Stephen "Stevie Coogan" Grammauta (December 6, 1916 – 2016) was a

caporegime A caporegime or capodecina, usually shortened to capo or informally referred to as "captain" or "skipper", is a rank used in the Mafia (both the Sicilian Mafia and Italian-American Mafia) for a ''made member'' of an Italian crime family who head ...

with the

Gambino crime family The Gambino crime family (pronounced ) is an Italian-American Mafia crime family and one of the "Five Families" that dominate organized crime activities in New York City, United States, within the nationwide criminal phenomenon known as the Ame ...

who allegedly participated in the murder of mob boss Albert "Mad Hatter" Anastasia. And also was the acting

underboss Underboss ( it, sottocapo) is a position within the leadership structure of certain organized crime groups, particularly in Sicilian, Greek, and Italian-American Mafia crime families. The underboss is second in command to the boss. The underbo ...

Early life & crime

Born in the

Lower East Side The Lower East Side, sometimes abbreviated as LES, is a historic neighborhood in the southeastern part of Manhattan in New York City. It is located roughly between the Bowery and the East River from Canal to Houston streets. Traditionally an im ...

section of

Manhattan Manhattan (), known regionally as the City, is the most densely populated and geographically smallest of the five boroughs of New York City. The borough is also coextensive with New York County, one of the original counties of the U.S. state ...

, Grammauta was a drug trafficker by the early 1930s. In the late 1940s, Graummauta became a full member, or

made man In the American and Sicilian Mafia, a made man is a fully initiated member of the Mafia. To become "made", an associate first must be Italian or of Italian descent and sponsored by another made man. An inductee will be required to take the oat ...

, with the

Mangano crime family The Gambino crime family (pronounced ) is an Italian-American Mafia crime family and one of the "Five Families" that dominate organized crime activities in New York City, United States, within the nationwide criminal phenomenon known as the Ame ...

, later known as the Gambino family, under its founder and boss Vincenzo "Don Vincent" Mangano. In 1951, with the disappearance of Vincent Mangano and the murder of his brother Phil Mangano in 1951, then caporegime Anastasia became boss. A former head of

Murder, Inc. Murder, Inc. (Murder, Incorporated) was an organized crime group, active from 1929 to 1941, that acted as the enforcement arm of the National Crime Syndicatea closely connected criminal organization that included the Italian-American Mafia, the ...

, Anastasia was one of the most dangerous and murderous mobsters in New York. Anastasia promoted another caporegime after the murder of previous Anastasia underboss Frank Scalise,

Carlo Gambino Carlo Gambino (; August 24, 1902 – October 15, 1976) was an Italian-American crime boss of the Gambino crime family. After the Apalachin Meeting in 1957, and the imprisonment of Vito Genovese in 1959, Gambino took over the Commission o ...

, to be his

. During this period, Grammauta worked in a crew with brothers Joseph "Joe Piney" Armone and

Stephen Armone Stephen Armone (November 17, 1899 – 1960), also known as "14th Street Steve", was an Italian-American mobster with the Gambino crime family of New York City who ran gambling operations in Lower Manhattan and was involved in the " French Connecti ...

Killing Anastasia

In 1957, the other

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...

crime families A crime family is a unit of an organized crime syndicate, particularly in Italian organized crime and especially in the Sicilian Mafia and Italian American Mafia, often operating within a specific geographic territory or a specific set of activit ...

started questioning Anastasia's leadership. Anastasia had reportedly been murdering innocent people just because he felt like 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 boss A crime boss, also known as a crime lord, Don, gang lord, gang boss, mob boss, kingpin, godfather, crime mentor or criminal mastermind, is a person in charge of a criminal organization. Description A crime boss typically has absolute or nearl ...

es such as Vito "Don Vito" Genovese and Thomas "Tommy Brown" Lucchese and

Meyer Lansky Meyer Lansky (born Maier Suchowljansky; July 4, 1902 – January 15, 1983), known as the "Mob's Accountant", was an American organized crime figure who, along with his associate Charles "Lucky" Luciano, was instrumental in the development of the ...

eventually had enough of Anastasia. In 1957, Gambino ordered Joseph "Joe the Blonde" Biondo and Stephen Armone to murder Anastasia. Stephen reportedly included his brother Joseph on the hit, but Joseph had been arrested on drug charges. Stephen then replaced Joseph with Grammauta. On the morning of October 25, 1957, Anastasia entered the barber shop of the Park Sheraton Hotel (now the

Park Central Hotel The Park Central Hotel is a 25-story, 935-room hotel located across the street from Carnegie Hall at 870 7th Avenue (between West 55th and 56th Streets) in Midtown Manhattan, New York City. It was designed in the Renaissance Revival style an ...

) in Manhattan. As Anastasia relaxed in the barber chair, Grammauta, Arnold Wittenburg, and Stephen Armone rushed in, shoved the barber out of the way, and started shooting. The wounded Anastasia allegedly lunged at his killers, but only hit their reflections in the wall mirror. Anastasia died at the scene. After Anastasia was killed, Profaci crime family mobsters Carmine "Junior" Persico and Joseph "Crazy Joe" Gallo claimed credit for the murder. Grammauta and his two associates were never seen as the real killers. No one was ever arrested or tried for the murder of Albert Anastasia.

Jailed with Armone

In 1965, Grammauta and Joseph Armone were convicted of smuggling

heroin Heroin, also known as diacetylmorphine and diamorphine among other names, is a potent opioid mainly used as a recreational drug for its euphoric effects. Medical grade diamorphine is used as a pure hydrochloride salt. Various white and brow ...

into the United States from the

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and received eight-year prison sentences. In 1970, both men were released from prison and Armone was promoted to caporegime of his brother's old crew. Graummauta spent the next 25 years as a soldier in Joseph Armone's crew. After Gambino's death in 1976, his brother in law

Paul Castellano Constantino Paul Castellano (; June 26, 1915 – December 16, 1985), was an American crime boss who succeeded Carlo Gambino as head of the Gambino crime family. Castellano was killed in an unsanctioned hit on December 16, 1985. Early life Cast ...

became family boss. Castellano soon became enmeshed in a rivalry with caporegime

John Gotti John Joseph Gotti Jr.Capeci, Mustain (1996), pp. 25–26 (, ; October 27, 1940 – June 10, 2002) was an American gangster and boss of the Gambino crime family in New York City. He ordered and helped to orchestrate the murder of Gambino boss ...

. Gotti had a poor relationship with Grammauta as Gotti considered him to be a dangerous rival. In 1985, Gotti organized Castellano's assassination and became the new Gambino boss. Grammauta's shot of becoming promoted sank. In 1992, Gotti was convicted of murder and sentenced to life in prison.

The Committee/Panel

With Gotti in prison, Grammauta finally became a caporegime in 1994, taking over

Jack Giordano Jack may refer to: Places * Jack, Alabama, US, an unincorporated community * Jack, Missouri, US, an unincorporated community * Jack County, Texas, a county in Texas, USA People and fictional characters * Jack (given name), a male given name, i ...

's crew. In 1996, Grammauta was named to a Ruling Committee/Panel to assist acting boss John "Junior" Gotti in running the family. Grammauta sat and contributed as ''acting boss'' in the panel from 1996 to 2002, when it was disbanded after John Gotti's death. Grammauta then went back serving as caporegime.

References

*Capeci, Jerry and Gene Mustain. ''Gotti: Rise and Fall''. New York: Onyx, 1996. *Capeci, Jerry. ''The Complete Idiot's Guide to the Mafia''. Indianapolis: Alpha Books, 2002. *Davis, John H. ''Mafia Dynasty: The Rise and Fall of the Gambino Crime Family''. New York: HarperCollins, 1993. *Raab, Selwyn. ''Five Families: The Rise, Decline, and Resurgence of America's Most Powerful Mafia Empires''. New York: St. Martin Press, 2005. {{DEFAULTSORT:Grammauta, Steven 1916 births 2016 deaths American gangsters of Italian descent Gambino crime family