Crimetober Series - October 25 (Gangster Albert Anastasia & John Carpenter's Halloween) - Nature vs Narcissism

Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:19):
Welcome back to Nature Versus Narcissism. As always, I'm your host, Heather,
and today the plan was to be back with Brittany. However,
she has no voice currently and we all know that
podcasting kind of requires a voice. And since we all
know I'm already behind on editing and releasing these episodes
on time, Brittany agreed to come back and record a

(00:39):
special follow up episode right after Halloween that will actually
catapult us into the next series for envyn with the
Part one and Part two, so it's actually kind of perfect.
So many of our longtime listeners know that each spooky
season we like to throw a bit of a curveball
and share a series with you that doesn't quite follow
the main feed format, and this year is no different.

(01:02):
This year, we're aiming to bring you at least one
main Feed episode per day in October, plus some Patreon
episodes sprinkled throughout, even if that means you're receiving them
late because life is hectic and unpredictable and shit happens, Okay,
but at least you'll get an episode for each day
of October. Because this year we're bringing you a story
about a crime that occurred on or has a connection

(01:23):
to each day in October, and today we're talking about
October twenty fifth. But since we're nearing the end of
the month and rapidly approaching Halloween, I wanted to give
you a little extra with this episode. So why don't
we get started. In today's episode, I want to first
discuss the notorious gangster and hitman Albert Anastasia, who was

(01:44):
killed in a barber chair on October twenty fifth, nineteen
fifty seven. Then to spice things up a bit and
discuss the premiere of John Carpenter's Halloween, which happened on
October twenty fifth, nineteen seventy eight. So things first, mister Anastasia,
Albert Anaesthesia was actually born as Umberto Anastasio on September

(02:07):
twenty sixth, nineteen oh two in Pargalia, Calabria, Italy, and
I apologize if I mispronounced that, but you guys get it.
He was born to Bartholomew Anastasio or Anastasio and Mariana Poulastena.
Anastasia's father was a railway worker who died after World

(02:29):
War One, leaving behind nine children, so he had a
pretty rough start to life. He had seven brothers and
one sister. Anastasia illegally entered the United States in nineteen
nineteen with three of his brothers after they deserted a
freighter that they were working abroad. In New York City,
they soon started working as longshoremen on the Brooklyn Waterfront,

(02:54):
and Boyd, did things escalate rather quickly in Anastesia's life.
On March seventeen, nineteen twenty one, Anastasia was convicted of
murdering longshoreman George Chirino as the result of a dispute.
He was sentenced to death and sent to sing Sing
State Prison in New York to await execution. But he
must have had some luck on his side, because due

(03:14):
to a legal technicality, Anastasia won a retrial in nineteen
twenty two. Four of the original prosecution witnesses had since
just disappeared, and Anesthesia was released from custody. During that time,
he legally changed his surname from Anastasio to Anastasia, which
is why I keep referring to him as Anastasia. But

(03:36):
he didn't stay out of trouble entirely, because on June sixth,
nineteen twenty three, Anastesia was convicted of a legal possession
of a firearm and sentenced to two years in prison.
And in nineteen twenty eight he was charged with murder
in Brooklyn, but the witnesses either disappeared or refused to
testify in court. What a coincidence, huh, another witness disappearing

(03:58):
in a murder case against him. In nineteen thirty seven,
Anestesia married Elsa Bargnasi and the two had two sons together,
Amberto and Richard, and two daughters, Joanna and Gloriana. Things
start looking up for Anesthesia in terms of success, albeit
not in the most traditional or societal acceptable form of success,

(04:20):
but success nonetheless. By the late nineteen twenties, Anesesia had
become a top leader in the International Longshoresmen Association or
the ISLA, controlling six local chapters of the Labor Union
in Brooklyn. He allied himself with Joe, the Boss of Messiria,
who was a powerful Sicilian born mafia leader in Brooklyn.

(04:42):
He soon became close associates with future Cosa Nostra basses
Joe Adonis, Charles Lucky, Luciano, Vito Genevisi, and Frank Costello.
Oh boy, here we go, According to two New York
Times articles from nineteen thirty one and twenty twelve, as

(05:03):
well as the two thousand and five publication of Solin
Rob's book Five Families, The Rise, Decline, and Resurgence of
America's most powerful mafia empires. In early nineteen thirty one,
the Castella and Maurice War broke out between Massia and
Salvator Marenzano. The Castela Maurice War was a bloody power

(05:25):
struggle for control of the American mafia between partisans of
Joe the Boss Massyria and Salvator Marenzano, and that took
place in New York City from February nineteen thirty until
April fifteenth of nineteen thirty one. And in the secret
deal with the Marenzano Luciano agreed to engineer the death

(05:46):
of his boss Massaria in return for receiving Massaria's rackets
and becoming Marenzano's second in command. Brol fifteenth, nineteen thirty one,
Luciano lured Massia to a meeting at the Nuova Villa
Villa Tamaro restaurant on Coney Island, where he was murdered.
OOP they don't mess around do that, and apparently they

(06:10):
were pretty sly about the entire thing. While they played cards,
Luciano allegedly excused himself to the bathroom. Then Anastesia and
the other gunmen, reportedly Adonis, Genevis and Benjamin aka Bugsy Siegull,
shot Missia to death. SiO the artichoke king Terra Nova
drove the getaway car, and legend has it that he

(06:32):
was too shaken up to drive away and Segull had
to shove him out of the driver's seat. But again
that's a rumor or sorry, that's a legend basically, and
Luciano took over Massaria's family with Genevic as his underboss.
A lot of things happening, a lot of changes happening
between these mafia families. So I hope you guys are

(06:53):
keeping up. It might be a little bit hard since
I suck at pronunciation, but hopefully you're getting the point.
And in nineteen thirty two, Anesthesia was indicted on charges
of murdering another man with an ice pick, but the
case was dropped due to lack of witnesses. The following year,
he was charged with killing a man who worked in
a laundry. Again, there were no witnesses willing to testify. Odd,

(07:18):
very odd. All these damn witnesses just keep this a
fucking pairing. To reward Anastasia's loyalty, Luciano placed him and
Louis Lepki bu Calter or Buchelter, the leading labor racketeer
in the country, in control of the National crime Syndicates
Enforcement arm Murder Ink And for all those millennials out there,

(07:41):
this is not the Murder Inc. That you may be
thinking of, which is an American record label founded by
brothers Chris and IRV Gotti in nineteen ninety eight. The
label's flagship artist was jaw Rule. According to Chris Gotti
and Murder Ink had sold over thirty million units worldwide
and grossed over five hundred million dollars. Murder Inc. Was
headquartered at one Worldwide Plaza in Midtown Manhattan, New York.

(08:06):
And while their main studio was The Crack House. Yes
it's called the Crack House, which was also located in
New York City. It has since rebranded and declined. But
that's neither here nor there. All you really need to
know is that this is not the Murder Inc. That
we're talking about today. The Murder Inc. That we're talking
about is Murder Inc. Which is a form of the

(08:28):
American national crime syndicate founded in the nineteen thirties to threaten, maim,
or murder designated victims for a price. The organization lacked
an official name. Murder Inc. Was headed by Lewis or
Lepke Bouchalter and later by Albert Anastasia, and its services
were available to any syndicate member anywhere in the country.

(08:50):
Most victims of Murder Inc. Were themselves syndicate members or
persons otherwise associated with criminal activities who were killed for
quote unquote business reasons. The Troop, also known as the
Brownsville Boys, was a group of Jewish and Italian contract
killers that operated out of the back room of Midnight Roses,
which was a candy store owned by mobster Lewis Capone,

(09:12):
and the Brownsville neighborhood of Brooklyn. During its ten years
of operation, it is estimated that Murder Inc. Committed thousands
of murders, many of which were never solved. For his
leadership in Murder Inc, Anesthesia was nicknamed the Mad Hatter
and the Lord High Executioner. In nineteen thirty five. The Commission,

(09:40):
the governing body established by Luciano followed Marenzano's murder in
nineteen thirty one, ordered Dutch Schultz to drop his plans
to murder Special Prosecutor Thomas E. Dewey out of fear
for the law enforcement crackdown that would inevitably follow. Schultz
apparently refused and walked out. Well, that was not okay

(10:01):
in the eyes of the Commission, and therefore he was
to be eliminated. On October twenty third, nineteen thirty five,
before he could kill Dewey, Schultz was shot in a
tavern in Newark, New Jersey, and succumbed to his injuries
the following day. Between nineteen thirty six and nineteen forty two,
Anastasia was quite the busy bee with murders and such,

(10:21):
and on June seventh, nineteen thirty six, Luciano was convicted
on sixty two counts of forced prostitution. On July eighteenth,
he received a thirty to fifty year sentence in state prison.
In May nineteen thirty nine, Anastesia allegedly ordered the murder
of Morris Diamond, a Teamsters union official in Brooklyn, who
had opposed Blucalter's attempts to maintain control of the Garment

(10:44):
District in Manhattan. In nineteen thirty nine, he allegedly organized
the murder of Peter Panto, who was an International Longshoresmen's
Association activist who had been leading a movement for democratic
reforms in the union's local chapters. Then on July fourteen,
nineteen thirty nine, Panto disappeared. His body was later recovered

(11:05):
on a farm in New Jersey. Nineteen forty one, Abe Raileys,
a gang leader from Brownsville, Brooklyn, who had been supplying
Anastesia and Murder Inc. With hitman for the previous decade,
was arrested by law enforcement, effectively ending Murder Inc. Rayleys
then testified for the government to save himself from the
death penalty, which basically was a plea deal, and this

(11:27):
led to the conviction of seven members of Murder Inc.
And apparently Ralays had also given information that could implicate
Anastasia and the Diamond and Panto murders. So, since Anesthesia
was not about to go down without a fight and
surely feared prosecution on this, he offered one hundred thousand
dollars reward for the murder of Rayles, and someone carried

(11:51):
that shit out real quick. On November twelfth, nineteen forty one,
Raleys was found dead on a restaurant roof outside of
the Half Moon Hotel in Coney Island, even though Rayleis
was being guarded in a sixth floor room during an
ongoing trial, And in nineteen fifty one, a grand jury
ruled that Raylays accidentally died while climbing down to the

(12:11):
fifth floor using sheets tied to a heating radiator supers us. Honestly,
I don't understand how some people have all the luck
and others like myself have literally no luck. This motherfucker
can run all around order hits and even orchestrate straight
up murder, but never really get in trouble for it. Then,

(12:32):
during World War II, Anesthesia reportedly conceived the plan to
win a pardon for Luciano, who was imprisoned by contributing
to the war effort. Anastesia knew that the US would
need allies in Sicily in order to move forward with
the invasion of Italy, plus the desire of the US
Navy to dedicate its resources to the war, so he

(12:54):
used his big old planning brain and somehow managed to
orchestrate a deal to receive a lighter treatment and eventual
parole for Luciano in exchange for the Mafiast protection of
the waterfront in Luciano's assistance with his associates in Sicily.
He really thought this out. At this time in nineteen

(13:14):
forty two, criminal investigations were actively dismantling murdering, so an
Acasia needed to figure out something and quick. He ended
up joining the US Army, where he somehow attained the
rank of technical sergeant, where he trained soldiers to be longshoremen,
which were basically dock workers who load and unload ships,

(13:34):
and this was at Fort Indiantown Gap in Pennsylvania. Not
only did he become a sergeant and trained soldiers, but
he was also given a reward for his military service,
gaining US citizenship in nineteen forty three, but was honorably
discharged in nineteen forty four. Moved his family to Fort Lee,
New Jersey. Boy old boy, what an upgrade in life.

(13:57):
He had the stuck of entile mansion boasted sprawling views
of New York while maintaining some distance. It had been
referred to as a peaceful urban oasis. The mansion had
a hidden dark side with the false walls, though rumored tunnels,
and ominous basement rooms with drains on the floor for slaughtering.
Quote unquote deer, Yeah, okay, deer, it's for the deer.

(14:23):
I definitely believe that not. As reported in Alan R.
May's book Ganglin Gotham, New York's Notorious mob Bosses, Albert's
son Umberto Junior once warned reporters not to stand too
close to the estate's fences. He said, quote, don't put
your foot in here. The dogs will bite it off
end quote. Forty five US military authorities in Sicily returned

(14:49):
Genevisi to the US to be tried for the murder
of Ferdinand Baccia in nineteen thirty four. However, after the
death of the main prosecution witness, all charges were dropped
against Geneeci. Then, in nineteen forty six, New York Governor
Thomas E. Dewey commuted Luciano's sentence, and the federal government
immediately deported him to Italy. In nineteen forty eight, Anasesia

(15:13):
bought a dressmaking factory in Hazelton, Pennsylvania, and left his
waterfront activities in the control of his brother Anthony. All
good things come to an end eventually. Right nineteen fifty
two is when his luck had finally run out. Anastasia
was targeted by the government for denaturalization for lying on
his naturalization application, along with some other crimes and misdemeanors

(15:37):
sprinkled throughout and to add to the charges goodie bag
that he received, Anastasia was also charged with tax evasion,
just as mister a Caponne was. While he was battling
it out in court, Genevici crime family began to plot
against him, all the while making buddy buddy with Carlo Gambino.
Anestesia was so caught up and worrying about his own

(15:59):
legal per seatings and maintaining confidence in the control that
he had, that he completely missed the warning signs. On
October twenty fifth, nineteen fifty seven, Albert Anetasia was chauffeured
from his cliff side home into the city to visit
his barber at the Park Sheridan Hotel in Manhattan. His
bodyguard left to run a quick errand, leaving him unprotected.

(16:22):
First mistake, if you have a bodyguard, don't let that
motherfucker out of your sight, especially if you're part of
a mob family. Come on, so cut too, and Anesthesia
sat down in the barber chair facing the mirror, you know,
as one does when they want to get their hair did.
A man needs to be able to admire himself, right. Well,

(16:43):
not long after sitting down, two masked assassins stormed into
the shop and fired ten shots at Anesesia. He was
confused and disoriented, understandably, and he attempted to rush his killers,
but ended up charging at their reflections instead, so he
then fell to the floor dead. After this quick little murder,

(17:05):
his assassins disappeared into the city and they were never identified.
Karma is quite the bitch. Many have pointed the finger
at Vito Genevisi and Carlo Gambino, but to this day
it's unclear who ordered and carried out the mob hit.
There was an image released to the public of Anatesia's
lifeless body covered in towels on the barbershop floor, and

(17:27):
the brutal murder became iconic and mob history a shorthand
for the violent inner family wars of the nineteen fifties.
According to an article on All Things Interesting, Anaesthesia's death
marked the end of a nearly thirty year reign that
made him one of the deadliest criminals in US history. Today,
his legacy lives on in the Gambino crime family, who

(17:48):
rose to prominence as one of the most powerful crime
syndicates in the country on his bloody shoulders. And really
that's all I've got for mister and Athesia. So what
we were originally going to do was kind of jump
in now with Brittany and talk about the release of
a classic spooky time movie, John Carpenter's Halloween, which was

(18:09):
released on October twenty fifth, nineteen seventy eight. But as
I mentioned at the top of this episode, she doesn't
have a voice right now, so I'm gonna kind of
run through a few fun little facts about it, and
then she's going to come back after Halloween and we're
going to do a full episode. So I'll go ahead
and run through some facts right after this break. Okay,

(18:37):
So John Carpenter's Halloween, which was, like I said, released
on October twenty fifth, nineteen seventy eight. It was directed
and scored by mister John Carpenter, himself a fucking talented
individual and starred Donald Pleasance and Jamie Lee Curtis. And
this was actually Jamie Lee Curtis's film debut, and what

(18:58):
a wild ride she been on ever since. This movie
was made for about three hundred thousand dollars, which sounds
like a lot, but when you look at how much
it grossed in its initial release, that's a drop in
the bucket. It is one of the most successful independent
films of all time, grossing more than sixty five million
dollars in its initial release. And here's a fun fact

(19:22):
for you. Michael Myers's iconic mask was created from a
Star Trek Captain Kirk mask that was purchased for a
dollar ninety eight from a costume shop. The eye holes
were widened and the mask was spray painted with bluish white.
Literally the easiest and cheapest fucking piece to a costume
I can think of, and it's beyond iconic today. So

(19:45):
now I'm gonna get into some more interesting and fun
facts about the movie. Again, I'm not gonna go into
too much detail because I do want to talk about
these more in depth with Brittany, but I'll just dive
in right now. So director John Carpenter originally intended call
this movie The Babysitter Murders, but producer Irwin Yoblins suggested

(20:05):
that the story may be more significant if it were
based around a specific holiday, so that's when the title
was changed to Halloween. Carpenter and co screenwriter Deborah Hill
wrote the original script in just ten days. The twenty
day shoot commenced in the spring of nineteen seventy eight,
and the film was released in October of that same year.

(20:26):
The seasonal restrictions created some interesting hurdles for the production,
so dozens of bags of fake leaves painted by production
designer Tommy Lee Wallace were reused for various scenes. Others
may notice that the trees that line the streets of
the Haddenfield, which is a fictional place, are fully green

(20:46):
instead of autumnly colored, so keep in mind that this
was filmed in Pasadyna, California, and Carpenter initially wanted to
somehow change the trees too, but the budget restraints kept
him from making it seely correct. Donald Pleasant's character, doctor
Sam Loomis, was named after the character of the same
name from Alfred Hitchcock's Psycho. Curtis's mother Janet Lee appeared

(21:11):
in Psycho as Sam Loomis's girlfriend Marian and was killed
in the film's famous shower scene. For the Loomis character
in Halloween, Carpenter originally wanted either Peter Kushing or Christopher Lee,
but both passed on the film because the pay was
too low, which duh, they only had a three hundred
thousand dollars budget. But Pleasant would go on to appear

(21:32):
in four Halloween sequels, including Halloween six The Curse of
Michael Myers, which was released after his death in nineteen
ninety five. Jamie Lee Curtis was cast in the original
Halloween because Hill thought having the daughter of actress Janet
Lee would help the low budget film at the box office.
She said, quote, I know casting Jamie Lee would be

(21:54):
great for publicity for the film because her mother was
in Psycho. At least I knew she had the genes
just screenwell end quote. Her character's name, Laurie Strode, was
also based on one of Carpenter's ex girlfriends, And this
is fun. Did you know that Curtis bought her costumes
at jcpenny All for under one hundred dollars? Love a

(22:16):
good bargain. Michael Myers was primarily played by actor Nick Castle,
who was Carpenter's friend from usc Film School and who
would go on to co write Carpenter's nineteen eighty one
film Escape from New York, but was also played by
production designer Tommy Lee Wallace whenever needed. When Myers is
unmasked at the end of the film, he is played

(22:38):
by actor Tony Moran, who would go on to appear
in guest spots on TV shows like The Waltons and Chips.
Moran was paid two hundred and fifty dollars for a
day's work and a single shot in Halloween. Halloween Ends
is the thirteenth entry in the franchise. So far, more
than sixteen actors have appeared on screen as Michael Myers

(23:00):
if you count all the time the crew members filled
in for that position too, and there were six people
who played Michael in the first film alone, including Deborah Hill.
After twenty nine years of mostly wearing a mask and
silently stalking his victims, Michael Myers had his first line
in Halloween two thousand and seven. He spoke next in

(23:22):
Halloween two. In two thousand and nine, Halloween fans looking
to see the Myers home in its original location are
shit out of Luck. In nineteen eighty seven, it was
relocated from its location at seven oh nine Meridian Avenue
in South Pasadena, California, after it was slated to be demolished.
The home is now located at one thousand Mission Street

(23:44):
in South Pasadena, and it won't be going anywhere. The
home was named a historical landmark in the city of
South Pasadena, not only because of its cinematic history, but
also because the house itself dates back to eighteen eighty
eight and is thought to be the oldest surviving resid
cidential structure in the city. To fill a two hour

(24:05):
times lot needed for television broadcasts of Halloween, Carpenter filmed
additional scenes during the production of Halloween two, which Carpenter
co wrote and co produced but did not direct, that
primarily featured Donald Pleasants and Jamie Lee Curtis. The new
scenes include doctor Loomis at a hearing to review young
Michael's incarceration at the sanatorium and confronting a young Michael

(24:26):
in his room. Loomis discovering Michael has escaped and scrolled
the word sister on his door, and it concerned Laurie,
asking her friend Linda about the man she keeps seeing
around her neighborhood. If Carpenter had gotten his way, Michael
Myers's story would have ended a long time ago. In
a twenty fourteen interview with Deadline, he said that he

(24:48):
didn't return to direct sequels because he quote didn't think
there was any more to the story end quote quote.
All of my ideas were for the first Halloween. There
shouldn't have been any more. I'm flattered by the fact
that people want to remake them, but they remake everything
these days, so it doesn't make me feel that special
end quote. Carpenter ended up writing the first sequel, Halloween two,

(25:11):
and his executive producer on the others. And I think
that's where I'm gonna leave you, guys, because again, I
do want to do a follow up episode with Brittany,
and I think that she's gonna have a lot to
say about this movie. So I'm just gonna leave it
right there, give you guys something to chew on for
a minute, and we'll be back after Halloween to kind

(25:32):
of go over this a little bit more in depth.
But until next time, stay inside, stay alive, and don't
call the cops.

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Crimetober Series - October 25 (Gangster Albert Anastasia & John Carpenter's Halloween)

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