Havana Conference

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The Havana Conference of 1946 was a historic underworld meeting of American mafia Bosses and other La Cosa Nostra and underworld affiliated delegates that law enforcement and crime writers have alleged was called for by deported Boss, Lucky Luciano concerning important matters that needed to be addressed by the leaders of the American underworld. Apparently there were 4 major subjects regarding La Cosa Nostra policies, rules and business interests that needed to be immediately addressed and had the Bosses concerned. The conference was attended by a delegation of top crime figures from across the United States who represented powerful and influential criminal organizations (crime families) within the designated territories or areas of the U.S. that held major criminal and business interests within organized crime. The conference was held during the week of 22 December 1946 at the Hotel Nacional in Havana, Cuba. This meeting was considered the most important mob summit since the Atlantic City Conference of 1929 as the decisions made at this conference had a far reaching impact on American organized crime and it's members throughout the ensuing decades.

Contents

[edit] Background

Well known and powerful American crime Boss, Salvatore "Charlie Lucky" Luciano had been serving a 30-to-50-year prison term for pandering when he was asked to assist the U.S. government during World War II, roughly around 1942 Luciano was approached by military intelligence officers through his close associates [Joseph Lanza|Joseph "Socks" Lanza]] and Meyer Lansky in regards to the possibility of enemy sabotage along the New York and New Jersey waterfront during WWII. Joseph Lanza was a Luciano crime family member and one of the mafia Bosses who controlled Manhatten's Fulton Fish Market, it's workers and the docks in that area of New York City under the direction of his Boss, Lucky Luciano and in regards to Lanza's underworld influence within the Manhatten waterfront he was approached by U.S. Naval Intelligence who sought his help in securing that area from possible German and Italian saboteurs. Lanza's influence and power to secure the New York waterfront was limited to the Manhatten area and although a major docking port for the U.S. Navy, overall security for U.S. Naval vessels along the New York and New Jersey waterfronts was the ultimate goal of the American Military and it's leaders. For this to happen the ultimate authority of one specific underworld leader was necessary and with the assistance of Meyer Lansky the underworld's top crime Boss was approached with a proposal. Charlie "Lucky" Luciano had been convicted in 1936 of running a prostitution ring and was incarcerated for a long period of time, approached by U.S. Military Intelligence officers through Lansky, Luciano was given an opportunity to assist his adopted country during the war, secure a pardon and release from prison and at such time he would be deported back to his native country of Italy if he was able to secure the East coast waterfront from possible enemy sabotage.

After the war ended, New York Governor Thomas E. Dewey agreed to release Luciano on the condition that the mobster was immediately deported to his native Sicily and never again allowed to set foot on American soil. Lucky complied and set sail in February of 1946 after his associates threw him a lavish farewell party on the vessel he took back to Italy, settling in his hometown of Lercara Friddi, Sicily, then later moving to Palermo, Naples, Rome and lastly settling back in Naples for good after being kicked out of Rome by law enforcement. However, Luciano never lost hope of someday returning to America, and planned to that end relentlessly. In early fall of 1946 Luciano received word in Rome from a new U.S. mafia deportee in the form of a sealed envelope, the message consisted of three words, "December-Hotel Nacional." In late September Luciano obtained two Italian passports made out in his real name, Salvatore Lucania, with visas for Mexico, Cuba, and several South American nations thus allowing him to travel unrestricted in his quest to meet with his longtime criminal associates from the United States.

In late October, Luciano vanished from the Italian mainland scene, first arriving in Caracas, Venezuela and from there he flew to Mexico City. He then boarded a private plane to Havana, Cuba where he was greeted by close friend and Jewish crime Boss, Meyer Lansky. Lansky had organized the summit for the week of 22 December on Luciano's orders and invited some of the most powerful and influential crime Bosses in the United States to attend the important meeting. Upon his arrival in Cuba, Luciano met with Meyer Lansky privately and discussed many criminal and business interest both men held together along with certain underworld matters that would be addressed at the meeting once all the delegates arrived and were together, but in the mean time Lansky quickly suggested to Luciano that he should purchase a $150,000 interest in the Hotel Nacional, a plush casino and hotel operated and owned by Lansky and his silent partner, Cuban President, Fulgencio Batista y Zaldivar. As a show of respect and admiration all the conference invitees brought Luciano envelopes full of cash to welcome him back from exile and to acknowledge his authority within the American mafia. The envelopes or "Christmas Presents" were in excess of $200,000 and were given to Luciano at the first night dinner hosted by Meyer Lansky, Frank Costello, and Joe Adonis as famous entertainer and a close friend of certain delegates, Frank Sinatra was also invited to Cuba and the Hotel Nacional the week of the conference for a gala party, but he was not there as a conference attendee. Sinatra's party was, however, used as a cover as to why the Bosses were in [[Havana[] that week. Sinatra flew to Havana with three members of the Chicago delegation, Al Capone cousins, Charlie, Rocco and Joseph Fischetti. Joseph "Joe Fish" Fischetti was a longtime acquaintance of Sinatra's and was there a his chaperone and protector, while Joe's brothers, Charlie and Rocco attended the meeting and also had the job of delivering a suitcase with $2 million to Lucky Luciano, his share of the U.S. rackets he still controlled. On the agenda for the mafia Bosses and several La Cosa Nostra affiliated crime Bosses within the National Crime Syndicate who were invited to attend were general topics such as American underworld activities, policies and business interests, along with other pressing and important matters such as addressing leadership and authority within the New York mafia, the Havana casino interests the Bosses controlled, the narcotics operations and the "West Coast" operations of crime Boss, Benjamin "Bugsy" Siegel such as the Flamingo Hotel and casino in Las Vegas. Charlie Luciano had been absent from the American underworld scene for several months and was especially concerned with the present situation in New York, La Cosa Nostra's longtime national powerbase was experiencing some internal conflicts now that powerful Boss, Vito Genovese had returned from exile in Italy recently causing leadership problems within the Luciano crime family itself along with authority issues on a national level, all of which Luciano planned on addressing!

[edit] The Conference Begins

The "Havana Conference" convened on December 22, 1946 with delegates from across the United States including New York, New Jersey, Buffalo, Chicago, New Orleans and Florida. Of course the largest delegation of Bosses were from the New York-New Jersey area, with Jewish Syndicate interests being represented by several major Bosses who were invited to attend the conference to discuss joint La Cosa Nostra-Jewish Syndicate business. The Jewish representatives would not have a deciding vote at this meeting concerning rules or policies within La Cosa Nostra even though some important matters all the delegates planned to discuss concerned joint Italian-Jewish business ventures, as it has always been, only the top LCN Bosses are allowed to vote on matters involving mafia rules, policy or business, but the Jewish crime Bosses would have a say in matters concerning joint business ventures such as the Flamingo Hotel and casino in Las Vegas which was currently under the control of crime Boss, Benny Seigel. The Flamingo Hotel had gone over budget by millions and it was believed by his associates and business partners within the underworld that Ben Seigel and his girlfriend, Virginia Hill were stealing money from the casino and needed to be dealt with immediately, this being the reason why Seigel was not invited to Havana!

Chairman, Charles Luciano opened up the discussion by thanking all the delegates for their envelopes and then quickly moved on to his own personal agenda and a matter that would affect his authority within the American mafia greatly, the previously eliminated position of "Capo di Tutti Capi" or "Boss of Bosses", a position within the mafia that had been done away with after the assassination of the last official "Boss of Bosses", Salvatore Maranzano in September of 1931. By the end of 1931, Lucky Luciano had eliminated the "Boss of Bosses" position and along with other top mafia Bosses within the underworld had re-organized the Italian mafia across America and formed "La Cosa Nostra", known to it's members as "This Thing of Ours", designating a "Board of Directors" or the "Commission" to oversee criminal activities, control rules and policies while the LCN became the top criminal organization within the National Crime Syndicate of America. Luciano could have easily been declared himself the successor to Maranzano in 1932, instead he decided not to take the position officially, knowing that his respect, power and influence within the American mafia was secure and that within the New York mafia he was the top Boss, but since his return from Italy in June of 1945 by way of arrest and deportation back to the United States to face 1937 murder charges and eventual release from U.S. law enforcement custody in June of 1946 after the murder charges were dropped, Luciano associate and new nemesis, Vito Genovese has made his intentions to seek the leadership of the Luciano crime family known.

Since Lucky Luciano's deportation in 1946, mafia Boss and Luciano ally, Frank Costello has officially held the title of Boss in Luciano's New York crime family, but with Luciano no longer in New York Vito Genovese felt he was the rightful heir and successor to Luciano and not Costello so tensions and animosity within the Luciano crime family had been festering recently! Lucky Luciano had been alerted by loya underlings and messengers to Italy about the growing ambition of his former Underboss, Vito Genovese who was unhappy that he no longer held a position within the Luciano crime family hierarchy and only held the official title of caporegime, but Luciano had no intention of stepping down as Boss of his crime family and knew he had to do something to curtail the ambition and well known greed of Genovese before the situation got out of hand! Charlie Luciano realized that his position as a top leader in his crime family along with his overall authority and influence within the American mafia was being threatened by Vito Genovese and possibly questioned by other Bosses as Genovese would not try to usurp Luciano's power without the support of others top Bosses. Luciano must attempt to impede Genovese's ambition and one of the only ways he can do this from exile and that was by proclamation, to declare himself the "Boss of Bosses" and hope that the other Bosses would support him, either by officially affirming the title or at least by acknowledging that he is still seen as "First Amongst Equals" in the United States. Lucky Luciano allegedly makes the motion to retain his position as the top Boss in La Cosa Nostra at the beginning of the Havana meeting and ally, Albert "The Mad Hatter" Anastasia seconds the motion allowing Luciano to send a message to Vito Genovese that his strength and authority within the mafia was still intact and Anastasia's message was that he supported Luciano and his choice of successor, Frank Costello fully and would protect their interests in the United States! Mafia Boss, Vito Genovese was also trying to muscle in on Albert Anastasia's waterfront rackets since returning to the U.S. from his ten year self-imposed exile in Italy, but now with the obvious Luciano-Costello-Anastasia alliance Genovese realizes he must hold back his ambition and plan for the future. To further embarrass Genovese at the meeting, Lucky Luciano encouraged Albert Anastasia and Vito Genovese to settle their differences and shake hands in front of the other Bosses so that another mob conflict, such as the bloody Castellammarese War of 1930-1931, would not break out, but little did Lucky know what the future held in store for the powerful crime syndicate he helped create. After Luciano finished his personal business and felt he had censored Vito Genovese's ambition for the time being Luciano moved on to the next item on the agenda which was the Mob's narcotics operations within the United States.

[edit] The Narcotics Trade

One of the most important topics the Bosses had for discussion the was the global narcotics trade and their operations in the United States. The biggest myth or falsehood ever associated with the American La Cosa Nostra was that they never dealt in narcotics and that Lucky Luciano was against narcotics dealing. Only a few Bosses such as Luciano crime family Acting Boss Frank Costello and the other Bosses who controlled lucrative gambling empires were against narcotics and felt La Cosa Nostra didn't need narcotics profits and would eventually be affected negatively by added law enforcement and media attention because of the operations which were seen by the public as a very harmful and wrong unlike gambling. The truth of the matter was that the potential profits from narcotics dealing were far greater than any other racket that La Cosa Nostra controlled and would eventually start to lose power and influence in the underworld if they allowed other crime groups to control the narcotics trade so they needed to be firmly entrenched in the global trade and control the American market. Salvatore "Charlie Lucky" Luciano had come up from being a smalltime street dealer in the late 1910's to eventually becoming one of America's biggest narcotics importers after he took over the large and lucrative narcotics empire of the late Jewish crime Boss, Arnold "The Big Bankroll" Rothstein with another Jewish crime Boss and former Rothstein underling, Louis "Lepke" Buchalter after Rothstein's assassination in 1928. La Cosa Nostra has long been involved in the narcotics business and was the biggest importer of narcotics (heroin, cocaine, marijuana) in the North America from the 1920s-80's, until the emergence of the Latin, Asian and Middle East drug lords (Colombians, Mexicans, Chinese, Vietnamese, Turkish & Pakistani) and their organizations in Untied States and Canada. The Havana Conference was the beginning of Lucky Luciano's and the Mob's move to monopolize the narcotics business within the United States as they had been importing narcotics from the Golden Triangle of East Asia and South America throughout the 1930's via Cuba and into Florida. Charlie Luciano's 1946 deportation to Italy put him in a position to lead a large narcotics (heroin) importation and distribution operation from Italy into North America (joint Canadian & American mafia operation) and at first the mafia's operation was one of many individual operations connected or affiliated to the French-Corsican Mob or Unione Corse's famous "French Connection" heroin distribution ring, but by the late 1950's the Sicilians and Americans organized a joint U.S. and Sicilian La Cosa Nostra narcotics operation that would eventually grow into one of the largest global narcotics operation ever! This famous joint U.S.-Sicilian operation came to be known as the "Pizza Connection" and was cemented between the two mafia organizations at the famous mafia summit held at the Grand Hotel des Palmes in Palermo, Sicily from October 10-14, 1957 and would last for decades after Luciano died!

The American mafia's longtime association with the government of Cuba concerning gambling interests such as casino's along with their legitimate business investments on the Caribbean island put them in a position to use their political and underworld connections to make Cuba one of their narcotics importation layovers or smuggling points where the drugs could be stored and then placed on sea vessels before they continued on to the Canada and United States via Montreal and Florida among the ports used by Luciano's associates. Upon Lucky's 1946 deportation he made connections with Sicily's biggest Bosses such as Don Calogero "Calo" Vizzini of Villalba who assisted the Allies invasion of Sicily and had the greatest political connections of all the Sicilian Bosses. Also, Don Pasquale Ania, a powerful Boss in Palermo who had connections to legitimate pharmaceutical companies due to the fact that large scale heroin manufacturing in Italy was legal at the time. Ania's nephews, Salvatore and Ugo Caneba assisted Luciano and were the overseers of the famous heroin operation they controlled from mainland Italy to the United Sates, the "Caneba Network" which supplied high grade pharmaceutical quality heroin. Luciano's narcotics network was big and complex and he had many of his old, deported former U.S. allies to help him run his empire throughout the late 1940s until he died in 1962. The main drug imported by Luciano's network at the time was heroin and the main source was 2 French underworld "Clans" that made up the core of the Unione Corse Syndicate or French Mob. The "Corsican Clan" was headed by powerful Bosses Antoine D'Agostino, Jean Baptiste Croce and Paul Mondolini, while the "Marsielles Clan" was made up of 4 Groups. These 4 powerful groups included brothers, Antoine & Barthelemy "Meme" Guerini, brothers, Dominique & Jean Venturi, brothers, Marcel, Xavier & Jean Francisci, and Joseph Orsini. Auguste Joseph Ricord was another Boss that became part of the Unione Corse in the 1960s-70's. These 2 "Clans" ruled the French underworld from the late 1940s to the late 1960s, supplying Charlie "Lucky" Luciano and his mafia allies with large amounts of heroin until the heroin ring known as the "French Connection" started to crumble in 1972 with the arrest of one of it's biggest Bosses, Auguste Joseph Ricord.

During the Havana Conference, Salvatore "Charlie Lucky" Luciano detailed the network to the Bosses and how he and his Italian allies would export the narcotics to Cuba, then to be shipped to the United States, mainly the New York, New Orleans and Tampa ports controlled by the Mob. The narcotics shipped to the New York docks in Manhatten and Brookyn were overseen by some of Luciano's closest associates and the top Bosses in the Luciano crime family (eventually Genovese) and the Mangano crime family (eventually Gambino). In New Orleans the operation was overseen by the powerful Marcello crime family and it's members led by Louisiana mafia Boss, Carlos "Little Man" Marcello while in Tampa the narcotics shipments were overseen by Luciano allies in the Trafficante crime family led by Louis "Santo" Trafficante Jr. One of Luciano's narcotics Lieutenants in Siculiana, Sicily was his old associate from New York, Nicola "Zu Cola" Gentile who oversaw all drug operations in the Agrigento province for Lucky Luciano and his partner' Don Giuseppe Settecasi, the Capo-provincal of Agrigento. A top Luciano Lieutenant in the "Caneba Network" of mainland Italy was, Antonio Farina who would ship the narcotics to their U.S. partners in New York's Mangano crime family including Albert Anastasia, Frank "Don Cheech" Scalise, Jack Scarpulla, Peter Beddia and Matthew "Matty" Cuomo.

Long time Charlie "Lucky" Luciano ally Frank "Fingers" Coppola ran the Sicilian "Partinico Clan", a satellite group affiliated with the Detroit Partnership or Zerilli crime family led by Boss, Joseph "Joe Z." Zerilli and fellow Bosses and Detroit allies, John "Papa John" Priziola, Angelo Meli, and Rafaelle Quasarano. The Detroit crime family then shipped the narcotics to their New York contacts, Giovanni "Big John" Ormento, of the Lucchese crime family, Carmine "Lilo" Galante and Natale "Joe Diamonds" Evola of the Bonanno crime family, Frank "Cheech" Livorsi of the Luciano crime family, and Joseph "Joe Bandy" Biondo of the Mangano crime family, who would then distribute the drugs all along the East Coast. Other Luciano Lt.'s working mainland Italy included American deportees, Frank Barone and Giuseppe Arena in Rome, Frank Pirico, Frank Saverino and Giovanni Maugeri in Milan, Salvatore DiBella in Naples, and former Mangano crime family soldier, Joseph "Joe Peachy" Pici in Milan and Genoa. Others U.S. distribution groups that worked with Luciano and his allies were "The Bellanca Gang", brothers, Antonio, Joseph and Sebastiano "Benny Blanca" Bellanca and Gaetano "Tommy" Martino of the Mangano crime family. Then there was the group of Settimo "Big Sam" Accardi, Joseph "Hoboken Joe" Stassi and his brothers, Frank and Anthony Stassi, Anthony Granza, Vincent Ferrara and Louis Cirillo who worked for Albert "The Mad Hatter" Anastasia and Carlo "Carl" Gambino. Even with all the growing animosity Lucky Luciano couldn't leave out his old associate, Vito "Don Vito" Genovese who had his group of distributors including Anthony "Tony Bender" Strollo, Vincent "Vinnie Bruno" Mauro, Frank "The Bug" Caruso, Salvatore "Sam" Maneri, Vincent "Chin" Gigante and even Joseph "Joe Cago" Valachi who were all associated with the "Papalia-Agueci Network" of the Magaddino crime family of Buffalo and led by members, John "Johnny Pops" Papalia and Alberto Agueci of Hamilton and Toronto, Ontario.

Salvatore "Charlie Lucky" Luciano's narcotics empire continued to grow and prosper with the help of his U.S. associates all around the country. Many of Luciano's partners in the narcotics empire were "Havana Conference" delegates such as Joseph "The Old Man" Profaci who was once the biggest importer of olive oil and tomato paste in the United States and quietly used his food importation business to smuggle narcotics for decades, Gaetano "Tommy Brown" Lucchese, a longtime Luciano ally from their days as children in the streets of New York and who along with his Lucchese crime family's narcotics distribution arm, the 107th St. Crew which controlled all heroin distribution in Harlem, New York. Without a doubt one of the architects of the American heroin network and a partner of Luciano is well known and powerful New York mafia Boss, Joseph "Joe Bananas" Bonanno, the patriarch of the Bonanno crime family, who along with the assistance of his cousin, Buffalo crime family Boss, Stefano "The Undertaker" Magaddino led the American mafia's expansion into Canada. Bonanno's and Magaddino's crime families in New York and Buffalo opened up Montreal and Toronto in the 1950's as satellite groups or individual operations connected with the famous "The French Connection", but eventually the satellite groups would grow into their own powerful crime families and control massive narcotics distribution networks that still operate even today, all of the narcotics networks mentioned help destroy the myth that Charlie Luciano and La Cosa Nostra were against narcotics! When Cuban President, Fulgencio Batista y Zaldivar was eventually overthrown by Fidel Castro in 1959, the mob had to look elsewhere for a landing and storage facility for their narcotics shipments, but "The Big Time" in the narcotics business for La Cosa Nostra all started with Cuba and the "Havana Conference."

[edit] The Siegel Situation

The next item up for business was what Lansky called the "Siegel Situation". Benjamin "Bugsy" Siegel had been purposely excluded from the Havana Conference because he was one of the main topics discussed. In the mid 1930s, Siegel was sent out West to California and Nevada by the New York and Chicago crime families to set up and oversee the racewire service and to oversee gambling activities in Los Angeles and Nevada along with narcotics shipments coming in from Mexico. Very popular in Hollywood's most glamorous circles, Seigel became obsessed with the idea of constructing a casino and hotel that would rival those in Monte Carlo and elsewhwere, his dream - the Flamingo Hotel – in Las Vegas. Benny Seigel persuaded his longtime friend and business associate, fellow Jewish crime Boss, National Crime Syndicate financial advisor and money launderer, Meyer "The Brain" Lansky to assist him in convincing the Bosses in New York and Chicago to finance his project and that the hotel and casino would be a smart and profitable investment! The hotel's estimated building costs were around $1.5 million, but they eventually reached $6 million due to Benny Seigel's lack of construction experience and the fact that he placed his girlfriend Virginia Hill as an overseer of the project! Siegel had terrible business sense outside of the rackets such as gambling, loansharking, narcotics and was used to robbing, stealing and chaeting, not building a hotel and casino and running them as legitimate businesses. Builders were selling him materials one day, stealing them back from the building site at night, coming back the next day and selling them back to Seigel!

Meyer Lansky along with the New York and Chicago Bosses eventually came across information that Siegel's girlfriend, Virginia Hill, was taking frequent trips abroad and depositing money in a Zurich, Switzerland bank account. Meyer Lansky had reason to believe his friend and partner, Benny Siegel was skimming money from the capital he received from Luciano, Lansky and the other Bosses who had invested in the project and might possibly even leave the U.S. if the Flamingo failed to be a success. Ben Seigel was one of the main topics at the Havana meeting, millions of dollars had been invested in the Las Vegas project and Seigel had failed so far as the Flamingo's initial costs had skyrocketed to say the least, the hotel was not yet finished and able to accommodate guests and the matter of Seigel and Hill stealing money was the final insult to the Bosses, especially Seigel's old friends and allies, Luciano and Lansky. Following a general discussion about Ben Seigel and the Flamingo a vote was taken in which the Jewish Syndicate Bosses did not participate, being that they had not invested in the Las Vegas hotel and casino, it was decided that Siegel would be killed, and the Conference's council of La Cosa Nostra Bosses chose Chicago Outfit Consigliere, Charles "Trigger Happy" Fischetti to oversee the contract and give it to Jack Dragna, the Los Angeles crime family Boss and a close associate of Ben Seigel's in California who had access to Seigel. It is alleged that Jack Dragna, who was known to despise Siegel then gave the contract to Mob hitman, Paul "Frankie" Carbo, a Luciano crime family soldier who eventually became the czar of professional boxing in America and was out West in California at the time of Seigel's demise. Meyer Lansky had convinced the other delegates that they should wait until the Flamingo opened on 26 December to see how the casino fared so the gangsters took a break for Christmas.

On the 26th, word reached the assembled hoods in Havana that the Flamingo's opening night had flopped! The enraged mobsters demanded Siegel's head on a platter, but Lansky once again convinced them that Bugsy could save the casino and remove it from the red. Following a closure for repairs and too complete the hotel the Flamingo reopened a few months later. It soon began churning out a profit, but Siegel fate was sealed and he was assassinated, shot 4 times, twice in the head and twice in the torso while sitting in the livingroom of the Beverly Hills mansion he and Virginia Hill shared reading a newspaper by a hitman with an army carbine on 20 June 1947, Seigel's left eye had been shot out and it was found allegedly on the fireplace mantel!

[edit] Lucky and Don Vito

The tension between Luciano and Genovese allegedly reached a boiling point at the conclusion of the Havana Conference according to authors of the book, "The Last Testament of Lucky Luciano", Martin Gosch and Richard Hammer. In Luciano's hotel room, Genovese told him that the U.S. government knew that Lucky was in Cuba and was putting pressure on the Batista regime to have him expelled. Genovese then declared his desire to inherit Lucky's position as official Boss of the Luciano crime family and his wish for Luciano to hand over crime family business interests he controlled and retire, since Luciano would be back in Italy.

Luciano snapped, sure that Vito had tipped off the Washington authorities about his whereabouts. He proceeded to beat Genovese and eventually broke three of his ribs; it was three days before Vito could travel again. Luciano and Anastasia then put Genovese on a plane and Charlie Luciano threatened Vito Genovese with death if he ever mentioned the altercation to anyone.

In February 1947, the New York City papers got wind of the fact that Lucky was in Cuba, and U.S. drug agent Harry Anslinger or that S.O.B Asslinger as Luciano called him, demanded that mafia Boss, Charlie "Lucky" Luciano be deported back to Italy as Anslinger had credited Luciano with the recent rise of heroin shipments to the United States. Anslinger even went so far as to seek support for Luciano's expulsion from President Harry S. Truman when the Cuban government refused to comply with his request. The U.S. government halted all shipments of medical supplies to Cuba until Luciano left the island. Lucky Luciano, Meyer Lansky, and Fulgencio Batista y Zaldivar, military leader and President of Cuba at the time, tried to concoct a counter measure against the U.S. embargo by halting all Cuban sugar exports to the United States, but it failed! Lucky Luciano was arrested that month and deported from Cuba, arrested once again when he landed on Italian soil in April, but released soon after.

Salvatore "Charlie Lucky" Luciano died on January 26, 1962 of a heart attack at the Naples, Italy airport while picking up movie producer Martin Gosch who had assisted Luciano by writing a screenplay based on Lucky's life, their ultimate goal was to produce a movie only it was nixed by Luciano's longtime associates on the American mafia Commission, but eventually Gosch along with Richard Hammer used the information they allegedly received from Luciano and wrote the book, "The Last Testament of Lucky Luciano" in 1975. Luciano's lomgtime associate and eventual nemesis, Vito Genovese ended up eventually dying in an Atlanta prison in 1969. Ironically the two mafiosi, Luciano and Genovese ended up buried 100 feet from each other in the same cemetery in New York.

[edit] Havana Conference Attendees

Main article: List of Havana Conference invitees

[edit] Hosts

  • Charlie "Lucky" Luciano, Luciano Family Boss, Charter Commission member, chairman and co-founder, defacto "Boss of Bosses".
  • Meyer "The Brain" Lansky, Jewish Syndicate Boss, a top financial and gambling operations advisor for the Italian mafia in America and casino operations front man (Las Vegas, Cuba, Bahamas)

[edit] New York-New Jersey Delegation

[edit] Chicago Delegation

  • Anthony "Joe Batters" Accardo, Chicago Outfit Boss, Commission member.
  • Charles "Trigger Happy" Fischetti, Chicago Outfit Consigliere.
  • Rocco Fischetti, Chicago Outfit Lieutenant.

[edit] Buffalo Delegation

[edit] New Orleans Delegation

[edit] Tampa Delegation

  • Santo "Louie Santos" Trafficante Jr., Tampa Family caporegime, moved to Havana in 1946 to oversee La Cosa Nostra and Tampa Family casino and business interests, future Tampa Family Boss.

[edit] Jewish Syndicate Delegation

[edit] Sidenote

As sure as Charlie Lucky Luciano knew that Vito Genovese had tipped of the U.S. government to his whereabouts in Cuba,what he didn't live to find out was that it was "Joe Bananas" Bonanno who tipped off the New York City papers to Luciano's whereabouts in Cuba in February 1947. Joseph Bonanno was a very respected and feared Don who was also ruthless and very ambitious and always had aspired to being crowned "Capo di tutti Capi", "Boss of Bosses" just like his former Boss and mentor Salvatore Maranzano. This information of Joseph Bonanno's treachery was picked up by former F.B.I. agent William Roemer, who was given the information by several of his former F.B.I. colleagues. Bill Roemer details this from pages 132-42 in his 1990 book, War of the Godfathers.

Both of the above events take place in works of fiction

[edit] In Fiction

The film The Godfather Part II has an "homage" to the Havana Conference when Michael Corleone travels to Havana to have a meeting with several other mob bosses.

[edit] References

  • Cook, Fred. Mafia. Fawcett Gold Medal, 1973.
  • Gage, Nicholas. Mafia U.S.A. Dell Publishing Company, 1972.
  • Gosch, Martin. & Hammer, Richard. The Last Testament of Lucky Luciano. Dell Publishing Company, 1974.
  • Hammer, Richard. Playboy's Illustrated History of Organized Crime. Playboy Press, 1975.
  • Maclean, Don. Pictorial History of the Mafia. Pyramid Books, 1974.
  • Reid, Ed. Mafia, Cosa Nostra, Syndicate. Random House, 1954.
  • Repetto, Thomas. The American Mafia: A History of Its Rise to Power. Henry Holt & Company, 2004.
  • Roemer, William. War of the Godfathers. Ivy Books, 1990.
  • Sifakis, Carl. The Mafia Encyclopedia (2nd edition). Checkmark Books, 1999.
  • Sondern Jr., Frederic. Brotherhood of Evil: The Mafia. Manor Books, 1972.

[edit] External links

Portal:Cuba
 Cuba Portal
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