Kefauver Part 7: Meyer Lansky on Havana, the race track, the 'Nationale' casino and Luciano (14 February 1951, pp. 609-614)

In a New York executive session Lansky told the committee he was in business in Havana from 'the late years of 1937' with 'the race track, and a casino, Nationale,' that the operation stopped when the war broke out, and that his meetings with Luciano in Havana were 'Purely social.'

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.

Printed pages 609 to 614 of Part 7 carry the further testimony of Meyer Lansky, taken in executive session in New York on 14 February 1951 and later printed. Chief counsel Rudolph Halley and the chairman asked the questions; Lansky’s counsel, Moses Polakoff, interjected. The passages below were read from the archive’s OCR text of the scan. The GPO print spells the city “Habana.”

Asked when he was in business in Havana, Lansky said: “In the late years of 1937.” Asked what business, he answered: “I had the race track, and a casino, Nationale.” He said his interest was “Operation,” that “we leased it from the National City Bank,” and that the partnership included “a man by the name of Al Levy” and “Martin.” He said the casino and the track were “one operation,” that the restaurant was rented out, and that the operation stopped: “we stopped when the war broke out.” He also said, “I spent 4 years in Habana, and about 6 months a year,” and that at the time Luciano was there he “was very much interested to try to get the Montmartre Club.”

On Luciano, Lansky said he did not recall at first, then “I guess I have seen him there,” that he could not have seen him “more than twice,” that he may have eaten with him, and that it was “Purely social” (Polakoff’s phrase, which Lansky repeated). Asked where he stayed, he answered “The Nationale.” Asked whether Luciano had a home in Cuba, he said: “I think he had an apartment; I don’t know.” Polakoff placed the Havana period in “1945 or 1946”; Halley placed it in “1947 or 1948.” The FBI’s Havana reports give Luciano’s stay in Cuba as October 1946 to March 1947.

The chairman called the place “the casino at the Nationale Hotel—the Nationale Casino.” The FBI’s 1947 reports distinguish the Hotel Nacional de Cuba from the Gran Casino Nacional at Marianao, which they describe as one of the only two places in Cuba where gambling was legal. This testimony does not say which building Lansky meant, and this archive does not decide it. These are a witness’s answers under oath, not findings of the committee.