-Caveat Lector- an excerpt from: The Breaking of a President 1974 - The Nixon Connection Marvin Miller, Compiler Therapy Productions, Inc.©1975 LCCCN 7481547 --[11]-- The Havanna Connection The men who gathered together in 1934 to form the National Crime Syndicate had long been aware of the opportunities for American criminals in Cuba. During 1919 and 1920, Arnold Rothstein, then operating gambling casinos in New York, joined with Charles Stoneham and others to take over operation of the casino and race-track in Havana. It was easy to foresee that Cuba would become a base for illegal operations, outside the jurisdiction of American law enforcement and yet close enough to Florida to permit coordination with illegal activities inside the United States. However, organized crime was not to make major investments in Cuba until the end of World War II. The 1920's were primarily used by the developing gangs to exploit the profitability of Prohibition. The major emphasis in the 1930's was the development of regional gambling centers in places like Kentucky, and the consolidation of the modem mob in the criminal activities Rothstein had pioneered: bookmaking, labor racketeering and the drug traffic. The years of World War II were taken up with black marketeering, the counterfeiting of ration stamps, and obtaining for the Syndicate its extortionate share of cost-plus defense contracts. ROTHSTEIN CHEATS HIS PARTNERS Nevertheless, it is typical of Rothstein that as early as 1921 he used his base in Cuba to cheat his own early partners in smuggling, pickpocket Irving "Waxey Gordon" Wexler and Detroit bootlegger Max "Big Maxey" Greenberg. In our chapter on The Development of the Modern Mob, it has been mentioned that at the very beginning of Prohibition Rothstein had obtained a ship and arranged for eleven trips from Europe to the United States with smuggled whisky. Wexler and Greenberg had approached Rothstein with a proposal that he bankroll the two in a modest venture to smuggle liquor from Canada. Rothstein refused, but suggested the grandiose scheme of bringing 20,000 cases of Scotch whisky from Europe at a single time. As he alone was capable of financing such a huge project, Rothstein made himself the majority partner. Rothstein then contracted for a Norwegian ship and, through American criminals exiled in Europe, stocked it with the whisky—and English ale and uncut diamonds from Holland. The last was a private cargo for Rothstein alone. Each time, the ship was met outside the U. S. three-mile limit by six speedboats Rothstein had built specially for that purpose. The Coast Guard had patrols supposed to prevent anyone from landing illegal liquor and other contraband on Long Island—but Rothstein was able to establish very friendly relations with the Coast Guard. He already had bribed local officials because of his ownership of a plush gambling casino on Long Island. Rothstein was even able to arrange for Coast Guard personnel to unload his speedboats onto the fleet of waiting trucks. Then a police motorcycle escort convoyed the whisky to Long Island City where Rothstein had rented a warehouse. But during the eleventh trip, Rothstein was informed that a new commander had been stationed at the Coast Guard headquarters, and this officer was planning to seize the ship. Rothstein made radio contact with his ship and ordered the captain to change course on the high seas and head for Cuba. When the ship landed there, an agent for Charles Stoneham, Havana race-track and casino operator, picked up the cargo at cost. Rothstein informed Wexler and Greenberg that the voyage had not been profitable, but did not tell them that Stoneham was Rothstein's secret partner in Cuba. Actually, when the whisky was smuggled into the U. S. from Cuba, Rothstein made a greater profit than normal. These facts were not disclosed until after Rothstein's death, although a court case in 1923 revealed the hidden relations Rothstein had with Stoneham in Wall Street swindling schemes. This was also Rothstein's last direct involvement in smuggling liquor during Prohibition. Since he couldn't maintain a monopoly over liquor-smuggling, he preferred from this time on to simply bankroll the smuggling liquor during Prohibition. Since he couldn't maintain a monopoly over liquor-smuggling, he preferred from this time on to simply bankroll the smuggling. When not mediating between the rival gangs, or acting as the gobetween with the politicians, Rothstein concentrated on rackets he could personally control. LANSKY AND NIXON IN CUBA Nixon enters the Cuban picture as early as 1940. His biographer, Earl Mazo, briefly reports in the following words that the young lawyer from Whittier found himself in faraway Cuba soon after his marriage to Pat Ryan in June 1940: "Mrs. Nixon continued to teach (at Whittier High School) after her marriage, and Nixon confided to a few intimates that he aimed sooner or later to get into a big-city law practice. He kept looking over the field, quietly, and even during a brief trip to Cuba he spent a bit of his vacation time exploring the possibilities of establishing law or business connections in Havana." Only one other source, a very significant one, mentions Nixon's trip to Cuba in 1940, and suggests exactly whom he may have seen there. In Hank Messick's excellent biography of Meyer Lansky, Messick flatly says: "Lansky first heard of Richard Nixon in 1940." How could this contact have come about, six years before the unknown young Whittier lawyer entered politics? And is it possible that this early contact propelled Nixon into the national political arena? In 1937 Lansky opened his second known Cuban operation, a casino in the Hotel Nacional, which had more floor-space than any other casino in the Western Hemisphere. That same year he also leased Havana's race-track from the National City Bank of New York. From 1937 to 1940 he was spending considerable time in Cuba as a close intimate of the dictator Batista. In 1940, the ambitious Nixon was the police prosecutor in rural Whittier. At the same time Bugsy Siegel, Lansky's old associate, had his headquarters in Los Angeles and had a keen interest in all things relating to crime, police and the courts: One of Siegel's exploits at the time, just to indicate how he may have had contact with the young Nixon, was to get a murder indictment against himself dismissed by a new Los Angeles district attorney. To no one's surprise, it was later revealed that Siegel had made a $30,000 cash contribution to this D. A.'s campaign fund. Messick therefore continues: "The circumstances can be dismissed as a coincidence. The fact that Lansky's partner bossed crime in California and that, in Cuba, Lansky himself sat at the right hand of Batista, may mean nothing. Yet Whittier is a long way from Havana for a young lawyer in search of new connections." The connections do not end here. In the coming years Nixon and Lansky both deepened their personal friendship and political support for Batista. Also Nixon became the chief supporter in the Eisenhower White House for the Bay of Pigs invasion against Fidel Castro. Meanwhile Lansky had his men in the Bahamas ready to open up the gambling casinos, and had let out a Syndicate "contract" to have Castro assassinated during the invasion. Last but not least, why did Mickey Cohen, the California crime leader who succeeded Bugsy Siegel, boast many times that he had contributed $25,000 to the early political campaigns of Richard Nixon? And when this charge became a nuisance to Nixon, why didn't he file a libel suit against Cohen? Did Murray Chotiner arrange for this contribution from the mob'? And did Cohen and Chotiner act upon instructions from Meyer Lansky, who remembered the pliable young conservative from Whittier and decided that he would add his support to the oilmen and bankers who had selected Nixon to run against Jerry Voorhis'? These questions are not illogical, when it is now widely accepted in the United States that large corporations cultivate young politicians in the hope they will later become prominent and "remember" their friends. If established corporations and industries do this, is it illogical to speculate that the huge organized crime industry may likewise seek such an early cultivation of politicians? And how much "proof" is needed when a consistent pattern appears? LANSKY AND BATISTA Sergeant Fulgencio Batista became dictator of Cuba on September 4, 1933, and immediately became involved in a multimillion-dollar deal with Meyer Lansky. Lansky and the Cleveland Syndicate, including Moe Dalitz and Sam Tucker, were preparing for the end of Prohibition by having front-men establish the Molaska Corporation on November 25, 1933, just ten days before liquor became legal. The ostensible purpose of this corporation was to produce dehydrated molasses for use as animal feed. The actual purpose was to use molasses in dehydrated form as a substitute for sugar in the production of illegal liquor. While former bootleggers Samuel Bronfman and Lewis Rosenstiel, among others, had decided to use their expertise and organization to dominate the new legal liquor business, the mob had also agreed that, given the high federal tax, it would still be profitable to produce illegal liquor and sell it at half-price without the tax being added. The molasses was produced cheaply in Cuba. On January 16, 1935, one of the largest illegal distilleries using dehydrated molasses was uncovered in Zanesville, Ohio. The distillery had mash-vats which required 48,600 pounds of sugar and 15,200 pounds of dehydrated "Molaska" to fill. From these ingredients, 36,506 gallons of mash per day were made. By using continuous-process procedures, 5000 gallons of 190-proof alcohol were manufactured every 24 hours. Twelve men worked two 12-hour shifts to keep the production going. The alcohol sold for $2 per gallon wholesale, and for as much as $2.50 per quart retail. Cost of production, including the price of labor, fuel and raw materials, was estimated at 50 cents per gallon. In addition there were facilities to produce 36,506 gallons of beer daily. Molasses was being pumped 700 feet through abandoned sewers into the alcohol distillery, and the liquor piped to waiting box-cars, Cost of the plant was estimated as "at least $250,000." On January 26, 1935, another huge illegal distillery was raided in Elizabeth, New Jersey. A building leased from the Bethlehem Steel Company had been set up as a factory for the Molaska Corporation. During nearly six months of operation, the plant had received a total of 342,021 gallons of molasses and shipped out 2,908,120 pounds of dehydrated product. Records show that some of the Molaska was actually sold to candy and ice-cream makers, but the bulk of the production, recorded as going to alleged feed companies in the West and Middle West, actually was going to a huge illegal distillery located in the middle of a forest of oil-tanks and refineries. The distillery had tank-storage including 22 tanks with a capacity of 30,000 gallons each, 19 tanks with a capacity of 10,000 each, and seven tanks holding 1000 gallons each. The finished alcohol was piped through hoses into tankers tied up at the docks, and transported to New York City. The Molaska Corporation of 1933 was a practical test-run for the National Crime Syndicate to be set up in 1934. Visualize the immense manufacturing operations! (Knowledgeable journalists and law enforcement authorities believe that such huge illegal distilleries still function in this country under the aegis of the National Crime Syndicate.) Visualize how huge corporations like Molaska must interlock with other corporations supplying raw product, transportation, fuel and equipment. And consider how these corporations are set up by the best of lawyers to conceal the fact that the real owners are bootleggers, gang leaders, National Crime Syndicate leaders. And it was Meyer Lansky who went to Cuba some time in 1933 and set up the international agreement with Batista which was the foundation for this vast structure. A warm friendship was quickly established between Lansky and Batista, Batista saw that Lansky was a man who could make him rich, and discussions began about Lansky's operating gambling casinos in Cuba. These discussions resulted in the previously -mentioned moves by Lansky into Cuba starting in 1937. In 1943 Batista was also involved with the U.S. mob in a scheme to blend a little good bourbon with a lot of cheap Cuban rum and produce a new drink which would be sold as blended whisky. It was discovered that if the rum was put into used whisky-barrels and left in sunlight for a few days, it would take on some of the characteristics of whisky. Batista owned the rum and offered to transport the finished product to Florida in his yacht-an old American gunboat. But when Batista learned of the black-market prices prevailing in the war-time United States, he raised the price by $10,000 per shipment. Eventually Molaska Corporation was put into bankruptcy on March 2, 1935, and officially died as a legal entity on November 15, 1935. But the Molaska Company Inc. came into being OD October 9, 1935, with the aid of the U. S. laws that hell financially troubled businesses to survive. Some of the leases seemed to be transferred to associates of Frank Costello. And the president of Molaska Corporation and Molaska Company Inc., one John Drew, turned up years later as a holder of a 5 per cent interest in the Las Vegas Stardust Hotel in partnership with the Cleveland Syndicate. Investigation showed that John Drew had legally changed his name from Jacob Stein in 1933. Jacob Stein had been a coconspirator with Gaston B. Means to bootleg liquor in the early days of Prohibition and his testimony had helped send Means to prison. Later, in 1928, he had been convicted in a giant liquor conspiracy. The first attorney he hired for Molaska was Aaron Sapiro, who was indicted with Al Capone in Chicago. Besides working with Bronfman and Rosenstiel in their legal liquor businesses and setting up Molaska to keep the illegal distilleries going, the National Crime Syndicate also had its own legitimate outfit known as Capitol Wine and Spirits. This company was headed by Louis I. Pokrass. Meyer Lansky, Bugsy Siegel, Joe Adonis, Frank Costello and the rest invested a lot of money into Capitol. In 1945, when the company's liquor license was revoked for failure to identify the secret owners, Capitol's assets were sold. The proceeds were invested in the Flamingo, which Siegel was building in Las Vegas. Obviously all of this interstate and international wheeling and dealing requires political contacts at the highest level, especially since what is involved are marginally legal or illegal operations. ROOSEVELT SENDS LANSKY TO BATISTA One of the ways in which the United States achieves its foreign policy goals is to use businessmen who have a natural influence in a particular country through their economic investments. As organized crime becomes more influential on an international level, it can be expected that the government will work through them too. As the National Crime Syndicate evolves into a structure able to supply influential people who do not have a personal criminal record, the government will be more inclined to use them. But a criminal record is not a barrier if the need is great enough. A new election was approaching in Cuba in 1944 and it was believed that Batista was on the verge of making new concessions to the Communists. The U. S. Department of State in Official Publication Number 7171 noted: "The Cuban Communist Party has had a working agreement with the Batista government; indeed Batista in 1943 appointed to his cabinet the first avowed Communist ever to serve in any cabinet of any American republic." And Robert F. Smith in his 1960 book The United States and Cuba says: "The Communists have had a foothold in Cuba for years, and Batista had working arrangements with them at various times." Batista had legalized the Communist Party of Cuba in 1938 in an effort to achieve some popular support among the labor unions that the Communists controlled. In 1940 the Communists supported Batista's bid for election when he got tired of exercising control through puppets. However, Roosevelt believed that any further concessions to the Communist Party in 1944 might lead to a complete takeover by the Communists. Roosevelt warned Batista of this possibility through normal diplomatic channels, but Batista made it clear he would act as he saw fit. Roosevelt considered Batista a gangster. He had heard of Lansky's role in Operation Underworld, where Lansky had been permitted to contact Lucky Luciano in prison to enlist the National Crime Syndicate and the Italian Mafia in the war against Hitler and Mussolini. (More on this in the next section of this chapter). Informed of Lansky's friendship with Batista, Roosevelt had Naval Intelligence contact Lansky to go to Cuba to speak with Batista. Lansky was instructed to tell Batista to permit an honest election, or else the U. S. would invade Cuba. Batista reluctantly agreed, and in the 1944 election Dr. Ramon Grau San Martin, a physician, won in a landslide. Batista temporarily retired to Florida, not far from where Lansky lived. While the new regime was not hostile to Lansky, the chairman of the board of the National Crime Syndicate concentrated on establishing his gambling empire in Florida. It has been long rumored that in exchange for his diplomatic help Roosevelt promised Lansky immunity against federal prosecution. And, in fact, years went by before the Justice Department began to prepare indictments against Lansky, although his leadership of the crime world became more and more obvious. THE TOM DEWEY CONNECTION Lucky Luciano, the Italian boss of the National Crime Syndicate, was convicted in 1936 of being the organizer of the prostitution racket in New York. Luciano was sentenced to a 30-to-50 year term after the prosecutor, Thomas E. Dewey, called- him: "The most dangerous if not the most important racketeer in the United States." While Luciano still influenced organized crime from his prison cell, Frank Costello and Meyer Lansky began to assume new powers in the NCS. However, neither Costello or Lansky used the situation to undercut Luciano. In fact, Lansky sought new influence with the Italian section of organized crime by working for the release of Luciano. Underworld sources say that Lansky began to encourage Tom Dewey's efforts to become governor of New York State, in the belief that the prosecutor who had put Luciano behind bars could be convinced to release him. The boast has been made that by working carefully through respectable front-men, Lansky contributed as much as $250,000 to Dewey's unsuccessful campaign for governor in 1938. It is even believed that when Dewey then prosecuted Lepke Buchalter, Lansky considered Lepke's conviction and subsequent execution as fulfilling his own aims of eliminating a powerful rival. Rumor has it that Lansky again contributed to Dewey's successful campaign in 1942 for governor, again through respectable fronts. And, whatever the truth about Lansky's contributions to Dewey, in 1946 Dewey did arrange for Luciano's commutation of sentence and deportation to Italy. Later Luciano was to say to journalist Michael Stem that: "It cost me $75,000 for the Republican campaign fund. At least, that's where it was supposed to go." Dewey said he commuted Luciano's sentence because of Luciano's efforts on behalf of the United States in World War II. And Lucky was to boast: "I won the war single-handed!" At the beginning of World War II the Navy was concerned about the possibility of sabotage and espionage on the docks of New York City. German submarines were operating off the East Coast. And in February of 1942 the French luxury liner Normandie, being converted for use by the U.S. Navy, was destroyed by fire at her pier on the Hudson River. Sabotage was suspected, and then in June, a dozen enemy spies who had landed by submarine were caught on Long Island. At this point a few Naval Intelligence officers got the idea of using the unionized workers on the New York waterfront to watch for German and Italian secret agents. When they turned to the district attorney's office for ideas on how to implement their plan, they were put into touch with waterfront labor racketeer Joe "Socks" Lanza, who was then under indictment and might be expected to cooperate. Lanza began to build an intelligence network, but soon reported that the only man with enough influence on the waterfront to get the job done was the imprisoned Lucky Luciano. His message went first to Naval Intelligence Commander Charles H. Haffenden, who consulted with District Attorney Hogan. A decision was reached to contact attorney Moses Polakoff, a naval veteran of World War I who had represented both Luciano and Lansky. Polakoff suggested that someone else be contacted: "This fellow knows Luciano a long time; he's an intimate friend. He can give you the right steer. At least he could find out if Luciano would be willing to go into this. I'll get hold of this party and arrange for you to meet him." Polakoff did not mention any names, so much to his surprise and embarrassment, Murray Gurfein, an assistant district attorney who had played a considerable role in Luciano's conviction, found himself meeting with Meyer Lansky. It was agreed that Lansky and Polakoff would 'visit Luciano and get his approval. So that the meeting could take place without other convicts being aware of it, Luciano was transferred to Great Meadow Prison north of Albany. Great Meadow also had the advantage of being closer to New York than Dannemora. After the initial surprise at seeing Polakoff and Lansky, Luciano agreed to help. The meeting was the first of many. Since Lansky's objective was to get Luciano released from prison, it was necessary to build up a record of Luciano's personal participation in the work. If some gangster wanted personal assurance from Luciano that he really approved of the project, the person was brought up to the prison to meet Luciano, and such prison routines as fingerprinting were set aside for such visits. But Lansky was normally the one who would carry Luciano's orders to the Mafia. It was commonly accepted that "word carried by Lansky would wield the same authority as if Lucky delivered it personally. That was Lansky's standing in the Syndicate." Following Luciano's participation, not a single case of proved sabotage was found on the hundreds of miles of New York waterfront. The mob also helped to furnish hat-checkers union credentials to Naval Intelligence agents so they could penetrate nightclubs where enemy agents were suspected of operating. The mob similarly provided Navy agents with union credentials that gave them access to office buildings at night so the files of certain businesses could be searched. The mob even stopped strikes, and allegedly even used their strong-arm tactics to send left-wing waterfront militant Harry Bridges back to the West Coast. The Italian Mafia members in the United States began giving the Navy information on the terrain and topography of Sicily, and the identities of Italians who would cooperate with invading Allied forces. When the landing was actually made, Allied tanks came ashore carrying yellow flags with the black letter "L" which stood for Luciano. However, when the war was over, the Navy was very reluctant to admit to anyone, even the parole authorities, that they had relied so heavily on the underworld. The records of "Operation Underworld" disappeared from the Third Naval District office. "There is nothing in the way of an official record," said the Navy blandly—a careful statement which did not deny that there might have been a record at one time. However, eventually the parole board recommended after some months of investigation that on the basis of his war effort, Luciano should be released and deported, Dewey then approved the recommendation. However, Luciano didn't like Italy. He soon applied for an Italian passport, and eight months after the U.S. had deported him, he landed in Cuba with 14 associates—all of whom had FBI records. When someone asked what he was doing in Cuba, Luciano replied cryptically: "Enjoying myself. I came because it's near my home, nearer my relatives. I like it here; I like the climate." There were all kinds of rumors. Luciano was setting up the drug traffic with Cuba as the transmission point into the United States; Luciano was taking over all gambling in Cuba; Luciano was meeting with Syndicate leaders to decide on the fate of Bugsy Siegel, who was suspected of cheating on the Syndicate in Las Vegas. Nothing much is known except that for a number of months Luciano met steadily with a number of Syndicate leaders including Joe Adonis, Frank Costello, the Fischetti brothers, and Willie Moretti, the New Jersey gambling czar. One of the very notable persons to visit Luciano was Frank Sinatra. Luciano's presence in Cuba was revealed in February 1947 in a front-page article in the weekly Havana newspaper, Tiempo de Cuba. Luciano had already been in Cuba four months. Four 48 hours he was not picked up by the Cuban authorities. Chief Benito Herrera of the Secret Police said: "Oh, he has maintained contact with certain interests in the United States, and he has been receiving money from business interests which allow him to live lavishly. But so far as we have ascertained, there is no evidence that he is mixed up in any illicit business in Cuba." The Cuban government did not act against Luciano until the U.S. government advised Cuba that as long as Luciano remained there, the U. S. would ship the island no more narcotics, whether for medicine or any other purposes. When Cuban medical men became alarmed over the stoppage of their drug supplies, Cuba acted to deport Luciano back to Italy. He was put on board a Turkish ship, and when Venezuela and Colombia would not accept him (they were countries which had granted him visas on the way from Italy to Cuba), Luciano returned to Italy. Some people say that on the trip back he was a million dollars richer than when he arrived in Cuba. Luciano died in Italy in 1962. THE RETURN OF BATISTA Dr. Carlos Prio Soccarras had become President of Cuba in 1948. Although he had a salary of only $25,000 a year, it was typical of the graft in his regime that Prio was able to build a new home costing more than $2 million. In 1950, sensing that it was time for him to make a comeback, Batista ran for the Cuban Senate and won, although he stayed in Florida during the campaign. Prio Soccarras did not want to let Batista back into the country, but Lansky found time to fly to Cuba and have a discussion with the President. He gave his word that Batista would not depose the President and, as insurance, deposited $250,000 in a Swiss in a Swiss bank in President Prio's numbered account. But on March 10, 1952, three months before the Cuban presidential election was scheduled to be held, Batista initiated a coup d'etat and took over the government. Surveys had been published that Batista was running behind the other two candidates for president but the Cuban army was supporting Batista. President Prio was removed as head of the government after offering no resistance. When Lansky was able to meet with Batista, he proposed the construction of hotel-casino complexes comparable to those developed in Las Vegas. It took more than a year for Batista to change the laws of Cuba to permit this development. Lansky spent his time managing the old Montmartre Club and meeting with gangsters from all over the United States who wanted part of the action. He gave Santo Trafficante Jr. of Tampa the Sans Souci Club, The Cleveland Syndicate got the old but plush Hotel Nacional. The Capri was signed over to a group headed by Charles "The Blade" Tourine, but Lansky got a cut. George Raft was imported to serve as official host. Lansky himself got the $14 million Riviera Hotel-Casino. Government banks put up half the money and Syndicate investors the rest. Lansky only put in a few thousand dollars and was listed on the payroll as manager of the kitchen. Lansky brought in a whole group of his friends to operate the casinos, including Clifford A. Jones, former lieutenant-govemor of Nevada; Eddie Levinson, front-man for Lansky at the Sands and Fremont in Las Vegas; and Irving "Nig" Devine. Others included Dan "Dusty" Peters, a Lansky courier; casino credit managers Max Courtney, Charles Brudner and Red Ritter as well as casino technicians Dino and Eddie Cellini. Millions were being made in Cuba by the Syndicate. The Bank of Miami Beach, which opened on January 7, 1955, and the Union National Bank of Newark, New Jersey, became depositories for gambling funds from Cuba. Cash was also carried by courier to the International Credit Bank of Switzerland where it was "laundered" and put back into Syndicate investments. The party ended on New Year's Eve, 1958, when Fidel Castro took over the government. Batista fled to the Dominican Republic on a chartered plane. And Lansky boarded a plane for Florida. Although he was to move into new gambling casino investments in the Bahamas, he did not give up on Cuba. THE BAY OF PIGS Nixon has been as friendly with Batista as has Lansky, and Lansky's interests in Cuba were well represented by Nixon in Washington. In 1955 Nixon visited Batista at his private palace and pinned a medal on him. Batista's ambassador to the U. S., Nicholas Arroyo, kept Nixon informed about Cuba and later, in exile, made a $17,000 contribution to Nixon's 1968 campaign. Lansky had wanted to see a U.S. invasion of Cuba so that his gambling investments there would be returned to him. As VicePresident, Nixon had been one of the main advocates of the Bay of Pigs invasion which was planned during the Eisenhower administration. According to E. Howard Hunt, Nixon was the White House Project Action Officer for the Bay of Pigs invasion project. Hunt himself was liaison between the CIA officials in Washington planning the invasion and the exiled Cuban politicians in Miam[a] who were to form the "provisional government" of Cuba once Castro was defeated. General Cushman, who gave Hunt "technical assistance" for the burglary of Daniel Ellsberg's psychiatrist's office, knew Hunt from the Bay of Pigs effort. Cushman was Nixon's liaison with the CIA on the Bay of Pigs project. One of the main elements of the Bay of Pigs invasion was a plan to assassinate Fidel Castro. With Cuba leaderless, it was expected that the invasion would touch off a general uprising that would result in the defeat of the Communist militia. According to Jack Anderson's column of January 18, 1971: "The CIA enlisted Robert Maheu, a former FBI agent with shadowy contacts, who had handled other undercover assignments for the CIA out of his Washington public relations office. . . . Maheu recruited John Roselli, a ruggedly handsome gambler with contacts in both the American and Cuban underworlds, to arrange the assassination." Maheu, of course, was later general manager of the Howard Hughes enterprises in Las Vegas. John Roselli had relations with both the Longy Zwillman mob on the East Coast and the Al Capone mob in Chicago. By 1936 he had a percentage of Nationwide News, Moses Annenberg's horse-race wire service. As an associate of Mafia leader Jack Dragna, he became involved in labor racketeering in the movie studios. In 1968 he was convicted of participating in card-cheating at the Friars Club in Los Angeles. Roselli is said to have taken part in an assassination attempt on Castro as late as March 1963. In September 1963 Alexander Rorke died in an assassination attempt when his plane crashed in the Caribbean. Hans Tanner, Rorke's attorney, has published an account of his own assassination attempt in July 1961. And there was another attempt in 1966 against Castro's life by a CIA agent, Rolando Cubela Secades, who confessed after being captured in Cuba. Cubela admitted that he had planned, with help from the CIA and Bay of Pigs leader Manuel Artime, "to shoot Premier Castro with a high-powered telescopic rifle and later share in top posts of a counter-revolutionary regime with Mr. Artime." (New York Times, March 6, 1966). Most, if not all of these attempts have been encouraged by Meyer Lansky's offer in 1961 to give $1,000,000 to anyone who succeeds in assassinating Castro. If the Bay of Pigs invasion had succeeded, Lansky's main concern was to reopen the casinos. As a matter of fact, a faithful Lansky man, Joe Rivers, was waiting in the Bahamas on the eve of the invasion to return to the island and re-establish mob operations. Word never came, so Rivers returned to Florida. It is very obvious that Nixon would not object to Lansky's re-establishing his gambling empire in Cuba. Nixon has never said a word to indicate otherwise. And neither has President Gerald Ford. Pps. 319-329 ===== [photocaptions] The Sans-Souci gambling casino in Havana, as it looked in 1958. Meyer Lansky in Miami in 1973. His biographer claims that Lansky knew about Richard Nixon in 1940, six years before Nixon entered politics. Bugsy Siegel (center) was held in Los Angeles County Jail from August to December 1940 on an indictment for the murder of Harry Greenberg. He was released after L.A. District Attorney John B. Dockweiler (to whom Siegel had made a $30,000 campaign fund contribution) told the Superior Court that he did not have a sufficient case against Siegel. With Siegel are his attorneys Byron Hanna (left) and Jerry Giesler. It is possible that Bugsy Siegel gave the young Whittier prosecutor, Richard Nixon, a referral to Meyer Lansky in 1940. Former Cuban Dictator Juan Batista is shown in 1953 speaking to his troops the day after an attempted coup against his government. Batista was overthrown by Fidel Castro in 1959, and spent the remaining years of his life in exile in Spain. He died at the age of 72 in August 1973. Batista was a business partner of Meyer Lansky and a friend of former President Richard Nixon. The late National Crime Syndicate leader Frank Costello (Second from right) answers questions before the Kefauver Senate Committee investigating crime. Costello, along with Meyer Lansky, Bugsy Siegel and Joe Adonis, invested in a liquor distributing company after Prohibition. When the company's liquor license was revoked for failure to identify secret owners, the assets of the company were sold and invested in the Las Vegas Flamingo Hotel. Former Cuban Dictator Juan Batista (right), shown here with his son Jorge, received a visit in 1944 from his friend Meyer Lansky, who had an important message from President Franklin Roosevelt. Dr. Ramon Gran San Martin won the Cuban presidency in 1944 when Meyer Lansky persuaded Batista not to run. Thomas E. Dewey, then Chief Assistant U.S. Attorney (left), is shown in 1932 with U.S. Attorney George Z. Medalie, examining the financial records of Charles E. Mitchell, former chairman of the board of the National City Bank. When Meyer Lansky noted that prosecutor Dewey could get convictions when crime figures like Lucky Luciano or Lepke Buchalter were involved, but could not succeed in convicting prominent Republican Charles Mitchell, Lansky began thinking about making political contributions to the gubernatorial campaigns of Thomas Dewey. Before becoming U.S. Attorney, George Z. Medalie worked on the legal problems of Arnold Rothstein. Thomas E. Dewey, the late former Governor of New York, sent Lucky Luciano to prison in 1936, then had his sentence commuted ten years later for Luciano's contributions to the war effort. Charles "Lucky" Luciano shown in Naples, Italy, in 1955. After Luciano's 30-to-50-year sentence was commuted by New York Governor Tom Dewey on the condition that Luciano be deported to Italy, Luciano appeared in Cuba eight months later and held numerous meetings with National Crime Syndicate leaders. Former Cuban President Carlos Prio Soccarras (left) got $250, 000 from Meyer Lansky in 1950 to let Juan Batista (right) back into Cuba. Prio was later deposed in a coup d'etat by Batista. Singer Frank Sinatra was one of the people who flew to Cuba in 1947 to pay his respects to the mob leader Lucky Luciano. Sinatra was a supporter of former President John Kennedy until his brother, Attorney General Robert Kennedy, began a campaign against organized crime which involved Sinatra's Mafia friends. While singing with Harry James' band in 1939, Sinatra made his first hit recording, "All or Nothing at All," and was offered a contract by bandleader Tommy Dorsey. The contract, however, proved to tie Sinatra down, but it was suddenly canceled, leaving Sinatra a free agent. The underworld rumor is that a New Jersey gang leader showed up at Dorsey's dressing room one night, put a gun into the bandleader's mouth, and suggested that he sell Sinatra's contract. The price was one dollar. When Sinatra went to see Luciano in Cuba, he was accompanied by Joseph and Rocco Fischetti, cousins of Al Capone. Federal investigators believe that Rocco was carrying $2,000,000 in large bills to Luciano as part of his dividends from American rackets. Crime leader Santo Trafficante Jr. (left), of Tampa, was given control of the Sans Souci gambling casino in Cuba by Meyer Lansky in 1952. He is shown here in custody of two Cuban police captains in 1959, when Fidel Castro was already in power. Nicholas Arroyo (right), Batista's Ambassador to the U.S. in 1958, walks away from the White House with Wiley Buchanan, U.S. Protocol Chief, after Arroyo presented his credentials to President Eisenhower. Arroyo was later to become a large contributor to the campaign funds of Richard Nixon. Former Cuban Dictator Batista was visited by Vice-President Richard Nixon in 1955. Fidel Castro was scheduled for assassination during the Bay of Pigs invasion, but both the assassination plot and the invasion failed. E. Howard Hunt, convicted Watergate burglar and a former White House consultant, was liaison man between the CIA and the Cuban refugees expected to form a provisional government if the Bay of Pigs invasion had succeeded. Former President Nixon is shown in 1955 with President Hector B. Trujillo (left) and Generalissimo Dr. Rafael L. Trujillo of the Dominican Republic. Nixon, then Vice-President, was later to become the White House Project Action Officer for the abortive Bay of Pigs invasion of Cuba. John Rosselli, an underworld figure, was recruited by Robert Maheu to assassinate Fidel Castro. He is reported to have made at least six unsuccessful attempts. Meyer Lansky has offered $1,000,000 to anyone who assassinates Castro. Robert Maheu, former Howard Hughes executive for Las Vegas gambling casinos, testified he once received a CIA assignment to assassinate Fidel Castro. Manuel Artime, one of Cuba's most prominent exile leaders, is shown here in 1963 planning a guerilla warfare campaign against Castro. President Gerald Ford and Former President Richard Nixon. Are both of these men ready to help restore Meyer Lansky's Cuban gambling empire if Fidel Castro is overthrown? --[cont]-- Aloha, He'Ping, Om, Shalom, Salaam. Em Hotep, Peace Be, Omnia Bona Bonis, All My Relations. Adieu, Adios, Aloha. Amen. Roads End Kris DECLARATION & DISCLAIMER ========== CTRL is a discussion and informational exchange list. Proselyzting propagandic screeds are not allowed. Substance—not soapboxing! These are sordid matters and 'conspiracy theory', with its many half-truths, misdirections and outright frauds is used politically by different groups with major and minor effects spread throughout the spectrum of time and thought. 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