Havana Conference
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The Havana Conference was a meeting of all the major figures of U.S. organized crime, held during the week of 22 December, 1946 at the Hotel Nacional in Havana, Cuba. Decisions made at the conference would have a notable bearing on American organized criminal activity in the ensuing decades.
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Background
The head of the National Crime Syndicate, Lucky Luciano, had been serving a 30-to-50-year prison term for prostitution when he was asked to assist the U.S. government during World War II in 1942. After the war ended, New York Governor Thomas E. Dewey agreed to release Luciano on condition that the mobster was deported to his native Sicily and never again allowed to set foot on American soil. Lucky complied and set sail in February 1946, settling in Lercara Friddi, Sicily (his hometown), then moving to Palermo, Naples, and Rome. However, he never lost hope of someday returning to America, and planned to that end constantly.
In October, Luciano went to Caracas, Venezuela, and from there flew to Mexico City. He then boarded a private plane to Havana, where he was greeted by close friend and fellow crime lord Meyer Lansky. Lansky had organized a major mob summit for the week of 22 December, and suggested that Luciano purchase a $150,000 interest in a casino jointly operated by Meyer and Cuban political leader Fulgencio Batista. Lucky proposed that all the conference invitees bring him envelopes full of cash to welcome him back to the New World in order to finance the move. These "Christmas presents" were in excess of $200,000, and were given to Luciano on a first-night dinner hosted by Lansky, Frank Costello, and Joe Adonis.
The Conference Begins
The Havana Conference convened on 22 December. Luciano thanked all the delegates for their donations, and then brought up the subject of "boss of bosses". He decided it was finally time for him to take that title. Albert Anastasia seconded the motion; both he and Luciano wanted to send a message to Vito Genovese, who was trying to muscle in on Anastasia and sell drugs. Vito even suggested to Lucky that the latter consider retiring, to which Luciano emphatically responded that he had no such intention. Furthermore, Lucky encouraged Anastasia and Genovese to settle their differences, so that another mob conflict, such as the bloody Castellammarese War between Joe Masseria and Salvatore Maranzano in the early 1930s, would not break out. This was followed by Luciano's condemnation of the narcotics trade; despite the millions of dollars to be made in drugs, he never wanted to even start in the business and sought to forget the idea altogether.
The Siegel Situation
The next item up for business was what Lansky called the "Siegel Situation". Bugsy Siegel had been purposely excluded from the Havana proceedings, chiefly because he would be one of the main topics discussed. Sent to Los Angeles in the mid-1930s to set up the Syndicate's activities there, Siegel became popular in Hollywood circles. He became enamoured with the idea of constructing a casino in Las Vegas, and convinced Lansky and the New York City mob to finance the project. However, due to either mistakes or dishonesty by Bugsy, the price rose from $1.5 million to $6 million.
Lansky stated that he had information that Siegel's girlfriend, Virginia Hill, was depositing money in a bank account in Zurich, Switzerland and that he had reason to believe Siegel himself would skim money from the project and possibly even leave the U.S. if his casino, the Flamingo, failed. Following a vote in which non-Italian gangsters did not participate, it was decided that Bugsy would be killed, and the contract went to Chicago's Charlie Fischetti to be carried out by Jack Dragna, the Los Angeles boss. Lansky convinced the other delegates that they should wait until the Flamingo opened on Boxing Day to see how the casino fared. The gangsters then took a break for Christmas.
On 26 December, word reached the assembled hoods in Havana that the Flamingo had flopped. The enraged mobsters demanded Siegel's head on a platter, but Lansky once again convinced them that Bugsy could save the casino. Following a closure for repairs, the Flamingo reopened a few months later. It soon began churning out a profit, but Siegel was still assassinated in Hill's Beverly Hills mansion by a rifle-wielding hitman on 20 June, 1947.
Lucky and Don Vito
The tension between Luciano and Genovese reached a boiling point at the conclusion of the Havana Conference. In Luciano's room, Vito told him that the U.S. government knew that Lucky was in Cuba, and was putting pressure on the Batista regime to have him expelled. Genovese then declared his desire to inherit Lucky's holdings, since Luciano would be back in Italy.
Luciano snapped, sure that Vito had tipped off the Washington authorities about his whereabouts. He proceeded to beat Genovese and eventually broke three of his ribs; it was three days before Vito could travel again. Lucky and Anastasia then put Genovese on a plane and Luciano threatened Vito with death if he ever mentioned the altercation to anyone.
In February 1947, the New York City papers got wind of the fact that Lucky was in Cuba, and U.S. drug agent Harry Anslinger demanded that Luciano be deported back to Italy. Anslinger even went so far as to seek support for Luciano's expulsion from President Harry S. Truman when the Cuban government refused to comply with his request. Uncle Sam halted all shipments of medical supplies to Cuba until Luciano left; Lucky, Lansky, and Batista tried to concoct a counter to this embargo by trying to halt all Cuban sugar shipments to the U.S., but it failed. Luciano was arrested that month, and arrested again once he landed on Italian soil in April.
Luciano died in 1962, and Genovese passed in 1969. They ended up buried 100 feet from each other in the same cemetery.
Also see: List of Havana Conference invitees
Resource: CrimeMagazine.com (http://crimemagazine.com/havana.htm)