Santo Trafficante, Mafia Don, Dies in Hospital at 72
Santo Trafficante Jr., one of the last of the old-time Mafia dons, died late Tuesday at the age of 72 at the Texas Heart Institute in Houston where he had gone for heart surgery.
Trafficante’s Sicilian-born father allegedly presided over what federal authorities call Tampa’s “era of blood,” when rival crime families fought for control of lucrative Florida gambling from 1937 to 1945. When his father died in 1954, Trafficante took over the family business, according to testimony before a U.S. Senate committee in 1963.
Over the years, the younger Trafficante was linked to at least four gangland slayings and testified about a plot to assassinate Cuban President Fidel Castro, but he escaped lengthy jail terms.
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