The Florida White House (or Winter White House) was an informal name for a compound in

Key Biscayne, Florida Key Biscayne is a village in Miami-Dade County, Florida, United States. Located on the island of Key Biscayne, the village is part of the Miami metropolitan area of South Florida. The population was 14,809 at the 2020 United States census, 20 ...

, used by

U.S. President The president of the United States (POTUS) is the head of state and head of government of the United States. The president directs the Federal government of the United States#Executive branch, executive branch of the Federal government of t ...

Richard Nixon Richard Milhous Nixon (January 9, 1913April 22, 1994) was the 37th president of the United States, serving from 1969 until Resignation of Richard Nixon, his resignation in 1974. A member of the Republican Party (United States), Republican ...

History

Nixon purchased the first of his three waterfront homes, 500 Bay Lane, during 1969 from his former

Senate A senate is a deliberative assembly, often the upper house or chamber of a bicameral legislature. The name comes from the ancient Roman Senate (Latin: ''Senatus''), so-called as an assembly of the senior (Latin: ''senex'' meaning "the el ...

colleague

George Smathers George Armistead Smathers (November 14, 1913 – January 20, 2007) was an American lawyer and politician from the state of Florida who served in both chambers of the United States Congress, the United States House of Representatives from 1947 t ...

Florida Florida ( ; ) is a U.S. state, state in the Southeastern United States, Southeastern region of the United States. It borders the Gulf of Mexico to the west, Alabama to the northwest, Georgia (U.S. state), Georgia to the north, the Atlantic ...

. Nixon visited it at least 50 times while in office as President from 1969 to 1974. Nixon's compound was close to the home of Charles "Bebe" Rebozo who resided at 490 Bay Lane and of industrialist

Robert Abplanalp Robert Henry Abplanalp, ( KHS) (April 4, 1922 – August 30, 2003) was an American inventor and engineer who invented the modern form of the aerosol spray valve, the founder of Precision Valve Corporation, a Republican political activist, and ...

(inventor of the modern aerosol spray can valve). Bebe Rebozo, president/owner of the Key Biscayne Bank, was indicted for money-laundering a $100,000 donation from

Howard Hughes Howard Robard Hughes Jr. (December 24, 1905 – April 5, 1976) was an American Aerospace engineering, aerospace engineer, business magnate, film producer, and investor. He was The World's Billionaires, one of the richest and most influential peo ...

to the Nixon election campaign. According to an exposé by Don Fulsom, Nixon and Rebozo got bargain real estate prices from Donald Berg, a

Mafia "Mafia", as an informal or general term, is often used to describe criminal organizations that bear a strong similarity to the Sicilian Mafia, original Mafia in Sicily, to the Italian-American Mafia, or to other Organized crime in Italy, organiz ...

-associated Rebozo business partner. The

Secret Service A secret service is a government agency, intelligence agency, or the activities of a government agency, concerned with the gathering of intelligence data. The tasks and powers of a secret service can vary greatly from one country to another. For i ...

eventually advised Nixon to stop associating with Berg. The lender for one of Nixon's properties was Arthur Desser, who consorted with both

Teamsters The International Brotherhood of Teamsters (IBT) is a trade union, labor union in the United States and Canada. Formed in 1903 by the merger of the Team Drivers International Union and the Teamsters National Union, the union now represents a di ...

President

Jimmy Hoffa James Riddle Hoffa (; born February 14, 1913 – disappeared July 30, 1975, declared dead July 30, 1982) was an American labor union leader who served as the president of the International Brotherhood of Teamsters (IBT) from 1957 to 1971. He i ...

and mobster

Meyer Lansky Meyer Lansky (born Maier Suchowljansky; July 4, 1902 – January 15, 1983), known as the "Mob's Accountant", was an American organized crime figure who, along with his associate Lucky Luciano, Charles "Lucky" Luciano, was instrumental in the dev ...

. Nixon and Rebozo were friends of James V. Crosby, the chairman of a company repeatedly associated with major mobsters, and Rebozo's Key Biscayne Bank was a suspected pipeline for Mafia money from Crosby's casino in

The Bahamas The Bahamas, officially the Commonwealth of The Bahamas, is an Archipelagic state, archipelagic and island country within the Lucayan Archipelago of the Atlantic Ocean. It contains 97 per cent of the archipelago's land area and 88 per cent of ...

. By the 1960s, FBI agents monitoring the Mafia had identified Rebozo as a "non-member associate of organized crime figures". President

John F. Kennedy John Fitzgerald Kennedy (May 29, 1917 – November 22, 1963), also known as JFK, was the 35th president of the United States, serving from 1961 until his assassination in 1963. He was the first Roman Catholic and youngest person elected p ...

and Nixon met for the first time after the 1960 presidential election in an oceanfront villa at the old Key Biscayne Hotel. As the Watergate scandal developed, Nixon spent more time in seclusion there. The

United States Department of Defense The United States Department of Defense (DoD, USDOD, or DOD) is an United States federal executive departments, executive department of the federal government of the United States, U.S. federal government charged with coordinating and superv ...

spent $400,000 constructing a

helicopter landing pad A helipad is the landing area of a heliport, in use by helicopters, powered lift, and vertical lift aircraft to land on surface. While helicopters and powered lift aircraft are able to operate on a variety of relatively flat surfaces, a fabr ...

Biscayne Bay Biscayne Bay is a lagoon with characteristics of an estuary located on the Atlantic coast of South Florida. The northern end of the lagoon is surrounded by the densely developed heart of the Miami metropolitan area while the southern end is large ...

adjacent to the Nixon compound. When Nixon sold his property, including the helicopter pad, there were public accusations that he enriched himself at taxpayer expense. The house was used for the filming of several scenes in the 1983 gangster movie ''Scarface'', starring

Al Pacino Alfredo James Pacino ( ; ; born April 25, 1940) is an American actor. Known for his intense performances on stage and screen, Pacino is widely regarded as one of the greatest actors of all time. His career spans more than five decades, duri ...

; it was featured as the home of Frank Lopez, played by

Robert Loggia Salvatore "Robert" Loggia ( , ; January 3, 1930 – December 4, 2015) was an American actor. He was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor for '' Jagged Edge'' (1985) and won the Saturn Award for Best Supporting Actor for ...

. The original building was razed during July 2004 by owner Edgardo Defortuna, president of Fortune International Realty.

References

External links

*Fulsom, Don (February 5, 2006)
The Mob's President: Richard Nixon's Secret Ties to the Mafia
''Crime Magazine.'' *''

Associated Press The Associated Press (AP) is an American not-for-profit organization, not-for-profit news agency headquartered in New York City. Founded in 1846, it operates as a cooperative, unincorporated association, and produces news reports that are dist ...

'' (July 23, 2004)
Nixon's Winter White House Razed.
{{Authority control Buildings and structures demolished in 2004 Demolished buildings and structures in Florida Houses in Miami-Dade County, Florida Key Biscayne, Florida Presidency of Richard Nixon Presidential homes in the United States

History

See also

References

External links