It may have been revenge for the failed attempt to kill Frank Costello earlier in the year, although it did scare Costello into doing something mobsters rarely did: He retired from "the life." He lived until 1973.
Anastasia was one of the most powerful mob bosses ever, known as Il Capo di Tutti Capi -- The Boss of All Bosses. But, on this day, he entered the barbershop of the Park Sheraton Hotel, at 870 7th Avenue at 56th Street in New York. Organized crime legend Arnold Rothstein had been killed there in 1928. In the hotel's ballroom, Jackie Gleason staged and filmed The Honeymooners. In 1984, the hotel reverted to its original name, the Park Central Hotel.
Anastasia's bodyguard parked the car in an underground garage and then, most conveniently, perhaps with a little financial incentive from one of Anastasia's enemies, decided to take a little stroll.
As Anastasia relaxed in the barber chair, 2 men, with scarves covering their faces, rushed in, shoved the barber out of the way, and fired at Anastasia. After the 1st volley of bullets, Anastasia allegedly attempted to lunge at his killers. However, the stunned Anastasia had actually attacked the gunmen's reflections in the wall mirror of the barber shop. The gunmen resumed firing, and Anastasia fell to the floor, dead. He was 55 years old.
Joe Profaci died of cancer in 1962, and Joseph Colombo took over, and the family bears his name today. The other "families" are known as the Gambino, the Genovese, the Bonnano and the Lucchese.
The American Mafia has been governed by "The Commission" since in 1931, when it was established by Charles "Lucky" Luciano, the originator of the family on which Genovese later put his name. The Castellamarese War, the biggest civil war in the history of American organized crime, had just ended, and Luciano figured this was the best way to keep the peace -- a criminal "League of Nations" that turned out to settle interfamily disputes better than the original League did between countries.
The members have always consisted of the boss of New York's Five Families, and the boss of the Chicago Outfit. Like the United Nations has come to do, they have assigned its other seats based on apparent merit, and the bosses of families in Philadelphia and Detroit have often been members. In 1957, Joseph "Joe the Barber" Barbara, the boss of Buffalo crime, was a member.
On November 14, America's organized crime bigwigs met at Barbara's home in Apalachin, New York, near Oswego and Binghamton, to discuss what to do with Anastasia's empire. The meeting was called by Vito Genovese, who now imagined himself as the big boss of it all.
The locals got suspicious when fancy cars with out-of-State license plates arrived in the small town, so they called the police, who raided the meeting, arresting 60 underworld figures.
It was a blow from which the American Mafia has never fully recovered, despite the work of such later bosses as Sam Giancana of Chicago, Nicky Scarfo of Philadelphia and John Gotti of New York's Gambino family.
Budd Schulberg, screenwriter of the 1954 film On the Waterfront, took a big chance in basing the character of Johnny Friendly, played by Lee J. Cobb, on Anastasia. But, today, Anastasia is best known for the way he died.
In a 1975 episode of M*A*S*H, "Soldier of the Month," Hawkeye Pierce (Alan Alda - real name Alphonse D'Abruzzo) sees a sleeping soldier, and says, "Ah, Albert Anastasia's doorman." In a 1976 episode, "Out of Sight, Out of Mind," temporarily blinded, a blindfolded Hawkeye feels around an empty chair by the door and jokingly says, "Ah, Albert Anastasia's bodyguard." Each of these is an anachronistic error, as the Korean War ended in 1953, 4 years before the Anastasia murder.
In a 2002 episode of The West Wing, "Holy Night," the question of when Anastasia was killed comes up, and White House Communications Director Toby Ziegler (Richard Schiff) asks his visiting father, former Murder, Incorporated officer Julius (a.k.a. Julie, Jerry Adler), when it happened. Julie says, "October, 1957." He later tells Toby that he should know things like that, as part of his heritage, and Toby tells him that he does know, that he knows all about Julie's Mob activities back then. Julie's attempt to admonish is ironic, since he gave the year and the month, but not the day.
In an episode of The Sopranos, Uncle Junior (Dominic Chianese) says that he wishes the Mob were like they were in the Fifties, "when it was peaceful." Tony (James Gandolfini) says he remembers seeing the picture of Anastasia in a pool of blood on the barbershop floor. Tony was born in 1959, 2 years after it happened, but he could have seen the photo at any time. I guess even nostalgia ain't what it used to be.
This is probably the photo that Tony saw.
Anastasia's murder came a month after the Brooklyn Dodgers and the New York Giants played their last games before moving to California. That was considered a major change in the life of New York City. But this other kind of "hit" carried with it another major change: For all the harm they caused over the last 50 years, the Mafia protected the neighborhoods they controlled from crime committed by others, in some cases better than the police could. Who was a thug who thought himself a rising tough guy going to be more afraid of? The Police Commissioner? The District Attorney? Or "The Boss of All Bosses"?
So "The Law of Unintended Consequences" kicked in: Without Anastasia, and with the Mob further weakened by Costello's retreat and the Apalachin arrests, that protection weakened. And the mobsters of other ethnicities -- mainly Irish and Jewish -- that the Italians worked with or even controlled found themselves with less support, as the Italians, by necessity, had to be more focused on taking care of their own.
(The Jewish Mob was done for, anyway, and for the best of reasons. In 1999, New York Daily News columnist Sidney Zion wanted to find out what happened, and asked one of the last survivors, long since out of "the life." The ex-gangster pointed out that, unlike the Italians and the Irish, the Jews sent their kids to college. He used a baseball analogy: "We lost our farm system.")
What is now thought of as the crime wave that overtook New York and other cities might have happened anyway, due to the proliferation of drugs, and the way drugs prey on society. But with the loosening of the Mafia's control of the drug trade, things got out of control. It would take the Crime Bill of 1994 before America's cities began to become safe again.
I'm not saying Anastasia was a good person. I am saying that it might have been better to let him live until he came to a natural death.
*
October 25, 1957 was a Friday. So while it was during the NFL season, there were no NFL games. Baseball had wrapped up its season 15 days earlier, when the Milwaukee Braves beat the New York Yankees in Game 7 of the World Series at Yankee Stadium in New York. The NHL season was just underway, but no games were scheduled for this day.
The NBA season was also just underway, but only 1 game was played. At the Onondaga County War Memorial Arena in Syracuse, New York -- now known as the Upstate Medical University Arena -- the Syracuse Nationals beat the Philadelphia Warriors, 103-85. Johnny "Red" Kerr of the Nats and Neil Johnston of the Warriors each scored 22 points, to lead all players.
After the 1961-62 season, the Warriors moved to San Francisco, becoming the San Francisco Warriors, and changing their name to the Golden State Warriors in 1971 when they moved across the Bay to Oakland. Although they returned to the San Francisco side in 2019, they have kept the Golden State name. Just 1 year after their move, Philadelphia got a replacement team, the Nats, who became the Philadelphia 76ers.
Also, actress Nancy Cartwright was born. She provided the voice of Bart Simpson on The Simpsons.
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