Stephen Armone

Stephen Armone (November 17, 1899 Palermo, Sicily – 1960), also known as "14th Street Steve", was a New York gangster with the Gambino crime family who ran gambling operations in Lower Manhattan. He was the older brother of Gambino capo Joseph Armone. Armone moved to the United States with his family to Queens. A small-statured man with black-gray hair, he limped due to a previous hip fracture. His arrest record included assault and battery with intent to kill, burglary, and narcotics laws violations. Armone was a leader of Gambino operations in the Lower East Side of Manhattan. He engaged in large-scale narcotics smuggling and distribution.^[1]

On September 6, 1944, Armone was indicted on charges of attempting to smuggle morphine and opium into the United States from the Bahamas. Using a fleet of small boats, the smuggling ring started in 1940, but stopped in 1941 due to World War II^[2]

In 1957, Armone allegedly participated in the assassination of family boss Albert Anastasia. Family underboss Carlo Gambino and Luciano crime family capo Vito Genovese had been plotting to assume power in their respective families. Gambino capo Joseph Biondo selected Armone to head a hit squad that included family heroin dealers Stephen Grammauta and Arnold Wittenburg.^[3] On October 25, 1957, Armone and his hit squad ambushed Anastasia at a Manhattan hotel barber shop. While Anastasia was in the chair having a shave and haircut, his bodyguards disappeared. The hit squad entered the shop and shot him to death.^[4][5]

Armone died in 1960.

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