Bobcat
10-21-2012, 08:55 AM
I thought I would share some KW Lore..This is an article from 1996...and it's still a mystery. To this day whenever your are digging a hole...someone always quips " Find Bum Farto?"
Page 1
Where Is Bum Farto
florida's unsolved mysteries
That's What People Are Still Asking 20 Years After Key Wests Drug-dealing El Jefe Vanished Without A Trace
October 6, 1996|By Stuart McIver
In Sept. 9, 1975, William Osterhoudt, a local school principal, looked out at an implausible scene unfolding at the pink house belonging to his neighbor on United Street.
Key West Fire Chief Joseph "Bum" Farto, wearing his trademark rose-tinted glasses, began to drive away in his lime-green luxury automobile, complete with spread-eagle gold hood ornament and front license plate bearing the words El Jefe, Spanish for "The Chief."
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Suddenly a car pulled in front of Farto. At the same time another blocked him from the rear. Men in business suits hustled him out of his car. The principal could tell they were out-of-towners. They were wearing ties on a hot September morning.
A tow truck arrived and the principal watched as the flashiest car on the island was towed away. What, he wondered, are they doing to the fire chief? He called the police. They too were baffled.
Six months later the whole town was wondering what had happened to El Jefe.
In fact, the chief wound up on a hot-selling T-shirt, worn on occasion by Jimmy Buffett at his concerts. The shirt posed a simple question: "Where is Bum Farto?"
Two decades later the shirt, now a collector's item, is hard to find. And so is Bum.
Bum Farto did not disappear from the Conch Republic because he was a good fire chief or because he was a devoted family man, a flashy dresser, the village eccentric, a baseball booster or a believer in witchcraft.
Bum vanished because he sold cocaine from Key West fire stations and got caught.
Did he flee to Latin America and live off his drug money? Or did Colombias cocaine cowboys, fearful he might talk, fit the flamboyant fashion statement with the dull gray of cement overshoes?
IN KEY WEST THE RULES ARE different. Sometimes rich, sometimes dead broke, the old town deals with the mood swings of its fragile economy with finely honed survival skills. Do what you have to do to put food on the table and look the other way if your friend, neighbor or cousin bends a few of society's rules.
"To live on an island this small, you need a different psyche, a different mind-set," says Ken Jenne, a former Broward County assistant prosecutor who headed the first state grand jury probe into Key West's curious view of justice. "Marijuana in their mindset was no different from shrimping. Theirs is simply a different moral and legal system."
While Key West basked in its island isolation, reports filtered back to Tallahassee that laws were not being enforced, and that in many cases, the people who broke the law were not being prosecuted.
In 1973, Gov. Reubin Askew asked the Broward State Attorneys Office to investigate a folder full of complaints, one of which concerned open drug dealing in Key West. State Attorney Phil Shailer picked Jenne, now a state senator Hollywood, to head a three-man task force to look into the matter.
Jenne's team received little cooperation. One night they found Limburger cheese smeared into the air conditioners in their motel, an odorous warning but hardly enough to stop their work. What they found would lead to a six-month investigation by the Florida Department of Criminal Law Enforce-ment, the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration and the Dade County Organized Crime Bureau.
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"Operation Conch" resulted in a fistful of grand jury indictments and a roundup on Sept. 9, 1975, of 19 alleged Key West drug dealers.
JOSEPH FARTO WAS BORN IN Key West on July 3, 1919, the son of Juan Farto, a Spanish immigrant who owned and operated the Victoria restaurant at the southeast corner of Greene and Duval streets. Juan specialized in "the best yellowtail in town" until 1937. That year he sold the building to Josie Russell, who converted it into a saloon that became the world-famous Sloppy Joe's.
Joe Farto grew up in a wood-frame house across the street from Key Wests fire station. He idolized the firemen, who gave him the affectionate nickname "Bum."
Farto's first job was with the Lopez Funeral Home, and by the time he was 22 he was also working as a nozzleman with the Key West Fire Department. In 1964 he was named chief.
Two years later, Farto ran into trouble for alleged "irregularities," including the use of department funds. Ruling against him on eight counts, the city commission recommended his firing.
But the Civil Service Board overturned the commissions action, finding Farto guilty only of threatening to dismiss a fireman for giving testimony before the investigating committee. Farto was suspended for 30 days. The chairman of the Civil Service Board was his nephew.
Farto was a colorful eccentric who was usually attired in fire-engine red with flashy gold chains around his neck. He was also a big fan of the Key West High baseball team and was permitted to drive his car into the stadium and park near the left-field fence. There he would light a candle and place it on the cars fender. Steeped in witchcraft, he believed this ritual would bring luck to the Fighting Co
Page 1
Where Is Bum Farto
florida's unsolved mysteries
That's What People Are Still Asking 20 Years After Key Wests Drug-dealing El Jefe Vanished Without A Trace
October 6, 1996|By Stuart McIver
In Sept. 9, 1975, William Osterhoudt, a local school principal, looked out at an implausible scene unfolding at the pink house belonging to his neighbor on United Street.
Key West Fire Chief Joseph "Bum" Farto, wearing his trademark rose-tinted glasses, began to drive away in his lime-green luxury automobile, complete with spread-eagle gold hood ornament and front license plate bearing the words El Jefe, Spanish for "The Chief."
Ads by Google
FL Medicare PrescriptionsFree List of All Florida Medicare Prescription Plans. Compare & Save! Florida.PlanPrescriber.com
criminal defense24/7 Free Consultation 305.403.7323 Former Criminal Prosecutors Federalcriminallawyerflorida.com
Suddenly a car pulled in front of Farto. At the same time another blocked him from the rear. Men in business suits hustled him out of his car. The principal could tell they were out-of-towners. They were wearing ties on a hot September morning.
A tow truck arrived and the principal watched as the flashiest car on the island was towed away. What, he wondered, are they doing to the fire chief? He called the police. They too were baffled.
Six months later the whole town was wondering what had happened to El Jefe.
In fact, the chief wound up on a hot-selling T-shirt, worn on occasion by Jimmy Buffett at his concerts. The shirt posed a simple question: "Where is Bum Farto?"
Two decades later the shirt, now a collector's item, is hard to find. And so is Bum.
Bum Farto did not disappear from the Conch Republic because he was a good fire chief or because he was a devoted family man, a flashy dresser, the village eccentric, a baseball booster or a believer in witchcraft.
Bum vanished because he sold cocaine from Key West fire stations and got caught.
Did he flee to Latin America and live off his drug money? Or did Colombias cocaine cowboys, fearful he might talk, fit the flamboyant fashion statement with the dull gray of cement overshoes?
IN KEY WEST THE RULES ARE different. Sometimes rich, sometimes dead broke, the old town deals with the mood swings of its fragile economy with finely honed survival skills. Do what you have to do to put food on the table and look the other way if your friend, neighbor or cousin bends a few of society's rules.
"To live on an island this small, you need a different psyche, a different mind-set," says Ken Jenne, a former Broward County assistant prosecutor who headed the first state grand jury probe into Key West's curious view of justice. "Marijuana in their mindset was no different from shrimping. Theirs is simply a different moral and legal system."
While Key West basked in its island isolation, reports filtered back to Tallahassee that laws were not being enforced, and that in many cases, the people who broke the law were not being prosecuted.
In 1973, Gov. Reubin Askew asked the Broward State Attorneys Office to investigate a folder full of complaints, one of which concerned open drug dealing in Key West. State Attorney Phil Shailer picked Jenne, now a state senator Hollywood, to head a three-man task force to look into the matter.
Jenne's team received little cooperation. One night they found Limburger cheese smeared into the air conditioners in their motel, an odorous warning but hardly enough to stop their work. What they found would lead to a six-month investigation by the Florida Department of Criminal Law Enforce-ment, the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration and the Dade County Organized Crime Bureau.
Ads by Google
"Operation Conch" resulted in a fistful of grand jury indictments and a roundup on Sept. 9, 1975, of 19 alleged Key West drug dealers.
JOSEPH FARTO WAS BORN IN Key West on July 3, 1919, the son of Juan Farto, a Spanish immigrant who owned and operated the Victoria restaurant at the southeast corner of Greene and Duval streets. Juan specialized in "the best yellowtail in town" until 1937. That year he sold the building to Josie Russell, who converted it into a saloon that became the world-famous Sloppy Joe's.
Joe Farto grew up in a wood-frame house across the street from Key Wests fire station. He idolized the firemen, who gave him the affectionate nickname "Bum."
Farto's first job was with the Lopez Funeral Home, and by the time he was 22 he was also working as a nozzleman with the Key West Fire Department. In 1964 he was named chief.
Two years later, Farto ran into trouble for alleged "irregularities," including the use of department funds. Ruling against him on eight counts, the city commission recommended his firing.
But the Civil Service Board overturned the commissions action, finding Farto guilty only of threatening to dismiss a fireman for giving testimony before the investigating committee. Farto was suspended for 30 days. The chairman of the Civil Service Board was his nephew.
Farto was a colorful eccentric who was usually attired in fire-engine red with flashy gold chains around his neck. He was also a big fan of the Key West High baseball team and was permitted to drive his car into the stadium and park near the left-field fence. There he would light a candle and place it on the cars fender. Steeped in witchcraft, he believed this ritual would bring luck to the Fighting Co