| George Anastasia | |
| Birth Place: | South Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, U.S. |
| Occupation: | crime journalist author organized crime expert columnist |
| Yearsactive: | 1970s–present |
George Anastasia (born February 5, 1947) is an American author and former writer for The Philadelphia Inquirer. He is widely considered to be an expert on the American Mafia.[1] [2] He was an organized crime investigative reporter, who was once targeted for death by then-Philadelphia crime family boss John Stanfa.[3] He won the Sigma Delta Chi Award and has also been described on a 60 Minutes television profile as "One of the most respected crime reporters in the country."[4] Anastasia lives in Pitman, New Jersey.[5]
Anastasia was born in South Philadelphia and raised in Westville in South Jersey.[6] He graduated from Gloucester Catholic High School in 1965 and earned a BA in French literature from Dartmouth College.[5] He also studied at Swarthmore College and the University of Florida. Anastasia has served as an adjunct professor/lecturer at Glassboro State College, now called Rowan University, Temple University, and has been a lecturer for the U.S. State Department-sponsored series of weeklong seminars on journalism and organized crime in Bulgaria (2004, 2007), Croatia (2005), Serbia (2006), and Italy (2007).[7]
The now retired former Philadelphia Inquirer reporter is the author of six books, which include The Last Gangster (ReganBooks/Harper Collins, March 2004), a New York Times bestseller that chronicles the demise of the Philadelphia mob. His other books are Blood and Honor (William Morrow & Co., 1991), which Jimmy Breslin called "the best gangster book ever written"; NYT bestseller The Summer Wind (Regan Books/HarperCollins, 1999) about the Thomas Capano-Anne Marie Fahey murder case, and The Goodfella Tapes (Avon Books, 1998), Mobfather (Kensington Books, 1993), and The Ultimate Book of Gangster Movies (Perseus Books, 2011), co-authored with Glen Macnow. His work has appeared in Penthouse, Playboy and The Village Voice. He also has been featured on several network television news magazine reports about organized crime and has worked as a consultant on projects for ABC, the Discovery Channel, the History Channel and the National Geographic Channel.
Anastasia is the author of a novella, The Big Hustle (Philadelphia Inquirer Books, 2001), and has contributed to two anthologies of Italian American writers, A Sitdown with the Sopranos and Don't Tell Momma. Mob Files, an anthology of articles he has written for The Inquirer, was published in September 2008 by Camino Books.[7]
Anastasia does a YouTube channel called "MobTalk" along with FOX 29's Dave Schratweiser. The channel reports current updates in the organized crime world.[8]