Albert Anastasia was born in Tropea Italy, on 26th February, 1902. One of nine brothers, Anastasia jumped ship in the United States sometime between 1917 and 1920. He became active in Brooklyn's dock operations and rose to a position of authority in the longshoreman's union. It was here that Anastasia first demonstrated his penchant for murder at the slightest provocation, killing a fellow longshoreman in the early '20s. Nor was his executioner's behavior pattern altered by a consequent 18-month stay in the death house in Sing Sing. He went free when, at a new trial, the four most important witnesses turned up missing, a situation that proved permanent.

New York racketeer, gangster & murderer. A feared Mafioso, Anastasia made huge profits from narcotics smuggling, gambling & prostitution and by extortion. He was head of Murder, Inc., & was given the title "Lord High Executioner" because of his leading role in carrying out syndicate killings. 

Considering Anastasia's lifelong devotion to murder as the solution to any problem it was not surprising that he and Lois "Lepke" Buchalter were promoted to the heads of the national crime syndicate's enforcement arm, Murder Inc. Some estimates have it that Murder Inc., may have taken in a decade of operation a toll of between 400 and 500 victims. Unlike Lepke and many other members of Murder Inc., Anastasia was never prosecuted for any of the crimes. There was a "perfect case" against him, but the main prosecution witness not surprisingly disappeared.