Anthony Brancato
Encyclopedia
Anthony Brancato was a Kansas City, Missouri
criminal who served as a freelance gunman to various Mafia and syndicate organizations.
. Arriving in Los Angeles
during the early stages of the feud between Los Angeles crime family
boss Jack Dragna
and Mickey Cohen
, Brancato was immediately able to find freelance work. He soon compiled a criminal record
including illegal gambling, narcotics, and bootlegging. He was considered a suspect in many gangland slayings, including that of New York mobster Bugsy Siegel
and Cohen gunman Hooky Rothman. Brancato was also a suspect in the July 1949 assassination attempt on Cohen himself. Fresno, California
police questioned Brancato about the drug-related death of Abe Davidson.
He is a relative of Cleveland crime syndicate underboss Frank Brancato who served under Jack Lacovelli in 1972
and later underboss to John Scalish until his death in 1973.
On May 28, 1951, the "Two Tonys", as they were called, robbed the sports betting operation at the syndicate-controlled Flamingo Hotel and Resort
in Las Vegas, Nevada
, escaping with $3,500 in cash. Neglecting to wear a mask during the robbery, Brancato was identified and placed on the FBI's Ten Most Wanted list
on June 27, 1951. Two days later, with his lawyer present, Brancato surrendered to federal agents in San Francisco. After posting a $10,000 bail, Brancato was rearrested before leaving the building on a Nevada
warrant charging him as a fugitive from justice. However, he was now out of money and was unable to post bail.
Brancato's case soon became a minor cause celebre
among students of constitutional law
, accusing state and federal authorities of violating Brancato's civil rights
. Released without bond on a writ of habeas corpus
, Brancato traveled south to Los Angeles to rendezvous with Trombino.
ordered their deaths, and gave Jimmy Fratianno
the duty of setting up the hit. In desperate need of cash for various legal bills, the Two Tonys made their situation worse by cheating gambler Sam Lazes out of $3,000 after posing as collectors for a local syndicate gambler. Mobster Fratianno contacted Brancato and Trombino and asked to meet them about a proposed bank robbery in Hollywood. However, the real purpose of the meeting was to kill them. On August 6, 1951, Brancato and Trombino were found shot to death in the front seat of a car near Hollywood Boulevard
. All the people involved in the murder, Fratianno, Nick Licata
, Charles "Charley Bats" Battaglia, Angelo Polizzi, and Leo "Lips" Moceri, plus Fratianno's brother Warren (who had no part in the murder), were arrested for the crime. However, since Licata set up a phony alibi for everyone involved, no one was charged with the murder and it remained unsolved. Although the LAPD still suspected them of the crime, The Two Tonys murder would remain unsolved until Fratianno entered the federal Witness Protection Program over 25 years later and admitted to murdering the duo.
Kansas City, Missouri
Kansas City, Missouri is the largest city in the U.S. state of Missouri and is the anchor city of the Kansas City Metropolitan Area, the second largest metropolitan area in Missouri. It encompasses in parts of Jackson, Clay, Cass, and Platte counties...
criminal who served as a freelance gunman to various Mafia and syndicate organizations.
Early career
Born in Kansas City, Brancato became involved in armed robbery and drug dealing. He later moved to Southern CaliforniaSouthern California
Southern California is a megaregion, or megapolitan area, in the southern area of the U.S. state of California. Large urban areas include Greater Los Angeles and Greater San Diego. The urban area stretches along the coast from Ventura through the Southland and Inland Empire to San Diego...
. Arriving in Los Angeles
Los Ángeles
Los Ángeles is the capital of the province of Biobío, in the commune of the same name, in Region VIII , in the center-south of Chile. It is located between the Laja and Biobío rivers. The population is 123,445 inhabitants...
during the early stages of the feud between Los Angeles crime family
Los Angeles crime family
The Los Angeles crime family is an Italian American criminal organization based in Los Angeles, as part of the American Mafia . Since its inception in the early 1900s, it has spread throughout Southern California. Like most Mafia families in the United States, the L.A. family gained power...
boss Jack Dragna
Jack Dragna
Jack Ignatius Dragna was an American Mafia member and Black Hander who was active in both Italy and the United States in the 1900s. He was active in bootlegging in California during the Prohibition Era in the United States...
and Mickey Cohen
Mickey Cohen
Meyer Harris "Mickey" Cohen was a gangster based in Los Angeles and part of the Jewish Mafia, and also had strong ties to the American Mafia from the 1930s through 1960s.-Early life:...
, Brancato was immediately able to find freelance work. He soon compiled a criminal record
Criminal record
A criminal record is a record of a person's criminal history, generally used by potential employers, lenders etc. to assess his or her trustworthiness. The information included in a criminal record varies between countries and even between jurisdictions within a country...
including illegal gambling, narcotics, and bootlegging. He was considered a suspect in many gangland slayings, including that of New York mobster Bugsy Siegel
Bugsy Siegel
Benjamin "Bugsy" Siegel was an American gangster who was involved with the Genovese crime family...
and Cohen gunman Hooky Rothman. Brancato was also a suspect in the July 1949 assassination attempt on Cohen himself. Fresno, California
Fresno, California
Fresno is a city in central California, United States, the county seat of Fresno County. As of the 2010 census, the city's population was 510,365, making it the fifth largest city in California, the largest inland city in California, and the 34th largest in the nation...
police questioned Brancato about the drug-related death of Abe Davidson.
He is a relative of Cleveland crime syndicate underboss Frank Brancato who served under Jack Lacovelli in 1972
and later underboss to John Scalish until his death in 1973.
Brancato & Trombino: The "Two Tonys"
Brancato frequently teamed up with fellow Kansas City criminal Anthony Trombino. The two men were arrested 46 times in total on charges ranging from robbery and rape to assault.On May 28, 1951, the "Two Tonys", as they were called, robbed the sports betting operation at the syndicate-controlled Flamingo Hotel and Resort
Flamingo Las Vegas
The Flamingo Las Vegas is a hotel casino located on the Las Vegas Strip in Paradise, Nevada and is owned and operated by Caesars Entertainment Corp.. The property offers a casino along with 3,626 hotel rooms...
in Las Vegas, Nevada
Las Vegas, Nevada
Las Vegas is the most populous city in the U.S. state of Nevada and is also the county seat of Clark County, Nevada. Las Vegas is an internationally renowned major resort city for gambling, shopping, and fine dining. The city bills itself as The Entertainment Capital of the World, and is famous...
, escaping with $3,500 in cash. Neglecting to wear a mask during the robbery, Brancato was identified and placed on the FBI's Ten Most Wanted list
FBI Ten Most Wanted Fugitives by year, 1951
In 1951, the United States FBI, under Director J. Edgar Hoover, continued for a second year to maintain a public list of the people it regarded as the Ten Most Wanted Fugitives....
on June 27, 1951. Two days later, with his lawyer present, Brancato surrendered to federal agents in San Francisco. After posting a $10,000 bail, Brancato was rearrested before leaving the building on a Nevada
Nevada
Nevada is a state in the western, mountain west, and southwestern regions of the United States. With an area of and a population of about 2.7 million, it is the 7th-largest and 35th-most populous state. Over two-thirds of Nevada's people live in the Las Vegas metropolitan area, which contains its...
warrant charging him as a fugitive from justice. However, he was now out of money and was unable to post bail.
Brancato's case soon became a minor cause celebre
Cause célèbre
A is an issue or incident arousing widespread controversy, outside campaigning and heated public debate. The term is particularly used in connection with celebrated legal cases. It is a French phrase in common English use...
among students of constitutional law
Constitutional law
Constitutional law is the body of law which defines the relationship of different entities within a state, namely, the executive, the legislature and the judiciary....
, accusing state and federal authorities of violating Brancato's civil rights
Civil rights
Civil and political rights are a class of rights that protect individuals' freedom from unwarranted infringement by governments and private organizations, and ensure one's ability to participate in the civil and political life of the state without discrimination or repression.Civil rights include...
. Released without bond on a writ of habeas corpus
Habeas corpus
is a writ, or legal action, through which a prisoner can be released from unlawful detention. The remedy can be sought by the prisoner or by another person coming to his aid. Habeas corpus originated in the English legal system, but it is now available in many nations...
, Brancato traveled south to Los Angeles to rendezvous with Trombino.
Final days
Having identified them as the Flamingo robbers, the mob was soon looking for Brancato and Trombino. Jack DragnaJack Dragna
Jack Ignatius Dragna was an American Mafia member and Black Hander who was active in both Italy and the United States in the 1900s. He was active in bootlegging in California during the Prohibition Era in the United States...
ordered their deaths, and gave Jimmy Fratianno
Jimmy Fratianno
Aladena "Jimmy the Weasel" Fratianno was a Cleveland, Ohio, mobster and later acting head of the Los Angeles crime family before becoming a government witness...
the duty of setting up the hit. In desperate need of cash for various legal bills, the Two Tonys made their situation worse by cheating gambler Sam Lazes out of $3,000 after posing as collectors for a local syndicate gambler. Mobster Fratianno contacted Brancato and Trombino and asked to meet them about a proposed bank robbery in Hollywood. However, the real purpose of the meeting was to kill them. On August 6, 1951, Brancato and Trombino were found shot to death in the front seat of a car near Hollywood Boulevard
Hollywood Boulevard
-Revitalization:In recent years successful efforts have been made at cleaning up Hollywood Blvd., as the street had gained a reputation for crime and seediness. Central to these efforts was the construction of the Hollywood and Highland shopping center and adjacent Kodak Theatre in 2001...
. All the people involved in the murder, Fratianno, Nick Licata
Nick Licata (mobster)
Nick "Old Man" Licata was an Italian American mobster who was the Boss of the Los Angeles crime family from 1967 until his death in 1974.-Early life:...
, Charles "Charley Bats" Battaglia, Angelo Polizzi, and Leo "Lips" Moceri, plus Fratianno's brother Warren (who had no part in the murder), were arrested for the crime. However, since Licata set up a phony alibi for everyone involved, no one was charged with the murder and it remained unsolved. Although the LAPD still suspected them of the crime, The Two Tonys murder would remain unsolved until Fratianno entered the federal Witness Protection Program over 25 years later and admitted to murdering the duo.
Film
- In the 1997 Curtis HansonCurtis HansonCurtis Lee Hanson is an American film director, film producer and screenwriter. His directing work includes The Hand That Rocks the Cradle , L.A...
film LA Confidential, Tony Brancato and Anthony Trombino are shot to death in a 1951 OldsmobileOldsmobileOldsmobile was a brand of American automobile produced for most of its existence by General Motors. It was founded by Ransom E. Olds in 1897. In its 107-year history, it produced 35.2 million cars, including at least 14 million built at its Lansing, Michigan factory...
coupéCoupéA coupé or coupe is a closed car body style , the precise definition of which varies from manufacturer to manufacturer, and over time...
parked off Sunset BoulevardSunset BoulevardSunset Boulevard is a street in the western part of Los Angeles County, California, that stretches from Figueroa Street in downtown Los Angeles to the Pacific Coast Highway at the Pacific Ocean in the Pacific Palisades...
. The assailants are reported by Hush-Hush" magazine to be working for unknown forces taking over the Mickey CohenMickey CohenMeyer Harris "Mickey" Cohen was a gangster based in Los Angeles and part of the Jewish Mafia, and also had strong ties to the American Mafia from the 1930s through 1960s.-Early life:...
rackets after he was sent to prison for income tax evasionTax avoidance and tax evasionTax noncompliance describes a range of activities that are unfavorable to a state's tax system. These include tax avoidance, which refers to reducing taxes by legal means, and tax evasion which refers to the criminal non-payment of tax liabilities....
(great Hush-Hush headline "In The Joint With Micky C").
Literature
- In James EllroyJames EllroyLee Earle "James" Ellroy is an American crime fiction writer and essayist. Ellroy has become known for a so-called "telegraphic" prose style in his most recent work, wherein he frequently omits connecting words and uses only short, staccato sentences, and in particular for the novels The Black...
's White JazzWhite JazzWhite Jazz is a 1992 crime fiction novel by James Ellroy. It is the fourth in his L.A. Quartet, preceded by The Black Dahlia, The Big Nowhere, and L.A. Confidential....
, the novel's protagonistProtagonistA protagonist is the main character of a literary, theatrical, cinematic, or musical narrative, around whom the events of the narrative's plot revolve and with whom the audience is intended to most identify...
, David Klein, kills Tony Brancato and Anthony Trombino.
Television
- The title of episode 53 of The SopranosThe SopranosThe Sopranos is an American television drama series created by David Chase that revolves around the New Jersey-based Italian-American mobster Tony Soprano and the difficulties he faces as he tries to balance the often conflicting requirements of his home life and the criminal organization he heads...
, "Two Tonys" (2004), refers in part to Tony Brancato and Anthony Trombino.