Final_Judgment

[138] Final Judgment 199
Yet, Rosselli's ties to Lansky have been ignored by Lansky's
biographer Robert Lacey. Why? Lacey's biography (which is otherwise quite
detailed) would suggest—by virtue of ignoring both Marcello and Rosselli—
that Lansky had no connections with them at all, or that any connections he
did have were so insignificant that they weren't even worth mentioning.
Rosselli's name—like that of Marcello—has also been prominently
linked to the Kennedy murder.
One can only wonder why Lansky's biographer failed to bring in these
clearly important connections. Even Tiger (described in the index as
"(Lansky's dog)" is mentioned—not once, but twice. (Carlos Marcello is
not mentioned at all.)
Rosselli was also particularly close to Lansky's Florida and Havana
lieutenant, Santo Trafficante, Jr, who is also practically a "non-person" in
Lacey's account of Lansky's ventures. And, as we shall see, it may well
have been Trafficante who arranged Rosselli's own ultimate assassination on
behalf of the CIA.
Like Rosselli, Trafficante was also a major figure in the annals of crime and
much more so than even Rosselli, was an intimate working partner of Lansky.
In fact, as we shall see in much more detail in Chapter 12, Trafficante—
although a "Mafia" leader—was Lansky's immediate underling in the
gambling and narcotics rackets.
In Lacey's biography of Lansky, Trafficante is also given short shrift.
In fact, he is hardly mentioned at all, except in minor passing—just eight
times. In fact there are fewer references to Trafficante than there are to yet
another Lansky dog, Bruzzer, who rates 13 references, including a detailed
review of the dog's sad final days.
In Kennedy assassination folklore this is also particularly relevant,
inasmuch as we have been told repeatedly that Trafficante once told one Jose
Aleman, Jr., a wealthy Cuban exile, that JFK was scheduled to be hit.
However, interestingly enough, the rest of the story goes untold. According
to J. Edgar Hoover biographer Curt Gentry, it was, in fact, Aleman's
impression that although Trafficante may have been aware of
assassination plot against Kennedy that Trafficante himself "wasn't principal
architect." 365 Who, then, was?
THE LANSKY-CIA ALLIANCE
All of this is interesting about Rosselli and Trafficante, particularly in
the context of their central involvement in CIA-Organized Crime
assassination plots aimed at Fidel Castro who had seized control of Lansky's
gambling operations in Havana.
There is much, much more to the Rosselli-Trafficante link with Meyer
Lansky that needs to be explored, for this connection opens up another area:
Lansky's long-standing and intimate ties with Israel's allies in the CIA.
Indeed, as we shall see in Chapter 12, Lansky's CIA linkage goes far beyond
Cuba and the Caribbean. It even extended into Southeast Asia.