FBI Correlation Summary on Santo Trafficante, Jr. (main file 92-2781, searched 4 March 1971): Havana entries for 1955-1958
A 1971 headquarters digest of Bureau references, marked 'NOT SUITABLE FOR DISSEMINATION,' records Legal Attache and informant reports placing Trafficante at the Sevilla Biltmore, the Sans Souci, the Hotel Nacional, the Capri and the Havana-Riviera, nearly all with 'reportedly,' 'allegedly' or 'appeared.'
- Date
- 1971-03-04
- 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 431 is stored here.
Viewer pages 424 to 452 of Part 04 hold an FBI correlation summary on Santo Trafficante, Jr., main file 92-2781, “Date Searched: 3/4/71.” It digests every Bureau “see” reference to him and warns that it “HAS BEEN PREPARED FOR USE AT THE SEAT OF GOVERNMENT AND IS NOT SUITABLE FOR DISSEMINATION.” This record covers its Havana entries for 1955 to 1958, on pages 428 to 439; the stored image is page 431. Each entry is a report of a report.
The entries include: a Legal Attache letter of 14 February 1955 about a “Santo” who arrived in Havana on 15 January 1955, “possibly identical with Santo Trafficante, Jr.” (pages 428-429); a report of 1 November 1955 that the Sevilla Biltmore Hotel “had been on a list approved to open gambling establishments and that Trafficante had been selected to operate the gambling casino,” over the hotel manager’s objection (page 436); the Legal Attache’s report of 21 March 1956 that Joe Stassi “appeared to have had a controlling interest in the gambling casino at the San Souci Night Club” and first came to Havana with Trafficante (page 436); and the Legal Attache’s letter of 20 December 1956 that the Sans Souci “was owned and operated by Santos Traficante, Jr., and Joe Stassi, a more or less silent partner” (page 431). Page 431 also relays informants’ reports that Trafficante was one of the “most influential point holders” in the Capri Club in 1957 and that “Richi Boiardo, an LCN member from New Jersey,” had an interest there.
For 1958, an informant said on 9 January that Trafficante, at the Hotel Nacional, “was contacting Jake Lansky, overseer of operations at the hotel casino, and not Meyer Lansky, who had a large interest in the casino” (page 437). On 31 January 1958 his car was at “the apartment of Meyer Lansky, Calle 12, Havana,” while the Lanskys held a meeting there; no number is given (page 433). The Legal Attache reported on 25 September 1958 that one of the major interest holders in the Hotel Capri casino “reportedly was Santo Trafficante” (page 438), and an informant said on 3 December 1958 that he “appeared to have been one of the interest holders in the Havana-Riviera casino, Havana, Cuba, of which Jack Lansky (92-3089) was manager” (page 439).
These are informant and Legal Attache reports, summarized years later, and nearly every one is qualified. Pages 433 to 445 also repeat Mafia and “boss” labels from informants and newspapers, and a “theory” in the Anastasia murder inquiry; none is a finding, and none is copied to a chart. The summary names a “Jack Lansky” as Riviera manager and “Jake Lansky” at the Nacional; no record filed here says they are the same man. A page of this summary prints a home address in Tampa, which this archive does not reproduce.
