Not only did Anna Genovese testify about Vito Genovese's criminal activities in open court, she also had multiple lesbian affairs — yet she lived peacefully into old age and was buried by her former husband's side.
Everett Collection Historical/Alamy Stock Photo
Anna Genovese, the estranged wife of Vito Genovese.
In the criminal underworld of 20th-century New York, men like Charles “Lucky” Luciano and Frank Costello ruled with iron fists. But among the top ranks, one woman carved out her own empire: Anna Genovese.
A formidable force, Anna ran her own network of illicit gay bars in New York City, and even dared to testify against her estranged husband, Vito.
Even with her power, though, Anna Genovese faced serious challenges. Her marriage was tumultuous at best, and outright abusive at worst. And according to many, her involvement with New York’s gay scene extended far beyond just the business potential — adding just one more complex layer to the legacy of the Mafia’s most fascinating woman.
Early Life And Introduction To The Mob
Born Giovaninna “Anna” Petillo on October 28, 1905, to Italian-Catholic immigrants Aniello Vincenzo Petillo and Concetta Cassini Genovese (a cousin of Vito Genovese’s), Anna Genovese grew up in New York City. As she came of age, the American Mafia became gradually more powerful.
Not much is known about Anna’s early life, but when she was 19 she fell in love with Gerard “Gerry” Vernotico, a baker in New York City’s Little Italy. Speaking to Mob Queens podcast hosts Jessica Bendinger and Michael Seligman, Anna’s great-niece Kate Harmon said the union “was not looked upon kindly” by her family as Vernotico was a “young man of no means.” But Anna was in love, and she helped support her growing family with Vernotico by working nights at a club in Greenwich Village.
MobQueensPod/XAnna Genovese as a girl, provided to the Mob Queens podcast by her granddaughter, Mia.
Unfortunately, the marriage would end in tragedy.
Anna and Vernotico had had one baby, and were expecting their second, when Gerard was brutally strangled to death on a rooftop in March 1932. Just two weeks later, Anna agreed to marry the mobster Vito Genovese.
Indeed, the general consensus is that Vito — long obsessed with Anna — had put out the hit on her husband. Her great-niece told the podcast that Anna “hated Vito” but felt she had no choice but to accept. After all, Anna had suddenly found herself raising two children alone.
It was a whirlwind wedding — and Anna’s formal introduction to the Mafia. But Anna would soon make her own mark on the city’s criminal underworld.
Anna Genovese’s Network Of Gay Bars In New York City
As Vito Genovese became one of the most powerful Mafia bosses in the country, Anna Genovese largely stayed behind the scenes, as mob wives often do. But in 1934, just two years after their marriage, Vito was forced to flee the United States to escape a murder charge.
During this time, Anna began running a network of gay bars and drag clubs in New York City. She — and other mafiosos — were taking advantage of “Gay Prohibition.” Though actual Prohibition had ended, New York bars could get in trouble for serving alcohol to gay patrons. So the Mafia began to take over the business. The organization both protected gay patrons from law enforcement, by bribing local police, and collected the bars’ profits.
“I was the safest on the streets of New York that I had ever been,” one gay bartender recalled to the New York Post in 2014. “If anybody ever threatened me or intimidated me, I had recourse. I had been stopped by the police and… all I had to do was give them the name of my employer and they let me go, because we were both working for the same people. The law made the gay bars illegal. The Family made it operable.”
The Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual & Transgender Community Center/InstagramAnna Genovese surrounded by patrons at one of her clubs.
Indeed, Anna operated a number of gay bars in Greenwich Village and Lower Manhattan (and the Genovese crime family ultimately ran the iconic gay bar, Stonewall). Her first club, Club Caravan, opened in 1939 and hosted some of the era’s biggest drag queens. She also co-owned the 181 Club, which people referred to as the “homosexual Copacabana.” Anna Genovese thus played a key role in Manhattan’s drag bar scene in the mid-20th century.
Anna Genovese had taken advantage of a business opportunity, but her involvement with the gay community was about more than just profit. As the Daily Mail noted in 2021, Anna Genovese was bisexual, her lesbian affairs an open secret among the community. She created safe havens for queer people using her mob connections to keep the police away, and forked over some of the profits to the Mafia in exchange for protection.
But then, in 1945, Vito Genovese returned.
Anna And Vito Genovese’s Shocking Divorce
After Vito got back to the United States, a number of crucial witnesses who’d promised to testify against him turned up dead, and the case against him collapsed. He then moved his family from New York to New Jersey, which meant that Anna could no longer run her clubs.
Their relationship grew increasingly acrimonious, and in 1950, Anna walked out on Vito. Being married to the mobster, she claimed in a court filing, had “endangered her health and made her life extremely wretched.” Then, seeking financial support in 1953, Anna agreed to testify against Vito in court.
This was a seismic event that sent shockwaves through the American Mafia, given that it was the first time a high-ranking mob wife publicly broke the code of omertà, the sacred vow of silence.
Bettmann/Getty ImagesVito Genovese appearing before the Senate Labor Rackets Committee in 1958.
That March, Anna took the stand and delivered testimony that left the Mafia world reeling. She spoke bluntly about Vito’s cruelty toward her — and provided a blueprint of his criminal enterprise.
She named names, detailed methods, and explained the financial structure of her husband’s operation. She also testified that Vito controlled a vast network involved in narcotics trafficking, gambling, and labor racketeering, and claimed that he made $40,000 a week (more than $400,000 today).
It was a credible and incredibly detailed testimony that provided federal investigators with the roadmap they had been desperately seeking. And it was an extremely dangerous thing to do. Newspaper columnist Dorothy Kilgallen, who was close with mobster Frank Costello, even wrote: “If I were Mrs. Vito Genovese, I’d be awful careful crossing streets.”
This was seen as a thinly veiled threat toward Anna. But, in the end, Anna Genovese’s divorce case and Vito’s countersuit against her, were both dropped. And no one ever retaliated against Anna Genovese, who lived the rest of her life out of the spotlight.
She remained married to Vito, but the couple lived entirely separate lives. Vito took over the powerful Luciano crime family in 1957, establishing the Genovese crime family, but was convicted of narcotics conspiracy in 1959. He sentenced to 15 years in federal prison, where he died in 1969.
Anna, meanwhile, remained a ghost. For a time she worked at the Warwick Hotel — and purportedly even befriended Cary Grant, who was staying there as a guest — until she died of a stroke in 1982. By then, her name had largely faded out of the news. But her connection to Vito remained, and Anna was ultimately buried in the Genovese family plot.
Today, she’s a footnote to the larger Mafia history. But Anna Genovese had proven that the Mafia’s code of silence could be shattered, even from within.
After reading about Anna Genovese, the estranged wife of Vito Genovese who testified against him and ran gay bars in New York City, look through this stunning collection of colorized photos from the early days of organized crime in the United States. Or, learn about Johnny Torrio, the ruthless gangster who taught Al Capone everything he knew.
