Editing Albert Anastasia (section)

==Downfall and Assassination==
Anastasia’s leadership grew increasingly unstable. He sold Mafia memberships for thousands of dollars, admitting unreliable members, and clashed with Vito Genovese, who sought to dominate the Luciano (later Genovese) crime family. Genovese, allied with Meyer Lansky and Anastasia’s underboss Carlo Gambino, plotted against him. In 1957, Genovese orchestrated an attempt on Costello’s life, wounding him, and had Anastasia’s underboss Frank Scalise killed for selling family positions. Joe Adonis, another ally, was deported to Italy, isolating Anastasia.

On October 25, 1957, Anastasia was assassinated at the Park Sheraton Hotel’s barbershop in Manhattan. As he relaxed in the barber chair, two masked gunmen—allegedly the Gallo brothers, hired by Genovese and Gambino—fired five shots, killing him. Anastasia reportedly lunged at the gunmen’s reflections in a mirror before collapsing dead. The high-profile murder, described by journalist Selwyn Raab as a “vivid image of a helpless victim swathed in white towels,” sparked a major police investigation, but no one was charged. Speculation also points to Profaci crime family mobster Joe Gallo or Patriarca family operatives.

According to Joe Trento's Prelude to Terror: "In a series of sensational and violent Mafia wars, Trafficante ordered the hit on Albert Anastasia. Trafficante and the CIA also had common business interests in Asia—specifically, the successful exportation of Chinese white heroin." It was not "Chinese" white heroin, it was [[Chiang Kai Shek]]'s Taiwanese heroin network set up by the CIA.

Kruger's The Great Heroin Coup added "Many envied Lansky's ever increasing power and wealth, and Murder, Inc. chairman of the board Albert Anastasia. In 1957 they tried enlisting Trafficante's aid in removing Lansky from the Havana Group. It was one of Anastasia s last moves." Trafficante arranged for this barber shop appointment.