Sep
20
2007
David Flusfeder reviews The Havana Mob: Gangsters, Gamblers, Showgirls and Revolutionaries in 1950s Cuba by T J English
Charles “Lucky” Luciano
One of the great pleasures in reading any chronicle of the Mafia is the rough street poetry of the names. In the pages of T J English’s enjoyable – yet morally uncertain – account of the rise and fall of the Mob’s Caribbean empire of gambling, pleasure, sin, murder and profit, we come across such figures as Charles “Lucky” Luciano, Vincent “Jimmy Blue Eyes” Alo, William “Lefty Clark” Bischoff, and Nicholas “the Fat Butcher” di Costanzo. Continue Reading »
Jun
27
2007
The CIA worked with two of America’s top Mafia mobsters in a botched attempt to assassinate the Cuban President Fidel Castro with poisoned pills, according to previously classified documents released by the spy agency yesterday. Continue Reading »
May
29
2007
(The Associated Press) HAVANA: The man who was the gangster Meyer Lansky’s driver and bodyguard during the Mafia’s heyday before the Cuban Revolution died here in February, but only a few people noticed. His passing was a curious footnote in a Communist country whose brief history as a gambling magnet for vacationing Americans is all but forgotten. Continue Reading »
Mar
31
2007
Spanish police have captured one of the suspected leaders of the biggest Cuban-American criminal ring, seizing assets worth more than 20 million euros (27 million dollars), police said Friday. Continue Reading »
Mar
17
2007
MIAMI (Reuters) – A leader of a “Cuban mafia” organized crime syndicate called The Corporation was sentenced on Friday to nearly 16 years in prison for racketeering and ordered to forfeit $642 million.
Jose Miguel Battle Jr. was convicted last year on various racketeering conspiracy charges including murder, gambling, arson and money laundering. Continue Reading »
Jan
15
2007
Jose Miguel Battle Sr., the ailing padrino of the Cuban mob, was sentenced to 20 years in prison on a racketeering conviction in Miami federal court. Continue Reading »
