Shanks speaks with juror post-verdict: Shanks manuscript.
Hearing on “upward departure” on Battle sentence: Interview with Jack Blumenfeld; Frank Davies, “Accused Gambling Kingpin Lashes Out at Witness,” Miami Herald, February 6, 1998.
“I did not address the witness”: Ibid.
Shanks meets with Kalafus: Report from Shanks on interview with Det. Richard Kalafus, Case No, 331829-J, January 23, 1998.
Playing of Charley Hernandez tapes for Kalafus: For a time, the investigators believed that Battle must have acquired these tapes through corrupt means, that is, paying somebody off. Eventually the mystery was solved when it was learned that the tapes had been presented as “discovery material” to the Battle defense team prior to the 1977 Ernesto Torres murder trial, which is why Battle had them in his possession.
There is a possibility that Battle may have solicited the involvement of Kalafus on another matter. According to Jack Blumenfeld, around the time of the gun possession trial in 1997–98, Battle told Blumenfeld that he once made a payment of $5,000 to Kalafus. Blumenfeld remembers that Battle told him the payment was somehow connected to the Palulu murder. One detail of the Palulu murder that always remained a mystery was why Palulu’s security detail of police officers was pulled from outside his hospital room that night. Who gave that order? In testimony before the President’s Commission on Organized Crime in 1985, Kalafus said that the security detail was removed at the request of Palulu’s family. But Palulu did not have children or siblings in the area. Blumenfeld believes that it’s possible that Kalafus was paid $5,000 (the equivalent of $12,300 in 2017) to remove the security detail at Palulu’s hospital room, making it possible for the assassin to enter the room, do the deed, and escape.
Shanks/Rosario interview with Cafaro: Transcript of the interview, January 31, 1998.
Shanks interview with Hopkins: Report on the interview by Shanks (undated).
Trial of Luis Bordon and sons: Arnold Markowitz, “Store Owners’ Arrest Tied to Gambling,” Miami Herald, June 11, 1998; Ana Acle, “Merchant, Sons to Forfeit Millions: Men Convicted of Money Laundering, Running Gambling Ring,” Miami Herald, August 29, 1998; transcript of U.S.v. Bordon, 1998.
Battle transferred to Springfield, Missouri: Interview with Jack Blumenfeld.
Shanks discovers snake in his mailbox: Interview with David Shanks; Shanks manuscript.
21. CÓMO FUE/HOW IT WAS
“I want what I deserve”: Shanks interview with Sexy Cubana, from Shanks manuscript.
Contract on Willie Pozo: Testimony of Luis Perez, U.S.v. Battle et al., 2006.
“I gotta go into hiding for a while”: Ibid.
1999 arrest of Alvarez and thirty-seven others: Jayson Blair, “39 Face Gambling Charges in New York Area and Miami,” New York Times, July 30, 1999; The Changing Face of Organized Crime, A Status Report, State of New Jersey Commission of Investigations. Cuban/Latino Organized Crime, 2004.
Dennis Ring and Trish McNeill involvement: Interview with Dennis Ring.
Name of “Cuban Tony” (Dávila) emerges: Ibid.
Brooklyn DA’s Office targets the Corporation: Ibid.
“Hey, why don’t we see what Brooklyn is up to?”: Interview with David Shanks.
Tony Gonzalez meets Ring and McNeill in Brooklyn: Interview with Tony Gonzalez; interview with Dennis Ring.
Battle’s health: Interview with Jack Blumenfeld; Frank Davies, “Reputed Gambling Boss Off to Court over Health,” Miami Herald, January 12, 1998.
Shanks/Rosario interview of General Castillo in Lima: Shanks manuscript.
Shanks travels in pursuit of witnesses: Ibid.
Suspicious Activity Report involving Maurilio Marquez: Ibid.
Deciding who will be indicted: Interview with Tony Gonzalez; interview with David Shanks.
Gonzalez’s five-hundred-page prosecution memo: Interview with Tony Gonzalez.
Shooting of Manny Alvarez Sr. and Jr.: Kati Cornell Smith, “Bet War Eyed in Highway Shooting,” New York Post, December 1, 2003.
AUSA Jack Blakey: Regarding implementation of the RICO law, Blakey’s pedigree was strong. He is the son of G. Robert Blakey, the man credited with having drafted the 1970 Organized Crime Control Act, Title IX of which created RICO.
Arrest of Abraham Rydz: Interview with Susan Rydz.
Operation Corporate Raider arrests: Kati Cornell Smith, “Cuban Heels; Cops, Feds Nab Brutal Head of ‘Havana Mafia,’ ” New York Post, June 1, 2005.
Arrest of Battle: Interview with Jack Blumenfeld; Shanks manuscript.
Arrest of Battle Jr. on the high seas: Shanks manuscript; Larry Lebowitz, “Accused Godfather of Cuban Gambling Organization Arrested on Cruise Ship,” Miami Herald, May 19, 2004.
Getting Rydz to become a witness: Interview with Tony Gonzalez; interview with Davis Shanks; Shanks manuscript.
Dennis Ring finds Willie Diaz: Interview with Dennis Ring.
Willie Diaz threatens Ring: Interview with Dennis Ring; interview with Tom Farley.
Battle Jr.’s plea deal nixed by Shanks: Interview with David Shanks; Shanks manuscript.
Tony Gonzalez’s opening statement: Trial transcript, U.S.v. Battle et al.; Casey Woods, “Trial Begins for Alleged ‘Corporation’ Members,” Miami Herald, March 3, 2006.
Testimony of Abraham Rydz: Transcript of Rydz testimony, U.S. v. Battle et al., 2006.
Defense lawyers’ feelings about Shanks: Interview with Kaplan; interview with Jack Blumenfeld.
Battle dozes off during testimony: Interview with Jack Blumenfeld.
Battle pleads guilty: Interview with Jack Blumenfeld; Akilah Johnson, “ ‘Cuban Mafia’ Tale Comes to an End with Leaders’ Conviction,” Miami Herald, July 27, 2006.
Final ruling on the Corporation: The verdict resulted in the criminal forfeiture of $1.42 billion in property and financial assets from the various guilty parties, the largest such criminal forfeiture until the Bernard Madoff verdict in 2008.
Suicide of Abraham Rydz: Interview with Susan Rydz.
Rydz’s farewell note to Susan: Provided courtesy of Susan Rydz.
“Better Fidel Castro than George Bush”: Interview with Jack Blumenfled.
Death of Battle: Evan S. Benn, “Former Crime Lord Battle Dies,” Miami Herald, August 6, 2007; Madeline Diaz, “Jose Miguel Battle Sr., Reputed Mobster, Dies,” South Florida Sun-Sentinel, August 7, 2007; Jessica Rosero, “Death of a Legend; North Hudson’s Cuban Godfather Dead at 77,” Hudson Reporter, August 19, 2007.
Battles’s burial site: Viewed by the author.
EPILOGUE
Posada plot to kill Castro in 2000: Interview with Luis Posada Carriles; Bardach, Without Fidel, p. 149.
Posada trial in Panama 2004: Bardach, Without Fidel, p. 149.
Posada pardoned by Panamanian president: Ibid., p. 150.
Legal travails of Posada: Ibid., pp. 156–62, 164–75, 177–79.
“Posada is a hired assassin”: Jean-Guy Allard, “Fabian Escalante on Posada and Operation 40,” Granma International, January 11, 2011.
“To me, he was a patriot above all”: Interview with Luis Posada Carriles.
“For me, there are no lines”: Ibid.
“He turned bad. He became a bad man”: Interview with Felix Rodriguez.
President Obama in Cuba: Carol E. Lee, “Obama Arrives in Havana, Looking to Engage; First Visit by U.S. President to Cuba Since 1928,” Wall Street Journal, March 21, 2016; Dan Roberts, “Obama Lands in Cuba as First US President to Visit in Nearly a Century,” Guardian, March 21, 2016.
“Havana is only ninety miles from Florida” (Obama speech): Transcript of remarks by President Obama to the people of Cuba, Gran Teatro de la Habana, Havana Cuba, March 22, 2016, https://www.whitehouse.gov.
“The Bay of Pigs took place the year that I was born”: Ibid.
Death of Fidel Castro: Anthony DePalma, “Fidel Castro, Cuban Revolutionary Who Defied U.S., Dies at 90,” New York Times, November 26, 2016.
Battle Jr. released fr
om prison: Battle Jr. was released in November 2016. The author met with him, his two sons, and his attorney in February 2017.
SOURCES
WRITING THIS BOOK WAS A JOURNEY INTO THE SUBCULTURE OF BOLITA AND ALSO THE anti-Castro Cuban exile underground. It has required uncovering documentation that has been buried for decades, discovering archival sources that few knew existed, and of course finding and securing the cooperation of interview subjects, people with firsthand or even secondhand knowledge of the events that are portrayed in this book. As always with projects of this magnitude, it was a daunting undertaking, with information derived from various types of source material.
Interviews
Whenever possible, this book is based on interviews with people who lived the events. However, since many of the key characters in the story are no longer alive, interviews sometimes took place with people who were a step or two removed.
One person who did not agree to be interviewed was José Miguel Battle Jr. During most of the research and writing stage of the book, Battle Jr. was incarcerated in federal prison. Subsequent to his release in November 2016, I met with him to discuss the possibility of interviewing him for the book. After considering the offer, he declined to cooperate.
Listed below are the people who were interviewed and the dates on which the interviews took place:
David Shanks (10/19/16); Carlos Rodriguez (10/20/15 and 5/10/16); Jack Blumenfeld (10/21/15 and 5/11/16); Francisco “Pepe” Hernandez (10/22/15); Luis Posada Carriles (10/23/15); Raul Martinez (2/4/16); Ramon and Fidel Fuentes (2/6/16); rooster breeding interviews: Pedro Marquez and Tomas “Tito” Guerra (2/5/16); Ramon Milian Rodriguez (2/7/16); Julio Ojeda (2/6/16); Joel Kaplan (2/6/16); Henry Raymont (5/7/16); Oscar Vigoa (5/9/16); “Jesús” (5/10/16); Michael Dávila (4/18/16); George Dávila (5/10/16); Joaquin Deleon (5/12/16); El Zapotal interviews: Miguel Cruz and Ian Cruz (5/15/16 and 9/13/16); Tom Farley (6/7/16 and 1/7/17); Kelly Noguerol and Carol Ann Daley (6/10/16 and 9/21/16); Willy Vigoa (6/15/16); Ciro Bianchi (6/18/16); Rolando Eugenio Martinez (8/10/16); Susan Rydz (9/2/16); Humberto Dávila Jr. (9/15/16); Elpidio Guzman (9/13/16); Ernesto Torres Izquierdo (9/15/16 and 2/19/17); Dennis Ring (1/7/17); George Croes (2/11/17); Kenny Rosario (2/15/17); Tony Gonzalez (2/17/17); Felix Rodriguez (2/17/17); Antonia Izquierdo (2/18/17); Joey “Coco” Diaz (9/14/17).
Law Enforcement Documents
Over the years, through legal proceedings involving José Miguel Battle Sr. and many other individuals associated with the Corporation, a substantial public record was amassed. Some of this material was entered into evidence at the 2006 RICO trial; it comprises a treasure trove of information on most of the key events and characters in this story going back nearly half a century. Generally, the information from these files can be divided into the following categories:
I. Police, FBI, and CIA records
This includes surveillance logs, and arrest and crime scene reports from the NYPD, Miami-Dade police, and other relevant police organizations. Also, numerous wiretap tapes and transcripts, as well as transcripts of consensual phone conversations and law enforcement interrogations and interviews. In addition, intelligence reports from various police departments and the FBI Cuban Terrorism Task Force and the CIA that were acquired through court order as evidence for the numerous trials.
II. Military, immigration, and psychiatric records
Records on Battle Sr., Angel Mujica, Luis Posada Carriles, Felix Rodriguez, and others were amassed as evidence for the various trials, or, in some cases, obtained by the author through official and non-official channels. The psychiatric report on José Miguel Battle Jr. is from the Hudson County Pretrial Intervention Project, office of the Superintendent of New Jersey.
III. Governmental reports
The hearings of the President’s Commission on Organized Crime were published in their entirety in June 1985. Also relevant to this book was a report by the State of New Jersey Commission of Investigation entitled Profiles of Jose Battle Corporation Members and Affiliated Businesses, compiled in March 1988 for internal law enforcement purposes. Also, a Presentment of the Special Hudson County Grand Jury, Panel A, on the subject: In the Matter of an Investigation into Corrupt Activities and Influence in the Union City Police Department and City Government, February 1986.
Other reports are cited in the notes section of this book.
IV. Newspaper articles, magazine articles, and books
The Corporation file amassed by Detective Dave Shanks and various prosecutors over the years includes media reports on Battle and the Corporation going back decades. Still more articles were accessed by the author for this book. Relevant publications include the New York Times, Miami Herald, Florida Sun-Sentinel, Miami Magazine, New York Daily News, New York Post, Washington Post, New York Magazine, Miami New Times, New Jersey Dispatch, Newark Star-Ledger, Jersey Journal, Camden Courier-Post, New York Law Journal, Asbury Park Press, Christian Science Monitor, Village Voice, San Francisco Chronicle, Guardian, Counter-punch, and Master Detective.
Numerous literary sources informed this book, including tomes on a variety of subjects, including Cuban history; the history of the revolution; the Cuban American experience, particularly in Union City and Miami; aspects of organized crime; Watergate; the Iran-Contra scandal, and so on. These books are cited in the notes section where relevant.
V. The Shanks manuscript
In the years 2010 to 2015, David Shanks wrote a manuscript about the investigation of the Corporation, drawing on the above-mentioned documents and also on his own experiences as an investigator with the Metro-Dade PD and federal government for thirty-five years. The manuscript is neither sourced nor indexed, but it contains within its pages one of the most complete narrative descriptions ever written of a police investigation. It is not meant to be an objective account. Shanks expends much ink settling scores with cops, judges, and prosecutors who annoyed him over the years, and his depiction of José Miguel Battle Sr., Battle Jr., and others in the Corporation is unsparing.
The Shanks manuscript was essential to the writing of this book, though I deviate from its narrative, and thesis, in many crucial ways. In nearly all cases where the manuscript is cited as a source for this book, I have attempted to uncover the original documentation used by Shanks and cited those sources in the notes section.
VI. Institutions
The National Security Archive, at the George Washington University, is an important repository for files and information gathered through the Freedom of Information Act, especially CIA and other documents relating to the anti-Castro Cuban exile underground and other clandestine activities of U.S. intelligence agencies. The Cuban Information Archives are also a tremendous source of declassified documents on subjects relating to Mafia activity in pre-Castro Cuba and also the activities of anti-Castro exiles. The Mary Ferrell Foundation is another online source for files, reports, and documents on subjects ranging from the Kennedy assassination to U.S. government efforts to assassinate Castro, information obtained through FOIA and made available online to the public.
Grand Jury and Trial Transcripts
There were many trials over the years, and thousands of pages of witness testimony, opening and closing statements, sidebar conferences between lawyers and judges, and legal proffers were an essential ingredient of this book. Some of these legal proceedings involved primary characters in the story, while others were incidental though important for their informational value to the overall story of the Corporation. The essential proceedings involved the FBI gambling case against Battle et al. in 1970; the Ernestico Torres murder trial in 1977; the Conrado Pons arson/ homicide trial of 1987; José Miguel Battle Sr.’s gun possession trial of 1997; and the Miami RICO trial in 2006.
Hundreds of witnesses testified at these proceedings, and their testimony is reflected in this book. Among the key witnesses who testified at grand jury and/or trial proceedings, sometimes at great length, are: David Shanks, Charley Hernandez, Idalia Fernandez, Julio Ojeda, Richard K
alafus, José Miguel Battle Jr., Rene Avila, Willie Diaz, Consuela Alvarez, Oracio Altuve, Luis DeVilliers, Luis Perez, and Abraham Rydz.
Freedom of Information Act (FOIA)
The FBI’s Cuban Terrorism Task Force existed from the early 1960s into the twenty-first century, and its files contain hundreds of pages of documents relating to José Miguel Battle Sr., much of the information never before publicly revealed. The Battle file was accessed through a FOIA request.
In 2016, I made a similar request to the CIA for information on Battle, Alpha 66, and/or Omega 7. A year after my request, I received a letter from the CIA stating that “we can neither confirm nor deny the existence or nonexistence of records responsive to your request. The fact of the existence or nonexistence of such records is itself currently and properly classified and is intelligence sources and methods information protected from disclosure by Section 6 of the CIA Act of 1949 . . . Therefore, your request is denied.”
In intelligence work, sometimes one hand does not know what the other is doing. Many documents relevant to Battle and the anti-Castro underground have previously been accessed, through FOIA requests by the National Security Archive and others, and long ago posted online. In instances where I have used information from those records, they are cited in the notes section where appropriate.
INDEX
Acosta, Pedro, 274–275
Acuna, Julio “Chino”
arrest of, 285–286, 501
El Morro hit, 145–146
as henchman of El Padrino, 16
Hernandez and, 164–166
hunt for and shooting of “Loco” Alvarez, 131–132, 134, 135
The Corporation Page 66