| Interment Location | Visited | |
|---|---|---|
| New York, NY | August 31, 2016 |
“Why does everything have to be so difficult?” mobster Corrado Soprano complains in a season two episode of the HBO television series, The Sopranos. “You know, back in the ’50s we worked together. Even rival families settled their differences amicably.” Corrado’s nephew, Tony Soprano, rebuffs him. “Oh, yeah, I remember that picture of Albert Anastasia lying all amicable on the barbershop floor.” The elder Soprano replies, “There were exceptions.” In both popular culture and real life, Anastasia is remembered for not only the brutality he dished out as an underboss and mafia family head, but for his own violent end. Following his 1957 murder in the barbershop of the Park Sheraton Hotel in Manhattan, Anastasia’s remains were interred at Green-Wood Cemetery in Brooklyn.
In the 1930s and 40s, Anastasia was the head of Murder, Incorporated, and underboss for the Mangano crime family. This was one of the New York organizations that constituted the Five Families that dominated the Italian American Mafia. Anastasia became the family’s head in 1951 after the disappearance of boss Vincent Mangano. It is popular belief that Mangano was killed on the orders of “Lord High Executioner” Anastasia. After Anastasia was himself killed, his own duplicitous underboss gained control of the family. The organization was henceforth known as the Gambino crime family, with Carlo Gambino at the top until 1976. Subsequent bosses of the family once run by Anastasia have also included Paul Castellano and John Gotti.
The mafioso’s headstone is inscribed with his name from birth: Umberto Anastasio. Like many Italian immigrants, he Americanized his name after he arrived in the United States. Anastasia was a 15-year-old deckhand on an Italian merchant vessel when he jumped ship in New York in 1917. Anastasia became a U.S. citizen in the 1940s, while he was in the Armed Forces.
Fast Facts
Born: September 26, 1902 in Parghelia, Calabria, Italy
Spouse: Elsa Bargnesi Anastasia (m. 1937-1957)
Military Rank: Technical Sergeant — U.S. Army
Died: October 25, 1957 in Manhattan, New York, New York
Cause of Death: Gunshot Wounds
Age: 55
Interment: Green-Wood Cemetery, Brooklyn, New York, New York
"ALBERT ANASTASIA has been getting away with murder for thirty years now, and a lot of people have been helping him. Since 1920, three years after he jumped ship and smuggled his way into the United States, ANASTASIA has been close to some thirty assassinations with gun, icepick and strangling rope either in person or by direction."
- Burton B. Turkus and Sid Feder
in their 1951 book, Murder, Inc., as quoted in a document created by the Federal Bureau of Investigation
Sources Consulted and Further Reading
Federal Bureau of Investigation. “Albert Anastasia Part 01 of 04.” FBI Records: The Vault. Accessed January 26, 2023. https://vault.fbi.gov/Albert%20Anastasia/Albert%20Anastasia%20Part%201%20of%204%20/view.
Our History. “Americas Most Violent Gangster: The Head Of MURDER INC (Albert Anastasia Documentary) | Our History.” YouTube video, 42:32. November 11, 2021. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LQx7jLMxkfI.
The Sopranos. 2000. Season 2, episode 11, “House Arrest.” Aired March 26, 2000, on HBO.
