CRIME HUNTER: New Mafia movie Alto Knights focuses on Costello-Genovese war
The bullet only grazed Costello – known as the Prime Minister of the Underworld for his diplomatic skills – but it was enough to send him into retirement, leaving the reins of the Luciano Crime Family to arch-rival Vito Genovese.
The rivalry between the two gangsters is the premise of a new mob movie, Alto Knights, starring Robert DeNiro playing both arch-criminals. In addition to DeNiro, the crime drama also stars Debra Messing, Cosmo Jarvis, Kathrine Narducci, and Michael Rispoli.
The film – directed by Barry Levinson and was written by Nick Pileggi, who also penned GoodFellas – was out Friday.
***
The year 1957 was a blockbuster year in the American underworld.
Costello was hit in May by up-and-coming gangster Vincent 'The Chin' Gigante, later called The Oddfather by the New York tabloids. Costello never pointed the finger at 'The Chin' and decades later the former boxer would become boss of the Genovese family.
Once Costello was out of the way, the greedy, violent and ambitious Genovese was looking to tie up loose ends. One of those loose ends was Albert Anastasia. Known as the Mad Hatter and Lord High Executioner for his volatile demeanour, the 55-year-old ran what would become the Gambino crime family.
'A glare from Genovese's dark eyes from beneath bushy eyebrows intimidated the bravest mafioso,' mob expert Selwyn Raab wrote in Five Families: The Rise, Decline, and Resurgence of America's Most Powerful Mafia Empires.
Costello found himself in the Genovese's crosshairs. The bloodthirsty rebel wanted to be capo di tutti capi – boss of bosses. That meant taking over the commission, the board of directors of the national crime syndicate.
Genovese and Carlo Gambino decided to take out Murder Inc. founder Anastasia.
On Oct. 25, 1957, while getting a shave in the barber shop of New York's posh Park-Sheraton Hotel, two gunmen entered and shot Anastasia to death as he rested in the barber's chair. Everything was going Genovese's way.
Three weeks later, on Nov. 14, 1957, Genovese ordered a summit of the nation's mafia leaders for what he hoped would be his coronation. The meet would be held at the rural home of mobster Joseph 'Joe the Barber' Barbara in Apalachin, New York, west of Binghampton.
On the agenda were drugs, loansharking, Cuba and divvying up the spoils of Albert Anastasia's empire. Around 100 mobsters from the U.S., Canada and Italy were in attendance.
Then it all came off the rails when a local state trooper noticed all the limos with out-of-state licence plates.
Cops moved in and more than 60 gangland czars were pinched. Some were jailed, and some were hit with hefty fines, but the true damage was that Cosa Nostra was no longer in the shadows.
The debacle was the beginning of the end for Genovese.
***
Vito Genovese's throbbing resentment toward Costello went back nearly three decades, according to author Tony DeStefano, who wrote the 2018 book Top Hoodlum: Frank Costello Prime Minister of The Mafia, followed in 2021 by The Deadly Don: Vito Genovese, Mafia Boss.
Both criminals had been under the command of Mafia visionary Lucky Luciano during the days of prohibition.
'I think the main problem was that Genovese felt envious of Costello, who was the more polished, politically connected and more astute businessman,' the author said. 'For those reasons, Costello was given the leadership of the family by Luciano after Genovese left for Europe in the face of the murder rap.'
And that grated on the petty Genovese.
'Upon his return to New York City in 1945, [Genovese] realized he had missed out on many opportunities in the rackets and wanted Costello to compensate him a share, which didn't happen,' DeStefano told MobMuseum.
He added: 'Genovese saw Costello in the 1950s as the main impediment to his control of the family. So Genovese got Gigante to try and kill Costello in the failed assassination attempt.'
***
Genovese's ride at the top didn't last long. In 1959, the cold-blooded killer was convicted on narcotics conspiracy charges for peddling heroin. There has long been a belief among cops and gangsters alike that Genovese was set up by his old boss, Lucky Luciano.
According to the narrative, Luciano – by then living in exile in Rome – had soured on Genovese for his machinations and belief he was bad for business. So the mobster paid $100,000 to a Puerto Rican dope dealer to falsely implicate his former protege.
Genovese got 15 years in the Atlanta Federal Penitentiary. There, he gave longtime trusted soldier Joe Valachi the infamous kiss of death.
Valachi flipped and gave the feds a birds-eye view of the Cosa Nostra's inner workings and with the publication of the Valachi Papers, a pop culture star.
Genovese died of a heart attack in 1969.
HUNTER: Mob-like Morris Conte dismemberment murder a personal affair
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***
Unlike Genovese, Costello remained respected elder statesman in the underworld. The Godfather character of Don Vito Corleone was long-reputed to be based on Costello.
Four years after Genovese pegged out in a Missouri prison, death came for the Prime Minister of the Underworld. Costello died quietly of natural causes in 1973. He was 82.
'If ever there was an organized crime figure who came out pretty good, it was Frank Costello,' screenwriter Nick Pileggi said.
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