The Tampa Mob
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The Tampa Mob originated out of an area of Tampa known as Ybor City.
Now a vibrant night spot, Ybor was the home to thousands of immigrant Cubans,
Spanish, and Italians at the turn of the century. It was also the home to
Tampa's cigar industry, giving work to many of the immigrants. Unlike northern
cities, Tampa had no established Jewish or Irish gangs. In fact the biggest
underworld figure during the 1920's to 1940's was a native Floridan, Charlie
Wall. Wall was born to a prominent Tampa family, and began working at gambling
houses, rising to run the racket himself.
The dominant racket in Tampa was bolita, a kind of lottery brought to
Ybor in the late 1880's by Manuel Suarez. The bolita racket expanded
exponentially in Tampa and was the mob's predominant moneymaker until the
1960's. Narcotics also played a major role in the fortunes of the Tampa mob.
Two early narcotics kingpins were James "Jo-Jo" Cacciatore, and George
"Saturday" Zarate.
The Mafia in Tampa came into the spotlight for the first time in 1928
in Cleveland. Police raided a meeting of gangsters at the Hotel Statler, and
arrested Ignacio Italiano and Joe Vaglicia from Tampa. As the mafia grew in
stature in Tampa a war broke out between the various gambling factions for
control of the bolita and narcotics rackets. At this time there was no true
boss in Tampa. Some early powers were the Diecidue family, Augustine Lazzara,
the Velasco brothers, the Trafficantes, Salvatore Italiano, and Ignacio
Antinori.
Sal Italiano was the leader of the gambling rackets, while Antinori,
along with his sons Paul and Joe controlled narcotics. Ignacio Antinori
eventually fell out of favor with some Chicago gangsters after selling them a
bad batch of narcotics and was gunned down in Tampa on October 24, 1940. He
was one of over 25 killings from 1930 until 1959. This has come to be known in
Tampa as the "Era Of Blood". Among those killed were Joe Vaglica (July 10,
1937), Mario Perla (Oct. 12, 1939), Jimmy Velasco (Dec. 12, 1948), and former
kingpin Charlie Wall (April 20, 1955). Wall had testified to the Kefauver
Commission in 1950 and was believed to be retired when he had his throat cut.
In the late 40's Sal Italiano left for Italy, leaving James Lumia in
charge. Lumia is credited by the FBI as the first true Mafia boss in Tampa.
Lumia's reign was short-lived as he was killed by a shotgun blast on June 5,
1950. He was succeeded by Santo Trafficante Sr. Trafficante ruled until his
death in August of 1954 from stomach cancer. He was succeeded by his son,
Santo Jr.
Santo Trafficante Jr. would lead the Tampa mob for 33 years until his
death on March 17, 1987. A short bio of his accomplishments: ran casinos in
Havanna before being kicked out by Castro, allegedly set up narcotics networks
in Latin America and Southeast Asia, involved in CIA plots to kill Castro,
arrested at the ill-fated Appalachin meeting, arrested at the "Little
Appalachin meeting in Queens, NY, allegedly involved in the assassination of
John Kennedy, present in the Waldorf Astoria the day that Albert Anastasia was
killed, ran all gambling operations on the Gulf Coast, closely affiliated with
the Marcello family of New Orleans, and , most importantly, never spent a night
in an American jail.
After Trafficante's death, authorities speculated the leadership of the
Tampa family was split between longtime underboss Frank Diecidue (who died on
Oct.19, 1994), Frank Albano, and Vincent LoScalzo. LoScalzo is now believed to
run the remnants of the organization. The family came under investigation in
the mid 80's involving a cocaine distribution ring, and again in 1992 as part
of the ill-fated Key Bank investigation wherein all charges were eventually
dropped. LoScalzo recently (Oct. 1997) pled guilty to fraud and was sentenced
to probation.
This is a very abbreviated history of the Tampa family.
Below are some
identified members:
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McClellan Commission (1962):
Santo Trafficante
Henry Trafficante
Frank Diecidue
Sal Scaglione
Al Scaglione
James Longo
Ciro Bedami
Angelo Bedami
Joe Bedami
Augustine Lazzara
Dominick Furci
Phillip Piazza
Angelo LoScalzo (father of Vincent)
Nick Scaglione
James Bruno
Salvatore Lorenzo
Sam Cacciatore
Sam Trafficante
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Henry Trafficante
Vincent LoScalzo
Frank Diecidue (died Oct 19, 1994)
Sam Carollo
Salvatore Lorenzo (died 1995)
Frank Albano
Joseph DiGerlando
James J. Valenti
ASSOCIATES (active):
Pasquale "Pat" Mattasini (died May 1, 1999)
Joe Camero
Joseph Charles Bedami
Nick Scaglione (not named in 1992, died 1995)
James Donofrio
Sam Pupello
Michael Napoli
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by Scott Deitche
(currently writing: The Tampa Mob)
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