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How A Barber Shop Murder Created A Mafia Empire
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Jul 1, 2025
The brutal assassination of Albert Anastasia - the "Lord High Executioner" - wasn't just another mob hit. It was the bloody birth of the most powerful criminal organization in American history. Watch as we reveal how a single murder in a Manhattan barbershop allowed the quiet, cunning Carlo Gambino to build an empire that would dominate organized crime for decades. In this shocking true crime documentary, we expose: • How the feared boss of "Murder, Incorporated" met his bloody end in a barber's chair • The secret conspiracy between Carlo Gambino and Vito Genovese that changed the Mafia forever • How Anastasia's reckless violence sealed his own fate • The incredible transformation of the Gambino crime family into a billion-dollar criminal enterprise • The chain of betrayal that eventually brought down an empire From the barbershop bloodbath of 1957 to the spectacular fall of John Gotti, this is the untold story of power, greed, and ultimate betrayal that created - and destroyed - America's most powerful crime family. How A Barber Shop Murder Created A Mafia Empire #MafiaHistory #OrganizedCrime #TrueCrime #AlbertAnastasia #CarloGambino #JohnGotti #MobBosses #CriminalEmpires #AmericanMafia #TrueStory -~-~~-~~~-~~-~--~-~~-~~~-~~-~--~-~~-~~~-~~-~- ⚠️ 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: ✔ Created using AI tools, or ✔ Sourced from royalty-free platforms with valid licenses.
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0:00
October 25th, 1957. For Albert
0:03
Anastasia, the feared Lord High
0:06
executioner of the mob. This was
0:08
supposed to be just another shave at his
0:11
favorite barberh shop in Manhattan's
0:13
Park Central Hotel. He was at the
0:16
absolute height of his power. This was a
0:19
man who commanded an army of killers, a
0:23
man whose name was basically synonymous
0:27
with death. as one of the founders of
0:30
the modern American mafia, the boss of a
0:33
powerful crime family, and the former
0:36
head of the infamous Murder
0:38
Incorporated. He was, for all intents
0:41
and purposes, untouchable.
0:44
But as the hot towel was wrapped over
0:46
his face, it didn't just blind him to
0:48
the world, it blinded him to the
0:51
treachery that was seconds away. The
0:54
calm of the barberh shop was shattered
0:57
by two men rushing in, their faces
0:59
hidden by scarves. They shoved the
1:02
barber aside, raised their pistols, and
1:05
the room exploded with the sound of
1:07
gunfire. Bullets ripped through the man
1:10
in the chair. In his final stunned
1:13
moments, it said that Albert Anastasia,
1:16
the one-man army, lunged not at his
1:19
killers, but at their shimmering
1:21
reflections in the wall mirror. A last
1:24
futile act of defiance against the
1:27
ghosts who'd come for him. The gunshots
1:30
that echoed through the park central
1:31
that day didn't just end one man's life.
1:35
They forged an empire. This was more
1:38
than just a mob hit. It was the bloody
1:41
birth of what would become America's
1:43
most powerful crime family. So, how does
1:47
a single brutal assassination create an
1:50
empire? To understand that, we have to
1:53
go back and understand the men involved,
1:56
the tensions that led to the bloodshed
1:59
and the quiet, cunning strategist who
2:02
pulled all the strings from the shadows.
2:04
Act one, the tyrant, the Lord High
2:08
executioner before he was the boss. He
2:11
was Ombberto Anastasio, an immigrant
2:14
from Calabria, Italy, who landed in
2:16
America in 1919 and pretty quickly found
2:20
his calling on the violent Brooklyn
2:22
waterfront. His entire career was paved
2:26
with brutality. A murder conviction in
2:29
1921
2:30
got him a death sentence, but he was set
2:33
free after a retrial thanks to the
2:36
convenient disappearance of key
2:38
witnesses.
2:40
He learned a lesson that would define
2:42
his life. Violence was the ultimate tool
2:46
and fear was the ultimate currency. He
2:49
changed his name to Albert Anastasia and
2:53
started climbing the ladder. He wasn't
2:56
exactly a man of subtlety. His explosive
2:59
temper earned him the nickname the Mad
3:02
Hatter. His talent for violence earned
3:05
him another, the Lord High Executioner.
3:10
And this wasn't just a scary nickname.
3:12
Alongside Louis Bukala, Anastasia was
3:16
put in charge of the National Crime
3:18
Syndicate's Enforcement Arm, a group
3:21
that would go down in history under a
3:23
chillingly simple name, Murder
3:26
Incorporated.
3:28
For a decade, they were the mob's secret
3:31
executioners, carrying out hundreds of
3:33
hits across the country. Albert
3:36
Anastasia was its chief justice, its
3:39
jury, and its executioner, all rolled
3:43
into one. In 1951, he was rewarded for
3:47
his reign of terror. The boss of his
3:50
family, Vincent Mangano, and his
3:53
brother, Philillip, just vanished.
3:57
Vincent's body was never found.
4:00
Philillips turned up in a marsh, shot
4:03
three times. When the other dawns on the
4:06
commission asked what happened,
4:08
Anastasia was defiant, claiming Mangano
4:11
was plotting against him. Intimidated by
4:14
his ferocious reputation and backed by
4:16
his powerful ally, Frank Costello, the
4:20
commission had no choice but to name
4:22
Anastasia the new boss. But here's the
4:25
thing about ruling by fear. You're
4:28
basically building your throne on a
4:30
fault line. Anastasia was powerful, but
4:34
he was also reckless. He was a creature
4:36
of impulse in a world that was slowly
4:39
starting to value quiet profits over
4:42
public bloodshed. His volatility made
4:45
his fellow bosses nervous. A king who is
4:48
too loud and too unpredictable
4:51
eventually becomes a liability. The
4:55
final straw may have come in 1952.
5:00
A young clothing salesman named Arnold
5:03
Schuster spotted the fugitive bank
5:06
robber Willie Sutton on the subway and
5:09
called the police. Shuster became a
5:12
minor celebrity. The story goes that
5:16
Anastasia saw him on TV and flew into a
5:19
rage, bellowing, "I can't stand
5:22
squealers. Hit that guy." Soon after,
5:25
Schustster was found dead. Now, whether
5:28
Anastasia actually gave that order is
5:31
still debated by historians. It might
5:34
just be mob folklore, but it didn't
5:38
matter. The other bosses believed he did
5:41
it. and killing a civilian for talking
5:44
to the cops. That brought a storm of
5:47
unwanted attention. It was just more
5:49
proof that the Mad Hatter was completely
5:52
out of control. His allies started to
5:55
back away and his enemies saw their
5:57
chance. His violent reign had made
6:01
powerful people nervous, and one of them
6:03
was closer than he could ever imagine.
6:06
His own underboss, a quiet man named
6:10
Carlo Gambino. Act two, the conspirator.
6:14
The quiet fox. Where Albert Anastasia
6:17
was a raging storm, Carlo Gambino was
6:21
the quiet, patient tide. Small with a
6:25
disarming grin and a reserved
6:27
personality. He was the total opposite
6:30
of his boss. He was born in Palmo,
6:34
Sicily, and was supposedly a made man
6:38
before he even got off the boat in
6:40
America in 1921.
6:43
He was a pureblooded mafioso steeped in
6:46
the oldw world traditions of ame and
6:49
strategic thinking. Gambino was a shrewd
6:53
operator who understood that real power
6:56
wasn't about how many bodies you left in
6:59
the street, but how much money you put
7:01
in your pocket. He was a brilliant
7:03
earner, building his own crew and power
7:07
base, which included his teenage cousin,
7:10
Paul Castellano.
7:12
When Anastasia grabbed control of the
7:15
family, Gambino played the loyal
7:17
subordinate, getting himself appointed
7:20
to the position of underboss. And from
7:23
there, he watched, he waited, and he
7:26
planned. The mafia's political landscape
7:29
in the mid-50s was a chessboard of
7:32
shifting alliances. The two biggest
7:35
players were Frank Costello, the prime
7:38
minister of the underworld and the
7:41
deeply ambitious Veto Genevesei.
7:45
Genevies had just returned from exile in
7:48
Italy and was hungry to take what he saw
7:52
as his rightful throne as boss of all
7:55
bosses. Costello's greatest strength was
7:59
his alliance with Albert Anastasia.
8:02
Anastasia's army of killers was the
8:04
muscle that kept Castello in power and
8:07
Genevi stuck as an underboss.
8:10
Genevese was no fool. He knew that to
8:13
get to Castello he had to take Anastasia
8:16
off the board first. And this is where
8:19
the quiet fox Carlo Gambino saw his
8:23
opening. Genevves found a willing
8:26
partner in Gambino. They were two men
8:29
with the same problem and the same
8:31
ambition. A secret pact was formed that
8:35
would reshape the American mafia.
8:38
Genevese would help Gambino get rid of
8:41
Anastasia, allowing him to take over the
8:44
family. In return, Gambino would stand
8:48
aside when Genevvesi made his move on
8:51
Frank Costello. It was a trade, a boss
8:54
for a boss. On the night of May 2nd,
8:57
1957,
8:59
the first part of the plan kicked into
9:02
gear. A gunman sent by Genevies ambushed
9:06
Frank Costello in his apartment lobby.
9:09
The bullet just grazed Costello's head,
9:12
but the message was received loud and
9:14
clear. Castello survived, but he knew
9:17
the game was up. He retired, handing
9:21
control of his family to Veto Genevvesi.
9:24
With Castello gone, Anastasia was
9:27
suddenly isolated. His most powerful
9:30
ally neuted. The board was set. The
9:33
order was given. The only thing left was
9:37
for the curtain to fall on the Lord High
9:39
Executioner. Act three, the hit. A shave
9:44
and a haircut. The barberh shop at the
9:46
Park Central Hotel was a sanctuary for
9:49
Albert Anastasia.
9:51
On that October morning, he settled into
9:54
the fourth barber chair. His driver had
9:57
parked the car and gone for a walk,
10:00
leaving the boss completely unprotected.
10:03
It was a fatal mistake. As the barber
10:06
wrapped a hot towel around his face,
10:09
Anastasia was rendered deaf and blind, a
10:13
vulnerable king on a porcelain throne.
10:16
Some reports even say his own protege
10:19
was in the shop and walked away without
10:22
a scratch, a detail that has never been
10:25
fully explained. At around 10:20 a.m.,
10:29
the two assassins walked in, faces
10:32
hidden, hands gloved, they moved with
10:35
professional speed. They carried a 38
10:39
and a 32 caliber pistol. They brushed
10:42
past the staff and aimed their weapons
10:45
at the helpless man in the chair. The
10:48
first shots roared through the small
10:51
shop, tearing into Anastasia's back,
10:54
hip, and hand. For a second, the Lord
10:57
High executioner seemed to rise from the
11:00
dead. Stunned and bleeding, he ripped
11:04
the towel from his face and lunged
11:06
forward. But in his confusion, he
11:09
attacked the reflections of his killers
11:12
in the large mirrors lining the wall. A
11:15
dying bull charging at ghosts as the
11:19
real assassins kept firing. He collapsed
11:22
to the floor, his reign ending on the
11:25
cold, checkered tiles of a hotel
11:28
barberhop. The killers vanished into the
11:31
chaos of Midtown Manhattan as quickly as
11:34
they appeared. Who were they? That
11:37
remains one of the mob's greatest
11:39
unsolved mysteries, a testament to the
11:42
plot's ruthless efficiency. While many
11:45
believe they were members of the Gallow
11:47
crew from Brooklyn acting on Gambino's
11:50
orders, no arrests were ever made. The
11:54
message, however, was crystal clear to
11:56
everyone in the underworld. The king was
11:59
dead. A new era had begun. Act four, the
12:03
king, the Gambino era. In the mafia, a
12:06
power vacuum doesn't last long. With
12:09
Anastasia's body still warm, his
12:11
underboss Carlo Gambino moved with the
12:14
quiet confidence of a man who had been
12:17
preparing for this moment his whole
12:19
life. With Veto Genevese's backing, the
12:23
commission quickly recognized Gambino as
12:26
the new boss. The first thing he did was
12:29
change the name. The Anastasia family
12:32
was gone. Long live the Gambino crime
12:35
family. His leadership style was a
12:38
complete revolution. Where Anastasia was
12:41
loud, Gambino was quiet. Where Anastasia
12:45
used terror, Gambino used cunning. He
12:49
was rarely seen in public, earning him
12:51
the moniker The Godfather long before
12:54
the movie came out. He famously
12:56
instituted a strict deal and die policy
13:00
against drug trafficking. This wasn't
13:02
because of some moral stand. He just
13:05
knew the long prison sentences that came
13:08
with drug convictions made people talk.
13:12
Of course, that was the official policy.
13:15
In reality, some guys in his family
13:18
still had their hands in narcotics, but
13:20
it was understood you did it at your own
13:23
risk. Under Don Carlo, the family
13:26
transformed into a sophisticated
13:28
multinational corporation of crime. He
13:31
solidified his power by marrying his son
13:35
to the daughter of another powerful
13:37
boss, Tommy Lucase. That alliance gave
13:41
him a piece of one of the biggest
13:43
rackets in New York, the systematic
13:45
looting of JFK International Airport.
13:49
Through control of unions and corrupt
13:52
officials, the Gambino and Lucasi
13:55
families basically owned the airport,
13:58
hijacking cargo and making millions.
14:01
Gambino's empire stretched from the
14:03
waterfronts and the garment district to
14:06
the construction industry and even Wall
14:08
Street. He built a criminal enterprise
14:11
that was unmatched in its reach and
14:14
profit, making him the unofficial boss
14:17
of bosses. And what about his old
14:20
partner Veto Genevesei?
14:23
In a move that was pure Machavelli,
14:26
Gambino turned on him. It's widely
14:30
believed that Gambino along with Lucky
14:32
Luchiano and a retired Frank Costello
14:35
paid a drug dealer over $100,000
14:39
to frame Genevesei in a major drug deal.
14:43
In 1959, the ambitious Genevies was
14:46
convicted and sent to prison for 15
14:48
years where he would eventually die.
14:52
With his last major rival off the board,
14:54
Carlo Gambino's power was absolute. He
14:59
died in 1976, not in a hail of bullets
15:02
on a barber shop floor, but peacefully
15:04
in his own bed from a heart attack. The
15:07
rarest and most coveted of endings for a
15:10
man in his line of work. Act five. The
15:14
legacy of betrayal. Like a king in a
15:17
Greek tragedy, Gambino's final act set
15:20
his own empire on the path to
15:22
destruction. He had a loyal underboss
15:26
and yellow Neil Delicroce,
15:29
a tough, respected, old school mobster
15:32
who was the obvious successor. But
15:35
Gambino believed the family's future was
15:37
in white collar crime. So he bypassed
15:40
Deloce and named his cousin and
15:43
brother-in-law Paul Castellano as the
15:46
new boss.
15:48
The decision split the Gambino family
15:51
right down the middle. You had
15:54
Castellano's faction, the white collar
15:56
mob, running scams from Castellano's
15:59
massive Staten Island mansion, nicknamed
16:01
the White House. And then you had
16:03
Delro's faction, the bluecollar
16:06
soldiers, the street guys running the
16:08
traditional rackets. They hated
16:10
Castellano, seeing him as a pampered
16:13
businessman who'd never gotten his hands
16:15
dirty. At the heart of this angry
16:18
faction was a charismatic and ruthless
16:20
captain from Queens named John Goty.
16:24
Goty was Delro's protetéé and embodied
16:27
everything Castellano disliked. The
16:30
tension simmered for years, held in
16:32
check only by the deep respect both
16:35
sides had for Decroce.
16:38
But in December 1985,
16:40
Delroce died of cancer. In a stunning
16:44
sign of disrespect, Castellano didn't
16:47
even show up to his underboss's wake.
16:51
For Goty and his crew, that was the
16:54
final insult. They knew that with
16:56
Delroce gone, it was only a matter of
16:59
time before Castellano came for them.
17:03
So, Goti decided to strike first. He did
17:06
exactly what Gambino had done nearly 30
17:09
years earlier. He planned to murder his
17:14
own boss. On December 16th, 1985,
17:18
as Paul Castellano arrived for a steak
17:21
dinner at Spark Steakhouse in Manhattan,
17:25
a team of assassins in trench coats
17:27
opened fire, killing him and his
17:30
underboss right on the street. John Goty
17:34
watched the whole thing from a car
17:36
parked across the street before driving
17:38
away. The quiet empire Carlo Gambino
17:42
built had been seized in a hail of
17:45
gunfire, just as he had seized it
17:48
himself. Goty's reign was the beginning
17:51
of the end. Where Gambino craved
17:54
secrecy, Goti craved the spotlight. The
17:58
press dubbed him the dapper dawn for his
18:01
expensive suits and magnetic
18:03
personality, but his celebrity made him
18:06
a massive target for the FBI. After a
18:09
string of acquittles earned him the
18:11
nickname the Teflon dawn, the government
18:15
finally found his weakness. The brutal
18:18
truth is that the Gambino Empire built
18:21
on a foundation of betrayal was brought
18:24
down by the ultimate betrayal. Goty's
18:28
own underboss, Salvator. Uh, Sammy the
18:31
Bull, Graano, facing serious charges
18:34
himself and hearing Goti badmouth him on
18:37
FBI wiretaps, broke the sacred code of
18:41
Amea. He became a government witness. In
18:45
court, Gravano calmly laid out the
18:48
family's secrets, confessing to 19
18:50
murders and pointing the finger at Goti
18:53
for the Castellano hit. His testimony
18:56
was the final nail in the coffin. In
18:59
1992, John Goti was sentenced to life in
19:03
prison where he died a decade later.
19:06
Conclusion: When you look back, the
19:08
story of the Gambino crime family is
19:11
really a chain reaction of betrayal
19:14
kicked off by that one violent moment in
19:17
the barber shop. The assassination of
19:20
Albert Anastasia wasn't just the end of
19:23
a tyrant. It was the event that let a
19:26
criminal mastermind take the throne.
19:30
Carlo Gambino took the raw violent power
19:34
that Anastasia loved and refined it into
19:37
a sophisticated billiondoll empire,
19:40
making him the most powerful criminal in
19:42
America. Gambino's reign was a
19:45
masterclass in quiet, ruthless strategy.
19:49
But the blueprint he created for taking
19:53
power, publicly assassinating your own
19:56
boss was a dangerous one to leave lying
19:59
around. Decades later, John Goty
20:03
followed that same bloody path to snatch
20:06
the crown for himself, which ultimately
20:09
led the family to ruin. The secrecy that
20:12
was the key to Gambino's success was
20:15
replaced by the celebrity that led
20:17
directly to Gotti's downfall. Even
20:20
today, the ghost of that empire lingers.
20:24
Recent indictments show that the Gambino
20:26
family, though just a shadow of its
20:28
former self, is still active. It's a
20:32
stark reminder that in the underworld,
20:35
power is never given. It's taken. It
20:38
seized in moments of brutal opportunity
20:41
like the one that unfolded on a
20:43
barberhop floor in 1957,
20:46
proving that empires built on blood
20:49
often carry the seeds of their own
20:51
destruction. For more stories from the
20:54
criminal underworld, subscribe to our