Killing Charlie
"The Black Sheep"
a short story
written By B. Heon
....Inspired by True Events...
Copyright 2014 Brandon Heon
SmashWords Edition
Part 1: The Black Sheep Rises
Charlie was born in the summer of 1880 in Tampa, Florida to two prominent political families. His father, a surgeon during the civil war stationed in Brooksville, would later become Mayor of Tampa from 1878 to 1880. He was heralded for his milestones for the Cuban community, along with his founding of the Tampa Chambers of Commerce. Charlie’s mother was of Scottish decent, whose father James also was mayor of Tampa from 1859 to 1860. Charlie McKall had what some would say "a foot in". He could have sat in any seat, at any branch of government and could have had a tremendous career in politics. But young Charlie fancied the back alley crap games and gambling dens over his father’s office, or rather any office aptly earning him the nick name The Black Sheep. He started his own floating crap games preferring that over going to school, landing him at a military school for at-risk teens. Upon being expelled from school for visiting a brothel it was back to the streets for a young Charlie McKall, who took his father’s tuition check and turned it into a prostitution and drug ring.
Mathematically a wiz, Charlie made money on anything he invested in and was well known to spread the wealth employing blacks, Italian, Irish and Cubans into his organization. By the 20th century he had amassed millions, operating hundreds of brothels, gambling houses, legitimate bars and night clubs he owned threw out Florida, and the very lucrative Cuban lottery known as bolita. Bolita, brought to the Cuban enclave of Ybor in Tampa in the late 1800's, was an illegal game of chance where 100 numbered balls were put in a sack, small bets were placed on which ball would be picked paying 600 to 1, with the odds reaching 1000 to 1, making enormous profits for racketeers.
As with any business, comes competition, and Charlie's had plenty. There was the 10 year Bolita war, which Charlie went head to head with the recently formed National Crime Syndicate. When in 1931, certain people sat down to split up the countries vices, Charlie McKall was not invited and a rival, an Italian produce salesman from Florida’s east coast retreat Miami, was to be in control of all the illegal activity of Florida. This in turn fueled a fire that burned for a decade, and was responsible for casualties on both sides. The produce salesman would also turn out to be one of the first major Italian drug traffickers. October 23, 1940, a shotgun blast to the head effectively ended both the drug career of a produce salesman, and also the Bolita Wars. Charlie went on the next 15 years as the undisputed Bolita King.
The produce salesman was replaced by another Italian man who had for years been grooming his own organization while rubbing elbows with the National Crime Syndicate as the produce salesman’s right hand. Sam Porello, a towering man of 6'5", and equally in age at 65 he was no old man. Known in circles as "the Hammer" due to his likening of the tool and use during assaults, Sam, immigrating to the US with his family from Sicily when he was 14, quickly found a home in his new found world. He quickly learned English and Spanish which was beginning to eclipse that of his native Sicilian dialect. As a teen he befriended a young up and comer and the two along with a few fellow Sicilians ran a crew of pick pockets and petty thief’s. In 1909 Sam met Maria Mancini, sister of Joseph "JoJo" Mancini, then-number 2 to a produce salesman’s drug operation. Sam and Maria married 6 months later and had 5 sons. Sam's marriage to JoJo Mancini's sister put Sam in touch with a new racket. Drugs.
First it was the Statler Hotel in 1928, then in 1931 JoJo's boss, a very successful produce salesman from Miami flew to Atlantic City along with other very successful individuals from around the country to unite and divide the countries illegal enterprises into factions controlled by a board of directors. JoJo would attend both those meetings with the produce salesman. For 20 years, Sam prospered; he ran illegal gambling, bootlegging and drug trafficking with very little interruption due to his relationship with JoJo. When JoJo was sent to prison for 20 years on drug trafficking charges, Sam moved on unopposed to the number 2 spot. In the 20 years leading up to the Bolita Wars, Sam and Charlie never met. They had never had business together. They didn’t share business associates. They were in fact in the same business. They in fact did operate on the same turf per say. But the two just never bumped heads. They did however know the reputation of the other.
During the 30's and what became known later as the Bolita Wars, Sam faded to the back, allowing his group to come out unscathed. Both Charlie's and the produce salesman’s camps lost significant casualties, but Sam, even a part of the produce salesman’s organization, stayed behind the scenes and came out more powerful in the end. By 1940, as the syndicate was getting tired of the produce salesman’s drug operation and lack of respect, an aging Sam was in his prime. After refusing to refund drug proceeds from a shipment of bad drugs to both St. Louis & Detroit, the produce salesman was killed while drinking a cup of coffee at a cafe one morning. Shotgun blast to the head.
The Bolita War had taken a toll on everyone. Except Sam. As the balance of power changed hands from the produce salesman to Sam's, so did the scenery. Sam's base of operations was in Tampa, the opposite side of the state than that of the produce salesman’s over in Miami. Now, officially recognized as the top guy in Florida to the National Crime Syndicate, he had eclipsed Charlie in both numbers and political influence.
Charlie still had clout. Charlie still had capable guys on his payroll and he certainly had his share of political contacts. Charlie also had a big mouth. Charlie also had a driver. A Cuban exile named Rolando Reyes. Reyes was a retired Cuban military officer residing in Tampa. His face slightly disfigured from a large scar stretching from his left eye diagonally running to the right side of his chin. Only ghosts and whispers call him Scarface. Reyes was a large physically fit man resemblance of a heavy weight boxer. He was a violent man, vicious when drunk or provoked. Upon entry to the US, Reyes uncle who worked in the cigar factories of Ybor landed him work as a collector for Charlie, paying his room and board, food and clothes and pocket money, he worked exclusively for Charlie. Reyes was well known in the underworld of Charlie McKall. Well known in the underworld of Tampa.
Rolando Reyes had plenty of blood on his hands at the end of the Bolita War. A menacing figure, it was said he rarely carried a weapon, preferring to kill with his bare hands. In the later years of Charlie’s life, he would need less and less of the menacing figure than another Tampanian. What is rarely known, and really only known to those extremely close to him, was that Rolando Reyes was a degenerate gambler. Not a day went by he wasn’t placing a bet, and not a day went by that he won a bet either. He made a great living doing Charlie's bidding. He bought a bar, invested in a shrimp boat and owned a modest home in nearby Pasco County. But every red scent actually went to a bookie that operated out of a cafe in downtown Ybor. The bookie had a reputation too. He was well known, and well connected as well. The bookie, who most called the Cowboy, due to his infatuation with horses, worked under the tutelage of none other than Sam Porello. Sam never met Reyes, but he was fully aware of who he was. So little by little, threw the Cowboy, Sam got information on Charlie’s operations.