Albert Anastasia

Umberto "Albert" Anastasia, born Umberto Anastasio in Calabria, Italy, in 1902, was a foundational figure in the modern American Mafia, known for his extreme ruthlessness and feared reputation. After his father’s death, he and three brothers deserted a freighter in New York City in 1919 and began working as longshoremen on the Brooklyn waterfront. His criminal career escalated rapidly: in 1921 he was convicted of murdering a fellow longshoreman and sentenced to death, but won a retrial on a technicality after key witnesses vanished, leading to his release. He later changed his surname from Anastasio to Anastasia.

By the late 1920s, he had risen to control six local chapters of the International Longshoremen’s Association, giving him dominion over the New York City waterfront for much of his career. During the Castellammarese War, he allied with Charles Luciano and participated in the 1931 murder of boss Joe Masseria at a Coney Island restaurant, a hit that helped reshape the Mafia’s leadership. As a reward, Luciano placed Anastasia in charge of the National Crime Syndicate’s enforcement arm, Murder, Inc., alongside Louis Buchalter.

This group of Jewish and Italian contract killers, operating from a Brooklyn candy store, is estimated to have committed thousands of murders. Anastasia’s leadership earned him nicknames like "The Mad Hatter" and "The Lord High Executioner." He later became boss of what is now the Gambino crime family. In 1935, when Dutch Schultz defied the Commission’s order to abandon plans to kill prosecutor Thomas Dewey, Anastasia relayed Schultz’s request for surveillance help, leading to Schultz’s murder. Anastasia was himself killed on October 25, 1957, on orders from Vito Genovese and Carlo Gambino, who then took over the family.