First published 2008
T.J. English examines how Meyer Lansky and the American Mob transformed 1950s Havana into their greatest criminal enterprise. While Cubans suffered under Fulgencio Batista's brutal dictatorship, Lansky cultivated ties with the corrupt government to establish luxury hotels and casinos throughout the city. Working alongside notorious figures like Charles "Lucky" Luciano, Santo Trafficante Jr, and Albert Anastasia, Lansky launched an unprecedented tourism boom featuring world-class entertainment, celebrities, and gambling. But their criminal paradise faced destruction as Fidel Castro, Che Guevara, and the 26th of July Movement mobilized Cuba's oppressed population against Batista's regime and its foreign partners. English draws from buried historical records and his own interviews with survivors to reveal how organized crime nearly achieved its ultimate dream in Cuba, only to lose everything when Castro's revolution swept away both the dictatorship and its Mob allies.
Genres: history, 20th-century, politics, crime, non-fiction, american-history
Vibes: suspenseful, thought-provoking
Tropes: true-crime
Setting: Cuba, Havana
Period: 1950s
396 pages · Hardcover · William Morrow