Albert Anastasia was a New York waterfront figure whose name is bound to the murder-for-hire group the press called Murder, Inc. His record in court is narrow. He was convicted of one murder, that of a longshoreman, in the early 1920s and spent about eighteen months under sentence of death before a new trial was granted and the case against him collapsed. He was arrested on murder charges three more times and was never convicted. The killings later attributed to him were attributed by prosecutors and by a United States Senate committee; no court found him responsible for them. His one later conviction was for federal income tax evasion in 1955, for which he was sentenced to one year. He was killed in Manhattan on October 25, 1957, and no one has been charged.
Anastasia was born Umberto Anastasio on September 26, 1902 in Tropea, in Calabria, Italy, and came to New York City in 1919. The Senate committee that examined him in 1951 described him and a brother as "leading powers on the water front."
In 1921 Anastasia was charged with the murder of George Turrello, a fellow longshoreman. He was convicted and sentenced to death, and he spent about eighteen months under sentence of death in New York State in 1921 and 1922. His lawyer obtained a new trial, and witnesses against him were lost before it could proceed, so that he was freed. The conviction was not reinstated, and in law the early 1920s murder conviction did not stand.
Anastasia was arrested for murder in 1928, 1932 and 1933. In each case witnesses either disappeared or refused to testify, and he was not convicted. In 1941 and 1942, two informants held in police custody died before their testimony could be used against him.
The group the press named Murder, Inc. was exposed in 1940, when a former member, Abe Reles, became a witness for the state in Brooklyn. Reles gave detailed accounts of killings for the underworld, and Louis Buchalter and several others were convicted of murder and executed. Reles died in November 1941 while under police guard, before he could testify against Anastasia, and no charge against Anastasia followed. Brooklyn files record that investigations into Reles's death were opened in 1941, 1945 and 1951, and that a grand jury in 1951 examined Anastasia while he still controlled waterfront gangs.
The Senate Special Committee to Investigate Crime in Interstate Commerce, led in 1950 and 1951 by Estes Kefauver, took evidence in New York in 1951. Anastasia was heard at a closed hearing; a brother was heard in open session. The committee's report calls him the head of the enforcement division of Murder, Inc., sets out the former prosecutor's statement that he regarded Anastasia as the boss murderer below the top six, and records that "every case against Anastasia was abandoned, neglected, or pigeon-holed." It states that he "was not indicted." These are the findings of a legislative committee, not of a court, and each killing it or the prosecutors attributed to him remains attributed only. He became the head of the organization after Buchalter, and it continued under him after its exposure in 1940 and 1941.
In 1954 the federal government charged Anastasia with evading about $12,000 in income tax. Two government witnesses in the case later disappeared. In 1955 he was sentenced to one year in federal custody. This is the only conviction recorded against him after the 1920s.
Anastasia was killed on October 25, 1957 in Manhattan. The killing has not been solved and no one has been charged with it. Contemporary accounts described him as having evaded the law for forty years.
Three legal positions are distinct. The Turrello murder conviction of the early 1920s was followed by a new trial and his release, so it is not a final conviction. The later killings associated with him were attributed to him by prosecutors and a Senate committee; he was arrested or investigated in some cases, but the committee records that he was not indicted for the Murder, Inc. killings. The only final conviction is the 1955 tax evasion case. The Senate committee's report was a legislative finding with no power to convict.
The number of killings credited to him is not fixed and none is proved in a court. His part in Murder, Inc. rests on the evidence of a witness who died before any trial of Anastasia, on prosecutors' findings and on the Senate committee's report. Why the Turrello prosecution ended is not established in court: witnesses were lost, and the conviction was not reinstated.
September 26, 1902: born Umberto Anastasio in Tropea, Italy.
1919: comes to New York City.
1921 to 1922: convicted of the murder of George Turrello; eighteen months under sentence of death; new trial obtained; freed.
1928, 1932, 1933: arrested on murder charges; never convicted.
1940: Abe Reles becomes a state witness against the murder-for-hire group.
November 1941: Reles dies under police guard.
1951: heard by the Senate crime committee in closed session; Brooklyn grand jury inquiry.
1954: charged with federal income tax evasion.
1955: sentenced to one year.
October 25, 1957: killed in Manhattan; unsolved.