Old Gambino Soldier Anthony Anastasio Commits Suicide Before Jail Terms Starts
An 81-year-old Gambino soldier on the verge of heading to prison killed himself in his Brooklyn kitchen, officials said Saturday.
Anthony (Todo) Anastasio pumped two bullets into his heart Friday morning, just days before he was due to start a 2-1/2-year term in federal prison on convictions for racketeering, extortion and arson.
Anastasio, whose uncle was the legendary Murder Inc. boss Albert Anastasia, was supposed to surrender to authorities May 10, officials said.
"It was a sudden death and his family is in mourning," said Anastasio's lawyer Paul Bergman, declining further comment.
The mobster's wife found him sprawled in the kitchen of their Dyker Heights home at 7 a.m. Friday, officials said.
A .22-caliber handgun, two shell casings and a suicide note written by Anastasio were found, police said.
Investigators believe Anastasio killed himself rather than face jail, sources said.
Anastasio was convicted in October after prosecutors played a recording of the mobster bragging about the Gambino family's illicit grip on the city's waterfront. He was found guilty of extorting a trucking company, a bakery in Brooklyn and ordering the near-fatal torching of a Dunkin' Donuts.
The aged gangster could have been sentenced to up to 20 years in prison but a Brooklyn judge gave him the significantly shorter sentence after reading letters from his family, friends and golf partners.
He was slated to be sent to a prison only a few hours' drive from his 82nd St. home so his family could visit.
Investigators said the mobster was in good health and not battling any serious illnesses that might have prompted a suicide.
And no one even batted an eye about the fact that this octogenarian managed to shoot himself, in the heart, twice.
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