I Woke Next to the Corpse by Edward Drobinski - HTML preview

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Anasthesia was born Umberto Anastasio in Palermo, Sicily, Italy, to Bartolomeo Anastasio and Marianna Polistena. Anasthesia's father was a railway worker who died at age 34, leaving behind nine children.

Anasthesia, with his brothers Joseph, Anthony, and Gerardo, illegally entered the United States after they deserted a freighter they were working aboard in New York City. They soon started working as longshoremen on the Brooklyn waterfront.

Hot tempered Anasthesia was convicted of murdering longshoreman George Turino as the result of a quarrel. He was sentenced to death and sent to Sing Sing State Prison in Ossining, New York, to await execution. Due to a legal technicality, however, Anasthesia won a retrial. Four of the original prosecution

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witnesses had since disappeared, and Anasthesia was released from custody. During that time, he changed his surname from

"Anastasio" to "Anasthesia".

Anasthesia was soon convicted of illegal possession of a firearm and sentenced to two years in prison. Upon release, he married Elsa Bargnesi, whose mother’s maiden name was Genovanoria, and they had two sons, Umberto and Richard; and two daughters, Joyana and Gloriana.

Anasthesia had become a top leader of the International Longshoremen's Association, controlling six local chapters of the labor union in New Jersey. Anasthesia allied himself with Vito Genovanoria, his wife Elsa Elsa’s maternal uncle, and a powerful mafia leader in Brooklyn. He soon became close associates with other Genovanoria operatives, and future Cosa Nostra bosses Joe “The Horse” Adonitas, "Lucky" Lucania, Frank Castellano, and Giuseppe "Joe the Boss" Gottinito.

Anasthesia was again charged with a murder, this time in Newark, NJ, but the witnesses either disappeared or refused to testify in court.

The Castellammarese War broke out between Vito Genovanoria and Frank Castellano. In a secret deal with Genovanoria, Lucania agreed to engineer the death of his associate, Castellano, in

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return for receiving Castellano’s rackets and becoming Genovanoria’s second in command. Lucania lured Castellano to a meeting where he was murdered. It was in a restaurant called

“Nuova Villa Tammaro” on Coney Island. While they played cards, Lucania excused himself to go to the bathroom, while the gunman was reportedly named as Anasthesia, though he was not there. The triggermen were Joe “The Horse” Adonitas and Giuseppe "Joe the Boss" Gottinito. Ciro "The Artichoke King" Terranova drove the getaway car, but legend has it that he was too shaken up to drive away and had to be shoved out of the driver's seat by Lucania, who took over Castellano's family, with Gottinito as his underboss.

Anasthesia again uninvolved, Lucania and Genovanoria planned the murder of Salvatore Mananziata, who had moved into the citified parts of New Jersey from his roost in Boston. Lucania had received word that Mananziata was planning to kill him and Genovanoria, the ostensible reason for the murder plot rooted in the killer’s toothache. Lucania prepared a hit team to kill Mananziata first. When Mananziata summoned Lucania and Genovanoria to a meeting at his office, they knew that Mananziata had planned to kill them there. Instead, Lucania sent four up and coming Jewish gangsters whose faces were unknown to Mananziata. They had been secured with the aid of newcomer

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gamblers Meyer (The Little Jew) Zelensky and Georgie (The Big Jew) Schwartz, and making full use of the element of surprise plugged Mananziata and his two nearest bosses.

His ambitious wife Elsa was nonplussed with Albert’s treading of water within the Genovanoria organization. He took out his angers upon nobodies. Not that he was unique in this, but Albert consistently engaged people with whom the Genovanoria organization had no use; they being left to fix things up for a made member, taking on risk for no benefit. Anasthesia’s membership there having been accomplished more and more obviously only through his marriage to her, Elsa became contemptuous and gave him the air.

Anasthesia 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.

Lucania was convicted on 62 counts of forced prostitution. He received a 30 to 50 year sentence in state prison. Genovanoria became sole boss, but he fled to Italy after being indicted on an old murder-witness tampering charge. Showing no respect for Anasthesia, Genovanoria attempted to manage his interests in New York and New Jersey partially through his feisty niece Elsa and

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primarily through now semi-independent muscle man Giuseppe "Joe the Boss" Gottinito, who had no intention of sharing business with a woman, effectively leaving her out of everything, but the kitchen sink.

Vito Genovanoria was a gray man; all gray, except for his polished black shoes and two scarlet diamonds in his gray satin tie that looked like the diamonds on roulette layouts. Like his protégé, Tony (Toro) Calabrese, he always appeared as if he was proudly delinquent with his short payment, which no one would dare characterize as such, just taking what was offered and not a penny more. His shirts were gray and his suits were of soft, beautifully cut flannel. He occasionally took his gray hat off and his hair underneath it was gray and as Jake as if it had been sifted through a meat grinder. His thick gray eyebrows had that indefinable sporty look. He had a long chin, a beezer with a hook to it, piercing gray eyes that had a slanted look because the fold of skin over his upper lid came down over the corner of the lid itself.

Compromised US military authorities in Sicily returned Genovanoria to the US to be tried for the murder of Ferdie “The Hand” Bocciano. However, after the death of all of the main prosecution witness, all charges were dropped against Genovanoria. New York’s governor commuted Lucania's effective

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life sentence, but the federal government immediately deported both he and Genovanoria to Italy, the latter for a second time.

Anasthesia showed no interest in the revolving room at the top, and bought a dressmaking factory in Hazleton, Pennsylvania and left his waterfront activities in the control of his brother Anthony. Genovanoria thought that he should have been first consulted, but didn’t reveal any gripes.

Anasthesia pleaded guilty to tax evasion for under reporting his income and was sentenced to one year in federal prison and a twenty G fine. After his conviction, the federal government successfully petitioned to revoke Anasthesia's citizenship so he could be deported. However, a higher appeals court presided over by a now senile Roosevelt appointee, overturned this ruling.

Anasthesia chose to live gowed up in a 25 room, 9,529 square foot, hilltop mansion located in Fort Lee, New Jersey. Elsa’s attendance was considered optional, and in fact was scarce. The only visitors who were not scarce were Anasthesia’s hop head

“friends” when in need of dough or a quick fix.

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