Tampa history, news and events

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.

Date: August 14, 1928

Time: Shortly after 9 p.m.

Place: Outside El Dorado Café, Eighth Avenue and 14th Street in Ybor City

Surely someone had to have seen something.

Two men shouted violently at one another in a popular Ybor City café bustling with business. One of the men stormed from the room. The other soon followed.

A gunshot echoed throughout the establishment.

Moments later, a man lay on the sidewalk in front of the café bleeding to death from a gunshot to the abdomen.

In April 1980, the flood of Cuban refugees continued for several weeks from the port of Mariel. Cubans fled in a desperate flotilla, and Fidel Castro let them go. Family members in the United States suddenly saw hope for relatives still living under the Communist yoke. A desperate boatlift ensued, often undertaken by shrimp trawlers and fishing boats of questionable seaworthiness.

It was 1930, and the mood in Florida was bleak. Once a beacon of optimism, the state now lay in economic ruins. It had been pummeled by the real estate bust of 1926 and devastated by the Wall Street crash three years later. Crushed lives and dashed dreams haunted the Dust Bowl, but bad things weren't supposed to happen in sunshine states.

Gene Holloway is alive and for the second time in his colorful life people are shocked to hear it.

Yes, that Gene Holloway. The cowboy hat and boots wearing, sky diving, mountain climbing, woman-chasing, alcohol tasting, exotic animal owning and life of the party whose rags to riches story captivated Tampa Bay in the 1970s and 1980s. Yes, that Gene Holloway. The man who once owned the eighth most profitable restaurant in the nation–the Sea Wolf–married a former Miss Tampa, collected dozens upon dozens of priceless antiques just to brag about how much money he spent, ran for president and tried to bribe the pope to come to dine at his restaurant. Yes, that Gene Holloway. The man who at the height of his popularity and seemingly at the height of his riches was accused of torching his home and then "disappeared" in the Gulf of Mexico one night when he fell off his boat in 1981. Yes, that Gene Holloway–the man who was pronounced dead, only to be arrested for supposedly dealing drugs in Canada a few months later. Yes, that Gene Holloway. If you have never heard of Gene Holloway, everything printed above is 100 percent true. While it seems like the plot of a blockbuster summer movie, it is actually the life story of a local man.

Yes, that Gene Holloway is still alive. However, he barely resembles the Gene Holloway who once captivated Tampa Bay.