Chewing the Fat with Jeff Fisher - Jeffy's Corner: Underworld Expert, Scott Deitche, Talks 'Tampa Mafia Tour'

Episode Date: August 27, 2016

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Get moving at real estate agents. itrust.com. You're listening to the Jeff Fisher Show. Welcome to it. 888-90333 is the phone number. Coming up in the next couple of weeks, we're going to be talking to the daughter of Meyer Lansky, the mobster. She has a book called Daughter of the King.

Her son, I'm familiar with, and kind of friends with from Tampa. And that's where a lot of this took place. And I'm hoping that we get my man, Scott Dicion, because they're giving tours in Tampa now, called the Mafia Tours. And it's really kind of cool what they're doing, giving the tours. And Scott has written numerous books about the Mafia

and specifically about the Mafia in Tampa. And I'm fascinated by our... fascination and my fascination in particular with the mafia because they're not, well, they're not really good guys. And we know they're not good guys. But we've become, we've become like there are these great men and some women, but mostly men. And yet, they're not really.

They're bad guys. You know they're bad guys. Right? Of course you do. You do. All right. So let's talk a little bit about The Walking Dead for just a reminder. The Walking Dead, the new one started last week.

The podcast is up. I want to like these people. They give me no reason to like them. They give me no reason at all to like them. Very difficult to like them at all. So I just can't wait for the regular Walking Dead to start. and we'll live with Fear of the Walking Dead and we'll kind of say, oh, that's great, wonderful, no problem. But, you know what?

No. No, we're not going to be doing that. We're just going to live with fear. And they're just, I don't know what their deal is. I think really what their deal is is that they've decided that we didn't really want to do this. They made us do this because it was in our contract. So we're just going to do enough to make it kind of good, but not really. And so when they say, hey, it's really not that good, we can say, what do you mean?

It's not that good. Sure it is. No, we're going to have to cancel it. Oh, no. Please, no. You mean we just have to focus on the regular show and not the others? No, please say it isn't so. I'm hoping that that's the case.

because if it's not, then I'm very disappointed in them. Very, very disappointed with them. All right, so my man Scott Ditchie. Cigar City Mafia, The Silent Don, Balls, the Everything Mafia book, Green Collar Jobs, Rogue Mobster. Those are the books that the man has under his belt so far. Scott joining us on the broadcast. Scott, first of all, what prompted you to get involved? in writing about the mafia, and do you write about them because you love them or you want to

prove that they're not really good people? Well, I grew up in Jersey, so that's the answer to the first question. Just always a fascinating topic. You know, I grew up my mom, loved the old Tagney Bogart gangster films. Right. And really, yeah, really after, so, you know, I grew up outside New York City, so it's always on the news. Like, I remember when Paul Castellano was shot, you know,

when Gotti was big in the mid-80s, when I was in high school. But after I saw Goodfellas, when I just started doing some reading and research, and I'd moved to St. Pete near Tampa at that time, and started doing some research on the mob and just got fascinated. I don't really – I think it's more of a fascination of their impact of history in the United States and how it influence pop culture. I don't necessarily try to come down on either side. You know, I'm not a mob of fan groupie in that sense,

but certainly it's kind of interesting how they became so powerful in this country. And I think not only how they influenced pop culture, how they influence the way law enforcement is, the way law enforcement approaches, organized gangs now. And as far as them being not nice guys or nice guys, some nice guys. Yeah, you know, I've met quite a few over the years, guys that have been in witness protection or have left the light of guys that may or may not still be

involved. Yeah, I mean, some of them are just gamblers, some of them, you know, really a lot worse, but it's just kind of a fascinating piece of not only American history, but each of the individual cities were the mafia's active, well, take in Tampa, for example, very influential in a lot of the major historical milestones and the formation of the state. cities. Well, speaking of Tampa in particular, you're now a part of the mafia tour of Cigar City. And I mean, I'm familiar with a lot of the areas because, you know, I spent a lot of time in Tampa Bay. And I spent a lot of time with a few people who were, you know, around that area and around the people that were involved. So I kind of have a, you know, a rough draft of what's

going on. But your tour in Tampa is showing us. what exactly. Well, it's a walking tour of Ebor City, and for your listeners that are not familiar, actually, Ebor is kind of a really interesting area of Tampa. It's one of the oldest Cuban communities in Tampa, so it was founded with the cigar industry, really, and it's Cuban, Sicilian, Spanish section of Tampa still retains a lot of the old brick buildings and the ornate wrought iron architecture. Yeah.

And it was also kind of where the mob in Tampa, an organized crime, kind of got its start, the Genesis. So it's a walking tour of the neighborhood showing the old gambling halls and places where guys were whacked and other things of interest. Who's the, now, I mean, I'm asking for the audience. I'm pretty sure I know the answer, but who's the biggest mob head to come out of Tampa? Well, probably the most well known is Santo Traficante. But actually the first big mob boss wasn't a Sicilian.

It was a guy by the name of Charlie Wall, that they called him the white shadow because he dressed all in white. And he was kind of an interesting figure. He pretty much ran the rackets up until the early 40s. And he was not a street guy by any means. He was related to some of the more prominent, powerful local Tampa families. but after he started fading from the scene that the Traficante, Santo Traficonte Jr. really became the dominant name

and organized crime in Tampa and then, of course, his affiliations both with the casinos and pre-Castro Cuba and many conspiracy theories around the Kennedy assassination and such really kind of made his name a little bit more pop-culturally relevant. When you talk about the tours now,

are there places still up and running? I mean, when we talk about some of the buildings and some of the places that house the gambling houses in Ebor City, while Ebor still holds some of its charm, a lot of those

buildings are really no more, if I remember correctly. Yeah, Florida doesn't do a great job at maintaining its history. I know. That's too bad. It was torn down. But there are still buildings. You know, they have the Columbia a restaurant. There are still places

at a restaurant are bars now that were around back in the 30s that served different purposes back then. So it's kind of a mix you. I'd say about over half of the buildings still exist and certainly a lot of the locations, corners, where these places existed are there. All right, so if I'm in

the Tampa Bay area and want to take a mafia tour with Scott Ditchie, what do I have to do? Well, if you go to Cigar City Magazine, which is local history magazine, and you click on the events tab as our dates. We usually do it about once a month, but we also do private tours.

I do other type of events. And we tend, tonight, for example, is my first tour after taking the summer off because for those listeners that don't know walking around Tampa in the middle of the summer, not really great. It gets pretty... Yes, it does. And I understand. Just as a point of reference, Scott, I live in North Texas now, and it's really hot

here, too. so I understand. Yeah. But yeah, we do them once a month. Usually, like I said, end of August, beginning of September. Tonight's our first one of the new season, if you will, and they're ones usually to the beginning of May. So are you working on anything new as far as something that we can look forward to

to learn about the last year? Yeah, well, I just released a book back in November last year called Cocktail Noir, which was kind of an interesting. It's a bar table book with a lot of cocktail. recipes and stories of favorite drinks and bars of crime writers and gangsters. So that was kind of a cool book. I'm looking forward. I'll definitely have to get it.

I was looking here in the near future, I was going to be talking to Sandra Lansky, daughter of the king, who is, you know, lives in Tampa Bay, and I'm familiar with her son and I are, you know, know, know each other. And so I'm hoping to have her on the show here soon. to talk a little bit about her life, I was reading just, I'm like halfway through it. She's led an amazing life, and it was all, you know, due to Meyer Lansky, who was, you know, one of the kings and mob kingpins. Yeah, and I interviewed Sandy, and she actually provided some nice little anecdotes about Meyer's favorite drinks for a cocktail noir. Yeah, she had really fascinating.

She has some really great stories. Nice, I can't. Very generous with her time. Scott is, you know, mob expert, especially when it comes to the Tampa Bay area. But, of course, in covering Tampa Bay, you're covering the country. What happens in Florida is, you know, kicks off around the rest of the country for sure, especially in, guess where the stuff comes from? I would say, Florida.

Before we get into our fascination a little bit, you know, we all are fascinated because There's been so many movies and television shows that have, you know, highlighted what a, on one hand, it shows that they are these, you know, men that we love and we love because they get away with things that we would love to say, well, I'd like to get away with that too. But not really. I want to live vicariously through them because I don't want to end in a violent death like they're going to end up in. And in the end, they usually all end up in a violent death. and I'm not sure where that fascination comes from

if it isn't just from pop culture. Yeah, I think certainly, I mean, if you look back even to the early years of cinema, you know, right around the early 1930s, you had gangster movies that were potter. And I think it does kind of plug into that fascination where you're kind of exactly like I said, looking vicariously through this subgenre of society that, you know, goes out all my drinking. gambling, you know, doesn't have to get up and work a night to five job, you know, the nicest

suits, the nicest car is going out to the fanciest restaurants. In Goodfellas, I think Ray Liotta has the line there, you know, he's like, you know, after he's out of it all, says, you know, now I have to live like an everyday schnook. Right. That's certainly a part of it. Actually, before you're asking about new projects, I'm working on, I'm actually working on a history of the Mafie, New Jersey. that'll be out later next year.

And when you talk about the Mobb in Jersey, you talk about the Sopranos. I mean, you want to talk about something that's really kind of a touchstone pop up in the moment. Oh, my gosh, yeah. I mean, look, as that as an example, I mean, they tried to, and it worked, turn, you know, Tony Soprano into this human being with everyday struggles. And yet, on the same hand, I mean, he's just a bad guy. Exactly, absolutely. He's just a sociopath that, you know, wants to rule his part of the world and does and does it with violence. I mean, that's nobody really wants to know that guy.

Exactly. Yeah. What do you like watching him? Yeah. You know, we all like the, you know, fine, that'd be, that's great. I knew he was going to do that. I would do the same thing. No, you wouldn't.

No, you wouldn't. So one of the things that fascinates me with the mob and, you know, especially now. I mean, we have a fascination with the mafia, but, and all they are really is a gang. And we have a fascination with not liking gangs, but we like the mob. And, you know, I'm not sure where that distinction came from, except that, you know, gangs, I guess, associated with prison and mob associates with fine restaurants and partying all night. So, you know, we're happy with that.

Yeah. And, you know, don't think this is a uniquely American phenomenon because, you know, take Japan, for example, they have the Yakuza over there. By far the largest organized crime group in the world. And they have movies and books and TV shows and about them. Same thing in Russia with Russian organized crime, China with the triads. There's a fascination with this, and I think it has to do with the organizational almost like a shadow. government kind of group as opposed to a couple kids on the street breaking in the cars

and throwing rocks through windows. So I do. I think it's that level that they're at, that level of sophistication where, like you said, it's, you know, the Russian mobsters are not only shaking down store owners and running drugs, but hey, they're jetting off to Monaco for a weekend on the yacht.

So I definitely think that you hit on that part of it, and that's really the fascination. What? With a mob as opposed to like a low-level street getting it threw up. We've always heard for years that, you know, the code of silence, and once you're in, you're in. And, you know, nobody wants to be the – nobody wants to be the guy that is telling on anybody. But, I mean, that really changed in, you know, I don't even know how long ago,

but it's been a while now where people just turn tail and run and tell. tell everything they know just to stay, you know, live their own life. And when did that change? I think that's, you know, Joe Volachi was the first, like, big mop rat. I mean, there always weren't formers because, you know, this kind of thing about honor among thieves is kind of overblown because, you know, hey, that guy's taking my business. I'm going to go inform on the cops on him and get him out of the way. You know, that's where it started.

But I think certainly over the last 20 years that coached. of Omerta broke down. And I think some of it might be generational, too, where, you know, the old school guys grew up on the street, the new guys grow up in the suburbs. And, you know, the prospect of doing 20 years in maximum security prison to that grew up in a pretty half-float New Jersey suburb, not too appealing. So you'll want to do what you can to, you know, save them. Right. Right. And it definitely is not too appealing. All right.

So, Scott, you're working on the new book on The Mobsters in Jersey. we can go to a Scott Didgey.com and you've got the mafia tour. I actually, if I had the time, I'd fly in and take the tour tonight. I'd love to have you to come back to visit Tampa for sure. I want too bad. So you can go to Cigar City Magazine.com and click on it's right on the front page and take the tour if you're in the Tampa Bay area. That's wonderful.

When you get the new book, we'll stay in touch and we'll talk about it at length for sure. Scott Ditchie, thank you very much, man. I appreciate it. You're welcome. I appreciate it. Thanks for having me on. So there you have. You know, Scott's such a nice guy, and I really appreciate him coming on today.

But, you know, one of the things that we should talk about how the, you know, look, I spent many years in Tampa Bay, so I'm still fascinated with the Tampa Bay area. But one of the big, you know, gambling games that they had was called Bolito. And it was, you know, that was precursor to the Florida lottery. and they probably ran it better than the Florida lottery. Probably made a lot more. I don't know if they made more money, but in the, you know, per capita of playing that stupid game, they probably did.

But we love to talk about that game as well. It's fascinating how they made their money on that. And that was started, I think, with the, from the wall guy, The White Shadow. All right. We'll wrap this thing up last half hour just around the corner on the Blaze Radio Network. This is the Jeff Fisher Show. Only on the Blaze Radio Network.

In the next 19 seconds, you could sell your home. Okay, I mean, it's not going to sell your home, I mean this, but you're going to take a big step toward getting it sold. Go to real estate agents, I trust.com, and find an agent selected by my team, a professional who shares your values and speaks the truth. Sell your home fast and for the most money. Get moving at real estate agents.

I trust.com.