The Trafficante family was involved with drug trafficking, racketeering, loansharking, corruption, prostitution, money laundering, and bookmaking during the 21st century, and it had around 20 members. Manage all your favorite fandoms in one place! If it is still there I would love to know. His son, Santo Trafficante Jr., took over the crime family and became tangled in a web of conspiracies to kill the leader of revolutionary Cuba and, it is rumored, President John F. Kennedy. At the urging of the Hillsborough County Bar Association and in direct response to the Kefauver report, according to news archives, the Hillsborough County Crime Commission formed in February 1951 to clean up that image. The chart is excellent! Harris & Ewing/Library of Commons/Wikimedia Commons. It is unclear if the Vice Squad investigated him. Trafficante is jailed by Fidel Castro after Castro takes control of Cuba and dismatles the island's gambling operations. The real mafia played dominoes at the casino and never disclosed themselves. "He is not in the Mafia and he never has been," she said recently. In the early 20th Century, Tampa was a small but growing city, and the organized crime it faced was modest. The crimes range from loansharking and extortion to cocaine distribution and interfering with interstate commerce. Trafficante Sr. passed away four years later, leaving Jr. his Tampa and Cuba-based criminal empire. I played there in the 70's and many wrestlers use to hang out there. Following his death, Mobster Vincent LoScalvo took over the Trafficante family's criminal network in Florida. Bud? Historica Wiki is a FANDOM Games Community. In October 2000, 19 Tampa LCN members and associates, including Steve Raffa and John Mamone, were indicted in Florida on charges of illegal gambling, loansharking, money laundering through check-cashing stores, and a massive financial fraud scheme run out of South Carolina , that reportedly brought in $32 million in profits. Please check your browser settings or contact your system administrator. Scott has been featured on The Discovery Channel, The History Channel, A&E, C-SPAN, and both national and local news and radio shows. Finally, after the infamous failed Bay of Pigs Invasion, the CIA gave up on their attempts to kill the Cuban dictator and thus Trafficantes attempts at revenge never materialized. When his son, Santo Jr., took over the family operations, he was also a regular fixture at the Columbia. Like Trafficante Jr. before him, had many close calls with law enforcement, but always escaped serious charges. Trafficante was jailed and deported when Fidel Castro rose to power, leading him to spend a good portion of his adult life hatching a plan of revenge. After a lifetime in organized crime, Trafficante Jr. died of national causes in 1987. Do Not Sell or Share My Personal Information. Hoffa said to me, This has to be done.'. After this look at Santo Trafficante Jr., read the gruesome story of the murderous American dentist, Benjamin Salomon, of World War II. The American governments close ties to Santo Trafficante Jr. and the rest of the Mafia didnt end with their attempts to kill Castro. Mons Venus was the little bar. He was the first identified La Cosa Nostra leader here. In Tampa, Trafficante enlisted Frank Diecidue as his underboss. The family was taken over by Santo Trafficante Sr. after Antinori was murdered by rival gangster Charlie Wall in 1940, and Wall would himself be killed in 1955 by the Trafficante family. For nearly seven decades, Santo Trafficante, Sr. and his son, Santo, Jr. were prominent gangsters on the Tampa crime scene. Immigrating right along with these hard-working early Sicilian immigrants came a band of shadowy criminal figures from their homeland. So, who was this so-called Silent Don who wielded enough power to allegedly kill the President? The Columbia Restaurant is the Tampa landmark. Though his prison sentence wasnt long and he returned to a strong position in Florida, Trafficante never forgave Castro. LoScalzo was born in Sicily and moved with his family to New Orleans and then Tampa as a young man. Mamone pleaded not guilty last week and was released on bond, the Palm Beach Post reports. Trafficante returns to Tampa and enlists in a CIA plot to poison Castro. Among the very first mafiosi to ever set up shop in Tampa were members of the Antinori, Italiano, and Scaglione families, who were all mafiosi back in Sicily. He has been featured on the History Channel, A&E, Discovery Channel, AHC, C-SPAN and . Terms of Service, 2023Gangsters Inc. - www.gangstersinc.org He has never been charged with a crime, although state alcohol agents have forced him to give up one liquor license, and Tampa police sought an injunction that led to the closing of Ernesto's Bar and Package in 1985. Today, Santo Trafficantes criminal legacy lives on through his nephew and namesake, Santo Trafficante III, who was charged with organized fraud in 1992. I'm sure not many these days will remember the place. An editor and public historian, Carly Silver has written for Smithsonian, Narratively, The Atlantic, Atlas Obscura, and Archaeology, among other publications. The senior Mamone spent years in a federal witness protection program after snitching on federal mobsters to try to reduce his sentences on racketeering and other charges. According to Iorio, Tampa witnesses produced a list of 105 officially protected outlets that law enforcement officials were not allowed to tamper with., The moral of the Tampa story is this, Estes Kefauver, the senator who led the nationwide investigation, wrote in his final report, if good citizens of a community shut their eyes to wholesale violation of a law law enforcement and honesty in public office will go to hell in a handcart., Subscribe to our free How They Lived newsletter. Santo Sr. was leaving more of the day-to-day operations to his son, Santo Jr. . President John F. Kennedy, FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover, and Attorney General Robert F. Kennedy, Dennis Caruso/NY Daily News Archive via Getty Images. "I recently received some intelligence that Gotti's people had been in that area.". He opened casinos in Cuba with mob accountant Meyer Lansky and cemented associations with Lucky Luciano and other mob leaders. Trafficante refuses to testify to a congressional committee investigating the assassination of Hohn F. Kennedy. In the early 2000s, he was indicted twice. There are tons of strip clubs around here and I figure someone has to be running those rackets. * underboss. They own bars, restaurants and other businesses but aren't likely to be found at Chamber of Commerce meetings. Other men of honor considered to be contemporaries included such iconic names as Santo Trafficante Sr., Alfonso Diecidue, and the Lazzara family. Interestingly, Trafficante who was worth about $25 billion at his height in the 80s lived a fairly reserved, modest lifestyle. Conversations were restrained and in Italian. He also said he overheard the men described as Italians who were dressed exceptionally well discussing horse and dog races. Frank Diecidue is identified in U.S. Senate testimony as the new head of the Tampa mob. Once, flying from Miami to Tampa, Trafficante purchased an airline ticket in the name of an agent who was supposed to be trailing him undercover. I live at 9205 Poes Rd., Odessa, FL.
Trafficante crime family | Historica Wiki | Fandom Shit dude, try kicking hammer. The house next to be at 9209 Post Rd. [CDATA[ Yes I do - I worked for Doug. In this page-turning narrative, noted true crime writer Ron Chepesiuk chronicles the story of one of history's lesser known but most important mob dynasties. Nearly three years after opening it's door, the SA FJC serves as a national best practice model of community trust building and victim . Medicare also paid millions for a variety of knee, back and wrist braces, walkers and other medical equipment that patients didnt need, they said. Harris & Ewing/Library of Commons/Wikimedia CommonsCuban leader Fulgencio Batista in Washington, D.C. in 1938. Frank Ragano; See also. After the Kennedy hubbub, Trafficante kept a low profile or, lower that is. Santo Trafficante Jr. was a reserved, modest man married to the same woman for 49 years. Reclaiming History: The Assassination of President John F. Kennedy. The glamorous casino in the Hotel Nacional De Cuba in Havana in 1958.
Santo Trafficante Jr. - The Mob Museum Nobody emerged with Trafficante's stature and unquestioned authority. I was friends with the old school guys whi went to godfathers on hillsbourgh and the bottle club on dale mabrey. Napoli's wife, Florence, denied that her husband was associated with La Cosa Nostra. Decades later, it is unclear if all of their investigations were warranted or if some were politically motivated or worse, simple harassment of innocent residents. At the same time, in addition to his criminal work for Ignacio Antinori, he began to invest heavily in his own bolita numbers rackets, beginning in . Their plans ranged from simply shooting him to having him smoke poisoned cigars or drinking a tainted milkshake. If everyone who was ever involved in organized crime was excommunicated today, the Vatican would declare bankruptcy tomorrow. In 1976, Diecidue was charged with racketeering in an indictment that charged others with participating in a plot to kill Tampa Police Detective Richard Cloud, who was investigating the mob. "There's no truth to it whatsoever. with his family.
Santo Trafficante Sr. (1886-1954) - Find a Grave Memorial Aging Out - The LoScalzo Era. With Velasco dispatched, Lumia had the run of the waterfront. He drove standard cars, lived in regular houses in quiet places, was married to the same woman, and generally described as a quiet man. Trafficante Jr. was nonetheless a ruthless and old-school mob boss. He has written seven books and more than 50 articles on organized crime for local and national publications. In fact, Florida had the dubious distinction of being home to a decades-old Mafia criminal network: the Trafficante Family. Following his death, Mobster Vincent LoScalvo took over the Trafficante familys criminal network in Florida. They smashed the gaming tables but did not arrest anyone. Tales from the Vice Squad | The Hillsborough County Crime Commission was formed in 1951 to root out organized crime and expose corrupt public officials. Tampa was a well placed secret not even counting Ybor city. Cuban leader Fulgencio Batista in Washington, D.C. in 1938. Born in Tampa, Florida in 1914, Trafficante hailed from a family already deeply involved in organized crime.
Santo Trafficante, Jr (1914 - 1987) - Genealogy Ed Giorandino/NY Daily News Archive via Getty ImagesSanto Trafficante arrives at Queens Supreme Court in Kew Gardens. : Trafficante crime family. A grand jury declared the list a hoax. Buy the time LoScalzo took over in 1987, the Trafficante Crime Family was far past its heyday. The mobsters also attempted to get Castro into a poisoned wetsuit and even offered to blow him up with an exploding seashell. In 1983, in Tampa, he was indicted for racketeering in a scheme to control garbage pickup on the Suncoast. Santo Trafficante Jr. had long followed in his fathers footsteps, and proved to be an even more effective Mafia kingpin. TAMPA A business connected by family to a prominent local politician was investigated for links to organized crime in November 1953. Ed Giorandino/NY Daily News Archive via Getty Images. The most notable boss was Santo Trafficante, Jr. who ruled Tampa and the crime family with an iron fist. Legislature considers flooding our streets with cancer-causing chemicals | Column, Heres why the Weeki Wachee River needs stronger protections | Editorial, Floridas dental deserts leave millions without access to oral care.
"But because I go into business for myself they put this horrible stigma on me.". Gotti, the boss of New York's Gambino family, is the most flamboyant of today's mob leaders. It's still a great chart on the Tampa Mob. Albano was charged with violating liquor laws in 1967, when federal agents claimed he and Trafficante's brother were substituting cheap liquor for expensive brands in a Tampa nightclub. After spending a brief time in a Cuban jail after Castro's coup, Trafficante returned to Tampa and took part in a CIA plot to poison the Cuban leader. The source said that the entire group and the barbers appeared highly nervous and one or the other of them were continually darting to the window or out the door looking up and down the street, says the report dated December 22, 1953. He was only a barber., She said there was an innocent explanation for Henry Trafficante being at the barbershop. Thanks for the reply. Remember the odessey and the bar across the street used to go in when I was 15 and make friends with all the working girls. Alongside Chicago boss Sam Giancana, Roselli and Trafficante came up with some truly insane plots to kill Fidel Castro. But neither the Vice Squad nor any law enforcement agency was part of that probe. Then, check out these photos of the aftermath from some of the bloodiest mob hits. They raided my apartment, they were looking for money, they tore up all the furniture, they used to come and get me at nighttime, take me out in the woods, trying to tell where I had my money, this and that, until I finally went into hiding.. The Tampa Bay Times has obtained a cache of Vice Squad reports from the 1950s and 1960s, which offer insight into their investigations and what they were up against. Lumia was engaged in a war for control of the lucrative gambling districts with Jimmy Velasco, a Tampa politician who was murdered in 1948. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Santo_Trafficante_Jr. Trafficante is indicted in Tampa on charges he tried to illegally take control of garbage collection on the Suncoast. Century, Tampa was a small but growing city, and the organized crime it faced was modest. Frank Ragano (January 25, 1923 - May 13, 1998) was a self-styled "mob lawyer" from Florida, who made his name representing organized crime figures such as Santo Trafficante, Jr. and Carlos Marcello, and also served as lawyer for Teamsters leader Jimmy Hoffa.In his 1994 autobiography Mob Lawyer, Ragano recounted his career in defending members of organized crime, and made the controversial . He was among a group of mob leaders in attendance when police raided a . After that, he ordered casino owners to cough up employee back pay, then shut them down again. The committee denied those allegations. TAMPA A business connected by family to a prominent local politician was investigated for links to organized crime in November 1953. The forgoing, which admittedly is of little value as it stands, is for the record and for your information concerning this known hoodlum hangout, the report concludes. Napoli, who is serving a 6{-year federal prison sentence, declined an earlier request for an interview. Trafficante dies in a Houston hospital following surgery. According to the account of Judith Exner, however, one of JFKs many mistresses, it was she who introduced Kennedy to Chicago boss Giancana.
Tampa residents once took on corruption that turned city into 'hell in He died in 1955. "Tell them (the FBI) they're full of s---.". Now in his late 70s or early 80s, LoScalzo is reported to be retired. Damn what was the name of that place. Puglisi was never charged with a crime. The Trafficante family was involved in gambling, prostitution, and numbers . After Cuban revolution, the Mafia saw Castro as a threat to their business. The chairman cited a confession from Roselli that Trafficantes allies organized a sharpshooter, Lee Harvey Oswald, to take out the President. Santo Trafficante Jr. wounded during failed assassination attempt in Tampa. 0 registered members (), Trafficante along with 56 other mobsters was arrested in New York while discussing what to do about the recent death of Gambino family head, Albert Anastasia. One small gang, led by Italian immigrant Santo Trafficante Senior, profited from the illegal lottery-style games they ran across Tampa.
And, in 1954, the committee helped the St. Petersburg police investigate whether Santo Trafficante Jr. and his brother Henry Trafficante offered a bribe to law enforcement in that city. They are among the most powerful men in Tampa, but few people know their names.
His first arrest was spurred by his involvement in a loan-sharking operation run out of check-cashing stores throughout South Florida. Trafficante was one of the last surviving members of the original Luciano mob era upon his death, and the truth behind the JFK assassination may have perhaps died with him. Despite law enforcement's disagreement over the power structure, on one point they are unanimous: The La Cosa Nostra is alive and growing in Tampa since Trafficante's death. guests, and 4 A year later, La Gaceta newspaper reported that the Vice Squad had stopped using the sheriff offices designated radio waves. Lazzara was killed because he was had learned inside details of the workings of an arson ring. Its founding members . What was left of the family was mostly broken up over the past decade. All rights reserved. Rape Crisis Hotline - (714)957-2737. Getty ImagesSanto Trafficante was wanted in 48 states by the time he was 43. "He just knows some people who are.". Buy the time LoScalzo took over in 1987, the Trafficante Crime Family was far past its heyday.
The Trafficantes, Godfathers from Tampa, Florida: The Mafia, the CIA A place on Snow in Tampa next to The Great American Food and Beverage Company, the waiters wore tuxedos, was very sedate, not much of a crowd. These were the first seeds laid down by the Sicilian Mafia as they took control of the city. prosecution, fled temporarily to Cuba. Green, of the Broward Sheriff's Office, agreed that no one with Trafficante's respected national status is likely to take over the Tampa operation. Grossman, Daniel Goldman's kidnapping and murder was an act of revenge after Aaron Goldman went up against the group known as the Tampa Mafia. He quickly became an integral part of the Tampa family. You know what, guns actually do kill people | Letters, Seminole Heights serial killings case ends with guilty plea, 4 life sentences, Here is why the school zone speed camera bill should become law in Florida | Editorial. He was among a group of mob leaders in attendance when police raided a 1957 summit conference at Apalachin, N.Y. Diecidue is listed in state records as the owner of Dixie Amusement Co., a now-defunct vending and pinball machine company in Tampa. The commission disbanded in 1957 due in part to a lack of private funding. It said the informant witnessed four possible organized crime associates answering a phone in the backroom during the 30 minutes he first investigated the barbershop.
While the plot never came to fruition, Trafficante later testified that he did help the CIA recruit other mobsters for the surreal plot. "It may be that they don't have such a formal structure anymore, you may have LoScalzo running one part of the operation and Frankie Albano running another," said Lt. Dave Green, an organized crime investigator with the Broward County Sheriff's Office. lucianos partner port of tampa ditaliano salvatore the red, All
In May 1987, the informant told agents that Diecidue had asked him to "watch Vincent LoScalzo, Michael Napoli and Frank Albano as he (Diecidue) does not think he is receiving his fair share of the cocaine profits. He was featured in a recent St. Petersburg Times series on Florida's criminal records sealing statute: He persuaded Hillsborough judges to seal records of three arrests, even though the law allows only one sealing. Copyright 2019-2022. Not sure about what is going on in Tampa, though. CSP Dispute Resolution Services. Interesting.
Santo Trafficante Sr., a 'Sicilian of the old school,' ruled Tampa's The Tampa case ended in mistrial. Mafia Locations Steve Raffa was one of the handful of mobsters that actually committed suicide I think. In addition, mobsters such as Florida mobster Santo Trafficante Sr. soon set up rival smuggling rings. He was innocent. His only crime, she added, was being Italian and serving in public office at a time when other elected officials were corrupted by Italian gangsters. His positioning in Florida was prime for drug shipping as the product often passed through these ports en route to elsewhere in America. Temporary Restraining Order Infoline (Available 24 hours) - (714) 935-7956. In the mid-2000s, he would say he was a legitimate businessman, citing, Tony "Joe Batters" Accardo - De Facto Boss of the Chicago Outfit, Giacomo Black Jack Tocco - Last of the Old School Detroit Partnership, Joseph Iacobacci - "Joe Loose" of the Cleveland Mob, John "Sonny" Franzese - A Colombo Family Legend. During that election, opponents tried and failed to connect him to organized crime via past legal business he conducted with alleged mafioso Jimmy Lumia, who was shot and killed in 1950 in a gangland slaying. After a violent mob war left several of Trafficantes rivals dead or weakened, his gang rapidly rose to prominence in Tampa. As we all know, he was right, and Kennedy was assassinated by a sniper in November 1963. Late in life, LoScalzo denied any connections to organized crime. The twister killed hls mother when lt touched down about 6, honored Wednesday us the nation's sute legislator. Santo, Sr. arrived in Tampa in 1902 and settled in the Ybor City . Instead, it was led by the Hillsborough County Crime Commission, an independent organization that was backed by residents who claimed that local elected officials and law enforcement had become too corrupted by organized crime to be trusted without oversight. Palm Beach County residents who were charged in connection with the scheme are Thomas Dougherty, 39, of Royal Palm Beach; Louis Carver, 30, of Delray Beach; Timothy Richardson, 29, of Lantana; and Jose Goyos, 35, of West Palm Beach. God Bless you bro Scott is a very talented guy. Victim/Witness Assistance Program will answer your questions and give you information or refer you to agencies in your community for services that . Trafficante was a respected member of organized crime's commission of local bosses, an associate of the early leaders of the Bonanno and Gambino families.
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