# FBI Miami memorandum on Santos Trafficante, Jr.: Top Hoodlum Coverage (30 September 1953)

Canonical: https://mobfiles.org/items/fbi-vault-trafficante-p01-1953-09-30-top-hoodlum-memo/

A Miami office memorandum to the Director transmits a background memorandum on Santos Trafficante, Jr., with birth data for him and his father and informant and newspaper allegations that the family headed an 'Italian Syndicate' in Tampa.

Viewer pages 2-5 of Part 01 of the FBI Vault's Santo Trafficante file (file number 62-3501, printed in the memo heading and as "MM 62-3501" on page 19). The Special Agent in Charge at Miami sends the Director a background memorandum on Santos Trafficante, Jr. It states that he was born on 15 November 1914 at Tampa, and that his father, Santos Trafficante, Sr., also known as Santos Capello, was born on 28 May 1886 in Cianciana, Italy, and was naturalized in the U.S. District Court at Tampa on 12 June 1925.

The memorandum then collects statements from informants and newspapers: that the family headed an "Italian Syndicate" in Tampa and was "recognized as the head of the Italian Syndicate," that Trafficante Jr. was shot by shotgun blasts on 2 January 1953 by unknown assailants, and that a state subpoena was served on him on 23 August 1953. These characterizations are FBI-reported allegations. They are not findings of any court or of the Bureau. This record rests on the Vault viewer's OCR text layer; the page image of viewer page 2 is now stored here. OCR names and file-number lines are partly garbled or redacted.

## Sources

- FBI Records: The Vault: https://vault.fbi.gov/santo-trafficante/santo-trafficante-part-01/view
- FBI Vault: Santo Trafficante (file index): https://vault.fbi.gov/santo-trafficante