Meyer Lansky.

at crime library the following quote had me thinking (which is not always good this late)

"When the Trafficantes of Tampa tried to go in big on their own in Cuba, Lansky used his Batista connection to squash the move. Then he gave them a slice, smaller than what many other mafiosi got."(copyrighted to CrimeLibrary.com)

i was wondering how Lansky's Batista connection squashed the move and how big and what was the slice he gave them.

Hi,
It couldn't have been a big piece of the action. In GF2 Roth was supposed to Lansky. Meyer moved to Florida due to the fact Cuba was only 90 miles away. The meetings were held in Cuba and Luciano would be there.

Lansky was a pal of Batista's from the '30's. When Batista returned to power in '52, he found that gringo gamblers were staying away in droves because the games were crooked. He asked his pal Lansky to organize gaming in Havana as a consultant, because Lansky had a solid-gold reputation for giving players an even break--he believed profits from gambling were sufficiently big so that there was no need for the house to cheat. To keep peace with his Mob pals, Lansky divided up the Havana action evenly. The scene in GFII in which Roth says he's leaving his empire to the Corleones "but all of you will share equally" is a fair approximation of how he operated in Cuba. (BTW: in that scene, "Eddie Levine of Newport" was in real life Eddie Levinson of Covington, KY, a big-time gaming operator; "Johnny Ola" in real life was Lansky's pal Jimmy "Blue Eyes" Alo.) Lansky and Trafficante partnered with Batista in building the Riviera, Havana's biggest casino hotel. It started making big money when it opened in 3/58, but Castro closed it and the other casinos after he took over in 1/59. Lansky and his investors lost everything. Trafficante spent a month in a Cuban jail before Lansky persuaded Castro to let him go.

turnbull is there information out in the open on how Lansky persuaded Castro to let Trafficante go?

I think it was in the Uri Dan book on Lansky, Guineapig, but to tell the truth, a lot of this stuff isn't reliable--may be legend. What makes it possible is that Lansky allegedly sent money to both Castro and Batista, hedging his bets. The only undeniable facts are that Lansky got out of Cuba on his own but Trafficante was detained. Another story has it that the US Government asked Lansky to ask Batista to renounce his presidency of Cuba in 1943 and move to Florida--allegedly because the government thought he was a Communist! The most reliable book on Lansky is Robert Lacey's biography, "Little Man - Meyer Lansky and the Gangster Life."

they call Meyer Lansky the "Little Man" coz he stands only below 5 feet . . .

GoodFella

Guineapig, but to tell the truth, a lot of this stuff isn't reliable--may be legend

Thanks TB next time i read something fishy at crime library i'll try to find a second source, i'll keep that in mind.

Hi,
I don't think Meyer ever spent time in prison. I could be wrong.

No i'm pretty sure you're right Paul i don't think he ever served anytime and it would be very unlikely if he did again i'm almost 100% sure he never did.

Guineapig.

This information can be found in Uri Dan's book on Meyer Lansky?

Lansky DID spend a few (i thought 3) months in jail in the 50's..

Don Chater, most of my info on Lansky comes from Robert Lacey's outstanding biography, "Little Man - Meyer Lansky and the Gangster Life," one of the very few gangster bios that's well researched and accurate.
Juventus: Yes, Lansky spent three months in a jail in Saratoga Springs, NY in the early Fifties on a minor gambling charge. Although he'd been arrested several times as a young man, and was arrested several times later, this was the only time he actually served a prison sentence.