Anthony Provenzano was born on May 7, 1917 on the Lower East Side of Manhattan. He was one of six sons of Sicilian immigrants Rosario and Josephine Dispensa Provenzano. At 17-years-old, Anthony dropped out of school and took a job as a truck driver in Hackensack, New Jersey, earning $10 per week.
Provenzano married Marie-Paule Migneron, with whom he had four daughters: Marie, Josephine, Charlotte and Doreen.
Provenzano joined the International Brotherhood of Teamsters and by 1941, he'd worked his way up to shop steward. By 1958, the former amateur boxer had become the head of the 13,000-member Local 560 Teamsters Union, headquartered in Union City, New Jersey. The following year, Provenzano was called to testify before the Senate Labor Rackets Committee investigating racketeering; he invoked his Fifth Amendment rights 44 times in response to questioning from the committee's chief counsel, Robert F. Kennedy.
In 1961, Provenzano was tried for the murder of union rival Anthony Castellito. Court testimony revealed that Provenzano had paid mobster Harold Konigsberg $15,000 to kill Castellito. Konigsberg and three associates carried out the hit at the former's Kerhonkson, New York summer home; after being struck with a lead truncheon, Castellito was strangled to death with a garrote.
In 1963, Provenzano was tried for extortion. During the trial, a Provenzano rival, Walter Glockner, was murdered in Hoboken, New Jersey. Following his conviction, Provenzano was sentenced to seven years in prison and sent to the high-security federal penitentiary in Lewisburg, Pennsylvania -- the same facility where Boston mobster James "Whitey" Bulger, serving a 20-year sentence for three bank robberies; future mob boss, John Gotti; and Teamster president Jimmy Hoffa were incarcerated.
Hoffa was last seen in a Detroit suburb on July 30, 1975. When he disappeared, Hoffa was scheduled to meet with Provenzano. Like Castellito, Hoffa's body has never been found. An FBI investigation determined that three Provenzano associates had abducted Hoffa and cremated his remains in an incinerator after putting his body through a garbage shredder.
In 1978, Provenzano was convicted for his role in Anthony Castellito's murder and sentenced to 25 years-to-life in prison. That same year, Provenzano was convicted for extortion in New York and given a four-year federal prison sentence. The following year, he was convicted of extortion in New Jersey and sentenced to 20 years in federal prison.
Provenzano began his sentence in 1980 at FCI Lompoc, a low-security federal facility located 140 miles northwest of Los Angeles, California. Though he was eligible for parole in 1985, Provenzano declined to attend a parole hearing, as his release would've led to the start of his 25-year sentence in New York and he reportedly preferred the California weather.
In November of 1988, Provenzano was admitted to Lompoc District Hospital for treatment of congestive heart failure. On December 12, 1988, he suffered a fatal heart attack. Provenzano's funeral was held at Clifton, New Jersey's St. Andrews Roman Catholic Church on December 17. He was interred at Hackensack's St. Joseph's Cemetery.
Jimmy Hoffa (left) and Anthony Provenzano (right)
