Up next in 10
Hot towel over his face. Eyes closed. The barber chair felt comfortable.
He never heard them walk in. He never heard them raise their guns.
Albert Anastasia ordered the deaths of over 1000 men.
He built Murder Incorporated into a death factory that terrorized America.
The only witness who could convict him fell from a hotel window.
His killers were never identified. This case remains unsolved.
Based on FBI files, court testimonies, and declassified documents.
This documentary is for educational and entertainment purposes only.
The complete untold story of the Lord High Executioner. From the slums of Calabria to the boss of the most powerful crime family in America. Murder Incorporated. The Castellammarese War. The Mangano brothers disappearance. The Park Sheraton barbershop assassination. The conspiracy that reached the highest levels of organized crime.
🔔 Subscribe for weekly deep dives into history's darkest chapters.
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⚠️ Content Disclaimer:
This video is created for educational and informational purposes only. We do NOT glorify, promote, or encourage any form of criminal activity.
All visuals, audio, and materials used in this video are either:
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0:00
Among those men was Albert Anastasia.
0:04
He had switched sides at exactly the
0:07
right moment. Proven his loyalty to the
0:11
new order with bullets and blood. Now
0:14
Salvatore Maranzano ruled New York. He
0:18
called himself the boss of all bosses,
0:22
Picapo Dutappy.
0:24
But his reign would last exactly 5
0:27
months. On September 10th, 1931,
0:32
four men posing as tax agents walked
0:35
into Maronzano's office in the Grand
0:38
Central Building. They showed him
0:41
badges. They asked to see his books, and
0:45
then they stabbed him, shot him, left
0:49
him bleeding on the floor of his own
0:51
office. The men who ordered that killing
0:55
were young, ambitious, ruthless, Lucky,
0:59
Luciano,
1:01
Meer, Lansky,
1:03
Augsy Seagull, and standing right beside
1:07
them, Albert Anastasia.
1:10
The old order was dead. The new order
1:13
had arrived, and Albert Anastasia was
1:17
about to receive his reward. In the
1:20
reorganization that followed, Luciano
1:24
created something new, something that
1:27
had never existed before in American
1:30
organized crime. He called it the
1:33
commission.
1:34
Five families, five bosses, five
1:38
kingdoms,
1:40
all answering to a central authority.
1:43
And beneath the commission, something
1:46
even more revolutionary,
1:49
a murder squad, a death factory, a group
1:53
of killers who would execute anyone the
1:56
commission deemed a threat. They called
1:59
it Murder Incorporated,
2:01
and Albert Anastasia was its lord and
2:05
master. The headquarters of Murder
2:08
Incorporated was a candy store in the
2:11
Brownsville section of Brooklyn.
2:13
Midnight Roses, a dingy little shop that
2:17
sold newspapers and cigarettes during
2:20
the day. At night, it became a death
2:23
chamber. The killers would gather in the
2:26
back room, play cards, drink coffee,
2:31
wait for the phone to ring. When it
2:34
rang, someone was about to die. The
2:38
system was elegant in its brutality.
2:41
A boss would identify a problem. A
2:45
witness who was going to talk, a rival
2:48
who was getting too ambitious,
2:51
a debtor who refused to pay. The request
2:54
would go to the commission. The
2:57
commission would approve or deny. If
3:00
approved, the contract would go to
3:03
Albert Anastasia.
3:05
He would select his killers, give them
3:08
the details,
3:10
send them out to hunt. The target would
3:13
never see it coming. The killers were
3:16
strangers. No connection. No motive that
3:20
police could trace.
3:22
Just death delivered professionally,
3:26
efficiently, without remorse. Now, here
3:30
is something most people do not know.
3:33
Murder Incorporated was not just a death
3:37
squad. It was a business. The killers
3:41
were paid salaries.
3:43
They received bonuses for difficult
3:45
jobs. They had health benefits. Vacation
3:50
time. Albert Anastasia ran it like a
3:53
corporation.
3:55
There were rules, protocols, standard
3:59
operating procedures.
4:01
Never kill in your own neighborhood.
4:04
Always use stolen cars.
4:07
Dispose of the body at sea whenever
4:10
possible. And above all, never talk.
4:15
Never. Not to anyone, not even to your
4:19
own family. The penalty for talking was
4:22
death. Slow death. The kind that made
4:27
other men think twice. According to law
4:30
enforcement estimates, Murder
4:33
Incorporated executed between 400 and
4:36
1,000 men during its decade of
4:39
operation.
4:41
400 to 1,000.
4:44
Men strangled with piano wire, shot in
4:47
the head, stabbed through the heart,
4:51
burned alive, buried in lime pits,
4:56
dumped in the ocean. And Albert
4:58
Anastasia ordered every single one. But
5:02
there is a pattern here, and patterns do
5:05
not lie. The more powerful Albert
5:09
Anastasia became, the more enemies he
5:12
made. Other bosses resented his
5:16
influence.
5:17
They feared his violence. They whispered
5:21
that he was out of control, and they
5:24
waited for their moment. But here is
5:27
what no one expected. In 1940,
5:31
Murder Incorporated began to unravel. A
5:35
low-level killer named Abe Reels was
5:38
arrested. Facing the electric chair, he
5:42
made a decision. He would talk. Reels
5:46
knew everything. Names, dates,
5:49
locations, methods. He gave the
5:52
prosecutors enough evidence to execute
5:55
seven men. He was prepared to testify
5:58
against Albert Anastasia himself. The
6:02
trial was scheduled. The newspapers
6:05
called it the biggest mob case in
6:07
history. Albert Anastasia's reign was
6:11
about to end. Or so everyone thought. On
6:16
November 12th, 1941,
6:19
Abe Reels was being held under police
6:22
protection at the Half Moon Hotel in
6:25
Coney Island. Six officers guarded him
6:28
around the clock. At 7 in the morning,
6:32
his body was found on the roof of the
6:34
hotel extension, five floors below his
6:37
window. The official story was that he
6:41
tried to escape by climbing down a rope
6:44
of bed sheets. The rope broke, he fell,
6:49
he died. Convenient. Very convenient.
6:54
To this day, no one knows exactly what
6:58
happened in that hotel room.
7:00
Some believe Reels was thrown from the
7:02
window by corrupt police officers.
7:06
Others believe he was pushed by fellow
7:09
inmates who had been bribed. What is
7:12
certain is that Albert Anastasia was
7:15
never prosecuted for Murder
7:17
Incorporated.
7:19
The only witness who could have
7:20
convicted him was dead. And Albert
7:24
Anastasia walked free. The implications
7:28
were staggering. a professional murder
7:30
organization,
7:32
hundreds of bodies, a witness ready to
7:36
testify, and then that witness
7:39
mysteriously falls from a window. This
7:42
is not conspiracy theory. This is
7:45
documented history. This is the world
7:48
Albert Anastasia created, and it was
7:52
about to make him one of the most
7:54
powerful men in America. The weight of
7:57
that truth is staggering because from
8:01
here on the story only gets darker. By
8:05
the late 1940s,
8:07
Albert Anastasia had risen to the
8:10
pinnacle of organized crime. He was the
8:14
underboss of the Mangano crime family.
8:17
He controlled the Brooklyn waterfront.
8:20
He had survived every attempt to bring
8:23
him down, but he wanted more.
8:26
He always wanted more. The Mongano
8:30
brothers, Vincent and Phillip, had run
8:34
the family for years. They were old
8:37
school, cautious. They believed in
8:41
tradition and protocol.
8:43
Albert Anastasia believed in power. Raw,
8:47
naked, absolute power. The tension
8:51
between them had been building for
8:53
years. whispers of insubordination,
8:57
rumors of plots and counterplots.
9:01
And then in April of 1951,
9:04
the tension exploded. Philip Mangano was
9:08
found dead in a marshland in Bergen
9:11
Beach, Brooklyn. Shot three times in the
9:14
head. Vincent Mangano simply vanished.
9:18
His body was never found. 3 days later,
9:23
Albert Anastasia appeared before the
9:26
commission. He claimed the Mongano
9:28
brothers had been plotting to kill him.
9:32
He claimed self-defense.
9:34
The commission listened. The commission
9:37
considered, and the commission did
9:41
nothing. Albert Anastasia became the
9:44
boss of what would later be known as the
9:48
Gambino crime family. He had murdered
9:51
his way to the top and no one could stop
9:55
him. The years that followed were the
9:58
peak of Albert Anastasia's power. He
10:02
expanded into gambling, lone sharking,
10:06
labor raketeering.
10:08
He forged alliances with bosses across
10:11
the country. He made millions upon
10:14
millions of dollars.
10:16
But he also made mistakes.
10:19
He became arrogant, unpredictable,
10:23
dangerous. He ordered hits without
10:26
commission approval. He threatened other
10:29
bosses.
10:30
He believed himself untouchable.
10:34
And all the while, someone was watching,
10:38
waiting, planning, someone very close to
10:42
him. But there was someone watching from
10:44
the shadows.
10:46
Someone patient, someone dangerous.
10:50
Carlo Gambino,
10:52
the quiet unboss,
10:54
the man who always smiled and never
10:57
raised his voice. He had been at Albert
11:01
Anastasia's side for years. Loyal,
11:05
obedient, invisible. But Carlo Gambino
11:09
was playing a very long game. He watched
11:13
as Anastasia alienated the other bosses.
11:17
He listened as complaints piled up. He
11:21
waited as the anger grew. And when the
11:24
moment came, he struck. The conspiracy
11:28
was already in motion. The meeting that
11:31
would seal Anastasia's fate was being
11:35
arranged, and the morning in the barberh
11:38
shop was closer than anyone realized.
11:42
October 1957,
11:45
the Appalachin meeting. 62 mob bosses
11:49
from across America gathered at the
11:52
estate of Joseph Barbara in upstate New
11:55
York, the most powerful criminals in the
11:58
nation, all in one place. The official
12:02
purpose was to discuss business,
12:05
territory,
12:06
disputes.
12:08
The real purpose was to decide the fate
12:11
of Albert Anastasia.
12:13
According to accounts from those who
12:15
were present, the charges against him
12:18
were serious.
12:20
He had ordered hits without approval. He
12:24
had threatened veto genevies.
12:27
He had sold membership in his family to
12:30
men who had not earned it. But worst of
12:33
all, he had become unpredictable.
12:37
In the world of organized crime,
12:40
unpredictable men were dangerous. They
12:43
drew attention. They created problems.
12:47
They had to be dealt with. The bosses
12:50
discussed. They debated. They voted.
12:54
Albert Anastasia had to die. But the
12:58
Appalachian meeting never finished.
13:02
State police raided the estate. The
13:05
bosses scattered into the woods. Many
13:08
were arrested. The conspiracy would have
13:11
to wait. Or would it? What followed
13:15
defied all logic. The raid at
13:18
Appalachian did not stop anything. It
13:22
only delayed it. In the weeks that
13:24
followed, the men who wanted Albert
13:27
Anastasia dead regrouped. They refined
13:31
their plan. They selected their killers.
13:35
And they set a date. October 25th,
13:40
1957.
13:42
A Friday morning. Albert Anastasia
13:46
followed his usual routine. Breakfast
13:50
with his family. A drive into Manhattan.
13:54
A stop at the Park Sheran Hotel. He did
13:58
this every week.
14:00
Same day, same time, same barbershop.
14:05
His enemies knew this. They had been
14:09
watching. The barberh shop at the park
14:11
sheran was on the ground floor. Big
14:15
glass windows facing the street. Four
14:19
barber chairs in a row. Albert Anastasia
14:23
walked in at 10:15 in the morning. He
14:26
nodded to the owner, took off his
14:29
jacket, sat in chair number four. The
14:34
barber wrapped a hot towel around his
14:36
face. Albert leaned back, closed his
14:40
eyes. Outside, a car pulled up to the
14:44
curb. Two men got out. They walked
14:48
through the lobby, entered the barberh
14:51
shop. They wore scarves over their
14:54
faces. They carried guns.
14:58
What happened next took less than 10
15:01
seconds.
15:02
The first shot hit Albert Anastasia in
15:05
the back of the head. The barber dove to
15:08
the floor. The other customers screamed.
15:12
Albert lurched out of the chair, still
15:15
alive, still fighting. He turned toward
15:19
the mirror, saw the reflection of his
15:22
killers, and charged, but there was
15:26
nowhere to go. The second gunman opened
15:29
fire. Bullet after bullet tore into
15:33
Albert Anastasia's body. He crashed into
15:37
the mirror, shattered the glass,
15:41
fell to the floor. The killers stood
15:44
over him, fired two more shots into his
15:47
chest. Then they walked out, got in
15:51
their car, drove away. Albert Anastasia,
15:56
the Lord High Executioner,
15:59
the man who had ordered the deaths of
16:01
hundreds,
16:03
lay dead on the floor of a Manhattan
16:06
barbershop.
16:07
He was 55 years old. The barberh shop
16:11
fell silent. The only sound was blood
16:14
dripping onto tile. But here is the
16:17
question that haunted investigators for
16:20
decades.
16:21
Who ordered the killing? The answer,
16:25
according to most historians, involves
16:28
three men. Veto Genev,
16:32
the ambitious boss who wanted to rule
16:34
New York. He had been plotting against
16:37
Anastasia for years.
16:40
Carlo Gambino,
16:42
the quiet unboss who would inherit
16:45
Anastasia's empire. He had the most to
16:48
gain admire Lansky, the financial genius
16:53
of organized crime. He believed
16:56
Anastasia was threatening his casino
16:59
interests in Kuba. These three men,
17:03
according to law enforcement accounts,
17:06
formed an alliance. They convinced the
17:10
other bosses that Anastasia had to go.
17:13
They approved the contract. But who
17:16
actually pulled the trigger? This is
17:19
where the story becomes murky. The two
17:22
gunmen were never identified, never
17:26
arrested,
17:27
never prosecuted.
17:30
Some researchers believe they were
17:32
members of the Gallow Brothers crew in
17:34
Brooklyn. Young, hungry killers looking
17:38
to make a name for themselves.
17:41
Others believe they were imported from
17:43
out of town. Professional hitmen with no
17:47
connection to New York. The truth died
17:50
with the killers themselves.
17:52
Think about what this means. The most
17:56
feared mob boss in America.
17:59
Gunned down in broad daylight in the
18:02
middle of Manhattan. and no one was ever
18:05
charged. This was not a failure of law
18:08
enforcement.
18:10
This was a message. A message to
18:13
everyone in the underworld. No one was
18:16
untouchable.
18:18
Not even Albert Anastasia.
18:20
The funeral was held 3 days later. A
18:24
simple service, closed casket. Only
18:28
family attended. The mob bosses who had
18:31
ordered his death stayed away.
18:34
Albert Anastasia was buried in Greenwood
18:37
Cemetery in Brooklyn, the same burrow
18:41
where he had built his empire, the same
18:44
streets he had terrorized for 30 years.
18:48
His gravestone reads simply, "Abert
18:52
Anastasia,
18:54
1902
18:55
to 1957.
18:58
No mention of murder incorporated.
19:01
No mention of the hundreds of deaths. No
19:05
mention of the empire he built and lost.
19:08
Just a name and two dates. But that
19:12
answer raised an even darker question.
19:15
What happened to the men who killed
19:17
Albert Anastasia?
19:20
The answer is nothing. Veto Genevies
19:24
tried to seize control of the
19:26
underworld. He failed. He was convicted
19:30
on drug charges in 1959
19:33
and died in prison 10 years later. Carlo
19:37
Gambino inherited Albert Anastasia's
19:40
family. He renamed it after himself. He
19:44
ran it quietly and efficiently for
19:47
nearly 20 years. He died of natural
19:51
causes in 1976.
19:54
The Gallow brothers, if they were indeed
19:58
the killers, were eventually destroyed
20:01
in their own mob war. Joey Gallow was
20:05
shot dead at Ombberto's clan house in
20:08
1972,
20:10
but no one was ever punished for the
20:12
murder of Albert Anastasia.
20:15
The case remains officially unsolved to
20:18
this day. But death had a way of
20:21
transforming monsters into myths. In the
20:25
years after his death, Halbert Anastasia
20:28
became something he never was in life. A
20:32
legend. The man who had been feared and
20:35
hated was now romanticized.
20:38
Hooks were written about him. Movies
20:41
were made. His story became part of
20:44
American mythology.
20:46
The Lord High Executioner.
20:49
The mad hatter, the boss who died in a
20:52
barber chair. These images, these
20:56
stories, they obscured the reality. The
21:00
reality of a man who killed without
21:02
conscience,
21:04
who built an industry of death, who
21:07
terrorized an entire city for three
21:10
decades.
21:12
Albert Anastasia was not a romantic
21:15
figure. He was a monster. But monsters,
21:19
especially dead monsters,
21:22
make for compelling stories. And the
21:25
story of Albert Anastasia was not
21:28
finished because the empire he built,
21:32
the methods he created, the violence he
21:36
normalized, they lived on. The story was
21:40
far from over. The legacy of Albert
21:43
Anastasia was just beginning to take
21:46
shape. The empire that survived his
21:49
death would grow stronger than ever. And
21:53
the question that still haunts
21:55
investigators today remains unanswered.
21:59
What if the violence never really ended?
22:02
What if it just evolved? The day after
22:05
Albert Anastasia died, the newspapers
22:09
called it the most spectacular mob hit
22:12
in history. They were right. But they
22:15
missed the larger story. Albert
22:18
Anastasia was not just a man. He was a
22:22
symbol. A symbol of a certain kind of
22:25
power. Brutal, direct, uncomplicated.
22:31
When he died, that era of organized
22:34
crime died with him. What came next was
22:38
different, more sophisticated,
22:41
more hidden, more dangerous.
22:45
Carlo Gambino took control of the
22:47
family. He renamed it, reorganized it,
22:52
made it invisible.
22:54
Under Gambino, the family expanded into
22:58
legitimate businesses,
23:00
construction,
23:02
garbage hauling, the garment industry,
23:05
labor unions. The violence continued,
23:09
but it was quieter now, more targeted,
23:13
less likely to make the newspapers.
23:16
This was Albert Anastasia's real legacy,
23:20
not the murders, not Murder
23:22
Incorporated.
23:24
Not the terror. His real legacy was
23:27
showing the next generation what not to
23:30
do. Be too visible. You become a target.
23:36
Be too violent. You attract attention.
23:40
Be too ambitious.
23:42
Your own people will destroy you. Carlo
23:46
Gambino learned these lessons. He stayed
23:50
in the shadows. He avoided publicity.
23:54
He died peacefully in his bed. And the
23:57
family he built, the family that bears
24:01
his name, would become the most powerful
24:04
organized crime syndicate in American
24:07
history. Pay attention. This is the
24:11
truth they do not want you to see.
24:14
Albert Anastasia created a template, a
24:18
blueprint for organized violence.
24:21
And even though he died in 1957,
24:25
that blueprint survived. Murder
24:28
Incorporated may have disbanded, but the
24:31
concept. The idea of professional,
24:35
untraceable killing, it never went away.
24:39
It simply evolved. By the 1970s,
24:44
contract killing had become a
24:46
sophisticated industry. specialized
24:49
professionals,
24:51
encrypted communications,
24:53
international networks.
24:56
The methods that Albert Anastasia
24:58
pioneered in the backroom of a Brooklyn
25:01
candy store. They spread across the
25:04
world. Consider what this means. A man
25:08
who died over 60 years ago, still
25:12
shaping how criminal violence operates
25:15
today. That is not a criminal legacy.
25:19
That is an institution.
25:21
The FBI still studies Albert Anastasia,
25:26
his methods, his psychology,
25:30
his organizational structure. They teach
25:33
his case at Quantico. They analyze it.
25:37
They try to understand it. Because the
25:40
men who come after, the men who lead
25:43
organized crime today, they all stand on
25:47
the foundation he built, whether they
25:51
know it or not. So, what are we supposed
25:54
to conclude from all of this? Was Albert
25:58
Anastasia a monster, a visionary, a
26:02
product of his environment,
26:05
a symptom of a larger disease? The
26:08
evidence supports all of these
26:10
interpretations
26:12
and that is precisely the point. He
26:16
cannot be easily categorized.
26:18
He cannot be simply condemned or
26:21
explained. He was a complex man living
26:25
in a violent world.
26:28
He made choices that led to hundreds of
26:30
deaths. He built an empire on blood and
26:34
terror. And then he was destroyed by the
26:38
same forces he had unleashed.
26:40
There is a certain justice in that. A
26:43
symmetry. The man who lived by violence
26:47
died by violence.
26:50
The man who ordered so many murders was
26:53
himself murdered. The man who trusted no
26:57
one was betrayed by those closest to
27:00
him. This was his genius.
27:03
This was his curse. And this was his
27:07
end. Because in the end, what did it all
27:11
amount to? An empire that crumbled.
27:15
A family that forgot him. A grave in
27:18
Brooklyn that few people visit. The Lord
27:22
High Executioner of Murder Incorporated.
27:25
Guide on the floor of a barberh shop
27:28
with hot towels on his face and bullets
27:31
in his back. No trial, no conviction, no
27:36
justice for his victims, but also no
27:39
peace for himself. The violence followed
27:43
him to the end, and the violence
27:46
swallowed him whole. Some truths echo
27:49
longer than gunshots.
27:52
The investigation continues.
27:55
Every few years, new documents are
27:58
declassified.
27:59
New witnesses come forward. New theories
28:03
emerge about who really killed Albert
28:06
Anastasia.
28:07
And every time his name returns to the
28:11
headlines, in the margins, in the
28:14
footnotes,
28:16
in the shadows, always present, never
28:20
fully explained,
28:22
just as he planned it. So, here is the
28:25
question I want to leave you with. Was
28:28
Albert Anastasia
28:30
a monster who created the modern mafia?
28:34
Or was he simply the first to understand
28:37
what organized crime could become?
28:40
Comment one word, monster or visionary.
28:44
If stories like this resonate with you,
28:48
if you want to understand how power
28:50
really works in the shadows,
28:53
then you need to see what we have
28:55
uncovered about the men who came after.
28:58
The families that still operate, the
29:01
methods that still work, the violence
29:04
that still continues.
29:07
Subscribe, hit the bell. We go deeper
29:11
every week. And remember what Albert
29:14
Anastasia proved. The most dangerous men
29:18
do not hide in shadows.
29:21
They own the building. The truth never
29:24
sleeps.
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And neither do we.