Legal Attache, Havana, to the Director, 19 January 1953: no sign of Luciano in Havana; the Sans Souci's gambling concession 'held by American gambling interests'
The Havana office reports a Christmas card from Luciano postmarked Naples and an INS inquiry that found no indication he had been in Havana recently. The INS officer had spoken with a man employed at the Sans Souci night club, 'the gambling concession for which is held by American gambling interests.'
- Date
- 1953-01-19
- Kind
- case-file
- Retrieved
- 2026-10-12
- Rights
- A record of the Federal Bureau of Investigation released under FOIA. A work of the United States government, public domain under 17 U.S.C. § 105. The page image of viewer page 436 is stored here.
Viewer page 436 of Part 01 is a memorandum of 19 January 1953 from the Legal Attache in Havana (file 62-8) to the Director. A source said he had been shown a Christmas card from Luciano to the Cuban lawyer who arranged his 1946 entry, bearing “a Naples, Italy postmark dated December 15, 1952.” The writer adds that this “does not necessarily mean that subject is in Italy.”
John Bonds, the officer in charge of the INS office at the embassy, reported that INS in New Orleans had been told someone there tried to call Luciano in Havana. C. M. DeWitt of INS then said he could find no indication that Luciano “is or has been in Havana recently,” having spoken with a man described as “an Italian and former resident of the United States, who is presently employed at the Sans Souci night club, the gambling concession for which is held by American gambling interests.” The man told him “that definitely subject is not in Havana” and that several people had received Christmas cards from Italy.
The description of the Sans Souci concession is an INS officer’s statement relayed by the FBI; it names no holder. It is the earliest mention of the Sans Souci in the records filed here. The memo of 18 December 1952 on the following page relays a Cuban gambler’s report about Luciano in Europe and is not used.
