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Albert Anastasia
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Albert Anastasia

American gangster
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Also known as: Umberto Anastasio
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Quick Facts
Original name:
Umberto Anastasio
Born:
Sept. 26, 1902, Tropea, Italy
Died:
Oct. 25, 1957, New York, N.Y., U.S. (aged 55)
Also Known As:
Umberto Anastasio
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Albert Anastasia (born Sept. 26, 1902, Tropea, Italy—died Oct. 25, 1957, New York, N.Y., U.S.) was a major American gangster.

Anastasia immigrated to New York City from Italy in 1919 and, in the 1920s, rose through Giuseppe Masseria’s gang. He was one of Masseria’s executioners in 1931, at Lucky Luciano’s command. In the late 1930s he became active head of “Murder, Inc.,” a notorious murder-for-hire organization, and in the late 1940s became boss of one of the Five Families of organized crime in New York City. He was murdered by two gunmen (hired by rival Vito Genovese) as he sat in a barber chair in the Park Sheraton Hotel.

This article was most recently revised and updated by Encyclopaedia Britannica.