutor and district attorney, launches a war against the mob, his first target being Luciano. Dutch Schultz, another really prominent gangster, actually. actually wants to assassinate Dewey, and they get Anastasia to stake out his morning routine

by kind of heading to the neighborhood in disguise, pushing a baby stroller around. The commission, though, sees this as too far and they veto it, and this actually eventually leads to murdering's biggest hit, which is when they kill Dutch Schultz, who's a mob boss himself, when it becomes clear that he doesn't respect the ruling. In July 1936, Dewe gets his way with Luciano, Anastasia's longtime alien mentor, having put him away in jail for a minimum 30-year sentence for a prostitution ring. Next, Dewey targets Anastasia's

co-manager Leipke Bukalter and charges him with murder. Leipke goes on the run and Anastasia goes to bat for his friend using murdering's expansive network to keep him in hiding. Next, Anastasia does what he does best and starts eliminating witnesses against Leipke. But FBI director, Jager Hoover,

gets involved and it becomes too much publicity for the mobsters. The commission calls Anastasia and basically tells him, look, we got to sacrifice Leipke to protect ourselves. The commission tells Anastasia to meet with him and tell him that a deal is in place to save him from the death penalty except no such deal exists.

Anastasia knows this, but in 1939 he drives Leipke to meet with the FBI for three years of hiding to turn himself in. He's later executed in 1944, the first mob boss to get the death penalty. Mob historians would later say that if there was one thing Anastasia actually regretted, even though he was a killer and a lunatic,

it was turning in his literal partner in crime, Leipke. These guys are just absolute psychos. Yeah, man. They, they dealt with it. You know, people think because you talk with that accent or because they talk with that accent that they were, you know, not as vicious because they're all, yeah, see, meh. But they got down, man.

Wait, wait. You know, they're like, yeah, see, meh. You know, like the old-timey gangster accent. In 1940. Yeah, man, that was. Some follow the noise. Bloomberg follows the money. Whether it's the funds fueling AI or crypto's

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Seeful terms at mintmobile.com. That was good, right? In 1940, Anastasia finds himself targeted on the Dewey firing line. When one of Murdering's top hit men, Abe Kid Twist Rellas gets caught up by the cops for a murder, Kid Twist decides to flip and he talks for 11 days straight ratting on everyone. eventually he starts talking about Albert and Estacia, putting him on a bunch of murders, literally detailing where a lot of the bodies are buried.

Anastasia goes into hiding, and at this point, the commission is really worried. This is basically when murdering gets exposed to the general public and gets its name. Kid Twist details everything. By this point, the commission knows they better step in an act or it would be the end for all of them, but it's not easy.

It's November 1941 and, you know, slight digression, but it's kind of wild that all this is happening under the backdrop of World War II. Anyway, kid twist is under 24-hour police protection in his hotel room. He's set to testify in a few days, but at 3 a.m., the police go and check on him, and he's sleeping. But when they go check on him again in the morning, he isn't in bed. The window of the six-story hotel room is open, and on the ground below is a dead kid twist. So no one really knows what happened, but yeah, they got to him.

By the end of 1941, Murder Inc. is disbanded anyway, and Anastasia gets named underboss of the Mangano Crime Family. which is one of the five families that comes into existence. You may not recognize that name because it's eventually renamed that Gambino finally, which it carries to this day. Yeah, I know that I ask this pretty much every time you do an oldy-timey New York show, but are the Gambino's up to much these days? I mean, I basically learn all about the U.S. Mafia directly from you

and the odd Netflix show every six months or so, and I've got to say you are a lot better. You know, I don't keep up with the day-to-day, but I feel like every five or six months, there's like a big bust of like 20 or 30 guys from one of the families or maybe smaller maybe 5, 10. So they're still around for sure. I mean, they're nowhere near as powerful as they once were.

Not even close, like a fraction of it. But, you know, they're still active. There's still guys in it. I don't know what they, I feel like they get brought down for, you know, the occasional bit of violence, but loan sharking, I believe, is still a thing. You know, people still need. Even with payday loans on every corner, people still need loans.

There's probably a lot of white collar stuff now. But it's kind of like, you know, we've joked about this a lot. It's like, you know, all the stuff that they were, they were famous for, you can get on a street corner, right? You can get payday loans with terrible rates. You can get weed. You can gamble on your phone. So, you know, a lot of their bread and butter is not there anymore. And I don't know if they're smart enough to figure out the crypto scams.

But maybe, who knows? All right. 1942 now, World War II is raging with the Americans entering the war. in February of 1942, a captured French ocean liner that's being refitted to transport troops is sunk in the port of New York in an act of sabotage. Supposedly. According to Luciano and Meyerlansky, Albert Nassia actually claimed that he was involved in the sinking, not because he wanted to sabotage the U.S.

but because it was part of a plan to get Luciano a part in, other reports in later years would confirm there was no sabotage. But it does get the U.S. Navy concern, paranoid about sabotage at the port. U.S. Navy intelligence contacts Meyer Lansky, about a deal to protect the ports from potential sabotage from fear Nazi sympathizers. And Albert Anastasia is, of course, a big part of these negotiations since he still controls the docs. He also, of course, owes a debt to his mentor Luciano, because if you remember, Lucky was the one who got Anastasia out of a death sentence at the start of this episode. The deal happens, and what it is is that the government's going to pardon Luciano if the mafia protects the ports and Anastasia also agrees that there would be no dock worker strikes during the war.

The deal also involves Luciano using his Sicilian context to help with the forthcoming invasion of Sicily, which is also a reminder for all of you to read Naples 44. If you get the chance, it's a great book about what happens when the U.S. does that. And it's fascinating, lots of organized crime stuff and old school Italian mafia stuff. We really need to get back to that Amazon storefront that we have with all the book wrecks. I mean, there's so many ones we talk about every episode. And, you know, the three cents for every book that you sell really adds up after a while. But there's just so much admin work, man.

It's just, it never ends. Yeah. I mean, I was going to say, yeah, yeah, yeah, never ends. But then I realize, I mean, you do nearly all of it. And all I do is just lift and play football and then repeat. And that's my life. That's all I do. But you look great.

So this goes through and Luciano ends up getting that pardon at the end of the war. But before then, Anesthesia actually joins the military in 1942. and trained soldiers to be longshoremen in Pennsylvania. He might have done this to finally get you a citizenship or to avoid some of the heat that was still kind of emanating off the whole murdering thing. But he gets honorably discharged in 1943 and moves to like a big, big mansion house in Fort Lee, New Jersey, which is right outside New York City,

and it's kind of where New York rappers used to move when they blew up back in the day. See, while Albert is a ruthless killer, he's also a family man, and by that point he's all about retiring to a suburban home to play that role with his wife and his four kids. kids. You know, this is a guy who gets it, Sean. When do I get my suburban dream home? I mean, Ramco pays pretty well for copy these days. You could do that. I would get on the Neon wave, you know? Like, I'll do almost the Nium and then do some sponsor content. Oh my God,

that would be the best thing having you do an influencer videos from Neon. For the incredible. And I'm all, like, I'm in. I'm in. But yeah, Anastasia is now out of the military and serving as the underboss. And Albert doesn't really like having a boss. He isn't the employee type. With Lucky in the commission, it was different. I mean, Lucky was the guy. But this, he actually views the underboss position as a demotion for being the head of murder rink.

Now, in today's mafia, the underboss of a family, you know, starts out a soldier in that same family and works his way up. You know, being made, then being a captain, all that, all that. But this was a different situation entirely, so it was kind of the start, right? And Estasia didn't work his way up in the Mangano family. It was basically placed there because Murderink was over and he was a mob power and the commission had to find a place for him. So it's not exactly like Mangano and Anastasia, they have some longstanding relationship where he was named the underboss.

In fact, Manjano resented Anastasia's close ties to Luciano and Frank Costello and how sometimes Castel and Luciano would work with Anastasia without even asking Manjano first. Do we get into Manjano at all? I think I might have left that out. No, no, not really. Yeah, his name was Vincent Manjano. His nickname was the executioner, which you can kind of see it, right? Like, that pales in comparison to being the guy who is the Lord High executioner. So if you're the executioner and beneath you is the Lord High executioner, like, it's going to rub you the wrong way.

You know what I'm saying? Manjano, though, had been a big player during the Castellamari War when Anastasia was still kind of young and getting going. And he emerges as one of the five bosses under Maranzano. So he's been there for a minute. So there's bad blood between Anastasia and Vincent Manjano, who also has a brother running things with him, Philip. They almost physically brawl on multiple occasions, which not supposed to happen when you're the boss of a family and dealing with an underling. But nobody could control Anastasia. Anastasia also felt that Manjano was kind of doing him dirty, not cutting him in on enough of the profits.

And he becomes paranoid that Manjano is going to kill him if he doesn't turn the tables first. And turn the tables he does, Manjano goes missing on April 19, 1951, the same day as Brother Philip's bodies discovered in Jamaica Bay, which is in Queens, not Jamaica. And Queens, that's a place in New York, right? Yeah, wait, are you being sarcastic? I can't tell. Yes, but not very much. Okay. I don't know, man.

You know, I sometimes assume people know everything, but they don't, but I also, you lived here. So that's on me. I'm moving slow. Anastasia is now the acting boss. He's called to me with the commission. He doesn't admit to killing the Monjano's, which for, you know, you're not supposed to kill a boss without permission from the other bosses. He does tell them, though, that the brothers were plotting to kill him. So without evidence on his move against them,

and with the backing of Lucky's right-hand man and boss himself, Frank Costello, Anastasia is named the new boss. Luciano, Lucky Luciano, by the way, he had been deported to Italy after the war, so he wasn't really involved in the day-to-day of New York. So Albert Anastasia is boss, and all is well, but of course that doesn't last long. In early 1952, a civilian gets famous because he notices a wanted bank robber walking down the streets of New York City and alerts the police who then arrest the bank robber. The civilian gets some of the person.

fame and does some TV interviews and is lauded as an outstanding citizen. But Anastasia just happens to catch one of his interviews on TV and he's pissed off, he's not happy. He allegedly says, I can't stand squealers, hit that guy. So they do. The guy gets killed and that goes against mafia rules, killing a random civilian like that. But it also enrages the public who demand to know who killed the guy. So this, of course, gets law enforcement going and the commission is not happy because this

brings the heat down on all of them. They call a meeting and they start to give Anastasia, you know, a ton of dressing down and talking to. But he's a boss himself, so nothing really happens besides Anastasia recognizes he messes up and he kind of engenders some bad blood and distrust with the rest of them. However, behind Anastasia's back, rising mafia power, Vito Genovese starts to plant seeds of doubt about Anastasia with the other mafia heavyweights, about how you can't trust him. He's irrational. He's too violent. He's just a wildcar. even for a mob guy.

They're already nervous about him. So Genovese's maneuvering does not fall on deaf ears. And Genevese, who is Frank Costello's underboss, he's also maneuvering against Costello so he can take over. To do this, he knows he's going to have to take out Anastasia too, because Anastasia's like, you know, the attack dog. He's the violent, crazy one. Genevese also recruits Anastasia's own underboss,

Carlo Gambino, in on his conspiracy. It's real McAvelian stuff here. You know, you can't, you can't. trust these guys for all the talk of honor and codes and all that with the mafia was always all about killing their own guys and their bosses and all that sort of stuff meanwhile anastasia is still stepping on toes this time deciding he wants to get in on the cuban casino game going a meeting with cuban government officials this is the mid-fifty so cuba havana it's hot right now there's one big problem though the cuban casino racket is overseen by santo traficante the florida mob boss

we've done an episode on and myerlansky and those two are extremely powerful in the national underworld. And Cuba is already a very delicate balance, where a bunch of mobsters have a slice of the pie, but Traficante and Lanski run the show. And in comes Albert, who wants a big slice of the pie and wants to override them. Yeah, if you haven't already listened to those shows, Danny Dunn,

I think you've done like two or three, right, on Traficante and Cuba and the CIA and Castro. They're all amazing, so people should check them out if they haven't already. Yeah, we did a big one on Traficonte and a big one on the corporation, which was the Cuban mob in New York. And we did one on Murder Inc where we talked about Lanski a lot. So there's, I mean, all this stuff we've done more sort of fleshed out ones on this other stuff we're mentioning.

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You're clearly. Working at it. Zootopia, too. Now available on Disney Plus rated PG. This, in turn, upsets all the other mobsters. So there's another commission meeting, and Genevasey's back out of again, talking about how Anastasia is just out of control.

He wants everything. He's too much of a wild card. And he basically makes it so Anastasia is a dead man walking. On Genovese's other front, he orders a hit on Frank Costello and May of 1957, and the shooter tries to kill him in the lobby of his building, but misses and just grazes his ear. He gets the message, though, and he actually retires. Side note, the shooter was none other than Vincent the Chin Gigante, who, do you guys

remember if you're close to my age, he was the guy used to walk around the West Village in a bathrobe. He feigned insanity for a long time, and I think it worked in the beginning and then did not. Costello retires and lives in a penthouse of the Waldorf Astoria, got into gardening, you know, still pow-out with his mafia buds but dies of a heart attack at 82 natural causes so not half bad not a bad run Anesthesia is not so lucky

In October of 1957 He gets taken out while getting a shave At the barber in the Park Sheraton Hotel In Midtown It's not as well known as the Polly Castellano hit Outside Spark Steakhouse Which that's when Gotti makes his move And Sean

That's where we went when you were here That place we had the giant You have the giant sticks I don't mean a size steak But it's a lot of it's a pretty infamous hit this one, and there's a photo that's pretty famous of him lying dead next to the barber chairs with his face covered by

a sheet. I think, or is it his hand? I don't know, Google it, you'll see. Carlo Gambino takes his place as boss, and we get the infamous and well-known Gambino family. He ends up being one of the most successful bosses ever, and Vito Geno Genevese takes over, and we get the Genovese family, though, he ends up going down pretty quick. And

the moral of the story is, even these guys, the old school top-tier mobsters, they betray each other left and right, much like podcasting, it may seem like it's all glitz and glamour, but, you know, there's no, there's no glory to the shit. I don't know. Those stakes were absolutely gigantic, and that's what I count as glitz. They were, they were pretty solid, man, and it was a great, great meal all around.

Anyway, thank you guys for, uh, for, for tuning in. And, um, Patreon.com slash normal podcast. Sorry, if this was a little, little short, my voice is a little scratchy. and, you know, we can't win them all. We win most of them. Actually, do we? I don't know. But, yeah.

Yeah. Yeah. Until next week. Have no fear. Chosen Foods is here to defend your favorite foods from the forces of seedy oils and sketchy ingredients. With cooking oils, salad dressings, and mayo, all powered by the good fats from 100% pure avocado oil and simple delicious ingredients. Chosen Foods.