Anastasia, Genovese, and Gambino
While the renamed Anastasia family made more money than ever, some other mobsters grew concerned about his temper and violent behavior. Anastasia's violent ways could be contained as long as Luciano and Frank Costello pulled the strings, but certain mobsters, most notably Vito Genovese, doubted whether it was really possible to keep Anastasia reined in. These doubts grew even louder in 1952, when Anastasia ordered the murder of a young Brooklyn tailor's assistant named Arnold Schuster, after watching Schuster talking on television about his role as primary witness in fugitive bank robber Willie Sutton's arrest. In killing Schuster, Anastasia had violated a cardinal Mafia rule against killing outsiders; as Benjamin "Bugsy" Siegel once quaintly put it, "We only kill each other." The murder brought unnecessary public scrutiny on Mafia business. Luciano and Costello were horrified, but they could not take action against Anastasia since Genovese was angling to take over the Luciano family as well, and they needed Anastasia to counter Genovese's growing ambition and power. From the start of Anastasia's rise to boss of the family, Genovese did not get along with him. Genovese believed that Anastasia had murdered Vincent Mangano, thereby breaking a cardinal Mafia rule. Due to Joe Bonanno's efforts, war was avoided between the two families. However, Genovese continued to resent Anastasia.
Genovese knew this as well, and in early 1957 convinced Gambino to side with him against Anastasia, Costello and Luciano. On Genovese's advice, Gambino told Anastasia that they were not making enough money from the casinos at Cuba, which belonged to Meyer Lansky. When Anastasia confronted Lansky, he was furious, and seemingly threw his support to the Genovese-Gambino alliance. Shortly afterward, Genovese moved against Costello by hiring Vincent "Chin" Gigante to assassinate him. While the attempt failed, it frightened Costello enough to ask the Commission for permission to retire, which they accepted. Genovese took over the family and renamed it the Genovese crime family.
With Costello out of the way, Genovese then moved against Anastasia. Genovese believed that Anastasia was attempting to make a move against him, so Genovese thought he had to strike first. At the time, Gambino was worried that Anastasia was jealous of his wealth and influence, and would have him killed. Gambino was convinced by Genovese to give his support, by giving the order to "Joe the Blonde" Biondo, who selected Stephen Armone, Arnold "Witty" Wittenberg, and Stephen "Stevie Coogin" Grammauta to carry out the hit. They allegedly shot Anastasia on October 25, 1957, in the barbershop of the Park Sheraton Hotel (now the Park Central Hotel) in New York City. (The Anastasia murder was finally solved in 2007, 50 years later.) Gambino then became the new boss of the Mangano crime family, which was renamed the Gambino crime family.
Read more about this topic: Carlo Gambino