America's Most Powerful Labor Racketeer
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| Anthony Scotto, left, lawyer James LaRossa. |
The son of TV news anchor Rosanna Scotto made news last week when he was arrested on charges of swiping an expensive designer purse. What garnered our interest was a note at the end of the New York Post Page Six story:
[Rosanna] Scotto, 58, is co-anchor of WNYW/Channel 5’s “Good Day New York” ... [and] is co-owner of her family’s restaurant, Fresco by Scotto, on East 52nd Street. She is also the daughter of Anthony Scotto, a former boss in the Gambino crime family....
Scotto, while never the boss of the crime family, was a powerful figure in his own right. His story heralds an earlier era of America's Cosa Nostra, when mobsters were able to discreetly rise high in big business. Scotto is considered to have been the most powerful labor racketeer in the entire country in his heyday in the 1960s-70s. He earned two additional distinctions nearly unbelievable today: He once lectured at Harvard and was considered by a sitting American President for the powerful position of U.S. Secretary of Labor.
Anthony M. Scotto (born May 10, 1934) was a labor racketeer who ruled the Brooklyn waterfront. He had mayors and even a governor or two in his pocket at one time or another and -- at his peak, before his first and only conviction at age 45, which ushered in his early retirement -- he was a vice president of the International Longshoremen's Association, as well as the head of Local 1814 in Brooklyn.
Time magazine described Scotto as a "personable and articulate man who favored $500 pinstripe suits and expensive Manhattan restaurants."
A 1979 New York Times article revealed a great deal of biographical information about the low-profile gangster. Scotto, who was raised in the Red Hook-Carroll Gardens section of Brooklyn, studied law and political science at Brooklyn College and, according to John H. Davis's Mafia Dynasty: The Rise and Fall of the Gambino Crime Family, graduated.
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| Lost in thought: Albert Anastasia (the "Lord High Executioner" himself) with his wife at a social event. |
In 1957, he married Marion Anastasio, whose father was Anthony Anastasio, then a capo in the Anastasia crime family under his brother, Albert Anastasia, the much-feared former organizer of Murder Inc.who assumed power by ruthlessly murdering Vincent Mangano, who'd been boss of the crime family from 1931 to 1951. Carlo Gambino launched his own coup against the "Mad Hatter" the same year "Young Tony," Scotto's then-nickname, married. (Appalachin took place as well.)
While Anastasio didn't mount a plot to avenge his brother's murder (as far as we know), he wasn't exactly on board with Gambino, either. "Tough Tony" even held back substantial sums of money from the wily new mob boss. Anastasio, as an officer of the International Longshoremen's Association (ILA) and Local 1814 in Red Hook, wielded immense power because he effectively controlled the Brooklyn waterfront.
It wasn't until 1963, when "Tough Tony" died and Scotto -- who worked the docks with his father-in-law since Scotto's 1957 marriage to Marion -- took control of the ILA local that Carlo Gambino was truly in control of the Brooklyn waterfront.
A grateful Gambino inducted Scotto into the family around the same time.
Scotto quickly rose in business and eventually counted politicians as part of his circle. His credo was to instill "harmony" on the waterfront. The press dubbed him a "new breed labor leader."
Scotto eventually attained the third-highest position in the labor union.
By the 1970s Scotto was considered to be one of the most powerful mafiosi in New York due to his political clout. He even enjoyed a friendship with U.S. Attorney General Robert Kennedy, a man most mobsters considered a mortal enemy.
That same decade, Scotto was twice named as a delegate to the Democratic National Convention. He also was said to have raised millions for Democratic candidate Hugh Carey's 1974 gubernatorial campaign. Scotto reportedly dealt with Carey several time regarding political appointments and labor issues.
Scotto, under Gambino's orders, closed the docks so the workers could participate in Joseph Colombo's Unity Day rally. Around 150,000 people showed up in Columbus Circle in New York City on that June day in 1970. The participants included U.S. Congressmen and several prominent entertainers.
Scotto eventually attained the third-highest position in the labor union.
By the 1970s Scotto was considered to be one of the most powerful mafiosi in New York due to his political clout. He even enjoyed a friendship with U.S. Attorney General Robert Kennedy, a man most mobsters considered a mortal enemy.
That same decade, Scotto was twice named as a delegate to the Democratic National Convention. He also was said to have raised millions for Democratic candidate Hugh Carey's 1974 gubernatorial campaign. Scotto reportedly dealt with Carey several time regarding political appointments and labor issues.
Scotto, under Gambino's orders, closed the docks so the workers could participate in Joseph Colombo's Unity Day rally. Around 150,000 people showed up in Columbus Circle in New York City on that June day in 1970. The participants included U.S. Congressmen and several prominent entertainers.
About one year later, Scotto kept the waterfront open, also under orders, as Gambino had withdrawn his initial reluctant acceptance of Colombo's "civil rights" effort. Colombo was shot in the head during the second rally and lingered on in a coma before finally dying in 1978.
President Jimmy Carter considered Scotto a candidate for the position of U.S. Secretary of Labor. Carlo Gambino had been planning to make Scotto president of the entire ILA as well.
Gambino died and Paul Castellano ascended to the top in the fall of 1976. Big Paul, who believed he was made from the same white-collar mold as Scotto, was planning to go forward with Gambino's wishes of promoting Scotto. "We're gonna have a president," Castellano boasted on tape, referring to Scotto's taking control of the entire ILA, according to Mafia Dynasty.
Criminal charges tainted the man before he could reach the lofty pinnacle, however. On January 17, 1979, Scotto was indicted on 33 federal bribery and racketeering charges, including pocketing some $300,000 over five years from two businessmen who employed his union workers.
Later that year, he was convicted on all charges.
At his sentencing US District Judge Charles E. Stewart, Jr. remarked that he was "extremely impressed" by letters from former New York City mayors Robert Wagner and John Lindsay, as well as major businessmen, and labor leaders -- all of whom had requested leniency for Scotto. On January 22, 1980, Stewart bypassed a 20-year imprisonment sentence and was handed five years instead.
Scotto was released in 1984 and has not been indicted since then. A reliable source told us he decided to retire. Still, turncoat Salvatore "Sammy the Bull" Gravano named Scotto as a member of the Gambino crime family in the 1990s.
After Castellano's assassination in 1986, John Gotti appointed Red Hook mobster Anthony Ciccone to be his chief on the Brooklyn waterfront. Ciccone was visibly in power until December 19, 1991, when he was compelled by the feds to resign his posts with the ILA.
He remained the "unofficial power" though for quite some time, in fact long after Gotti was off the streets. On June 4, 2002, Ciccone was indicted on charges of exerting illegal control over two ILA locals.
Ciccone, also accused of attempting to extort actor Steven Seagal, was released from prison on April 24, 2013.
PS: Former Rep. Michael Grimm obviously had no idea who that NY1 reporter was when he threatened to throw him from the US Capitol balcony and “break [him] in half. Like a boy.” The journalist, Michael Scotto, is Anthony Scotto's nephew.
President Jimmy Carter considered Scotto a candidate for the position of U.S. Secretary of Labor. Carlo Gambino had been planning to make Scotto president of the entire ILA as well.
Gambino died and Paul Castellano ascended to the top in the fall of 1976. Big Paul, who believed he was made from the same white-collar mold as Scotto, was planning to go forward with Gambino's wishes of promoting Scotto. "We're gonna have a president," Castellano boasted on tape, referring to Scotto's taking control of the entire ILA, according to Mafia Dynasty.
Criminal charges tainted the man before he could reach the lofty pinnacle, however. On January 17, 1979, Scotto was indicted on 33 federal bribery and racketeering charges, including pocketing some $300,000 over five years from two businessmen who employed his union workers.
Later that year, he was convicted on all charges.
At his sentencing US District Judge Charles E. Stewart, Jr. remarked that he was "extremely impressed" by letters from former New York City mayors Robert Wagner and John Lindsay, as well as major businessmen, and labor leaders -- all of whom had requested leniency for Scotto. On January 22, 1980, Stewart bypassed a 20-year imprisonment sentence and was handed five years instead.
Scotto was released in 1984 and has not been indicted since then. A reliable source told us he decided to retire. Still, turncoat Salvatore "Sammy the Bull" Gravano named Scotto as a member of the Gambino crime family in the 1990s.
After Castellano's assassination in 1986, John Gotti appointed Red Hook mobster Anthony Ciccone to be his chief on the Brooklyn waterfront. Ciccone was visibly in power until December 19, 1991, when he was compelled by the feds to resign his posts with the ILA.
He remained the "unofficial power" though for quite some time, in fact long after Gotti was off the streets. On June 4, 2002, Ciccone was indicted on charges of exerting illegal control over two ILA locals.
Ciccone, also accused of attempting to extort actor Steven Seagal, was released from prison on April 24, 2013.
PS: Former Rep. Michael Grimm obviously had no idea who that NY1 reporter was when he threatened to throw him from the US Capitol balcony and “break [him] in half. Like a boy.” The journalist, Michael Scotto, is Anthony Scotto's nephew.