Stephen Grammauta
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Stephen "Stevie Coogan" Grammauta (b. 1917) is a Caporegime of the Gambino crime family, who, according to Jerry Capeci, is recognized as one of the shooters in the infamous murder of Albert Anastasia.
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[edit] Early life & crime
Stephen Grammauta was born in 1917, in the Lower East Side Manhattan, where he would spend the most of his life. In the early 1930s, Grammauta eventually went into drug trafficking and heroin dealing to make his living in his early days. Eventually, under the regime of Vincenzo "Don Vincent" Mangano in the late 1940s or early 1950s, Grammauta is to have been inducted into the Mangano crime family, later known as the Gambino crime family.
[edit] Manganos missing
After the disappearing of Vincenzo "Vincent" Mangano and the murder of his brother Phil Mangano in 1951, a strong Caporegime named Albert "Mad Hatter" Anastasia would take the reigns, as he was one of the most dangerous and most murderous mobsters ever recognized in New York City. Another Caporegime named Carlo Gambino would be promoted to Underboss, while Grammauta was working in the crew with Joseph "Joe Piney" Armone, led by his brother Stephen Armone, in the mid 1950s.
[edit] Killing Anastasia
In 1957, the other New York City crime families started questioning Anastasia's leadership. Anastasia had reportedly been murdering innocent people just because he felt for it, as he once ordered the murder of a tailor he saw on television, just because the tailor had been robbed and reputedly was filing his report. Other Mob bosses such as Vito "Don Vito" Genovese and Thomas "Tommy Brown" Lucchese and Meyer Lansky eventually had enough of the bloody leadership of Albert Anastasia, whose nickname became "Lord High Executioner". But according to Mob expert Jerry Capeci, Underboss Carlo Gambino had no problem taking the lead of the Mangano crime family, as he gave the order to have Anastasia eliminated to his proteges, Joseph "Joe the Blonde" Biondo and Stephen "Stevie" Armone. Armone reportedly set up a 3 man hit team, originally consisting of his brother Joseph Armone, who was replaced by himself due to drug charges, Arnold Wittenburg and then 40-year-old Steven Grammauta, who were to murder Anastasia. On the morning of October 25, 1957, Anastasia entered the barbershop of the Park Sheraton Hotel (now the Park Central Hotel, on 56th Street and 7th Avenue) in New York City. As Anastasia relaxed in the barber chair, Grammauta, Wittenburg and Armone rushed in, shoved the barber out of the way, and started shooting at Anastasia, when he is allegedly to have lunged at his killers, but only hitting their reflections in the wall mirror of the barbershop. Albert Anastasia died momenterally.
[edit] Uncredited murder
Albert Anastasia had many sworn enemies during that time, especially in the Genovese and Profaci crime families, where Carmine "Junior" Persico and Joseph "Crazy Joe" Gallo, along with his brothers, took the credit for murdering Albert Anastasia. Grammauta and his cooperators were never seen as the real killers, until recently by Jerry Capeci in his column Gangland in 2001. [1] Although recognized as the main shooter, Grammauta has never been tried for the murder of Albert Anastasia.
[edit] Jailed with Armone
In 1964, Grammauta and Joseph "Joe Piney" Armone were arrested and jailed the following year for smuggling heroin from the Netherlands. The sentence was originally 8 years, but both Grammauta and Armone only did five, and released in 1970, where, under the leadership of Carlo Gambino, Armone was promoted to Caporegime of his brother's old crew.
[edit] Rivalry with Gotti
During his next 25 years as a soldier in the crew of Joseph "Joe Piney" Armone, Grammauta was considered as a dangerous man to up-coming mobster John Gotti, who organized the murder of Gambino's brother-in-law Paul Castellano in 1985, who had taken over the family since Carlo Gambino's death in 1976. Grammauta's shot of becoming promoted now just sank, as John Gotti was considered the new boss of the Gambino crime family in 1985. John Gotti and Frank "Frankie Loc" LoCascio were eventually convicted to life imprisonment in 1992, with the testimony provided by the Underboss of the Gambino crime family, Salvatore "Sammy the Bull" Gravano.
[edit] The Committee/Panel
In 1994, Grammauta was eventually promoted to Caporegime of the Gambino crime family, as he took over the crew of Jack Giordano, but that wasn't all. In 1996, Grammauta, Louis "Big Lou" Vallario and Michael "Mikey Scars" DiLeonardo were promoted again to the family's Ruling Committee/Panel, along with capos Jackie "Jackie Nose" D'Amico and Peter "One Eyed Pete" Gotti, to assist the current acting boss and John Gotti's son, John "Junior" Gotti. Grammauta sat and contributed as acting boss in the panel from 1996 to 2002, when it was finally disbanded with death of longtime Don John Gotti. Grammauta then went back to his crew in the Manhattan wing of the Gambino crime family.
[edit] Current Caporegime
As of December, 2007, Steven Grammauta, at age 90, is one of the most powerful members of the Gambino crime family, as he was listed as the acting underboss by law enforcement in 2003. This is just speculation, but Grammauta is recognized as a reputed Caporegime of the Gambino crime family, despite his high age and poor health.
[edit] Further reading
- Capeci, Jerry and Gene Mustain. Gotti: Rise and Fall. New York: Onyx, 1996. ISBN 0-451-40681-8
- Capeci, Jerry. The Complete Idiot's Guide to the Mafia. Indianapolis: Alpha Books, 2002. ISBN 0-02-864225-2
- Davis, John H. Mafia Dynasty: The Rise and Fall of the Gambino Crime Family. New York: HarperCollins, 1993. ISBN 0-06-109184-7
- Raab, Selwyn. Five Families: The Rise, Decline, and Resurgence of America's Most Powerful Mafia Empires. New York: St. Martin Press, 2005. ISBN 0-312-30094-8
