Albert Anastasia, leader of a Brooklyn-based criminal organization that would become known as the Gambino Family, was assassinated in a Park Sheraton Hotel barber's chair in the morning of Friday, Oct. 25, 1957.
Two gunmen, their faces covered with scarves, burst into the barber shop at 10:20 a.m., as Anastasia was having a shave. They drew handguns and fired 10 times. Five shots struck the mob boss. The final one hit him in the back of his head.
The killing allowed Carlo Gambino to take control of the crime family that would henceforth bear his name.
Anastasia is considered one of the Mafia's more accomplished killers. Authorities believed he led the 1930's Syndicate enforcement arm they nicknamed, "Murder, Inc." However, before Anastasia could be brought to justice, the state's lead witness in the case, Abe Reles, mysteriously plunged to his death out the window of a hotel room where he was under police guard.
Anastasia took control of his crime family in 1951 after previous boss Vincent Mangano disappeared and Mangano's brother Philip turned up murdered.
The murder of Anastasia remains unsolved. There are a number of theories. One suggests that Anastasia was killed because he was attempting to move into Cuban gambling rackets already controlled by a group of underworld bosses led by Meyer Lansky and Santo Trafficante. In another theory, Anastasia was eliminated on the command of mob rising star Vito Genovese, in order to deprive Genovese rival Frank Costello of his powerful underworld ally. A third theory involves Carlo Gambino's ambition.
Possibly all three are true to some extent, and Anastasia was undermined by Gambino-initiated dissension within his family, while he was opposed externally by a combination of Genovese, Lansky and Trafficante.
Years later, "Crazy Joey" Gallo claimed credit for the Anastasia hit.
Anastasia's body lies on the floor of the barber shop of the Park Sheraton Hotel.
Headline from the front page of the New York Times, Oct. 26, 1957.
Anastasia