While
researching for my project I have come up with what I believe to be a
pretty interesting theory. The late 1800’s were a period of
organization for organized crime in the United States. Many old world
rules were still in place, especially in terms of the Italian Mafia,
and they were still getting their footing so to speak. Like many
other businesses, they were using a trial and error model, seeing
what worked and what didn’t but at this point their stranglehold on
the unions and other lucrative rackets didn’t exist yet. It was in
1920 that the government essentially handed criminal organizations
what would end up being a golden ticket in the form of Prohibition.
Just imagine taking a product that is as wildly popular as alcohol
and making it completely illegal. Criminal organizations saw this as
a godsend and they capitalized on it. Some took the approach of
having liquor imported to the United States from places like Ireland
and selling it as is for triple the going rate. Others formed their
own distilleries. Others smuggled in Molasses from Canada. Most would
use sophisticated underworld techniques of “stretching” the
liquor to get three bottles out of one. The product was inferior but
who could complain? Prohibition made vast, vast fortunes for
organized crime figures, fortunes that eclipsed the fortunes held by
CEO’s of major companies. This money was used to, amongst other
things, further their interests in Cuba and that is exactly what they
did. With Meyer Lansky at the helm, organized crime syndicates
controlled all of the casinos, hotels, and nightlife in Cuba. In
addition to that, they were completely backed by Batista, effectively
giving them free reign to do exactly what they wanted. They always
sought partnership with government and they had that in Cuba. In the
United States they were building Las Vegas, Benjamin Siegel’s
Flamingo Hotel and Casino being the first step toward the new Las
Vegas. Despite the slowly growing Las Vegas Cuba was still the place
to be for the Mafia. With Batista cooperating and no gaming
commissions the immense profits continued to roll in. Vegas continued
to grow and while the Mafia didn’t exactly have the government
behind them they did have an FBI director in J. Edgar Hoover who
completely denied their existence. Everything was going great for
organized crime until Batista was finally overthrown in 1959 by Fidel
Castro. The Mafia had no choice but to focus on Las Vegas and their
stateside businesses giving up the Cuban dream. My theory is that not
only did the Revolution in Cuba ruin the Mafia’s businesses there
but it delivered a devastating blow to the Mafia for years to come.
Sure, the 1960’s were still considered the “golden age” of the
mob as Vegas continued to boom but bad times weren’t far off. J.
Edgar Hoover was aging and the mafia became more prevalent in
society. The public started to become intrigued by the newspaper
articles they read on Meyer Lansky, Lucky Luciano, Frank Costello,
and Carlo Gambino. When the Mafia was pushed out of Cuba it was
essentially the beginning of the end. They would never hold power
again like they did when they occupied Cuba. The 1970’s saw a
decline and the 1980’s were even worse with the rapid rise and fall
of John Gotti. Today, the mafia is a shell of its former self and I
believe the fact that they were ousted from Cuba played a much bigger
role in that than people understand. I plan to further research the
topic.
**If anybody wants to
see something interesting you should watch the Godfather part 2, part
of which show the rise in Cuba as well as the overthrow of Cuba’s
leader by a fictitious rebellion. It is very interesting and is said
to be one of the most realistic aspects of the Godfather trilogy.**
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