Charlie Wall

Charles McKay "Charlie" Wall (March 10, 1880 in Tampa, Florida – April 18, 1955 in Tampa, Florida)
was an American businessman and organized crime figure who was a rival of reputed mobsters Santo Trafficante, Sr, and Santo Trafficante, Jr. His parents were Dr. John Perry Wall and Matilda McKay, a former Tampa Mayor and daughter of a former Tampa Mayor. Wall rapidly gained status within the criminal underworld from his early endeavors in the operation of several gambling, prostitution and illegal numbers rackets. He was killed - beaten with a baseball bat and his throat slit - on April 18, 1955. He is buried in Tampa's Oaklawn Cemetery

During the late 1920s, a turf war began between Wall and Ignacio Antinori, who fought each other, as well as the Trafficantes for control of the numbers rackets in the Tampa area. By the 1930s, Ignacio Antinori and Charlie Wall were in a bloody war for ten years, which would later be known as "Era of Blood". Wall's closest associate, Evaristo "Tito" Rubio was shot on his porch on March 8, 1938. Eddie Virella, "Tito's" former partner at the Lincoln Club, was shot down by gunmen little more than a year before, on 31 January 1937. The war ended in the 1940s with Ignacio Antinori being shot and killed with a sawed-off shotgun.

The feud between Wall and Antinori came to a head between factions of Antinori Gang, dissatisfied members of Chicago and St. Louis criminal outfits to whom Antinori was supplying narcotics, and Wall's crew. On the morning of October 23, 1940, Antinori was gunned down at a local restaurant while sipping his morning coffee by two gunmen. Wall himself had seen an attempt on his life go awry earlier that spring, possibly by some members of Antinori's outfit or even by some in Antinori's ties to St. Louis mobster Thomas Buffa and/or Kansas City mobsters Nicolo Impostato, James DeSimone and Joseph Deluca.

The Ghosts of Ybor City: Charlie Wall film

The account and rise and fall of Wall was depicted in the 2008 documentary film The Ghosts of Ybor: Charlie Wall which starred actors John A. Schakel as Wall, Gene Siudut as Joe Bedami, Chirs Pardal as Johnny "Scarface" Rivera, and Rod Grant as the lead detective in the Wall murder investigation.

1. Feature article in is Cigar City Magazine, by Scott M Deitche, Issue 14-2008.
2. White Shadow, written by Ace Atkins, ISBN 0-425-23054-6, Reed Business Information, 2006.
3. Cigar City Mafia - A Complete History of the Tampa Underworld, written by Scott M. Deitche, ASIN# 8004449516, Barricade Books, 3-25-2004.
4. BLISS, A.J., "MAKING A SUNBELT PLACE: TAMPA, FLORIDA," 1923–1964, Ph.d. Dissertation, by - 2010