The only people who didn’t think Albert Anastasia, AKA the Mad Hatter, was a very dangerous and unpredictable psychopath were the people who never heard of him.
On the cold morning of October 25, 1957, Anastasia, the founder and iron-fisted ruler of what would become the Gambino Crime Family, was having a shave in a barber’s chair at the Park Sheraton Hotel on 56th and 7th Avenue. Either by plan or chance, his bodyguard and driver had left Anastasia alone while he parked the car in the Hotel’s underground garage.
Anthony Coppolla, Anastasia's bodyguard and longtime friend who strangely wasn't where he was supposed to be when Anastasia was killed
Suddenly two men, their faces covered in winter scarfs, walked briskly, not running, enter the shop and fired ten bullets into Anastasia’s 55-year-old body.
Allegedly, Anastasia leaped from the chair and lunged at the gunmen before falling dead to the floor. According to the barbers, Anastasia, confused and probably already hit several times, had actually dived at the shooters reflection in the mirror.
No one is really sure who the killers were. Most insiders believe it was the Gallo Brothers, other guess it was out of town killers brought in from the Raymond Patriarca Family in Providence.
Top and bottom: The Gallo gang AKA the gang that Couldn't Shoot straight
Seemingly everyone in the underworld had a reason to want Anastasia dead.
One of the few people who didn’t want Anastasia dead was the man who was said to have come into the shop with Anastasia and was reportedly sitting next to him in the adjoining chair, Vincent James Squillante AKA Jimmy Jerome. (Below, in 1957)
Vincent Squillante and his brother Nunzio (1923-1990) were soldiers in Anastasia Family and briefly in its forerunner, The Gambino Crime Family. Both men were allegedly godsons of Albert Anastasia. The Squillante’s had been made onto Frank Scalise crew in the Bronx/East Harlem but James Squillante was allowed to create his own crew in the early 1950s.
Vincent Squillante
Squillante, who had deep investments in the heroin trade, was born in New York in 1919 as one of 9 children and started in crime as a soldier in the newly formed Mangano family in Brooklyn. The Underboss in the family was Albert Anastasia. Mangano was the last of old-time bosses and Anastasia, ambitious and greedy wanted him grown. In 1951, Anastasia learned that Mangano and his brother were planning his execution. Anastasia acted first. Philip Mangano was found murdered near Sheepshead Bay, Brooklyn on April 19, 1951. Vincent disappeared the same day. His body was never found.
Vincent Mangano
Phillip Mangano
One of Anastasia first acts as boss was to elevate Vincent Squillante to the rank of capo\ and Squillante deserved it, he was a big money earner for the family. He brought in millions of dollars from garbage extortion rackets by “persuading” Long Island businesses to agree to have their garbage collected by companies owned by him and his brother Nunzio. Those who refused were harassed and threatened them or had the teamster turned loose on them.
When Anastasia was cut down in the barber shop, Squillante had the good sense to get up out of the chair and leave the barber shop before the cops arrived. Otherwise, he would have a lot to answer too. Earlier that year, June 17, 1957, Anastasia sent the Squillante’s to murder underboss Frank Scalise AKA "Don Cheech". The killers caught up with Scalise while he was buying vegetables in an outside market. The actual shooter was probably a hood named Arthur Leo, a Squillante crew member.
The murder was later reenacted in the film, The Godfather when Vito Corleone is gunned down while buying vegetables across from his office. A while later Scalise's brother Joseph was murdered, although his body was never found and the Squillante’s were the primary suspects in that murder as well. There are two versions of what may have become of Joey Scalise, who swore to revenge his brothers killing. One version was that the Squillante invited Joe Scalise to his home on September 7, 1957, according to mob informant Joe Valachi. Then butchered his body in the basement, placed his remains in a garbage truck and dumped them in a garbage yard. The other has him being drown in the Long Island Sound.
A few months after that, also in 1957, Squillante and Bernard Adelstein, a carting union boss, were charged with extortion. Squillante was found guilty and in 1959 sentenced to from seven and a half to 15 years in prison. However, he was freed on $50,000,00-dollar bail.
1957, Carmen DeCabia, Vincent Squillante and Nuzio
That same year, Vincent Squillante and his brother Nunzio were called before the McClellan Crime Committee hearings, but the brothers refused to answer even the simplest of questions
Mr. Alderman. Mr. Squillante, are you related to Vincent J. Squillante?
Mr. Squillante. I refuse to answer on the ground it might incriminate me.
Mr. Alderman. Is he your brother?
Mr. Squillante. I refuse to answer on the ground it might incriminate me.
Mr. Alderman. Are you connected with the General Sanitation Co? (He was the owner of record)
Mr. Squillante. I refuse to answer on the ground it might incriminate me.
Mr. Alderman. Have you been a partner of Louis lannacine, also known as Lou Michaels, in the Corsair Carting Co.?
Mr. Squillante. I refuse to answer on the ground that to do so might tend to incriminate me.
Mr. Alderman. Were you familiar with the criminal record of Mr. Louis lannacine when you were his partner?
Mr. Squillante. I refuse to answer on the ground that to do so might tend to incriminate me.
Mr. Alderman. Were you familiar with the fact that Louis lannacine was convicted and jailed for labor extortion in New York?
Mr. Squillante. I refuse to answer on the grounds that to do so might tend to incriminate me.
The Chairman. Did you ever hear of the fifth amendment?
Mr. Squillante. I refuse to answer on the ground that to do so might tend to incriminate me.
The Chairman. I am going to overrule your answers unless you can invoke the fifth amendment.
Mr. Alderman. Mr. Squillante, what has been your previous occupation?
Mr. Squillante. I refuse to answer on the grounds that it might incriminate me.
The Chairman. Are you invoking the fifth amendment, yes or no?
Mr. Squillante. I refuse to answer on the ground it might incriminate me.
The Chairman. You are ordered to answer it.
Mr. Squillante. I refuse to answer on the ground it might incriminate me.
Mr. Alderman. Were you employed as a florist in 1953?
Mr. Squillante. I beg your pardon. I didn't understand that question.
Mr. Alderman. Were you employed as a florist or in a flower shop, in 1953? ...
Mr. Squillante. I refuse to answer on the ground it might incriminate me.
Mr. Alderman. Were you a stone mason before that time?
Mr. Squillante. I refuse to answer on the ground it might tend to incriminate me.
Mr. Alderman. Had you ever had any experience in the garbage or refuse collection business until you became executive director of the Suffolk County Garbage Association?
Mr. Geary. (Squillante lawyer) I object to that question. I don't think the counsel intended it to read that way. It said something about a "refusal."
Mr. Alderman. What is that?
Mr. Geary. You said something about a "refusal."
Mr. Alderman. I asked if he collected any "refuse."
Mr. Geary. You said "refusal."
Mr. Alderman. I am sorry.
The Chairman. We are not trying to be cute here. Did you collect any garbage? Let us see if he can understand that one.
Mr. Squillante. I refuse to answer on the ground it might incriminate me.
The Chairman. Have you been down in the garbage somewhere?
Mr. Squillante. I beg your pardon?
The Chairman. Have you been involved in garbage?
Mr. Geary. I object to that question because you are badgering the witness, obviously.
The Chairman. Is it obvious? I thought I was being subtle. Have you been connected with the garbage business?
Mr. Squillante. I refuse to answer on the ground it might incriminate me.
The Chairman. Do you belong to any union?
Mr. Squillante. I refuse to answer on the ground it might incriminate me.
The Chairman. I think it will come nearer incriminating the union. Have you been active in behalf of any union?
Mr. Squillante. I beg your pardon?
The Chairman. Have you been active in behalf of any union?
Mr. Squillante. I refuse to answer on the ground it might incriminate me.
The Chairman. Have you held any office, any official capacity in a union?
Mr. Squillante. I refuse to answer on the ground it might incriminate me.
The Chairman. Are you now a member of a union?
Mr. Squillante. I refuse to answer on the ground it might incriminate me.
The Chairman. Have you ever performed any mission for the union?
Mr. Squillante. I refuse to answer on the grounds it might incriminate me.
It went on like that for hours. The brothers invoked the 5th Amendment 40 times in all. Nunzio Squillante said he took the Fifth Amendment more than 40 times during the hearings, because he was afraid Senate investigators would "trap" him. He said he wanted to turn over all his records and tell them what he knew, but his attorneys advised him to "keep quiet" because, he claimed, he said he was harassed at the hearings by U. S. Senators Barry Goldwater and John McClellan and other federal authorities who were trying to get at his brother through him.
Shortly after the hearings were completed, Vincent, Nunzio and Teamster official Bernard Adelstein were convicted in Nassau County Court for extortion. They appealed, and the case was dismissed by the New York State Supreme Court.
By then Carlo Gambino had taken over the family after Anastasia was killed and immediately began cleaning house. Armand “Tommy Boy” Rava, an Anastasia loyalist was killed and replaced, and James Squillante was probably murdered for the same reason.
Rava
Squillante was powerful only as long as Anastasia was alive. After Anastasia's murder, all his powers and most of his rackets were taken away from him. In the 1950s, James Failla became close to Carlo Gambino while Gambino was underboss. After Anastasia was murdered, Gambino appointed Failla to take over the garbage hauling rackets and to push James Squillante out.
Another possible reason to kill was that in fall 1960, Squillante was indicted on extortion charges. The judge handed him a 7 to 15-year sentence, (his brother Nunzio got 3 to 5) which troubled the Gambino Family bosses who worried that Squillante, never known as a street hood but rather as a spoiled favorite of Albert Anastasia, would break under pressure and decided to kill him, just to be safe.
Another reason to kill him was for his part in the murder of the Scalise brothers.
On September 23, 1960, Squillante disappeared. The killer was more than probably an up and coming Gambino hood named Anthony Gaggi, a nephew of Scalise, who later told an FBI informant “We surprised him (Squillante) in the Bronx. We shot him in the head, stuffed him in the trunk, then dumped him for good.” Meaning they handcuffed him to the steering wheel of his car and then crushed in a car compactor in a dump owned by a hood named Frank Troiano. Troiano, Joseph Fiorello, Nick Rattenni and Leo Troiano were probably part of the plot to murder Squillante. Whatever happened to him, he was never seen again.
Gaggi
“I knew my brother was dead” Nunzio Squillante said years later from his home in East Hartford “when he didn't attend our mother's funeral. In Italian families, the oldest son is always the mother’s favorite. Jimmy loved our mother and would have come home to pay his respects' no matter where he was…. "I was going to find out (What happened to his brother) even if it meant getting killed myself. I talked to several people my brother knew. They told me to stop asking questions about him and go back home for my own good."
Nunzio said he brought his family to Glastonbury to get away from "all of that" and always denied being part of the Mafia "I've got too much of a heart to. be involved with the Mafia. I loved my brother, but I was never involved with him."
The FBI followed him to Connecticut anyway. The Fed’s claimed that Nunzio Squillante was part of a Brooklyn based crew run by “Jimmy Brown” Failla, a senior caporegime with the Gambino crime family who was a major power in the garbage-hauling industry in New York City, with operations stretching into Staten Island and New Jersey. Others on the crew were said to be Joseph "Joey Cigars" Francolino, Joseph "the Cat" LaForte, Anthony Vitta, Thomas "Tommy Sparrow" Spinelli, Louis Astuto, Nunzio Squillante, Philip Mazzara, and Angelo Paccione.
“Jimmy Brown” Failla
Joseph "Joey Cigars" Francolino
Joseph "the Cat" LaForte
Squillante, who was said to be an enforcer for his brother back in New York, was named in connection with payoffs and kickbacks to area city officials in 1968 in an Albany, N.Y., investigation of illegal activities in the refuse business.
"I can remember FBI agents patting me on the head on my way to school in the mornings," Nunzio's son, Angelo, said. "They used to ' come to our home so often my mother would have coffee for them."
Angelo Squillante was the president of General Sanitation Corp., a refuse collection company he and his father started in East Hart ford and like his father denied involvement in organized crime.
In January of 1985, he was shot in East Hartford. At the time he was the manager of a garbage hauling operation called Admiral Trucking Company. The cops suspected the shooting had something to do with the mob, but they couldn’t prove it. Squillante was gunned down 6:58 p.m. as he was locking a chain link fence in front of his business at 285 Burnham Street. A small, dark car pulled within 10 feet of Squillante and fired three shot at him, hitting him in the lower legs. He survived the shooting.
By chance, minutes later, Squillante's 19-year-old son David and another man on drug charges in the driveway of his father home at 20 Berle Road in South Windsor. Apparently, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms said they were “monitoring” Squillante for possible connections with organized crime and the South Windsor police had Squillante’s house under surveillance which was how the son was arrested. Officer surveilling the house observed "what seemed to be a drug transaction" in the driveway.
Two years before that Angelo ran Angelo Squillante Associates Inc., which owned the building that housed the Hearthstone Restaurant in Hartford. The restaurant was the scene of an unsuccessful arson attempt in November 1982. At the time the restaurant being foreclosed because of $23,000 in unpaid taxes. An uncapped gas pipe had been left open in the restaurant basement. "It was done purposely, it was done by design, said Richard E. Smith, the resident agent for the U.S Treasury Department's Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms in Connecticut. A timing device designed to ignite the gas failed to work, averting an explosion that would have caused significant damage to surrounding homes and an electrical power substation nearby.
The restaurant and equipment were owned by Mae Tantillo Inc., headed by Squillante's aunt, Mae Tantillo of Glastonbury. That corporation owes the city more than $2,020 in personal property taxes for 1981, 1982 and a pending bill due by July 1983. Tantillo's brother, Nunzio Squillante, was listed as corporation secretary.
Over the years Angelo was stung by several anti-trust charges for his involvement with a Manchester-based trucking company but was cleared by a jury of all charges. He also faced a series of state probes of operating an illegal landfill and creating a public health hazard with his two companies, Recycled Fibers and Carting and Recycling, before abandoning the Connecticut trash business altogether in the mid-’90s.
Nunzio Squillante died on September 13, 1990 at age 67.