Tampa history, news and events

In the early days of Tampa, you could stand on the banks of the Hillsborough River and if the wind was blowing just right, you might smell the thick aroma of cedar permeating the air.  As cigar factories from Palmetto Beach to West Tampa hummed with workers, a number of ancillary businesses sprouted to support the booming industry. Restaurants and boarding houses kept workers fed and housed. While other businesses manufactured equipment and tools necessary to produce quality hand-rolled cigars.

Welcome to the Libation lounge. This is the first of what we hope will be a regular part of Cigar City Magazine.  It’s a celebration of spirits, both the well-known and obscure. I hope to not only let readers in on particular brands and types of liquor that I enjoy, but also on new finds.

Beginning in 1886, immigrants from Spain, Italy, and Cuba fled poverty and warfare to seek new lives in Tampa. The tumultuous cigar industry provided some shocks of its own. Violence, strikes and work stoppages in the cigar factories reminded all how tough things could be on a regular basis. An erratic cycle of feast and famine continued in Ybor City for fifty years. The Cuban sandwich rose in popularity during the 1920s, when electric sandwich presses and toasters became more common. During the Great Depression, the filling sandwiches served as a Latin-flavored equivalent of New Orleans' "Po' Boy."

Shadow? What shadow?

A lot of people would become frustrated growing up with the same name as their famous father. It makes forging your own way in life all the more difficult. People may believe that your fame and fortune are due to his hard work or even mistake your accomplishments for your father’s.

Joey Redner, the founder of the popular Cigar City Brewing and the son of one of Tampa’s most infamous individuals, does not flinch when asked if he ever detested living in the shadow of the “Strip Club King.”

Countless men and woman have had the “Public Access Rags to Riches” dream. Cut their teeth in the low budget studio. Earn a small fan base in the city. Get discovered and turn into a national superstar. Unfortunately, the list of those who have made that leap is short.

A popular account portrays José Gaspar as a well educated Spanish aristocrat and brilliant naval officer who turned into a swashbuckling buccaneer of the high seas when he became disenchanted with Spain in the 1770s. He was accused of stealing the crown jewels. When he jilted the daughter-in-law of King Charles III for a beautiful lady of the Court, the spurned woman and an accomplice stole the jewels and concocted the story accusing Gaspar.

Newark, New Jersey.

Sometime between 1972–1976.

He had in his hand the power to make sure the scumbag never bothered his family again.

He felt the gun pushing against the back of his adversary’s mouth, heard the teeth chattering against the metal of the gun and saw the saliva dripping from his mouth onto the gun. Most of all, he felt the pressure of his finger on the trigger, knowing one slight tug could end his adversary’s reign of terror forever.

Speckles of blood from the beating of his lifetime sprayed the plastic lined walls in the small room located in the basement of a restaurant. He had been set up, lured there by a rival drug dealer who was trying to beat his capitalistic spirit out of him; the beatings would not stop until he promised to cease his south Boston operations.

April 19, 1955. Almost every squad car in Hillsborough County, Florida lined Columbus Drive in Ybor City. A crowd of men, women and children stood anxiously in the yard of the only mansion of Ybor City, waiting to hear if the rumors of another gang slaying that had spread throughout the city were true. While gang slayings had become the norm in Tampa, the latest being the 21st in the last 23 years, this one was different. This murder was especially brutal. The victim’s head was caved in with a bat and his neck was sliced from ear to ear. Most importantly, though, was the identity of the victim. He was not just any Mafioso or gang member, the victim was one of the most colorful and notorious men in the history of Tampa, the man known as the “White Shadow”–Charlie Wall–the tall, Anglo, retired crime lord who ruled Tampa through both love and fear for most of the early part of the 20th century.

"I am going to St. Petersburg, Florida, tomorrow. Let the worthy citizens of Chicago get their liquor the best they can. I'm sick of the job-it's a thankless one and full of grief. I've been spending the best years of my life as a public benefactor."

-Al Capone at a press conference in 1927.