A legend has died.
The Key West Citizen reported that “Capt. Tony” Tarracino passed away peacefully on Saturday, at the age of 92.
The son of a bootlegger, Capt. Tony was born in New Jersey in 1916. He fled to Key West in 1947 after ripping off the mob one too many times. He and his brother discovered they could get horse racing reports on their TV at home before the bookies got the news, and they “won” quite a bit of money. But, as he tells it, the mob caught up with him, beat him and left him for dead at a Newark garbage dump.
Capt. Tony became a fixture in Key West. He continued to gamble, operated a charter fishing boat, participated in the Haitian invasion in the mid-1960s, and ran guns for Cuban mercenaries during the Bay of Pigs. He was married three times and had at least 13 children by 8 different women.
He ran for mayor of Key West five times and finally won in 1989, which he described as “The best two years of my life.” One of his political campaigns was managed by Jimmy Buffett.
In 1958, Capt. Tony bought a bar at 428 Greene Street in Key West and named it for himself, which ushered in a whole new chapter of his life. He enjoyed sitting at the bar telling stories to all who would listen. He sold the bar in 1989, but continued to be a regular fixture there.
As a side note, the bar at 428 Greene Street was the original “Sloppy Joe’s” where Ernest Hemingway spent a great deal of time during his five year sojourn in Key West. Named for it’s original Conch proprietor Joe Russell, the bar was the oldest in Key West, opening in 1933 after Prohibition was lifted. But in 1938, Joe engaged in a dispute with the landlord over a $4 rent increase and moved the whole bar (literally “lock, stock and barrel”) to Duval Street.
It is said that during the move, Ernest Hemingway took a marble urinal from the bar to his house, figuring that he had paid for it during the course of his business there.
The present-day corporate owners of “Sloppy Joe’s” and “Capt. Tony’s” are in an on-going legal dispute over which site can claim the Hemingway legacy.
Other famous patrons to Capt. Tony’s include Tennessee Williams, Truman Capote, Harry Truman, John Kennedy, Elizabeth Taylor, Robert Frost, and, of course, Jimmy Buffett, who wrote the song “Last Mango in Paris” (1985) based on a personal conversation with the captain.
Capt. Tony recently published his memoir, “Life Lessons of a Legend”. He was supposed to be on a book tour at the end of October when his health failed. His words of wisdom for life: “All you need in this life is a tremendous sex drive and a great ego. Brains don’t mean s**t.”
In tribute to Capt. Tony, here are the lyrics to Jimmy Buffett’s song, “Last Mango in Paris”:
I went down to Captain Tony's
The son of a bootlegger, Capt. Tony was born in New Jersey in 1916. He fled to Key West in 1947 after ripping off the mob one too many times. He and his brother discovered they could get horse racing reports on their TV at home before the bookies got the news, and they “won” quite a bit of money. But, as he tells it, the mob caught up with him, beat him and left him for dead at a Newark garbage dump.
Capt. Tony became a fixture in Key West. He continued to gamble, operated a charter fishing boat, participated in the Haitian invasion in the mid-1960s, and ran guns for Cuban mercenaries during the Bay of Pigs. He was married three times and had at least 13 children by 8 different women.
He ran for mayor of Key West five times and finally won in 1989, which he described as “The best two years of my life.” One of his political campaigns was managed by Jimmy Buffett.
In 1958, Capt. Tony bought a bar at 428 Greene Street in Key West and named it for himself, which ushered in a whole new chapter of his life. He enjoyed sitting at the bar telling stories to all who would listen. He sold the bar in 1989, but continued to be a regular fixture there.As a side note, the bar at 428 Greene Street was the original “Sloppy Joe’s” where Ernest Hemingway spent a great deal of time during his five year sojourn in Key West. Named for it’s original Conch proprietor Joe Russell, the bar was the oldest in Key West, opening in 1933 after Prohibition was lifted. But in 1938, Joe engaged in a dispute with the landlord over a $4 rent increase and moved the whole bar (literally “lock, stock and barrel”) to Duval Street.
It is said that during the move, Ernest Hemingway took a marble urinal from the bar to his house, figuring that he had paid for it during the course of his business there.
The present-day corporate owners of “Sloppy Joe’s” and “Capt. Tony’s” are in an on-going legal dispute over which site can claim the Hemingway legacy.
Other famous patrons to Capt. Tony’s include Tennessee Williams, Truman Capote, Harry Truman, John Kennedy, Elizabeth Taylor, Robert Frost, and, of course, Jimmy Buffett, who wrote the song “Last Mango in Paris” (1985) based on a personal conversation with the captain.
Capt. Tony recently published his memoir, “Life Lessons of a Legend”. He was supposed to be on a book tour at the end of October when his health failed. His words of wisdom for life: “All you need in this life is a tremendous sex drive and a great ego. Brains don’t mean s**t.”
In tribute to Capt. Tony, here are the lyrics to Jimmy Buffett’s song, “Last Mango in Paris”:
I went down to Captain Tony's
To get out of the heat;
Then I heard a voice call out to me,
"Son come have a seat."
I had to search my memory
As I looked into those eyes;
Our lives change like the weather
But a legend never dies.
Chorus:
He said “I ate the last mango in Paris,
Took the last plane out of Saigon,
Took the first fast boat to China,
And, Jimmy, there's still so much to be done.”
I had a third world girl in Buzios
With a pistol in each hand.
She always kept me covered
As we moved from land to land.
I had a damn good run on Wall Street
With my high fashion model wife.
I woke up dry beneath the African sky,
Just me and my Swiss army knife.
(Chorus)
We shot the breeze for hours
As the sun fell from the sky,
And like the sun he disappeared
Before my very eyes.
It was somewhere past dark-thirty
And I went back to the head;
I read upon the dingy wall
The words the old man said:
”I ate the last mango in Paris,
Took the last plane out of Saigon,
Took the first fast boat to China,
And, Jimmy, there's still so much to be done.”
That's why we wander and follow la vie dansante…