Santo Trafficante Jr. (1914-1987)

Trafficante was the boss of organized crime in Florida; he ran night clubs, casinos and restaurants. He was a “traditional gangster” which meant he did not deal drugs, he only participated in the traditional mob activities. He had ties to the Bonanno family in New York which allowed him to expand his operations. He was so important to the American mob scene that he was invited to the Havana Convention to discuss and create new guidelines for the mob.

Trafficante also participated in the Apalachin meeting to discuss the new dispersal of power in the mob. He had operations and houses in Cuba, but was removed from Cuba as an “undesirable alien” by Fidel Castro. After his removal from Cuba, Trafficante was involved in assassination attempts on Castro organized by various US agencies. There have also been theories linking him to the assassination of John F. Kennedy. Trafficante died of heart failure in Houston, Texas in 1987.