Anthony Strollo

Anthony Strollo Full Name: Anthony C. Strollo Alias: Tony Bender Origin: New York City, New York, United States Occupation: Genovese crime family capo Crimes: Murder Drug trafficking Type of Villain: Gangster

Anthony C. Strollo, AKA Tony Bender (18 June 1899 - Disappeared 8 April 1962) was a New York mobster and underboss in the Genovese (formerly Luciano) crime family.

Mob career

Anthony Strollo was born in New York City, the son of Calabrian immigrants Leone and Giovannina Nigro. Strollo grew up in Manhattan near the Manhattan Bridge.

Strollo had two brothers, Emilio and Dominick. He married a woman named Edna Goldenberg, who bore him several children. Strollo was a cousin of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania mobster Lenny Strollo and Dante Strollo, a member of the Youngstown, Ohio, Cosa Nostra family.

Strollo was of medium height and weight with sandy brown hair. Associates described him as usually having a doleful look. Strollo's legitimate job was that of a real estate salesman.

During Prohibition, Strollo worked as a hitman for mob boss Giuseppe Masseria. During the Castellammarese War, a war between mobsters over control of the Castellammarese mob, Strollo defected to Masseria's rival Salvatore Maranzano, serving as his lieutenant and hitman. Maranzano ultimately won the war when Masseria was killed by assassins, only to himself be assassinated by his right-hand man Charles "Lucky" Luciano, who took over Maranzano's mob. Strollo subsequently began working for Luciano.

As part of Luciano's mob, Strollo acted as a capo to Luciano and his underboss Vito Genovese, and became head of the Greenwich Village Crew. Luciano was later imprisoned for 30 to 50 years for prostitution in 1936, leaving Genovese in charge. Genovese later designated Strollo as his underboss. As Strollo was Genovese's underboss, he took charge when Genovese fled to Italy in 1937 to escape prosecution for the murder of Ferdinand Boccia, but was deposed by Frank Costello and replaced with Willie Moretti when they took over Genovese's mob in his absence.

After Genovese was extradited to America for Boccia's murder and subsequently acquitted in 1946, he took over his crime family again, with Strollo becoming underboss once again. The two of them later had Joseph Gigante shoot Costello, wounding him and prompting him to retire from crime. However, in 1959 Strollo once again changed his loyalty again, conspiring with other mobsters to frame Genovese for involvement in the Illegal Drug Trade, resulting in Genovese being sentenced to 15 years in jail.

On 8 April 1962, Strollo left his residence in Fort Lee, and was never seen again. Genovese later hinted to Joseph Valachi that he had ordered Strollo's murder for conspiring to frame him.