Humans have this quirky brain thing going on: It ain’t real until we see it. It doesn’t exist until we discover it. And for sure, history doesn’t begin until we arrive on the scene. There’s ample reason “the more things change, the more they remain the same” is a truism. Raising a skeptical eyebrow? How about these tidbits from 50 years ago to prove Key West hasn’t changed a bit?
Key West started the U.S. Bicentennial year in 1976 with a bang.
Dec. 31, 1975 to Jan. 1, 1976: Locals and tourists brawled in the street when Key West cops shut down a couple of bars two hours before curfew on New Year’s Eve. When it didn’t break up fast enough, they unleashed tear gas and firefighters dragged out the hoses. When the melee ended, 114 people were arrested and 8 injured. Gov. Reubin Askew’s subsequent investigation and the city’s internal review alleged that police and firefighters were drinking on duty, that warning shots had been fired and that the whole mess happened because the city didn’t close Duval to traffic in the first place so folks could take their parties to the street.
Little came of the brouhaha — although it’s probably why today’s New Year’s Eve celebrations, among others, close streets for sprawling block parties.
Feb. 12, 1976 to Feb. 16, 1976: Key West Fire Chief Joseph Farto, nicknamed “Bum” as a kid for the scut work he did hanging around the firehouse near his dad’s restaurant, was handcuffed and carted to jail on Feb. 12 when he was found guilty on three drug charges stemming from a sting in which he sold cocaine to undercover agents out of the city’s fire station.
Four days later and awaiting sentencing that could have meant 31 years in prison, he disappeared. He was last seen driving toward Miami and the T-shirt legend “Where is Bum Farto” was born. Key West tends to turn its crooks into marketing opportunities.
(And because I love synchronicities, a little side step: His dad’s restaurant was the Victoria, now the site of Sloppy Joe’s, from the New Year’s Eve riot story. He was a gofer as a kid — hence the nickname “Bum” — at the firehouse down the block at Ann and Greene, in the first floor of the high-stepped Old City Hall of my penultimate paragraph below.)
Key West City Manager indicted (April 21, 1976)
Then there’s this April 21, 1976 goodie from the Key West Citizen’s “This Day in History”: “City Manager Ron Stack and a Key West policeman were indicted for soliciting bribes from Howard Rosokoff, owner of Howie’s Lounge and Uncle Sam’s Pawn Shop. The two officials were accused of asking Rosokoff for cash to stop the city from revoking his pawnbroker’s license.” And you thought city criminal corruption started with the April 2025 grand jury report that indicted three local officials.
Fast forward three years to April 7, 1979 and the New York Times’ riffs on “the latest invaders” of outsiders to affront our locals. For three years the dissonance between Conchs and hundreds of gays immigrating from the Northeast had simmered and violence between locals and newcomers had escalated.
Tony Falcone, who with his partner, Bill Conkle, owned Fast Buck Freddie’s, told the Times: “You never knew or cared before whether somebody was gay or straight in Key West. Now you do know, and I think that’s the trouble. But it isn’t simply between gay and straight, it’s between the Conchs and the tourists who don’t want to recognize the fact that this isn’t a five‐month vacation resort, it’s a year‐round community.”
Lisa Thompson, who was society editor at the Citizen between 1972 and 1977, said: “What we’ve got now is a backlash by some of the Conchs — the old‐time Key Westers — against what they regard as the newest wave of invaders. Key West has always had its invaders. In the ’40s and ’50s it was the Navy, in the ’60s and ’70s it was the hippies, and now it’s the gays. If it wasn’t for the gay money we wouldn’t have had any restorations and everyone knows that. But many of them also resent it.”
Sounds familiar, doesn’t it? Locals versus outsiders. Government corruption. The same things make headlines today because we are, well, human. One more, this one from 1954:
“You know, one of the things wrong with Key West is that its people don’t seem to take any interest in City Commission meetings,” lamented Bill Gibbs on Jan. 19, 1954. “I don’t think this has been the result of disinclination so much as it has been the hardship entailed in climbing the long steps to the top floor of City Hall. Many of our best and most informed citizens are elderly people. … If we could get this kind of person to state his (or her) opinion publicly, we’d have a better Key West.”
Gibbs, whose column, “This Rock of Ours” ran in the Citizen in the 1950s, was all for demolishing Old City Hall. We didn’t tear it down, but our new one does make attending commission meetings about as easy and accessible as it can be without a Star Trek holodeck. Were Bill writing today, he’d recognize the almost empty chambers and perhaps a few more folks over the age of, say, 60.
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