Kefauver Part 7: Gerald Catena on a trip to Havana with Willie Moretti and a dinner with Luciano (14 February 1951, pp. 650-652, 659)

Catena testified that he went to Havana with Willie Moretti 'about 3 years ago,' had dinner with Luciano one night downstairs at the hotel he named as the 'Nationale,' that a man he called 'Vince,' Mangano, was there, and that Meyer Lansky was not.

Date

1951-02-14

Kind

hearing

Source

Internet Archive, scan of the printed hearings, Part 7: New York-New Jersey

Retrieved

2026-10-12

Rights

A work of the United States Congress, printed by the Government Printing Office. Public domain in the United States. 17 U.S.C. § 105.

Gerald Catena testified on 14 February 1951; the Havana passages are at printed pages 650 to 652 and 659 of Part 7. Asked by Rudolph Halley whether he ever took a trip with Willie Moretti, he answered: “I went to Habana with him.” He first put it “about 2 years ago,” then “About 3 years ago.” He said he saw Luciano: “I had dinner with him one night.” Asked where, he said “At the hotel,” and named it: “Nationale. I believe that is the name.” The dinner was “downstairs,” in the dining room, and Catena and Moretti were the ones staying at the hotel.

He said the stay was “2 or 3 days,” that “A fellow by the name of Vince” was there, and confirmed “That is Mangano.” He said no business was talked “in front of me,” that he was not present for all the talk, and that he “just went around out in the outside like any other visitor of Cuba.” Asked what money he took, he said “Just a couple of hundred dollars.” Asked whether Meyer Lansky was there at that time, he answered: “No, sir.” At page 659 he said Moretti “asked me if I wanted to take a trip to Havana” and did not mention Mangano beforehand.

The date of the trip is only Catena’s estimate. Nothing in this testimony describes a meeting or its business, and it is a separate account from the FBI’s 1947 record of the visitors Luciano named. These are a witness’s answers under oath, not findings.