THE HIT THAT EXPOSED SOME OF TAMPA’S ELITE
Fatal Flaw
Hawes explained that even if a gambler had local law enforcement officers, judges, and attorneys on his side, the state could still intervene in his affairs. Either by sending its investigator to the area, calling for a grand jury, or overturning a local judge’s decision via the Florida Supreme Court.
And this is why some believed Velasco was murdered–he accumulated power on the state level.
The Syndicate was not blind to Velasco’s growing power. They’d earned favors by bringing in Velasco to work the 1947 elections, but candidates in the 1948 election must have taken notice of Velasco’s abilities; they too would want Velasco’s assistance, this time without The Syndicate acting as the middleman, meaning they would not owe The Syndicate any favors.
At some point after the 1947 election, according to the statement, Velasco was instructed by Primo Lazzara to leave town because The Syndicate no longer needed his political power; they had gotten the election results they wanted.
It seems that Velasco knew he had the power. After the threat from The Syndicate, Velasco spoke with Mayor Curtis Hixon about the situation. Soon after this meeting, according to the Velasco brothers’ statement, The Syndicate was forced to allow Velasco to remain in Tampa and sell numbers. So why would he leave a city where he had so much power to return to California and become an unknown restaurant owner?
The Syndicate had other ways of dealing with men like Velasco, wrote his brothers in their notarized statement. Sheriff Culbreath and Police Chief Eddings had their deputies and officers arrest Velasco’s numbers runners while ignoring The Syndicate’s two new gambling houses–The Jockey Club at 114 E. Lafayette and the Flamingo Bar on the corner of 18th Street and 8th Avenue in Ybor City. This plan seems to have deprived Velasco of money while allowing The Syndicate’s bank accounts to grow. If they succeeded, Velasco could not fund elections or pay off officials, while The Syndicate could have continued to do both.
​However, as the 1948 general election grew near, wrote the Velasco brothers, The Syndicate realized it did indeed need Velasco’s help. Worried their candidates would lose, they asked him to support Culbreath for reelection and Bill Myers for governor. (According to the alleged list, Velasco was loaned $2,000 for the election by the Grimaldi family’s Columbia Bank.) He agreed to help Culbreath but instead supported Warren Fuller for governor. That was Velasco’s deadly decision.
Fuller won, and Velasco was the only major gambler in Tampa to support him. This supposedly meant he would be the only gambler in the city with the governor’s ear. Velasco could place friends in high-profile state jobs that protected his interests alone. In addition, he had the power to exact revenge on The Syndicate for trying to put him out of business by asking state law enforcement to usurp Tampa and Hillsborough County.
“Jimmy had the governor in his back pocket,” former gangster Ralph Rubio said in The Silent Don. “That cost Jimmy his life.”
Talk in the underworld was that Velasco was on the verge of usurping The Syndicate. They had created a monster. After all, if they had never called him, he would still be in California. Their greatest threat had been the 1947 election, a threat Velasco eliminated. By murdering Velasco, The Syndicate took care of its new greatest threat, which ironically was Velasco.
“Plus,” explained Scott Deitche, author of The Silent Don and Cigar City Mafia, “The Syndicate never paid [Velasco] back the money he spent in the 1947 election. So now he had all the power, and they owed him a lot of money they did not want to pay back.”
