THE DEVIL LOOKS AFTER HIS OWN

By 1940, Charlie Wall’s power was usurped by the Sicilians. Around 1942 a powerless Charlie Wall left Tampa for Miami and faded into retirement. For a man accustomed to living in the public eye and being treated like a king wherever he went, his new life of obscurity was a tough pill to swallow.

Then, in 1950, the Special Committee to Investigate Organized Crime, better known as the Kefauver Committee, steamrolled through the nation. To end the organized crime racket that was taking over every major city in the United States, Senator Estes Kefauve formed a committee that traveled the country stopped in the nation’s most corrupt cities, subpoenaed that city’s most notorious individuals, and questioned them under oath about the criminal syndicate in the city. Of course, most individuals called to the stand denied their roles in corrupt activities. But, when the committee came to Tampa, one individual gladly testified about his role in the Tampa underworld, Charlie Wall.

Returning to the public eye for the first time since leaving Tampa, the now retired and powerless Charlie Wall took the stand and openly discussed his former life as a crime lord in Tampa during the earlier part of the century. His quick wit, engaging personality, and intriguing stories about fixing bolita games and escaping assassination attempts kept the city of Tampa hanging on his every word throughout his testimony. The next day, Charlie Wall was the talk of the town and back in the limelight. He moved back to Tampa full-time and, though he had little power, discovered he could again be the center of attention simply by telling his old stories. However, while the residents of Tampa loved his stories, Tampa’s Sicilian mafia grew angry because when Charlie Wall began drinking, he’d cease telling old stories and turn his attention to running down the way the Sicilians operated their illegal activities.