Santo Trafficante, Jr.

On the record

• 29-30 December 1950 — At the Tampa hearings, Lt. Charles A. Marvin said he had heard street talk that Trafficante Jr. would head the Tampa gambling syndicate ("rumor"), and Oscar Perez, repeating what Jimmy Velasco told him, said the Trafficantes fronted for one section of it and that he could not vouch for it (Kefauver Part 1-A, pp. 146, 243-244). Secondhand testimony.
• 30 September 1953 — An FBI Miami memorandum (Vault, Trafficante Part 01; OCR only) states he was born 15 November 1914 at Tampa, and repeats informant and newspaper allegations that he headed an "Italian Syndicate" in Tampa, that he was shot by shotgun blasts on 2 January 1953 by unknown assailants, and that a state subpoena was served on 23 August 1953.
• 30 September 1955 — An FBI Miami memorandum (Vault, Trafficante Part 01) states that "In recent months SANTO TRAFFICANTE, JR. has been making frequent trips to Havana, Cuba, where he is closely associated with NORMAN ROTHMAN," and that in Cuba he "hangs out around the Sans Souci Night Club outside of Havana, and at the Sevilla Biltmore Hotel." A 1957 Miami airtel says the memo gave no source for the hangouts.
• 1 November 1955 — A 1971 FBI correlation summary (Vault, Trafficante Part 04) relays a report that the Sevilla Biltmore Hotel in Havana was approved to open a gambling establishment and that Trafficante "had been selected to operate the gambling casino," over the hotel manager's objection.
• 28 September 1956 — An FBI Miami memorandum states: "Subject still active in gambling casino at the Sans Souci Hotel outside of Havana, Cuba," and an informant said the same on 3 August 1956.
• 20 December 1956 — The same 1971 summary records the Legal Attache's letter that the Sans Souci Night Club and gambling casino "was owned and operated by Santos Traficante, Jr., and Joe Stassi, a more or less silent partner." A Miami airtel of 29 July 1957 names that letter and an informant's report of 3 August 1956 as the sources for the line that he "owns and operates the Sans Souci Night Club and Casino in Havana."
• 29 March 1957 — An FBI Miami memorandum records that Trafficante and his brother Henry, charged with conspiring to violate the gambling tax laws, had their federal case moved from Tampa, that the Florida Supreme Court had granted them new trials in January 1957, and that the Legal Attache at Havana advised on 20 December 1956 that the Sans Souci Night Club and gambling casino was operated by Trafficante.
• 1958 — The 1971 FBI summary relays Legal Attache and informant reports that he was "one of the major interest holders" in the Hotel Capri casino (25 September 1958) and "appeared to have been one of the interest holders in the Havana-Riviera casino" (3 December 1958). Informant reporting.
• January to May 1959 — The same summary records the Legal Attache's reports that after the fall of the Batista government "there had been an exodus of gamblers and top hoodlums from Havana," while some, including Trafficante, remained to see if they could "deal" with the new government (15 January 1959), and that the Sans Souci casino, "formerly operated by Santo Trafficante," had closed "because of financial problems" and that he had gone into hiding in Cuba (21 May 1959).
• June to August 1959 — The House committee states that on 6 June 1959 he and others controlling gambling interests in Cuba were detained at Trescornia, and that Cuban documents show his release on 18 August 1959 (HSCA report, p. 153).
• 1959 — FBI file summaries in the 1971 correlation summary refer to him as "confined in the Cuban Immigration detention house 'Tiscornia'," arrested "reportedly as a result of a telegram from the US Narcotics Commissioner," and "detained by the Cuban police for possible deportation but was released."
• 15 October 1963 — Tampa police chief Neil G. Brown testified that he "previously lived in Havana, Cuba, where he owned and operated gambling casinos under the Battista regime," that when Castro took over his operations were stopped and he "was expelled from Cuba," and that the "Louis Santos of Havana, Cuba," apprehended at Apalachin in November 1957 was identified as Santo Trafficante, Jr. (Senate narcotics hearings, pp. 524-525). A police chief's statement.
• 31 January 1964 — United States v. Trafficante, 328 F.2d 117 (5th Cir. 1964), states that on 11 January 1962 the United States sued him and Sam Trafficante to foreclose federal tax liens including 1945-1947 income taxes, and asserted a wagering-tax liability. The court ordered the disqualification of a former IRS attorney.
• 20 November 1975 — The Church Committee's interim report states he "made regular trips between Miami and Cuba on gambling syndicate business" and records Rosselli's account, denied by Maheu, of a meeting at the Fountainebleau Hotel in Miami (S. Rept. 94-465, pp. 77, 80-82).
• 1979 — The House committee finds he had "the motive, means, and opportunity" to assassinate President Kennedy, notes that he admitted taking part in the CIA plot against Castro, and concludes it is unlikely that he plotted to kill the President (HSCA report, pp. 172-175).

The role line is a committee’s characterization, quoted and labelled by kind, and is not a finding of a court. The House Select Committee on Assassinations calls him “the La Cosa Nostra leader in Florida,” and the Church Committee calls him “the Cosa Nostra chieftain in Cuba.” An FBI memorandum of 1968 calls him “boss” of La Cosa Nostra in Florida on a source’s inference; because it rests on a source, it is not used in the role line. The same House report concludes that it is unlikely he plotted to kill President Kennedy, though it could not rule the possibility out on the available evidence. None of these labels is copied to a family chart without a separate cited decision.

The Tampa material in the Kefauver volume about him is hearsay or counsel’s questions. The FBI Vault records were read on the viewer’s text layer, and page images are now stored for several of them. The 1971 correlation summary is a digest of informant and Legal Attache reports, and it repeats “boss” and Mafia labels from informants and newspapers that are not copied here. The three accounts of how the Havana casinos ended (the Church Committee’s, Joseph Valachi’s and Lewis McWillie’s) are set out separately on the Havana page. This page records each statement with its speaker.

Records