Trafficante crime family

The Trafficante crime family also known as the Tampa Mafia, is the only original Mafia crime family in the state of Florida.^[1]

History

Tampa's underworld

Tampa crime started with Charlie "The Dean of the underworld" Wall who in the 1920s controlled a number of gambling rackets and corrupt government officials. Wall controlled Tampa from the neighborhood known as Ybor City, he employed Italians, Cubans and other races into his organization. Charlie Wall's only competition was Tampa's earliest Italian Mafia boss Ignacio Antinori.^[1]

Antinori gang

The first Italian gang in the Tampa Bay area was created by Ignacio Antinori in 1925. Antinori a Sicilian-born immigrant became a well-known drug kingpin and the Italian crime boss of Tampa in the late 1920s. A smaller Italian gang in the area was controlled by Santo Trafficante, Sr., who had lived in Tampa since the age of 18. Trafficante had already set up Bolita games throughout the city and was a very powerful man. Antinori took notice of Santo Trafficante and invited him into his organization and together they expanded the Bolita games across the state. By the 1930s Ignacio Antinori and Charlie Wall were in a bloody war for ten years, which would later be known as "Era of Blood". Wall's closest associate, Evaristo "Tito" Rubio was shot on his porch on March 8, 1938. The war ended in the 1940s with Ignacio Antinori being shot and killed with a sawn-off shotgun. Both Wall's and Antinori's organizations were weakened leaving Santo Trafficante as one of the last and most powerful bosses in Tampa.^[1]

Trafficante Sr. era

Santo Trafficante Sr. had now taken over a majority of the city and started to teach his son Santo Trafficante Jr. how to run the city. In Trafficante Sr.'s adult life he only portrayed himself as a successful Tampa cigar factory owner.^[2] Santo was being watched closely by police and made Salvatore "Red" Italiano the acting boss. With the untimely Kefauver hearings and Charlie Wall testifying in 1950, both Trafficantes fled to Cuba. He always wanted to make it big in Cuban casinos and dispatched his son, Santo, Jr., to Havana in 1946 to help operate a mob owned casino. The Tampa mob made a lot of money in Cuba, but never achieved its ambition of making the island part of its own territory. After the hearings ended the Trafficantes returned to Tampa to find out that Italiano had just fled to Mexico leaving Jimmy Lumia the biggest mobster in the city. Santo had Lumia killed after finding out he was bad mouthing him while he was in Cuba and he took over again. In 1953 Santo Jr. survived a shooting. The family suspected it was Charlie Wall and they had him killed in 1955. Trafficante remained the boss of Tampa until he died of natural causes in 1954.^[1][3]

Trafficante Jr. era

Santo Trafficante, Jr. succeeded his father as the boss of Tampa and ruled his family with an iron fist.^[3] Despite numerous stunted ambitions, he was regarded as one of the most powerful mob bosses of the American Mafia. Santo, Jr. was born in the United States on Nov. 15, 1914 and was one of five sons of Mafia boss Santo Trafficante. He maintained close working ties with the Lucchese crime family and the Bonanno crime family from New York City. Santo Jr. worked closely with Lucchese family boss Tommy Lucchese, who was a friend of his father, and a man who helped train him in the 1940s.^[4]

Santo, Jr. was known to have been deeply involved in the CIA efforts to involve the underworld in assassination attempts on Fidel Castro.^[3] Under pressure of a court order granting him immunity from prosecution, but threatening him with contempt if he refused to talk, Trafficante admitted to a Congressional committee in 1975 that he had in the early 1960s recruited other mobsters to assassinate Castro. "It was like World War II" he told the committee. "They told me to go to the draft board and sign up." In 1978, Trafficante once again testified before a Congressional committee, this time on the assassination of John F. Kennedy. This committee was especially interested in a sworn statement made to committee investigators by Cuban exile leader Jose Aleman that months before the Kennedy assassination, Trafficante had told him, "Kennedy's gonna get hit." However, in public testimony, Aleman gave the comment a different interpretation. Another informant insisted to federal investigators that Santo, Jr. predicted the Kennedy assassination six months before it happened. The mob boss was also known to have a connection with mob associate Jack Ruby, who shot and killed JFK assassin Lee Harvey Oswald. Santo, Jr. never spent a day in jail, and he died of natural causes in 1987.^[5]

LoScalzo era

In 1987 Vincent LoScalzo became boss of the Trafficante family and Florida became open territory. The Five Families of New York City could work in any city in the state. LoScalzo's new family was smaller because many of the older mobsters were dead or retired.^[6] He has interests in gambling, prostitution, narcotics, union racketeering, hijacking and fencing stolen goods. He controls a few bars, lounges, restaurants, night clubs and liquor stores all over the state of Florida. Loscalzo has ties to California, New Jersey, and New York as well as being connected to the Sicilian Mafia. On July 1, 1989 LoScalzo was indicted on racketeering charges that included grand theft, the charges were later dropped and then reinstated. LoScalzo plead no contest on October 7, 1997 and received three months of probation. In 1992, LoScalzo was arrested at the Tampa International Airport for carrying a loaded .38-caliber pistol in his brief case. The weapon showed up on the x-ray scanner. He was convicted for the charge in 1999 and was sentenced to 60 days in jail.^[6]

South Florida operations

Santo Jr. started the family's south Florida crew in the early 1980s, he put Steven Bruno Raffa in charge. Bruno ran the crew with associates and freelancers after the death of Santo Jr. Raffa maintained a good relationship with Loscalzo, the new boss of the family and Genovese mobster John Mamone. In 2000 nineteen members of the crew were arrested and Raffa committed suicide.^[7][8]

Current Status

On November 25, 2007 Vincent LoScalzo is now 70 years old a semi-retired mobster and a "regular Joe" said Scott Deitche, author of "Cigar City Mafia." The old family membership has died and the Tampa Mob has fallen in the shadows of the NYC mobs.^[9]

Gambinos in Tampa

Recently statements have spread across Florida that John A. "Junior" Gotti, son of the late Gambino crime family boss John Gotti, has been running organized crime in Tampa since his release from prison in 2005. Gotti is allegedly a captain in the Gambino family. On August 5, 2008 Gotti was indicted on charges of racketeering, kidnapping, conspiracy to commit murder and drug trafficking. He and five others were indicted by a Florida grand jury.^[10]

Historical leadership

Boss (official and acting)

• 1920–1940 — Ignacio Antinori — murdered October 24, 1940.
• 1940–1954 — Santo Trafficante, Sr. — died in August 1954 of a heart attack.^[11]
  • Acting 1946–1948 — Salvatore "Red" Italiano — Ignazio's nephew, fled in Mexico.^[12]
  • Acting 1948–1950 — James "Head of the Elks" Lumia — murdered on June 5, 1950.
• 1954–1987 — Santo Trafficante, Jr. — died on March 17, 1987.
• 1987–1998 — Frank Ragano
• 1998–present — Vincent LoScalzo^[13]

Underboss

• 1920–1940 — Santo Trafficante, Sr. — promoted to boss.
• 1940–1948 — Salvatore "Red" Italiano — fled in Mexico.
• 1948–1950 — James "Head of the Elks" Lumia — murdered on June 5, 1950.
• 1950–1954 — Santo Trafficante, Jr. — promoted to boss.
• 1954–1987 — Vincent LoScalzo — promoted to boss.
• 1987–1994 — Frank "Daddy Frank" Diecidue — longtime Tampa member; died October 19, 1994.^[13]
• 1994–present — Frank Albano^[13]

Consigliere

• 1954–1987 — Frank Ragano — he was an attorney/advisor to Santo Trafficante Jr.

Former members

• Ignazio Italiano – was a friend of Profaci family boss Joseph Profaci, they were from the same town of Villabate in Sicily. Ignazio was a produce salesman's and the uncle to Tampa mobster Salvatore "Red" Italiano. He died on August 11, 1930.^[12]

In popular culture

• Newell, Mike. Donnie Brasco (1997). A Hollywood film about former FBI agent Joseph Pistone. The actor Val Avery played the part of Santo Trafficante, Jr.
• Poulette, Michel. Bonanno: A Godfather's Story (1999). A made for television film about the rise and fall of the Bonanno crime family. The actor John Burns played the part of Mafia boss Santo Trafficante, Jr.
• Guzzo, Pete. Ghost of Ybor (2008). A made for television film about the life of the American gangster Charlie Wall. It shows the Trafficante crime family in the end of the film.

References

Notes

1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 Deitche, Scott. "The Mob" April 26, 2001
2. ↑ Deitche, Scott. "Cigar City Mafia: A Complete History of the Tampa Underworld". New York: Barricade Books. 2004
3. ↑ 3.0 3.1 3.2 Deitche, Scott. "The Silent Don: The Criminal Underworld of Santo Trafficante Jr". New York: Barricade Books. 2008
4. ↑ Five Families: The Rise, Decline, and Resurgence of America's Most Powerful mafia empires by Selwyn Raab (pg. 105)
5. ↑ Deitche, Scott. "The Everything Mafia Book, Second Edition". New York: Barricade Books. 2007
6. ↑ 6.0 6.1 Weimar, Carrie. "Throwback: Tampa mob trail". ST. Petersburg Times. October 16, 2006
7. ↑ The Snitch – Page 2 – News – Broward/Palm Beach – New Times Broward-Palm Beach
8. ↑ AmericanMafia.com – Feature Articles 108
9. ↑ Van Sickler, Michael. "Kingpin of no Kingdom: A Brandom man Denies any mafia ties". ST. Petersburg Times. November 25, 2007
10. ↑ Entire John "Junior" Gotti Tampa Gambino Crime Family Indictment ~ The Chicago Syndicate
11. ↑ The American Mafia – Tampa Crime Bosses
12. ↑ 12.0 12.1 Critchley, David. The origins of organized crime in America: the New York City mafia, 1891–1931. 2009. Routlege Publishing.
13. ↑ 13.0 13.1 13.2 Scott Deitche. The Tampa Mob. and Mario Machi. Tampa, Florida. AmericanMafia.com

Sources

• Sifakis, Carl. Mafia Encyclopedia, Second Edition. New York: Da Capo Press, 1999. ISBN 978-0816018567
• Deitche, Scott. Cigar City Mafia: A Complete History of The Tampa Underworld. New York: Barricade Books, 2004. ISBN 1-56980-266-1
• Deitche, Scott. The Silent Don: The Criminal Underworld of Santo Trafficante, Jr.. New York: Barricade Books, 2008.
• Deitche, Scott. The Everything Mafia Book, Second Edition. New York: Barricade Books, 2007.
• Pistone, Joseph. Donnie Brasco: My Undercover Life in the Mafia. Joseph Pistone, 1987. ISBN 978-0451192578
• Davis, John. Mafia Kingfish: Carlos Marcello and the Assassination of John F. Kennedy. New York: Signet, 1989.
• Capeci, Jerry. The Complete Idiot's Guide to the Mafia, Second Edition. New York: Alpha Books, 2005.
• DeVico, Peter. The Mafia Made Easy. Peter DeVico, 2007. ISBN 978-1-6024725-4-9
• BLISS, A.J., "MAKING A SUNBELT PLACE: TAMPA, FLORIDA," 1923–1964, Ph.d. Dissertation, by – 2010

External links

• Rick Porrello's American Mafia: Tampa, Florida by Scott Deitche
• Dieland Mob: The Trafficante Family (Tampa)
• American Gangland:Trafficante Crime Family