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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 Sr. gained power as a mobster in Tampa, Florida and ruled the Mafia in Tampa from the 1930s until his death in 1954.
- 5 sons, including Santo Trafficante Jr.
- Bootlegging, Bolita Rackets in The 1920s
- Trafficante Rises to Boss After ‘Era of Blood’
- Kefauver Committee Causes Trouble in Tampa
- Postscript: Charlie ‘The White Shadow’ Wall
As Santo built a family and a social life, events in Tampa and elsewhere created an environment for upheaval and opportunity in the city’s underworld. With the advent of Prohibition, Tampa became a major nexus for the smuggling of rum, corn sugar and molasses from Cuba and whiskey from the Caribbean through Port Tampa Bay. It is unclear just when T...
By the early 1930s, Santo Sr. was considered one of the top Mafia powers in Tampa. The first boss of the Tampa Mafia, Ignazio Italiano, died in 1930. His successor, Ignazio Antinori, soon found himself in a war for control of the rackets with Charlie Wall, an independent racketeer known as “The White Shadow” (his nickname from local Latino resident...
In December 1950, the Kefauver Committee came to Tampa, looking, as it did in other U.S. cities, to uncover the depth of organized crime influence in the city. The committee subpoenaed leading underworld figures to testify. Santo Trafficante Sr., along with Santo Jr., skipped town to avoid the summonses. “One of the fugitives from the committee’s p...
Though the Trafficantes avoided the Kefauver subpoenas, Charlie Wall appeared. While he had been out of the rackets for a decade, Wall took time to educate the committee on the inner workings of Tampa crime during his reign. Despite his decision to testify in front of the Kefauver Committee, Wall faced no retribution in Tampa. Word was that in exch...
Trafficante crime family; Founded: c. 1925; 99 years ago () Founder: Ignacio Antinori: Named after: Santo Trafficante Sr. Founding location: Tampa, Florida, United States: Years active: c. 1925–present: Territory: Primarily the Tampa Bay area, with additional territory throughout Florida: Ethnicity: Italians as "made men" and other ...
- 1925–present
- Tampa, Florida, United States
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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 from 1954 to 1987 and controlled organized criminal operations in Florida and Cuba, which had previously been consolidated from several rival gangs by his father, Santo Trafficante Sr.
- Josephine Trafficante
- Santo Trafficante Sr.
Mar 7, 2018 · Charlie Wall, one of the most powerful organized crime figures in Tampa at the time of Rubio’s murder, was forced out of business in the early 1940s by Santo Trafficante Sr. One well-liked gambling house proprietor in Tampa, Evaristo “Tito” Rubio, operated the El Dorado for Charlie Wall.
Nicknames: The Silent Don. Associates: Sam Giancana, Charlie “Lucky” Luciano, Meyer Lansky, Cuba, Fidel Castro, Johnny Rosselli, Robert Maheu. Santo Trafficante Sr. was a Florida mobster who survived a series of vicious gang wars to become the leader of a powerful Mafia crime family based in Tampa.
Oct 17, 2021 · Born in Tampa, Florida in 1914, Trafficante hailed from a family already deeply involved in organized crime. Like many of the most prominent mobsters of the 20th century, his father, Santo Trafficante Sr., grew up in Sicily, Italy but became a major player in the criminal world after migrating to America.
