Who was Anthony Provenzano? Everything You Need to Know

Quick Facts

Also Known As: Tony Pro

Died At Age: 71

Family:

Spouse/Ex-: Marie-Paule Migneron Provenzano

father: Rosario Provenzano

mother: Josephine Provenzano

siblings: Nunzio Provenzano

children: Charlotte Polile, Doreen Rucinski, Josephine Provenzano, Marie Maita

Born Country: United States

Gangsters American Men

Died on: December 12, 1988

place of death: Lompoc, California, United States

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Childhood & Early Life

Anthony Provenzano was born on May 7, 1917, on the Lower East Side of Manhattan, New York. His mother, Josephine, and father, Rosario, were both Sicilian immigrants.

He had five other siblings, two of his brothers, Salvatore and Nunzio, later joined him in his illegal activities.

He reportedly dropped out of school at the age of 15 and took up a job at a trucking company for ten dollars a week. After three years, he reportedly took up a driver’s job.

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Career

Soon after, Anthony Provenzano gained employment with Teamsters Local 560 in Union City, New Jersey. By 1941, he had reportedly made his way to the post of shop steward.

From 1948-1958, he held the post of a business agent for the union. In 1958, he became the president of ‘Teamsters Local 560’, a position he held for eight years. He used his position as the union leader to fraudulently use union funds for personal purposes.

In November 1960, when he was indicted on extortion charges in a New Jersey court, it came to light that he was extorting money from a transportation company in return for peace.

In June 1961, he reportedly paid Salvatore Briguglio and Harold Konigsberg $15,000 to murder the ‘Teamsters Local 560’ secretary-treasurer, Anthony Castellito. In August 1961, his brother, Salvatore, was appointed in Castellito’s position, and Briguglio as business agent. In the same year, Anthony was tried for Castellito’s murder.

In 1963, he was convicted on extortion charges and given a prison sentence of seven years at Lewisburg, Pennsylvania, a high-security federal penitentiary, where he met ‘Teamsters’ president, Jimmy Hoffa.

He spent four and a half years in prison before being released in 1970. During this time, he initially became friends with Hoffa, where he reportedly provided protection to the latter and in return, asked for a ‘Teamsters’ loan to open a restaurant. When Hoffa refused it, the relations soured.

After leaving prison, they turned into mortal enemies and he reportedly even had a violent altercation with Hoffa at an airport.

On July 30, 1975, Hoffa suddenly disappeared during a scheduled meeting with Provenzano. It was alleged that Provenzano had him murdered but Provenzano claimed that he was playing cards in another state at that time.

Soon, he was appointed as the secretary-treasurer of ‘Teamsters Local 560’, a position he held till his incarceration in 1978.

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In June 1978, Anthony Provenzano was convicted of the murder of Castellito and was handed a prison sentence of 25 years to life imprisonment. In July, he was handed a four-year sentence in a federal prison for extortion and violation of the anti-kickback statute in New York.

Soon after, he began his sentence at a low-security federal prison, FCI Lompoc, California. In 1979, he was given a 20 years sentence in a federal prison on racketeering and extortion charges in New Jersey.

By 1985, he was reportedly eligible for parole but he turned it down for it would mean the beginning of his 25 years-to-life imprisonment sentence in New York. He allegedly stated that he preferred California weather.

Family & Personal Life

In 1961, Anthony Provenzano married Marie-Paule Migneron, a French-Canadian, on the same day that he was indicted of Castellito’s murder. He had four daughters with his wife: Marie, Josephine, Charlotte and Doreen.

Many believe that Marie-Paule Migneron was his second wife, but no details are available about his first wife.

He had properties in both Clifton, New Jersey and Hallandale, Florida.

In November 1988, he was taken to the Lompoc District Hospital for congestive heart failure treatment. On December 12, 1988, he died of a heart attack at Lompoc Federal Penitentiary in Lompoc, California. On December 17, his funeral was held at St. Andrews Roman Catholic Church in Clifton, New Jersey.

He is buried at Hackensack, New Jersey’s St. Joseph's Cemetery.

He left virtually his entire estate to his second wife, Marie-Paule, stating that it should be equally divided among his daughters upon his wife’s death.

He reportedly left $1000 in the name of a woman called Charlotte Ira Polile; details about her are unavailable.

Trivia

Before he joined the ‘International Brotherhood of Teamsters’, he was reportedly an amateur boxer.

He is said to have ordered the murder of both Castellito and Hoffa in the same way; putting through a garbage shredder and burning the remains in an incinerator.

In 2019, he was depicted in the Netflix film ‘The Irishman’.

Anthony Provenzano Biography