Havana Nocturne
Page 40
Robert D. Weicha as CIA operative in Cuba: Szulc, pp. 469–72. In Ultimate Sacrifice, Waldron and Hartmann curiously do not mention Weicha, though they do devote hundreds of pages to the CIA’s supplying money and guns to the 26th of July Movement.
Cuban government gun shipments from Dominican Republic and elsewhere: Thomas, pp. 648–56; Szulc, pp. 451–52, 470–71.
Cash couriers off the island: The Ralph Reina–Trafficante relationship is detailed in Deitche, The Silent Don (II), pp. 68–69. Dusty Peters was a well-known figure in Havana Mob circles and is discussed in Lacey, p. 246; Messick, Syndicate in the Sun, p. 139; and Messick, Lansky (II), pp. 197, 217. Verification of Peters’s role was provided by author interview, Ralph Rubio, Tampa, September 16 and October 24, 2006; author interview, Bernard Frank, Miami, May 3, 2006.
Bank of Miami Beach: Messick (II), p. 199.
Castle Bank in the Bahamas: Russo, Supermob, p. 208.
Lewis McWillie background: Lowinger and Fox, pp. 181–82, 335, 362–64; Waldron and Hartmann, pp. 301–2, 333, 343, 353–54.
McWillie testimony: Findings of the House Select Committee on Assassinations, Vol. 5, Testimony of Lewis McWillie, September 27, 1978.
14. “GET THE MONEY”
Hotel Monte Carlo de La Habana: Cirules, The Mafia in Havana (I), pp. 127–32; Cirules based his investigation of plans for the Hotel Monte Carlo on financial documents found in the Cuban National Archive.
“Havana will be a magical city”: Author interview, Armando Jaime Casielles, January 24 and 26, 2007; Cirules, La vida secreta de Meyer Lansky en La Habana (II), pp. 183–84.
Sinatra as investor: Cirules (I), pp. 128, 131.
“[Sinatra] wants to televise”: Ibid.
Other investors, including William Miller: Ibid.
“Mr. Miller is considered”: Ibid.
Articles in Diario de la Marina: Dorschner and Fabricio, The Winds of December, p. 22.
Los Tigres de Masferrer in Havana: Ibid., pp. 98–99, 256–57, 363.
Atmosphere in Havana late December 1958: Dorschner and Fabricio, entire book.
Behavior of Batista, December 1958: An excellent source on Batista’s final days is José Suárez Nuñez’s El gran culpable—Suárez Nuñez was Batista’s former press secretary. The book was self-published in Caracas in the early 1960s.
Batista eating and vomiting: Dorschner and Fabricio, p. 64; Suárez Nuñez, p. 16.
Batista, affinity for horror movies and cheating at cards: Dorschner and Fabricio, p. 67; Suárez Nuñez, p. 25.
General Díaz Tamayo incident: Dorschner and Fabricio, pp. 126–27.
“Last night while I lay in bed”: Ibid., p. 159.
Batista–Ambassador Smith meeting: Smith, E., The Fourth Floor, pp. 170–76; Dorschner and Fabricio, pp. 189–93, 197; Thomas, Cuba: The Pursuit of Freedom, p. 680; Bardach, Cuba Confidential, p. 246.
Batista secretly prepares for exit: Dorschner and Fabricio, pp. 348–49; Thomas, pp. 681–93.
Holiday atmosphere in Havana: Dorschner and Fabricio, p. 157; Cirules (II), pp. 173–74.
Lt. Col. Esteban Ventura at Riviera: Author interview, Ralph Rubio, September 16 and October 24, 2006.
Ventura background: Garcia, “The White-Suited Hired Assassin,” Granma International, May 31, 2001.
Lansky’s excuse for New Year’s Eve: Lacey, Little Man, p. 249; author interview, Armando Jaime Casielles; Cirules (II), pp. 172–94.
New Year’s Eve at Plaza Hotel: The entire evening is described in detail in Cirules (II), pp. 172–94, and was further verified by author interview, Armando Jaime Casielles.
Ownership of gambling concession at the Plaza: Author interview, Joe Stassi Jr., New York, March 22, 2007.
Reaction in the street to news of Batista departure: Author interview, Armando Jaime Casielles; author interview, Joe Stassi Jr.; author interview, Ralph Rubio; Dorschner and Fabricio, pp. 371–86; Lowinger and Fox, Tropicana Nights, pp. 309–21; Phillips, Cuba: Island of Paradox, pp. 395–401; American Experience: Fidel Castro, PBS documentary; Phillips, “Batista and Regime Flee Cuba,” New York Times, January 2, 1959.
Presence of Los Tigres: Author interview, Armando Jaime Casielles.
Attacks on parking meters and slot machines: Author interview, Armando Jaime Casielles; Lowinger and Fox, pp. 316–17; Dorschner and Fabricio, pp. 688–89; Phillips, pp. 397–98.
George Raft at the Capri: The most detailed description of this incident is in Yablonsky, George Raft. It has become a famous anecdote and is also noted in W. Smith, The Closest of Enemies; Lowinger and Fox; Lacey; and other accounts of New Year’s Eve 1959 in Havana. See also Miller, “Raft Not Natural After Cuba ‘Fade,’” Miami Herald, January 9, 1959.
“There she was, asleep”: Yablonsky, pp. 221–22.
“Everybody working the hotel is yelling”: Ibid., p. 222.
“I wasn’t sure what to do”: Ibid.
Trashing of the casinos: E. Smith, pp. 188–91; W. Smith, p. 187; Lowinger and Fox, p. 317; Schwartz, Pleasure Island, pp. 194–96; Cirules (II), pp. 176–94; Dorschner and Fabricio, p. 423; author interview, Armando Jaime Casielles; author interview, Ralph Rubio; author interview, Joe Stassi Jr.
Pigs at the Riviera: Cohen, “The Lost Journals of Meyer Lansky,” in Ocean Drive, January 2005. Teddy Lansky is quoted as telling journalist Paul Sann, “Pigs, for Christ’s sake! You wouldn’t believe it, in this gorgeous, gorgeous hotel.”
Mobsters gather at Joe Stassi’s house: Cirules (II), pp. 193–94; author interview, Armando Jaime Casielles.
Wayne S. Smith: Author interview, Wayne S. Smith, February 15, 2007.
“It was hectic”: Ibid.
Lansky granddaughter departs: Author interview, Cynthia (Schwartz) Duncan, Miami, May 4, 2006.
“We had been warned”: Ibid.
Ralph Rubio departs: Author interview, Ralph Rubio.
Friends of Batista escape: Thomas, pp. 687–88; Lowinger and Fox, pp. 309–15; Dorschner and Fabricio, pp. 414–17; Bardach, p. 246.
Castro enters Havana: Thomas, pp. 692–93; Dorschner and Fabricio, pp. 487–94; E. Smith, pp. 200–3; Szulc, Fidel: A Critical Portrait, pp. 516–17. The spirit of Castro’s arrival is captured in the song “En eso llego Fidel” (And then Fidel arrived) by Carlos Puebla, in Chomsky and Smorkaloff, The Cuba Reader, pp. 337–39.
“The people won this war”: American Experience: Fidel Castro.
Political executions begin: Szulc, pp. 53–54; Thomas, pp. 726–27; Ragano and Raab, Mob Lawyer, p. 54; DePalma, The Man Who Invented Fidel, pp. 150–53; American Experience: Fidel Castro.
“two hundred thousand dead gringos”: Thomas, p. 729; Szulc, p. 531; DePalma, p. 140. DePalma quotes Castro as saying “twenty thousand.”
“We are not only disposed”: Lacey, p. 252; Dispatch 1037, U.S. Embassy, Havana, to Department of State, March 19, 1959, State Department papers, National Archives, Washington, D.C.
“The gamblers took their cue”: Lacey, p. 250.
Lansky spokesperson telephones U.S. Embassy: Lacey, p. 251.
“Castro is a complete nut!”: Ragano and Raab, p. 51.
Frank Sturgis (aka Frank Fiorini) appointed casino liaison: “Frank Sturgis Talks to the FBI,” April 11, 1959, Cuban Information Archive, document #0147, http://www.cuban-exile.com; “Background on Frank Anthony Sturgis,” Cuban Information Archive, document #0157. The above-cited FBI memos detail Sturgis’s approach to the FBI and CIA to offer his services as a double agent. Sturgis did, in fact, become a U.S. operative and begin a long career as a CIA affiliate. Waldron with Hartmann, Ultimate Sacrifice, pp. 308, 332–33, 343–44; Bohning, The Castro Obsession, pp. 133–34.
Losses at Riviera, December 1958 to April 1959: Schwartz, p. 199; Lacey, pp. 253–54.
Rebels in the casinos: Phillips, “Gamblers in Cuba Face Dim Future,” New York Times, January 4, 1959; Schwartz, pp. 199–201; Lacey, pp. 252–55; Ragano and Raab, pp. 49–53.
Incarceration of Trafficante: Ragano, pp. 49–62; Waldron with
Hartmann, pp. 375–76, 383–87, 390; “Cuba Acts to Deport Trafficante,” Miami Herald, June 11, 1959; “Trafficante Feels the Heat,” Tampa Times, June 12, 1959; “Trafficante Ouster May be Postponed,” Tampa Times, June 12, 1959; “Trafficante Still Awaits Hearing on Deportation,” Tampa Times, June 15, 1959.
Trafficante testimony: Findings of the House Select Committee on Assassinations, Vol. 5, Testimony of Santo Trafficante, September 28, 1978.
Other mobsters incarcerated: Fox and Lowinger, pp. 329–30; Lacey, p. 253; Waldron with Hartmann, p. 343, 394.
Joe Stassi escapes arrest: Stratton, “The Man Who Killed Dutch Schultz,” GQ, September 2001.
Joe Stassi Jr. arrested: Author interview, Joe Stassi Jr. Stassi Jr. was incarcerated for three days at the G-2 jail in Miramar and then transferred to a prison in Las Villas Province, where he was held for 109 days until his release.
Trafficante at Triscornia: Ragano and Raab, pp. 51–62; Waldron with Hartmann, pp. 375–76, 383–87, 390; Findings of the House Select Committee on Assassinations, Testimony of Santo Trafficante.
Marriage of Trafficante’s daughter: Ragano and Raab, p. 55.
“A happy-go-lucky atmosphere had been replaced”: Ibid.
“They’re going to execute me”: Ragano and Raab, p. 56.
Ragano negotiates for Trafficante’s release: Ibid., pp. 51–62.
Cash bribe paid to Raúl Castro: Ibid., pp. 60–61; Waldron with Hartmann, p. 390.
“I met Raúl Castro one time”: Findings of the House Select Committee on Assassinations, Testimony of Santo Trafficante.
Lansky’s last trip to Havana: Author interview, Armando Jaime Casielles. Cirules (II), pp. 203–5; Lacey, pp. 253–58.
Lansky tries to find Carmen: Cirules (II), pp. 204–10.
Three hundred executions: Lacey, p. 253.
“When he invited me to go”: La mafia en La Habana, documentary.
Jaime’s last conversation with Lansky: Ibid; also author interview, Armando Jaime Casielles.
Cuban government confiscates Hotel Riviera: Lacey, p. 258.
U.S. economic embargo against Cuba: The embargo (referred to in Cuba as el bloqueo, or “the blockade”) was instituted on February 7, 1961.
Batista’s plundering of Cuba: Thomas, p. 687; also “Batista Government Bank Accounts,” Libertad, January 28, 1969, Cuban Information Archives, document #0115, http://www.cuban-exile.com.
Financial losses of Havana Mob: Lacey, pp. 258–59.
Joe Stassi post-Havana: Stratton, “The Man Who Killed”; O.G.: Joe Stassi, Original Gangster, documentary.
“I haven’t had an erection in forty years”: Ibid.
Lansky leaves behind seventeen million dollars: Eisenberg, Dan, and Landau, Meyer Lansky, p. 256.
“I crapped out”: Lacey, p. 258.
EPILOGUE
Bay of Pigs invasion: There is considerable literature on the planning and execution of the invasion, including Peter Kornbluth’s Bay of Pigs Declassified: The Secret CIA Report on the Invasion of Cuba and Victor Andres Triay’s Bay of Pigs, an oral history.
Lansky assassination contract on Castro: Eisenberg, Dan, and Landau, Meyer Lansky, pp. 257–59; Waldron with Hartmann, Ultimate Sacrifice, pp. 310–11, 321–22, 343, 399–405. Waldron and Hartmann cite author Anthony Summers and his biography of Richard Nixon, Absolute Power, in which it is alleged that Lansky made contact with a representative of Vice President Nixon to coordinate his Castro assassination plot. Lansky’s intermediary was Cuban-born Bebe Rebozo, a Nixon confidant whom Lansky knew from his casino days in South Florida.
Frank Sturgis and Charles White: Waldron with Hartmann, p. 343. Sturgis knew White by his real name, Charles Tourine. Sturgis testified before the Rockefeller Commission in 1975.
“A number of people came to me”: Eisenberg, Dan, and Landau, p. 259.
The Cuba Project and Operation Mongoose: There is voluminous information on both of these covert initiatives, including books and testimony from nearly half a dozen governmental hearings. The Senate’s Church Committee hearings of 1977, the 1975 U.S. President’s Commission on CIA activities within the United States, also known as the Rockefeller Commission, and the House Select Committee Hearings on Assassinations in 1978 all cover aspects of the CIA-Mob partnership. Noteworthy books include Waldron with Hartmann; Bohning, The Castro Obsession; and Fabian Escalante, The Cuba Project: CIA Covert Operations, 1959–62.
In addition, in June 2007 the CIA released its so-called family jewels. These previously classified CIA files contained—among other things—details on the agency’s plot to assassinate Castro using the aid of mobsters Johnny Roselli, Sam Giancana, and Santo Trafficante. The release of the files constituted an unprecedented admission of culpability on the part of the CIA, though the details of the plot were not new. In 1994 an internal report compiled by the CIA inspector general was declassified and published under the title CIA Targets Fidel (Ocean Press, 1996). It remains the most cogent account of this dubious underworld alliance.
Post-Cuba activity and death of Rolando Masferrer: Waldron with Hartmann, pp. 186–87, 332, 342–45, 388; Masferrer, “Comentario: Apendejation,” Libertad, October 24, 1975.
Batista, post-Cuba: Gardner, “Batista Lives in Constant Fear of Bullet,” Miami Herald, October 25, 1959; Batista, Cuba Betrayed, entire book.
Trafficante, post-Cuba: Author interview, Chris Ragano, Tampa, July 18, 2006, and March 10, 2007; Ragano and Raab, Mob Lawyer, pp. 65–356; Deitche, The Silent Don, pp. 109–229.
Lansky, post-Cuba: Author interview, Cynthia (Schwartz) Duncan, Miami, May 4, 2006; Cohen, “The Lost Journals of Meyer Lansky,” Ocean Drive, January 2005; Eisenberg, Dan, and Landau, pp. 261–324; Lacey, Little Man, pp. 260–439.
Castro, post-Batista: “Castro Calls Head of the U.S. Diplomatic Mission in Havana a ‘Little Gangster,’” South Florida Sun-Sentinel, December 23, 2005.
APPENDIX
Attendees at the Havana Conference (December 1946): Gosch and Hammer, The Last Testament of Lucky Luciano; Eisenberg, Dan, and Landau, Meyer Lansky: Mogul of the Mob.
SOURCES
This book is based on myriad sources, including interviews with firsthand participants and experts; archive research at libraries, museums, and research institutions in Cuba and the United States; books and magazine and newspaper articles in English and Spanish; documentary films produced in Cuba, Spain, and the United States; court documents, including testimony from U.S. congressional hearings, and documents acquired through the Freedom of Information Act; all of it backed up with reporting by the author in Havana, New York, Miami, Tampa, Washington, D.C., and Los Angeles.
INTERVIEWS
Even though the events of this book took place decades ago, some interview subjects did not want to be identified by name. For some Cubans, the reality of mafiosi or mobsters operating in Havana in the 1950s is still a touchy subject. Some people are living in denial, while others simply do not want to be identified with the subject. For those who chose to speak with me on condition of anonymity, I have agreed to honor their wishes.
Among the interviewees listed below, I have included Armando Jaime Casielles, though my communication with Meyer Lansky’s driver and bodyguard was more in the nature of a correspondence than a formal interview. My dialogue with Armando Jaime took place via e-mail and telephone between Havana and New York. I was scheduled to interview him on a research trip to Havana, but ten days before my departure I was informed that he had passed away from natural causes at 8:15 A.M. on February 12, 2007. In my correspondence with Armando Jaime, I was able to crosscheck information on his background and experiences in Havana that was provided in other sources, most notably La vida secreta de Meyer Lansky en La Habana by Enrique Cirules.
The following is a list of interviewees and the places and dates when the interviews with them took place: Bernardo Benes, Miami (May 3, 2006); Judge Bernard Frank, Miami (May 3, 2006); Max Lesnick, Miami (May 4, 2006); Cynthia (Schwartz) Duncan, Miami (May 4, 2006); Scott
M. Deitche, Tampa (July 7, 2006); Chris Ragano, Tampa (July 18, 2006, and March 1, 2007); Cookie Garcia, Tampa (July 7, 2006); Henry Beltran, Tampa (July 7, 2006); Rosa Lowinger, Los Angeles (July 21, 2006); Estela Rivas, Havana (August 15 and 17, 2006); Chef Gilberto Smith Duquesne, Havana (August 23, 2006); Helio Orovio, Havana (August 24, 2006); José “Pepe” Rodríguez, Havana (August 24, 2006); Ralph Rubio, Tampa (September 16 and October 24, 2006); Delio Valdes, Miami (October 17, 2006); Armando Jaime Casielles, telephone and e-mail (January 24 and 26, 2007); Richard Stratton, New York (February 15 and 21, 2007); Marc Levin, New York (February 21, 2007); Wayne S. Smith, Washington, D.C. (February 15, 2007); Dr. Ferdie Pacheco, telephone (February 23, 2007); Comandante William Gálvez Rodríguez, Havana (March 8, 2007); Joe Stassi Jr., telephone (March 22, 2007); Roberto González Echevarría, telephone (May 21, 2007).
BOOKS
Among the history books, memoirs, biographies, and novels listed below are numerous tomes on the subject of organized crime. The use of one book, in particular, requires an explanation. The Last Testament of Lucky Luciano by Martin A. Gosch and Richard Hammer was published in 1974, nine years after Charles Luciano’s death. The book’s publishers, Little, Brown and Company, promoted the book as being based on interviews conducted with Luciano before he died by lawyer and movie producer Martin Gosch. Notes from the interviews were then given to Richard Hammer, an author of numerous books on organized crime, who wove together Luciano’s first-person remembrances with a historical narrative. Upon release, the veracity of the book was challenged by a reporter for the New York Times after it was revealed that there were no transcripts of the interviews that Gosch claimed to have done with Luciano. The book became something of a cause célèbre, with competing crime writers Peter Maas and Nicholas Gage denouncing the book as a fraud. With the passage of time, history has shown the book to be no less accurate than other organized-crime memoirs.
I relate the history of the book’s publication here in the interest of full disclosure. Some organized-crime historians refuse to cite the book as a credible source, while others quote from it as if it were the Bible. I have chosen a middle ground, citing the book as a source when I was able to back up information found in its pages with one or more other sources.