Record

Hearing

1979

U.S. House Select Committee on Assassinations, Report (1979), via National Archives

House Select Committee on Assassinations report (1979), pp. 151-152: Lewis McWillie and the Tropicana casino in Havana

The committee reports that Jack Ruby's friend Lewis McWillie worked in Havana casinos from 1958 to 1960, names the Tropicana as 'the casino for which he worked,' and says his files indicate ties to Meyer Lansky and Santos Trafficante.

Date: 1979
Kind: hearing
Source: U.S. House Select Committee on Assassinations, Report (1979), via National Archives
Retrieved: 2026-10-12
Rights: A report of the U.S. House Select Committee on Assassinations, republished by the National Archives. A work of the United States Congress, public domain under 17 U.S.C. § 105.

At p. 151 the House Select Committee on Assassinations reports that Lewis McWillie moved from Dallas to Cuba in 1958 and worked in gambling casinos in Havana until 1960, and that law enforcement files indicate business and personal ties to Meyer Lansky and Santos Trafficante. At p. 152 it names the Tropicana as “the casino for which he worked” and says McWillie made trips to Miami on behalf of the owners of the Tropicana to deposit funds. It uses this in explaining why it judged Jack Ruby’s 1959 trip to be a possible courier trip, and it notes a continuing need for Havana casino operators to send assets out of Cuba to protect them from seizure by the Castro government.

The courier theory is described by the committee as a judgment, not an established fact. The page names the Tropicana but gives no street address for it.

itemHouse Select Committee on Assassinations report (1979), pp. 172-175: the committee's findings on Santos TrafficanteThe committee calls Santos Trafficante 'the La Cosa Nostra leader in Florida' and finds he had 'the motive, means, and opportunity' to assassinate President Kennedy, but concludes it is unlikely he plotted to do so.

itemFBI 'Top Hoodlum Coverage' summary on Meyer Lansky: Havana gambling and the Tropicana Night Club (14 September 1955)An FBI intelligence summary says information from the Bureau representative in Cuba was that Meyer and Jake Lansky were trying to set up a gambling operation in Havana, and that agents saw Meyer Lansky with Dino Cellini, credit manager at the Tropicana Night Club's gambling concession. Part is redacted.