Anthony "Fat Tony" Salerno (15 August 1911-27 July 1992) was the front boss of the Genovese crime family from 1981 to 1986, succeeding Frank Tieri. For decades, Salerno was one of the richest and most powerful mobsters in America, becoming a billionaire by the late 1970s, and by 1985, he increased his net worth to a staggering $15 billion (roughly $44 billion today) making him one of the, if not the richest mobster in American Mafia history and undoubtedly one of the richest criminals of all time. Fortune Magazine named him the "World's Top Gangster" and called him a "Billionaire Kingpin" and stated that he was the richest and most powerful mobster in America.
Biography[]
Anthony Salerno was born in East Harlem, Manhattan, New York City on 15 August 1911, and he became a member of the 116th Street Gang as a youth. Salerno climbed in the ranks of the Genovese crime family, and he took over Michael Coppola's crew after Coppola fled to Florida in 1948. By the 1960s, he controlled the largest number racket operation in the city, and he kept his headquarters in East Harlem even as other Mafia members left due to the influx of African-Americans and Hispanics into the area. From 1978 to 1981, he was imprisoned for illegal gambling and tax evasion.
In 1981, Salerno succeeded Frank Tieri as boss of the Genovese family, serving as a front boss for Vincent Gigante. In 1985, he was indicted in the Mafia Commission Trial, and he was nominally the lead defendant in the trial after being named America's top gangster in power, wealth, and influence by Fortune Magazine in 1986. In 1987, he was sentenced to 100 years in prison, and he died in prison in Springfield, Missouri in 1992.