Record

Hearing

1950-12-29

U.S. Senate Special Committee to Investigate Organized Crime in Interstate Commerce, via Internet Archive

Kefauver Part 1-A: testimony of Tony Licata, Tampa (29 December 1950)

A Tampa restaurant owner describes becoming a partner in a bolita operation in 1947. Counsel goes through a list of bolita bankers (Exhibit 11); asked about the two Trafficantes, Licata answers 'I don't know, father and son, I guess.' Pp. 150-164.

Date: 1950-12-29
Kind: hearing
Source: U.S. Senate Special Committee to Investigate Organized Crime in Interstate Commerce, via Internet Archive
Retrieved: 2026-10-12
Rights: A hearing print of the United States Senate, published by the Government Printing Office. A work of the United States Congress, public domain under 17 U.S.C. § 105. The Internet Archive item marks it not in copyright.

Tony Licata of Tampa testified on 29 December 1950 (pp. 150-164 of Part 1-A). He described how he came to be a partner in a bolita operation in 1947 and how his peddlers were arrested under the Hillsborough County sheriff. Counsel Downey Rice then went through a list of bolita bankers and their peddlers (committee Exhibit 11), including headings for Angel Daniels, Trafficante and Jimmie Velasco (pp. 160-161).

Asked whether there was a distinction between Trafficante Sr. and Trafficante Jr., Licata answered “I don’t know, father and son, I guess.” He was shown the list by counsel and does not himself state who the Trafficantes are or what they did. This page is cited for the structure of the questioning and for that answer only.

itemKefauver Committee hearings, Part 1A: Florida (1950–1951)Printed hearings of the Senate Special Committee to Investigate Organized Crime in Interstate Commerce, Part 1A, Florida: sessions in Washington and Tampa, November 1950 to February 1951.itemKefauver Part 1-A: testimony of Lt. Charles A. Marvin, former Tampa police officer (29 December 1950)A former Tampa patrolman repeats street talk that Santo Trafficante, Jr. would head the gambling syndicate and that Santo Trafficante, Sr. had 'supposedly or allegedly' been head of the Mafia in Tampa for twenty years. By his own account the statements are rumor. Pp. 137-150.itemKefauver Part 1-A: testimony of Oscar Perez, Miami (30 December 1950)Jimmy Velasco's former chauffeur agrees with counsel's list of sections of the Tampa syndicate, including 'The Trafficantes in another section,' and repeats what Velasco told him, adding that he cannot vouch for it. Pp. 242-253, syndicate passage at pp. 243-244.