Albert Anastasia

Anastasia was shot dead in the barbershop at Manhattan's Park Sheraton Hotel in 1957. His assassination became an emblematic episode of New York organised crime power struggles.

State of the evidence

Well documented

In his 1931 application for a Certificate of Registry, Anastasia claimed, among other matters, that he had never been arrested, whereas federal records showed five earlier arrests. Following naturalisation during the Second World War, the government secured revocation of his citizenship in 1954. In 1955, however, the federal appellate court overturned that decision and his citizenship was preserved.

State of the evidence

Documented

Prosecuted for evading approximately $11,743 in income tax for 1947 and 1948, Anastasia initially had a trial that ended without a verdict. Facing a retrial, he pleaded guilty in May 1955 and was sentenced to one year in federal prison and fined $20,000.

State of the evidence

Established by a court

Attribution

Accused

Role of the person profiled

Protagonist is the victim

Anastasia exercised lasting influence over sections of the International Longshoremen's Association and was summoned by the New York State Crime Commission in 1952 during its waterfront corruption investigation. After answering a few inconsequential questions, he refused to answer most of the questioning.

State of the evidence

Documented

Attribution

Protagonist is a witness

Authorities and contemporary press described Anastasia as a leader or supervisor of Murder, Inc., a group of contract killers linked to New York's crime syndicate. Informants and police records attributed a command role in numerous murders to him.

State of the evidence

Documented

Attribution

Directly implicated

The Mob Museum records several further murder cases involving Anastasia in 1928, 1932 and 1933, which did not proceed after witnesses disappeared or refused to testify.

Attribution

Accused

Course of the proceedings

1. Formally charged — Formal charge before the current outcome

Following the reversal of the 1921 murder case, Anastasia was convicted in 1923 of unlawful possession of a firearm and received a two-year prison sentence.

State of the evidence

Established by a court

Attribution

Accused

Anastasia was sentenced to the electric chair in 1921 for murdering a dockworker. His lawyers secured a retrial; several prosecution witnesses had meanwhile disappeared, and he was ultimately acquitted or released following the new judicial proceedings.

State of the evidence

Established by a court

Attribution

Accused

Course of the proceedings

1. Formally charged — Formal charge before the current outcome

At fifteen, Anastasia arrived in New York as a sailor aboard the SS Sardegna, obtained shore leave and did not return to the ship. Records examined by a federal court listed him as a deserter twelve days later; he subsequently remained in the United States.

State of the evidence

Documented

Attribution

Directly implicated