Santo Trafficante Sr. (May 28, 1886 – August 11, 1954) was a
Sicilian-born mobster, and father of the powerful mobster
Santo Trafficante Jr.
Santo Trafficante Jr. (November 15, 1914 – March 17, 1987) was among the most powerful Mafia bosses in the United States. He headed the Trafficante crime family and controlled organized criminal operations in Florida and Cuba, which had prev ...
Santo Trafficante Sr. gained power as a mobster in
Tampa, Florida and ruled the
Mafia in Tampa from the 1930s until his death in 1954. Trafficante was heavily involved in the operation of illegal
bolita
Bolita (Spanish for ''Little Ball'') is a type of lottery which was popular in the latter 19th and early 20th centuries in Cuba and among Florida's working class Hispanic, Italian, and black population. In the basic bolita game, 100 small number ...
lotteries. During his reign, Trafficante was a well-respected boss with ties to
Charles "Lucky" Luciano and
Thomas Lucchese
Thomas Gaetano Lucchese (born Gaetano Lucchese; ; December 1, 1899 – July 13, 1967), sometimes known by the nicknames "Tommy", "Thomas Luckese", "Tommy Brown" or "Tommy Three-Finger Brown" was an Italian-American gangster and founding member of ...
.
During the 1940s, Trafficante Sr. maintained a strong alliance with
Tommy Lucchese, the boss of the
Lucchese crime family in
New York City.
Lucchese would help train his son Trafficante Jr. in the mafia traditions.
Trafficante died of stomach cancer on August 11, 1954; he was a member of
L'Unione Italiana
L'Unione Italiana, The Italian Club, is a historic social society in Tampa's Ybor City neighborhood. The group's building was designed by Tampa architect M. Leo Elliott. It is located at 1731 East Seventh Avenue.
History
Originally founded as ...
, and he was buried in L'Unione Italiana Cemetery in
Ybor City
Ybor City ( ) is a historic neighborhood just northeast of downtown Tampa, downtown Tampa, Florida, United States. It was founded in the 1880s by Vicente Martinez-Ybor and other cigar manufacturers and populated by thousands of immigrants, mainly ...
.
His son,
Santo Trafficante Jr.
Santo Trafficante Jr. (November 15, 1914 – March 17, 1987) was among the most powerful Mafia bosses in the United States. He headed the Trafficante crime family and controlled organized criminal operations in Florida and Cuba, which had prev ...
subsequently took over the crime family.
References
Further reading
*Dietche, Scott M. ''Cigar City Mafia: A Complete History of the Tampa Underworld''.
Barricade Books, 2004.
External links
Cuban Information Archives: Santo Trafficante Jr. includes
U.S. Treasury Department records of Santo Trafficante Sr.
Creative Loafing: The Mob -- A Drive-By Historical Tour of Tampa's Notorious Wise Guysby Scott Deitche
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Trafficante, Santo Sr.
1886 births
1954 deaths
Gangsters from the Province of Agrigento
American crime bosses
American gangsters of Sicilian descent
Deaths from cancer in Florida
Deaths from stomach cancer
People from Tampa, Florida
Trafficante crime family
Italian emigrants to the United States