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I became aware of this book last fall but really didn’t think it would be relevant to my interests in the hobby. I probably have less than a dozen Caribbean chips in my collection. The reasons for this are that I have never been to that geographical area so I can’t feel a connection to any of the locales there. Living on the US west coast, when we need a tropical fix, we head to Hawaii or Acapulco. Although I have been impressed with the beauty of Caribbean chips, the lack of familiarity with the Indies casinos kept me from any serious collecting of the area.
There was a slight pull to this book for a couple of reasons. Meyer Lansky was a big wheel in the Caribbean and had many gaming interests in nearby Florida. Lansky was also a connection to the homegrown gangsters in Reno, my primary interest in chip collecting. Mert Wertheimer and Graham and McKay could always get Lansky to take their calls. Another curiosity I had for the subject matter was the revolution in Cuba in ’59. I was born in 1950 and grew up in a small town in Oregon. We only got one television station in the late ‘50’s and coverage of breaking news was pretty primitive. Must have been CBS as I remember Eric Severid, Edward R. Morrow (massive cigarette smoke with Ed!) and of course “Uncle Walter”. Lots going on during that time that I’m still studying and trying to discover. The Greatest Generation was operating at home; the Cold War was on, McCarthy, Sputnik, Elvis and let’s not forget Fidel Castro. Wish I had all those issues of Life Magazine and Saturday Evening Post that crossed our coffee table in those days. Had a poster of President Eisenhower and VP Nixon on my bedroom wall. I learned what “nationalism” in Cuba meant when I asked my Mom about it. “Yer kidding! Whatta rook!” Actually we said “Gyp” back in the ‘50’s before we evolved to greater sensitivity and current Nationalism. 
My sister gave me Havana Nocture at Christmas and I wasted little time diving right in. I had just finished Al Moe’s two excellent gaming histories and set a side the book I was reading, Blacklisted By History the story of Joseph McCarthy.
I found the book to be an engaging read right off the bat. I gather that T. J. English writes about mobsters mostly and he has a talent for making the subject flow. Rather than bog down the reader with a roster of wise guys, English manages to cycle names in and out in a style that makes it easy for the reader to keep up who’s in , out or where they are at any given time. Since it turns out that the typical Cuban joint had various principals who had “pieces” of the action, the author’s skill makes it easy to follow.
I did run into something that gave me pause early on however. English recounts the saga of Bugsy Siegel and gives us the straight folklore Hollywood movie recap. Hard to believe that this barroom tale is still out there and Billy Wilkerson is still being disrespected thusly. This error bugged me the rest of the book as I wondered what else English was hashing up. In all honesty, most doubts ere cleared when I finished the book and took in the Epilogue, acknowledgements and notes at the end of the book. Another complaint about the layout of Havana… is that the book should have been edited by someone expert in historical work as some of the conventions used in the book really detract from the overall effect, leaving dear reader to reevaluate the book after it is read!
The book begins by drawing biographical pictures of Lansky and his great friend “Lucky” Luciano. English has an excellent talent for these bios and there is much to be learned about various mobsters even if you think you are familiar with the characters.
English starts off the Havana Mob story with a mob conference at the Hotel Nacional in 1946 in which Lansky puts forth the idea of turning Havana Cuba into a Mob Capital and money tree playground. English kind of wanders off into speculation as to who in the room ordered the elimination of Bugsy. Seems mostly a moot point and a waste of pages since Ben survived another couple of years. Also ironic that Lansky would rub out Siegel for stealing mob money considering how the whole Havana story ended. I’ll revisit the hit toward the end of this review.
Seemed to be the perfect setup for the “boys”. A compliant and corrupt government that wasn’t going to put the heat on mob activity like the concurrent Kefauver hearings back in the States. No need to waste energy devising a skim when you could keep ALL the cash.
So what about the winds of rebellion that blew through Cuba in those days? Good news/ Bad news for the reader here. Don’t expect any socio-political analysis of Fidel’s activities although the reader is left with little man-in-the-street information as a result. Batista is covered in detail and there is even a little rundown on Trujillo and the Dominican Republic along the way. You’ll have to go elsewhere for detailed political info. Seems that Lansky may have been lulled by the historically stormy Cuban culture but his errors in reading the fluid situation in his whole time in Cuba were amazing.
Don’t transpose the movie Godfather II on this history. I managed to view the film just I was finishing the book and was interested in how the movie matched up with events in Havana. The movie was a load of Francis Ford Coppola frankly. These guys were only criminals and they were thugs. If I NEVER hear “Keep your friends close but your enemies Yada yada yada.” I’ll be very happy. No one in this crowd had anything wise to say. There is a pretty good line in the book about the “canary” that went out the hotel window while he was waiting to testify against Albert Anastasia and Murder Inc. “He could sing but he couldn’t fly!” The stupidity these guys showed when the curtain came down in Havana is astounding.
The Havana mob achieved great success during their hayday. The Havana casino and hotel scene had great influence in the mainland. English covers the Cuban influence on Modern music (J*zz)(
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