In modern-day Havana, the remnants of the glamorous past are
everywhere--old hotel-casinos, vintage American cars & flickering neon
signs speak of a bygone era that is widely familiar & often
romanticized, but little understood. In Havana Nocturne, T.J. English
offers a multifaceted true tale of organized crime, political
corruption, roaring nightlife, revolution & international conflict that
interweaves the dual stories of the Mob in Havana & the event that would
overshadow it, the Cuban Revolution.
As the Cuban people labored under a violently repressive regime
throughout the 50s, Mob leaders Meyer Lansky & Charles "Lucky" Luciano
turned their eye to Havana. To them, Cuba was the ultimate dream, the
greatest hope for the future of the US Mob in the post-Prohibition years
of intensified government crackdowns. But when it came time to make
their move, it was Lansky, the brilliant Jewish mobster, who reigned
supreme. Having cultivated strong ties with the Cuban government & in
particular the brutal dictator Fulgencio Batista, Lansky brought key
mobsters to Havana to put his ambitious business plans in motion.
Before long, the Mob, with Batista's corrupt government in its pocket,
owned the biggest luxury hotels & casinos in Havana, launching an
unprecedented tourism boom complete with the most lavish entertainment,
the world's biggest celebrities, the most beautiful women & gambling
galore. But their dreams collided with those of Fidel Castro, Che
Guevara & others who would lead the country's disenfranchised to
overthrow their corrupt government & its foreign partners--an epic
cultural battle that English captures in all its sexy, decadent, ugly
glory.
Bringing together long-buried historical information with English's own
research in Havana--including interviews with the era's key
survivors--Havana Nocturne takes readers back to Cuba in the years
when it was a veritable devil's playground for mob leaders. English
deftly weaves together the parallel stories of the Havana Mob--featuring
notorious criminals such as Santo Trafficante Jr & Albert Anastasia--&
Castro's 26th of July Movement in a riveting, up-close look at how the
Mob nearly attained its biggest dream in Havana--& how Fidel Castro
trumped it all with the revolution.
