THE

SEPTEMBER 2010

STURBRIDGETIMES

Prsrt. Std
U.S. Postage
PAID
Worcester, MA
Permit No. 2

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MAGAZINE

BOOK REVIEW
Author: T.J. English
Harper,2008
ISBN 978-0-06-171274-6
330 pages
$15.00 price
BY RICHARD MURPHY
In the Godfather II there is the famous scene at
Hyman Roths birthday party where Michael Coreleone
talks about Cuban rebels. Michael notes, I saw an interesting thing happen today. A rebel was being arrested by
the military police, and rather than be taken alive, he
exploded a grenade he had hidden in his jacket. He killed
himself, and took a captain of the command with him.
Michael further notes, The soldiers are paid to fight -the rebels aren't.....They can win. Hyman Roth dismisses the insurgents, This country's had rebels for the last
fifty years -- it's in their blood, believe me, I know. I've
been coming here since the 20s.
We all know how that worked out, except that the
Godfather II is fiction. The real story is much more
interesting. It is the tale of hard calculating men who
thought they had made a country their wholly owned
subsidiary. Oh, the part about the rebels being willing to
die, and thus potential winners, that was true.

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In Havana Nocturne, author examines

Lansky, Luciano and the Cuban mob
The story of the mob in Cuba is told by a man who is
arguably this countrys best crime writer. T.J. English has
been around as a journalist for quite a while. His first
book, The Westies, was about a particularly brutal gang
out of Hells Kitchen in New York City. His next book,
Born to Kill, was about an Asian gang that was, born to
kill. Havana Nocturne is about a group of men who
could and did kill when necessary, but thought of themselves as more businessmen than thugs.
Havana Nocturne also has some resonance for
Massachusetts as we wait to see if a casino is approved
locally. The men who operated in Cuba had thought
they had solved all their problems by leaving the US to
dominate the island to the south. There is no lack of sentiment here that our troubles will be over once construction commences on a gambling palace.
National organized crime had been given its start with
the passage of the 18th Amendment to the Constitution.
Ratified in 1919, it prohibited the sale of alcohol in the

US. It is, of course, folly to believe men can be made

angels by law, but thats never stopped the effort.
Almost before the law went into effect, it was being
broken on an industrial scale. Networks quickly materialized to insure the citizenry had near as much access to
demon rum as before. There were many participants in
the trade, but two of the most effective together were
Meyer Lansky and Charles Lucky Luciano.
They and their ilk were so successful, they caused the
government to play a dirty trick on them. Shockingly, the
nation came to its senses and repealed prohibition. A
major source of criminal revenue disappeared.
Lansky and Luciano were nothing if not shrewd. They
invested in Cuban strong man Fulgencio Batista. This
was essentially the same as investing in Cuba. For a guaranteed stipend, they got to control gambling in Havana.
This investment took place at the beginning of the
depression and would only payoff after the war. Boy,
Continued on page 22

THE STURBRIDGE TIMES MAGAZINE 19

Havana Nocturne might offer lessons, even for us

Continued from page 19
would it pay.
Luciano would be convicted of prostitution related
crimes in 1936. He got a 30 to 50 year sentence. It was
his luck that the US would get dragged into World War
II. Lansky set it up so that the mobsters who controlled
the docks would suppress sabotage. The price, Luciano
free.
And he was freed. In what he felt was a double cross,
he was deported to Italy. Though he could not come
back to the States, there was still Cuba. With post war
prosperity in full swing, Havana would be almost as good
as being in New York. In December 1946, Meyer and
Lucky would convene all their mobster confederates in
Havana to decide who would get what in the capital of
the Pearl of the Antilles.
It all looked rosy, and it would be for everyone but
Luciano. He was too close to the US for our governments liking. Pressure was put on the Cuban government that it could not resist, no matter how amply
bribed. Luciano went back to Italy. The Havana
Mobocracy raged on. The existing casinos did well and
new and more opulent establishments were being built.
The Batista Government, firm ally of the gangsters,
was becoming more repressive and hated every day. Its
enemies, however, seemed pitifully inept. The big star of
revolution, Fidel Castro, had been captured after an
attack on a barracks in 1953.
Despite the tyranny, the regime looked secure. The
gangsters poured more money into building on a grand
scale.
Out of jail in an amnesty, Castro started organizing.
The new efforts did not seem impressive. His little army
set sail from Mexico in an unseaworthy ship. Landing
with 82 seasick men, he headed for the hills. Betrayed by
a guide, Batistas forces ambushed his little band. With

22 THE STURBRIDGE TIMES MAGAZINE

LUCKY LUCIANO

MEYER LANSKY

FULGENCIO BATISTA

Courtesy Argentour

CHE GUEVERA & FIDEL CASTRO

16 left it didnt look good. The casino owners must have

been thinking like Hyman Roth as he spoke to Michael
Coreleone.
Fidel and his sidekick, Ernesto Che Guevara, had
made their last mistake. Batista had started making his.
The revolutionaries would cultivate the population while
the government would become more repressive. The
rebels would grow in numbers while defections would
plague state forces.
Until near the end, Batista would vow to keep up the
fight. Then, on new tears morning, 1959, the dictator
took off without telling his mob allies. Talk about holding the bag!
Time has shown Castro to have done many of the
things he complained about in the Cuban Ancien
Regime. He has political prisoners, news is censored and
he was until recently a dictator. Yet, he meant what he
said about the casinos and closed them down when he
could. The mob was booted out, never to return. The
losses sustained by the criminal element were staggering.
So bad were they that Meyer Lansky who had invested
vast wealth in Cuba would leave an estate of $57,000.
The Havana Mob were not the last to see Nirvana by
the roulette wheel. Why just down the street in Palmer,
one would not be surprised if they were holding prayer
sessions to encourage the General Court to pass the bill
so work can start. Gambling is regarded as the road to
prosperity.
What if it turns out to be the wrong answer? What if
the overbuilding of casinos leads to a beggar thy neighbor
situation where there is little profit for anyone? What if
the economy continues to stagnate such that there is too
little income for even the profligate to waste? The something for nothing ethos of the mobsters is, at bottom, not
far removed from ours.

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