Havana Conference
The
Havana Conference was a meeting of all the major figures of U.S.
organized crime, held during the week of
22 December,
1946 at the Hotel Nacional in
Havana, Cuba. Decisions made at the conference would have a notable bearing on American organized criminal activity in the ensuing decades.
Background
The head of the
National Crime Syndicate,
Lucky Luciano, had been serving a 30-to-50-year prison term for pandering when he was asked to assist the U.S. government during
World War II in
1942. After the war ended,
New York Governor
Thomas E. Dewey agreed to release Luciano on condition that the mobster was deported to his native
Sicily and never again allowed to set foot on American soil. Lucky complied and set sail in February
1946, settling in
Lercara Friddi, Sicily (his hometown), then moving to
Palermo,
Naples, and
Rome. However, he never lost hope of someday returning to America, and planned to that end constantly.
In October, Luciano went to
Caracas, Venezuela, and from there flew to
Mexico City. He then boarded a private plane to
Havana, where he was greeted by close friend and fellow crime lord
Meyer Lansky. Lansky had organized a major mob summit for the week of
22 December, and suggested that Luciano purchase a $150,000 interest in a casino jointly operated by Meyer and Cuban political leader
Fulgencio Batista. Lucky proposed that all the conference invitees bring him envelopes full of cash to welcome him back to the New World in order to finance the move. These "Christmas presents" were in excess of $200,000, and were given to Luciano on a first-night dinner hosted by Lansky,
Frank Costello, and
Joe Adonis.
The Conference Begins
The Havana Conference convened on
22 December. Luciano thanked all the delegates for their donations, and then brought up the subject of "boss of bosses" (Capo di tutti capi) . He decided it was finally time for him to take that title.
Albert Anastasia seconded the motion; both he and Luciano wanted to send a message to
Vito Genovese, who was trying to muscle in on Anastasia and sell drugs. Vito even suggested to Lucky that the latter consider retiring, to which Luciano emphatically responded that he had no such intention. Furthermore, Lucky encouraged Anastasia and Genovese to settle their differences, so that another mob conflict, such as the bloody
Castellammarese War between
Joe Masseria and
Salvatore Maranzano in the early
1930s, would not break out. This was followed by Luciano's condemnation of the narcotics trade; despite the millions of dollars to be made in drugs, he never wanted to even start in the business and sought to forget the idea altogether.
The Siegel Situation
The next item up for business was what Lansky called the "Siegel Situation".
Bugsy Siegel had been purposely excluded from the Havana proceedings, chiefly because he would be one of the main topics discussed. Sent to
Los Angeles in the mid-
1930s to set up the Syndicate's activities there, Siegel became popular in
Hollywood circles. He became enamoured with the idea of constructing a casino in
Las Vegas, and convinced Lansky and the
New York City mob to finance the project. However, due to either mistakes or dishonesty by Bugsy, the price rose from $1.5 million to $6 million.
Lansky stated that he had information that Siegel's girlfriend,
Virginia Hill, was depositing money in a bank account in
Zurich, Switzerland and that he had reason to believe Siegel himself would skim money from the project and possibly even leave the U.S. if his casino, the
Flamingo, failed. Following a vote in which non-Italian gangsters did not participate, it was decided that Bugsy would be killed, and the contract went to Chicago's
Charlie Fischetti to be carried out by
Jack Dragna, the Los Angeles boss. Lansky convinced the other delegates that they should wait until the
Flamingo opened on
26 December to see how the casino fared. The gangsters then took a break for Christmas.
On the 26th, word reached the assembled hoods in Havana that the
Flamingo had flopped. The enraged mobsters demanded Siegel's head on a platter, but Lansky once again convinced them that Bugsy could save the casino. Following a closure for repairs, the
Flamingo reopened a few months later. It soon began churning out a profit, but Siegel was still assassinated in Hill's
Beverly Hills mansion by a rifle-wielding hitman on
20 June,
1947.
Lucky and Don Vito
The tension between Luciano and Genovese reached a boiling point at the conclusion of the Havana Conference. In Luciano's room, Vito told him that the U.S. government knew that Lucky was in Cuba, and was putting pressure on the Batista regime to have him expelled. Genovese then declared his desire to inherit Lucky's holdings, since Luciano would be back in Italy.
Luciano snapped, sure that Vito had tipped off the Washington authorities about his whereabouts. He proceeded to beat Genovese and eventually broke three of his ribs; it was three days before Vito could travel again. Lucky and Anastasia then put Genovese on a plane and Luciano threatened Vito with death if he ever mentioned the altercation to anyone.
In February
1947, the
New York City papers got wind of the fact that Lucky was in Cuba, and U.S. drug agent
Harry Anslinger demanded that Luciano be deported back to Italy. Anslinger even went so far as to seek support for Luciano's expulsion from President
Harry S. Truman when the Cuban government refused to comply with his request. The U.S. government halted all shipments of medical supplies to Cuba until Luciano left; Lucky, Lansky, and Batista tried to concoct a counter to this embargo by trying to halt all Cuban sugar shipments to the U.S., but it failed. Luciano was arrested that month, and arrested again once he landed on Italian soil in April.
Luciano died in
1962, and Genovese passed in
1969. They ended up buried 100 feet from each other in the same cemetery.
In fiction
The film
The Godfather Part II has an "homage" to the Havana Conference when
Michael Corleone travels to Havana to have a meeting with several other mob bosses.
*
List of Havana Conference invitees*
CrimeMagazine.com
