Anthony "Tough Tony" Anastasio was Albert Anastsia's brother (Albert changed his last name to save his family embarrassment as legend goes) who was a Gambino (at that time the Anastasia family, formerly the Mangano family) capo who controlled the Brooklyn waterfront through control of ILA 1814.

According to this FBI document, after Albert's murder he was afraid he was next and contacted the FBI to confirm if there was a plot on his life. Does anyone know more about the Pete DeFeo and Coppolino mentioned in the document?

It sounds like he's really underestimating the wiley old Don Carlo who probably killed his brother in the first place. He was also worried about Hoffa and Tony Pro trying to make a move on his ILA interests.


Document: http://www.thesmokinggun.com/documents/crime/brotherly-love-fuhgeddaboutit-0

There is a lot of info on Pete DeFeo (1902-1993). Possibly made in the early 1930s. Also went by the name of "Phil Aqualino". Google him. He was a Genovese captain, a power in Manhattan´s Little Italy section. Very close to both Vito Genovese and Mike Miranda.

Charley "Bananas" Coppolino (1907-1984) was a Genovese soldier, a tough guy and a former delegate of local 1814, ILA. I remember once reading that Coppolino, back in 1929, was acquitted on charges of killing a cop. He was known to have many hits under his belt. Grew up on Sackett Street, Red Hook, Brooklyn, I believe.

Interesting. While I knew Tony was in charge of the Brooklyn waterfront, I didn't know he was a capo. I didn't even realize he was officially inducted into the family.

That's because I thought his relation to Albert was all he needed. And after Albert was whacked, I read that Tony's influence and power went downhill. I incorrectly interpreted that as Tony never being officially straightened out, and losing his connection to the underworld.

Good Stuff. I get annoyed that government blacks out so many things in their "released" documents.

The name that keeps coming up that gets blacked out has to be vito genovese, right? There are names blacked out in various points where it only makes sense that it's him given the other people in the document. I don't know why his name would be blacked out though.

Albert got killed because Genovese was trying to consolidate his power on the commison and anastasia was a wild man and a costello loyalist (as far as i know). There's also the issue of scalise and ansastasia selling buttons. It seems like after Albert went and Gambino took over, Tony A was worried that they were going to whack him to take over the waterfront and bring those unions under tony pro. If I'm wrong let me know, that's just what I gleened from the document

If I remember correctly, the Genoveses tried to remove Anastasio from power. Anastasio threatend to take some locals out of ILA and create a new union. The issue was brought to the table where Gambino did not stand up for Anastasio, which pissed him off. And that´s why Anastasio started to feed info. All this happened in 1962, several years after the Anastasia murder. So up till then, Anastasio felt pretty secure. A year earlier, the FBI tried to interview him but that time Anastasio basically told them to shove it.

An interesting note in the doc posted above is that Anastasio apparently thought that his brother had deserved his fate, telling the FBI that Anastasia had killed a lot of people.