Stephen Grammauta

Stephen "Stevie Coogan" Grammauta (born December 6, 1916) is a caporegime with the Gambino crime family who allegedly participated in the murder of mob boss Albert "Mad Hatter" Anastasia.

Born in the Lower East Side section of Manhattan, Grammauta was a drug trafficker by the early 1930s. In the late 1940s, Graummauta became a full member, or made man, with the Mangano crime family, 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., 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, to be his underboss. During this period, Grammauta worked in a crew with brothers Joseph "Joe Piney" Armone and Stephen Armone.

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 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 bosses such as Vito "Don Vito" Genovese and Thomas "Tommy Brown" Lucchese and Meyer Lansky 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) 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.

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