"When my uncle visited it was like a family reunion. "Even my uncle (Santo Jr.) told me, "Santo, why don't you change your name?' Frank Ragano and Santo Trafficante Jr. (right). Try again later. Services will be followed by a graveside service at the Italian Club Cemetery and a reception at the family home. We cant help ourselves when it comes to watching mob films like The Godfather, Goodfellas, Casino and HBOs Boardwalk Empire and the iconic cable TV show, The Sopranos. And all this occurred throughout seven Sylvia at age 12 and her father Jimmy Velasco in California, June 1948 Jimmy Velasco was a political fixer. However, there were events outside of the United States and even organized crime that inadvertently led Santo Trafficante Jr. to put his own peculiar stamp on American history. Pupello determined that his diabetic patient's arteries were healthy. Please enable JavaScript in your browser's settings to use this part of Geni. You can customize the cemeteries you volunteer for by selecting or deselecting below. Verify and try again. Dr. Dennis Pupello was looking for heart disease, brought on by his overweight and diabetic patient's "voracious eating.". Trafficante admitted his anti-Castro activities to the United States House Select Committee on Assassinations in 1978, and vehemently denied allegations that he had knowledge of a plot to assassinate President John F. Kennedy. (November 15, 1914 - March 17, 1987 ). Under pressure of a court order granting him immunity from prosecution, but threatening him with contempt if he refused to talk, Santos admitted to a Congressional committee in 1975 that he had in the early 1960s recruited other mobsters to assassinate Castro. Share this memorial using social media sites or email. Many fond memories of Santo will continue with me. Santo Trafficante Jr. (November 15, 1914 - March 17, 1987) was among the most powerful Mafia bosses in the United States. But the news was not good on the Key Bank front. His health had declined in his later years. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. You'll learn about bolita, the rumored tunnels of Ybor, and the Era of Blood. Santo worked closely with Lucchese family boss Tommy Lucchese, who was a friend of his father, and a man who helped train him in the 1940s. The Unbelievable Story Of Richard Lee McNair The Man Who Mailed Himself Out Of Prison, What JFK's Mob-Affiliated Mistress May Have Known About His Assassination, What Stephen Hawking Thinks Threatens Humankind The Most, 27 Raw Images Of When Punk Ruled New York, Join The All That's Interesting Weekly Dispatch. Forget everything you think you know about Tampa mafia wives and girlfriends in the 1950s. Becoming a Find a Grave member is fast, easy and FREE. Don Santo Trafficante Jr was one of the last of the old-time American Mafia bosses in the United States. Thanks for using Find a Grave, if you have any feedback we would love to hear from you. As law enforcement pressure increased on the Mafia in the late 1940s, Santo, fearing. Remove advertising from a memorial by sponsoring it for just $5. He headed the Trafficante crime family and controlled organized criminal operations in Florida and Cuba, which had previously been consolidated from several rival gangs by his father, Santo Trafficante Sr. Getting in bed with Trafficante and other leading members of Americas organized crime seems like a strange thing to do for the CIA. But then came Key Bank, a massive drug-money-laundering investigation. Santo was known to have been deeply involved in the CIA efforts to involve the underworld in assassination attempts on Fidel Castro. In 1950, the aging Trafficante Sr. began to slow down. Undercover detectives ran a gambling sting operation there, hoping to nab a circle of Tampa men they said were making illegal sports bets. Please check your email and click on the link to activate your account. Sorry! He maintained all of the lucrative casinos in Cuba, further cemented, After Cuban revolution, the Mafia saw Castro as a threat to their business. Santos Trafficante Jr. was the son of Santos Trafficante Sr., who owned several casinos in Havana. "I'm a freak for that kind of stuff," he says. Failed to report flower. Conspiracy theorists consider Giancana along with Mafia leaders Santo Trafficante Jr. and Carlos Marcello associated with the assassination of Kennedy. based on information from your browser. Perched on the edge of a leather chair in his attorney's office, Santo J. Trafficante III wears a pained expression on his jowly face. He died on March 17, 1987. View Source Suggest Edits Memorial Photos Flowers Memorials Region North America USA Florida Santo Trafficante Sr. was a Florida mobster who survived a series of vicious gang wars to become the leader of a powerful Mafia crime family based in Tampa. So, at his attorney Ralph Fernandez's urging, he has agreed to talk publicly, hoping to shore up his damaged reputation. And then there are the infinite conspiracy theories about the assassination of President Kennedy, many of them featuring Trafficante. The chairman cited a confession from Roselli that Trafficantes allies organized a sharpshooter, Lee Harvey Oswald, to take out the President. Santo Trafficante then categorically denied every allegation about stating he wanted RFK or JFK dead and got off scot-free. He headed the Trafficante crime family and controlled organized criminal operations in Florida and Cuba, which had previously been consolidated from several rival gangs by his father, Santo Trafficante Sr. Reputedly the most powerful crime boss in Batista -era Cuba, he . Hey, they have more convicts at the track than straight people," Trafficante says. https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/53540265/santo-trafficante. Try again later. In 1959, the Cuban Revolution toppled the corrupt Batista government and the rebel leader, Fidel Castro, nationalized foreign-owned properties and shuttered the casinos, a huge financial blow to Trafficante, who was second only to Meyer Lansky in the depth of his investments in Havana. When his father died in 1954 he took control of these establishments. Failed to delete memorial. "They'll sleep under trees on you.". Save to an Ancestry Tree, a virtual cemetery, your clipboard for pasting or Print. Trafficante took control of the Tampa mob in 1954 after the death of his father, Santo Trafficante Sr. English After the death of his wife, the Trafficante family sold their Tampa 1970-built home for $950,000. Santo Trafficante Jr. had long followed in his fathers footsteps, and proved to be an even more effective Mafia kingpin. Love, Jimmy Schaffer. A year has passed. To use this feature, use a newer browser. You've got to be a fool to marry wrong," he says. We have set your language to Robert F. Kennedy even taunted those mobsters he brought into court, telling Chicago mob boss Sam Giancana that I thought only little girls giggled, Mr. Giancana.. The original Malio's Restaurant located on South Dale Mabry Highway in Tampa, Florida. Try again. Organized Crime Figure. THE HIT THAT EXPOSED SOME OF TAMPAS ELITE. Santo Jr. was indicted several times through the 1950s but was convicted only once, on state charges in 1954 for bribery, and that conviction was overturned by the Florida Supreme Court. The beachfront properties were the site of many parties and barbecues. The mafiosos that made up the family are either retired, in prison, or have died due to old age. The other case was a RICO indictment for insurance fraud. The senior Trafficante's name has been linked to gambling, drug-dealing and even plots to kill Fidel Castro and John F. Kennedy. ". Let others know about your loved one's death. Trafficante was born in Tampa, Florida, to Sicilian parents Santo Trafficante Sr. and his wife Maria Giuseppa Cacciatore in 1914. He buys Jaguars for his two sons, hobnobs with sports stars on resort golf courses and occasionally flies to Miami for lunch at a favorite restaurant, the Rascal House. Afterwards, the son he had groomed to take his place, Santo Trafficante Jr., took the reins of the Trafficante crime family. In 1957 he was suspected of involvement in the barbershop slaying of Albert Anastasia, the . We found ourselves in a love affair with Tony Soprano and we could not stop watching. In a final disappointment, he sold a filly named "Run Marisa Run" (after his daughter) for $7,500. By this point, Trafficante Jr. had fully taken over the oversight of drugs shipped between Florida, Cuba, and the rest of the States. Despite all of this or, perhaps, because of it, a few writers and filmmakers have chosen to focus on organized crime, determined to give Tampa its due. However, by the late 1920s, facing little pressure, Sicilian gangsters began setting up lucrative gambling and narcotics rackets. My uncle, never wore a ring," Trafficante says. GREAT NEWS! My heart goes out to the family. Wife : Josephine MARCHESE (Santo TRAFFICANTE Jr. married Josephine in Tampa, Florida on April 17, 1938). Thanks for subscribing! You can always change this later in your Account settings. After that, he ordered casino owners to cough up employee back pay, then shut them down again. By the time Prohibition and the Era of Blood ended, he was the top man in the Florida Mafia, operating with the blessing of exiled Mob boss Charlie Lucky Luciano, Frank Costello of the Five Families, and Meyer Lansky of the national Syndicate. The guy really tried to do it right.". Associates: Sam Giancana, Charlie Lucky Luciano, Meyer Lansky, Cuba, Fidel Castro, Johnny Rosselli, Robert Maheu. On the day that investigators raided Key Bank, a cardiologist at St. Joseph's Hospital was inserting a catheter in Trafficante's groin. [13] On September 27, 1978, Aleman reiterated to HSCA investigators that Trafficante had complained to him for hours in June or July 1963 about Kennedy's crackdown on organized crime at a meeting to discuss a business loan. Santo Trafficante was wanted in 48 states by the time he was 43. Our deepest condolences to the Trafficante family. Quickly see who the memorial is for and when they lived and died and where they are buried. Federal investigators brought racketeering and conspiracy charges against him in the summer of 1986. Desr Gerry, please know that I am thinking of you and never forget the kindness bestowed on me in my difficult time but especially the generosity and affection shown to my daughter and grandson. Those were some of the greatest memories growing up. [15] He repeated the claim two days later on ABC's Good Morning America,[16] in Newfield's Frontline report entitled JFK, Hoffa and Mob broadcast in November 1992,[17] and again in his 1994 autobiography Mob Lawyer. It was clear that federal and local law enforcement had an acute interest in the Trafficante family. Chronicles of Events and Biographies Related to the American Mafia. GitHub export from English Wikipedia. Santo was one of the FBIs targets in that case. The report was given to the District Attorney's office. TAMPA The daughter sits on the front porch of a little bungalow in Seminole Heights, her new home since her husband died a few months ago down south. He was going to be hit.. He worked to expand the crime familys business holding and territory he was particularly interested in Cuba as a location for gambling, hotels and night clubs and worked to cement good ties with his fellow mobsters in New York City. The IRS was unsuccessful, according to Fernandez, Trafficante's attorney. "[12], In 1978, both Trafficante and Aleman were called to testify before members of the United States House Select Committee on Assassinations investigating possible links between Kennedy assassin Lee Harvey Oswald and anti-Castro Cubans, including the theory that Castro had Kennedy killed in retaliation for the CIA's attempts on his own life. Rosselli testified in 1975 to the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence on the efforts to kill Castro. During the rule of Cuba's authoritarian dictator Fulgencio Batista, Trafficante openly operated the Sans Souci Cabaret and the Casino International gambling establishments in Havana. A Hillsborough judge threw out the wiretaps, the spine of the state's case. His sons, Dino and Joseph, run it for him, though he worries that sometimes they don't work hard. [2] Trafficante Jr. would frequently meet with Lucchese in New York City for dinner.[2]. Santo Trafficante Jr., one of the last of the old-time reputed Mafia dons, who was reportedly enlisted in 1960 in a futile effort to kill Fidel Castro, has died at the age of 72. And despite relatively small time beginnings, Trafficante proved to be a shrewd mobster. She was an amazing daughter, sister, wife, mother, grandmother, great-grandmother, aunt and friend. [14], The HSCA had previously quoted Aleman as stating that he thought Trafficante's use of the phrase "he is going to be hit" meant that the mob boss knew Kennedy was going to be killed. Edit a memorial you manage or suggest changes to the memorial manager. After a lifetime in organized crime, Trafficante Jr. died of national causes in 1987. santo trafficante daughters Contribute to chinapedia/wikipedia.en development by creating an account on GitHub. Their plans ranged from simply shooting him to having him smoke poisoned cigars or drinking a tainted milkshake. Scott M. Deitche is the author of six books on organized crime, including a biography of Santo Trafficante Jr., and has written dozens of articles on organized crime for magazines and newspapers. 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. He is hardly the "Dapper Don." Died: March 17, 1987, Houston, Texas [14], After a grant of immunity from prosecution, Trafficante testified before the HSCA the following day, September 28, and denied the allegation that he told Aleman that "Kennedy was going to be hit. Trafficante Sr. hung back and developed relationships with politicians and his Mob colleagues in New York and Chicago. [11], In 1976, Cuban exile and FBI informant Jose Aleman told The Washington Post that in September 1962, Trafficante had offered him a loan of $1.5million to replace Aleman's three-story "ramshackle motel with a 12-story glass wonder. Afterwards, the son he had groomed to take his place, Santo Trafficante Jr., took the reins of the Trafficante crime family. As we all know, he was right, and Kennedy was assassinated by a sniper in November 1963. He maintained all of the lucrative casinos in Cuba, further cemented ties with powerful Mafia families he had established as a young man in New York, and ruthlessly put down any attempts to usurp his territory or power. In 1965, Giancana was convicted of contempt of court, serving one year in prison. "Now when I walk in a bank," Trafficante says, "the president runs out the back door.". Trafficantes partnership with Batista was profitable for both parties and so the mobsters fate became inextricably tied to that of Cubas political climate. Robert Anderson aka The Killer Between 50 and 100 buildings were burned. Learn more about managing a memorial . Rosselli later claimed to be involved with or to actually be a shooter in a Mob conspiracy to kill President John F. Kennedy, and some accounts have Trafficante involved in the alleged, and unproven, conspiracy. [14] When this was pointed out, Aleman denied that he meant that he believed Kennedy was going to murdered and said he thought that Trafficante meant that Kennedy was going to be "hit" politically during the next election. Use the links under See more to quickly search for other people with the same last name in the same cemetery, city, county, etc. He walked outside and got into a 1951 Mercury sedan driven by one of his associates. Send your deepest condolences with fresh flowers. I have thought of you and Santo many times over the past 50 years. Trafficante was apprehended in November 1957, along with over 60 other mobsters, at the Apalachin meeting in Apalachin, New York. "I thought all this would end when my uncle died. But once Kennedy actually entered the White House, he didnt live up to his end of the bargain. Buy the time LoScalzo took over in 1987, the Trafficante Crime Family was far past its heyday. This flower has been reported and will not be visible while under review. Santo Jr. succeeded his father as the boss of Tampa upon his death. or don't show this againI am good at figuring things out. And the Trafficante Crime family found out that it had an unusual ally in their concerns about Castro: the Central Intelligence Agency. I can answer any questions you . I thought you might like to see a memorial for Santo Trafficante Jr. He was accused of making false financial statements for loans he used to invest in his citrus business, to purchase luxury cars and to buy a beach condo. Many of the familys gangsters were in prison, or too old to be effective. prosecution, fled temporarily to Cuba. Trafficante was arrested again in 1957 for attending the famous Apalachin summit of Mob leaders in New York, but those charges were dropped. Try again later. RIP Santo. No animated GIFs, photos with additional graphics (borders, embellishments. Alongside Chicago boss Sam Giancana, Roselli and Trafficante came up with some truly insane plots to kill Fidel Castro. Please reset your password. Mrs. Gerry, Gina, Dino, Joe and Marisa - they broke the mold with Traff. [13] Trafficante said that he introduced the trio to Cuban exiles in Florida. [20], In 2005, Lamar Waldron and Thom Hartmann's book Ultimate Sacrifice said that Trafficante was behind an aborted plot to kill Kennedy in Tampa on November 18, 1963. [21], Trafficante was summoned to court in 1986 and questioned about his involvement with the King's Court Bottle Club operated by members of the Bonanno crime family, including undercover FBI agent Joseph D. "Joe" Pistone, a.k.a. In the early 20th Century, Tampa was a small but growing city, and the organized crime it faced was modest. He dropped out of high school and spent time in New York learning the trade from some of the countries toughest mobsters. His luck has not improved recently. He attended a notorious convention of Mafia bosses held in the upstate New York town of Apalachin on November 14, 1957. Our prayers are with you. I think it was a case of mistaken identity.. James Anthony Traficant Jr. (May 8, 1941 - September 27, 2014) was an American politician who served as a Democrat, and later independent, member of the United States House of Representatives from Ohio.He represented the 17th Congressional District, which centered on his hometown of Youngstown and included parts of three counties in northeast Ohio's Mahoning Valley. When he applied to the state for a parimutuel license that would allow him to race his horses at Tampa Bay Downs, he was refused. love gloria "owens" hill. He headed the Trafficante crime family from 1954 to 1987 and controlled organized criminal operations in Florida and Cuba, which had previously been consolidated from several rival gangs by his father, Santo Trafficante Sr. Trafficante maintained links to the Bonanno crime family in New York City, but was more closely allied with Sam Giancana in Chicago. . Other Mafia leaders, as well as newer organized crime networks, took over many of the rackets the family ran throughout the 20th Century. [3] Trafficante moved to Cuba in 1955, where he came into contact with Batista and Meyer Lansky. Santo Trafficante arrives at Queens Supreme Court in Kew Gardens. Peter Moruzzi/Wikimedia Commons The glamorous casino in the Hotel Nacional De Cuba in Havana in 1958. [19] He claimed three witnesses could support his statement that he met Trafficante in Tampa, but refused to name them, adding: "One guy is afraid of retaliation. Santo Trafficante Sr. was a Florida mobster who survived a series of vicious gang wars to become the leader of a powerful Mafia crime family based in Tampa. After this look at Santo Trafficante Jr., read the gruesome story of the murderous American dentist, Benjamin Salomon, of World War II. 2023, Tampa Mafia. He was a well-respected boss, even among the far larger New York crime families. The investigators were looking for proof of drug-money laundering. A car registered to former state attorney and current state appellate judge E.J. Santo Trafficante Jr. (November 15, 1914 - March 17, 1987) was among the most powerful Mafia bosses in the United States. Mobster Johnny Rosselli, who worked for both Trafficante and the Chicago Outfit, was another associate involved in the unsuccessful efforts to kill Castro and, according to some biographies, was the man who put Trafficante and Giancana together with Maheu. In January 1963, he married Geraldine Valenti, the daughter of J.C. Valenti, who owned a thriving produce business. Trafficante tried to win Castro over to his side, but that didnt work. U.S., Newspapers.com Obituary Index, 1800s-current, U.S., World War II Draft Cards Young Men, 1940-1947, Florida, U.S., County Marriage Records, 1823-1982, Thank you for fulfilling this photo request. Harris & Ewing/Library of Commons/Wikimedia CommonsCuban leader Fulgencio Batista in Washington, D.C. in 1938. Santo Traficante Jr fue uno de los ltimos y mas poderosos capos de la mafia en Florida y Cuba. From bolitaan illegal version of the now-legal Florida lotteryto narcotics, Tampas experience with organized crime is as notable as Chicagos or New Yorks. The "Family Jewels" confirmed that in September 1960, the CIA recruited ex-FBI agent Robert Maheu to approach the West Coast representative of the Chicago mob, Johnny Roselli. She was a native of Tampa, a second-generation Sicilian immigrant who grew up in Ybor city. After Cuban revolution, the Mafia saw Castro as a threat to their business. More importantly, Castro imprisoned Trafficante and then had him exiled from Cuba. A full report was made by the Cuban police, dated January 23, 1958, includes transcripts of long-distance telephone calls made from the Sans Souci during the period AugustDecember 1957. Born in Tampa, Florida in 1914, Trafficante hailed from a family already deeply involved in organized crime. One small gang, led by Italian immigrant Santo Trafficante Senior, profited from the illegal lottery-style games they ran across Tampa. [3] His wife, Josephine, died in 2015 at the age of 95; he is survived by two of his daughters. Which memorial do you think is a duplicate of Santo Trafficante (53540265)? Family members linked to this person will appear here. Bankruptcy court documents show that Trafficante is owed $500,000 by a business partner. Please check your email for further instructions. He was known as an organized crimes figure.