Santo Trafficante Jr. was one of the last bosses of the North American mafia that controlled the operations of organized crime mainly in the state of Florida , which was previously consolidated from several rival gangs of his father, Santo Trafficante, Sr. Also famous for his close relationship with Fulgencio Batista , ex-dictator in Cuba in the 1950s.
Summary
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- 1 Biographical synthesis
- 1 Illegal activities
- 2 Meeting in New York
- 3 Activities in Cuba
- 4 The death of John F. Kennedy
- 5 Death
- 2 Sources
Biographical synthesis
He was born in Tampa on November 15, 1914 , in Florida, to Sicilian parents: Santo Trafficante, Sr. and his wife María Giuseppa Cacciatore . He had several houses in Tampa and Miami , and he also frequented Havana , Cuba (while Fulgencio Batista was in power), as well as New York City . There are documents that affirm that Trafficante’s legitimate business included several legal casinos in Cuba; an open-air theater; in addition to actions at the “Columbia Restaurant” and many restaurants and bars in Tampa. It was rumored that he was part of a mafia that owned many other Cuban hotels and casinos. As one of the most powerful mobsters in theUnited States , Trafficante was invited to the Havana Conference in December 1946 .
Illicit activities
Trafficante had ties to the Bonanno family in New York City, but was more closely tied to Salvatore “Sam” “Mooney” Giancana in Chicago . Later, although he was recognized as the most powerful organized crime boss in Florida, throughout much of the 20th century, it is believed that he did not have full control over Miami, Miami Beach , Ft. Lauderdale , or Palm Beach , Florida. Florida’s east coast was a loose conglomeration of New York family interests with obvious ties to Meyer Lansky , Benjamin “Bugsy” Siegel , Calogero “Carlos Marcello”Leo Stein and Frank Ragano . To this day, control of Florida by organized crime is likely divided between interests in Chicago, New Orleans , New York, and international organized crime. The Trafficante family was recognized for creating the language called “Tampan”. Tampan is a mixed Italian / Spanish dialect.
It is spoken by the Mafia mainly because the police could not understand this language. Trafficante was frequently arrested throughout the 1950s on various counts of bribery and illegal operation in the Tampa Ybor City district ball lotteries . He escaped from jail in all but one time, receiving a five-year prison term, in 1954 , for bribery, but his conviction was overturned by the Florida Supreme Court before he entered jail.
Meeting in New York
He was arrested in 1957 , along with 56 other gangsters, in an apparent gathering of gangsters, which was known as the ” Appalachian Rally ” in New York. The charges were later dropped, although authorities believe the meeting was created, among other things, to fill the power vacuum created by the recent assassination of Murder, Inc. boss Albert Anastasia . Trafficante later denied knowing the circumstances of Anastasia’s death.
Activities in Cuba
After several years of very open relations with the de facto government of Batista, all the dirty businesses that he maintained on the island fell after the revolutionary government of Fidel Castro seized his Cuban assets and companies and expelled him from the country as a ” undesirable foreigner, “Trafficante came into contact with various US intelligence services ( CIA and Office of Naval Intelligence ), and participated in several failed plans to assassinate Castro. Allusions to these historical connections were confirmed by the declassification of the Family Jewels documents from the Central Intelligence Agency in 2007 .
The death of John F. Kennedy
Many investigators in the John F. Kennedy assassination case targeted Trafficante, along with Carlos Marcello , New Orleans mob boss in the 1950s and 1960s, Teamster President Jimmy Hoffa , and Chicago mob boss Sam Giancana. , were in some way associated with this crime, something that has been repeated a lot but has not been proven. Trafficante was summoned to court in 1986 and questioned his involvement in the operation of the King’s Court nightclub, exploited by members of the Bonanno family in New York, including undercover FBI agent Joseph “Joe” Pistone.aka “Donnie Brasco”. Trafficante once again escaped conviction.
Death
Suffering from heart failure, he went to Houston , Texas , where he had to undergo surgery, and from complications of it he died on March 17 , 1987 , thus marking the end of his career as a mobster.
