Crime: Their Thing

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But Genovese moved first, recruited Anastasia's own top lieutenant, Carlo Gambino, to help set up his boss for a hit. In October 1957, two Brooklyn hoods hired by Genovese gunned down Anastasia as he sat in a barber's chair in Manhattan's Park Sheraton Hotel. Seven more gunmen were waiting, just in case the first pair muffed the job.

It was that bloody feud that led to the Apalachin summit meeting of Cosa Nostra higher-ups in November 1957. There the council approved Genovese's action, and he emerged as undisputed boss. For his part, Gambino inherited Anastasia's spot as a New York capo.

The Second-Class Rackets. More than internal rivalry has sapped the strength of Cosa Nostra in recent years. Its profitable trafficking in narcotics and prostitution has become too dangerous. Now it has been reduced to such second-class rackets as Shylocking (lending money at exorbitant interest rates), gambling and extortion.

Valachi's singing is the greatest threat yet. Later this month he will testify before the Senate's McClellan committee. Already the Justice Department is readying a score of new indictments. But the Government's fear has been that Valachi's startling confession might touch off a new wave of gangland killings as hoodlums sought to weed out bad risks. At week's end it happened. Two Brooklyn thugs died as bullets sprayed their cars in two separate attacks. One was a member of the Gallo gang, from which killers had been recruited for the rub-out of Albert Anastasia; the other was an ex-Gallo hoodlum who had deserted to a rival Brooklyn gang. Little wonder that many a mobster was muttering "Cosa Nostra si sta rompendo" (Our Thing is breaking).