Thread by @DrBlobb

On September 9, 1975, the Key West Fire Chief was arrested in a DEA sting operation for trafficking cocaine.

Five months later, while awaiting sentencing, he drove to Miami and disappeared forever.

🧵Where is Bum Farto? - A Thread

Joseph Anthony "Bum" Farto, the son of a Spanish restaurateur, was born in 1919. His father Juan emigrated west in 1902- first to Cuba and then Key West.
keysweekly.com/42/the-bum-far…

When his father died in 1937, Bum quit school and found work with the National Youth Administration, part of the Works Progress Administration (WPA).

In 1942, Bum became a volunteer firemen, where he began building a reputation in the community.
https://t.co/bsPcIIzGGDkeysweekly.com/42/the-bum-far…

And quite the reputation it was. According to Keys Weekly, local newspapers reported that Bum would perform Santeria rituals at the local baseball games. The papers also talked about the reasoning behind Bum's preference for wearing red all the time.
https://t.co/uerMTUrgUGkeysweekly.com/42/the-bum-far…

"Bum’s co-workers describe parties he held for the saints and Santeria altars in his home. Evidence of voodoo spells was discovered outside the courthouse during Bum’s drug trial, and according to Farto’s attorney, Manny James, Santeria played a significant role in Bum’s fate."

Farto was named Fire Chief after a 1964 FBI crackdown on illegal gambling cleared out the ranks of local govt officials.

The crackdown centered around the lottery game Bolita, which was being run by the Tampa Mafia at the time.
https://t.co/7t46R8Xtu3keysweekly.com/42/the-bum-far…

The very next year on Halloween 1965, a house burned down at the same time that thieves broke into the Florida National Bank in Key West. It was widely accepted that the fire was a diversion from the bank robbery. The FBI investigated but found nothing.
https://t.co/FTdJsnniElkeysweekly.com/42/the-bum-far…

Keys Weekly was able to get 11 pages of classified FBI documents related to the robbery. After interviewing Sam Cagnina, an in-the-know Key West cop-turned-mobster, the FBI's list of people suspected in the robbery included our boy Bum Farto, all the way up to Santo Trafficante.

Now we know Key West was a major trafficking site for Mr. Trafficante himself. So if Bum Farto was involved with any cocaine distribution, he was almost definitely caught up in Trafficante's circle.
https://t.co/Rn9lLbf8Ndarchives.gov/files/research…

There's more to it than just speculation, though. It appears that Farto was quite literally married to the mob. Bum married Estelle Beiro in 1955. Estelle's cousin is none other than Sam Cagnina, who was Trafficante's nephew according to the Tampa Tribune.
keysweekly.com/42/the-bum-far…

Looking further into the FBI's list of suspects reveals more mob connections. Joe Bedami was considered the "mastermind" behind the 1965 bank heist. He was also suspected of killing Charlie Wall, a rival of Trafficante. Like Bum, Bedami also disappeared.
https://t.co/k6pjMkcLzqkeysweekly.com/42/the-bum-far…

Farto's tenure as Fire Chief came to an end in 1975 when Larry Dollar, a Florida state govt Special Agent, received a tip and set up Bum in a simple sting where he traded a diamond ring for a bag of cocaine. Bum was arrested by the DEA 4 days later.
https://t.co/e7Lh3OOnahkeysweekly.com/42/the-bum-far…

Farto's arrest came just a month after the cover of CIA officer Grayston Lynch was blown. Lynch was involved in Bay of Pigs and operations like DEACON. A declassified doc revealed his cover in Key West was blown because of "internal DEA politics"
keysweekly.com/42/the-bum-far…

Was Farto the victim of a DEA/CIA turf war? Where did he escape to? Some people think he went to Costa Rica, although he's surely dead since he would now be over 100 years old.

Obviously credit to David Sloan and Quincy Perkins for their reporting on this at Keys Weekly. They do spend a lot of time defending Bum and justifying his actions because he was an anticommunist lol, so I didn't feel too bad condensing it into a thread.

"Bum's down in Capo's, he's just havin' a ball
What would he do on another landfall?"