Tony Tarracino

Tony Tarracino (August 10, 1916 – November 1, 2008), commonly called Captain Tony, was an American saloonkeeper, boat captain, politician, gambler, and storyteller in Key West, Florida. He was a well-known personality in the city and has been called "arguably the city's most beloved resident" and "the conscience of Key West."

Anthony Tarracino was born in Elizabeth, New Jersey to a bootlegger father. He dropped out of the ninth grade to make and sell whiskey, illegal at the time due to Prohibition. After becoming a gambler, getting involved with the New Jersey Mafia, and being beaten and left for dead at the Newark city dump, he moved to Key West, Florida, in 1948.

There he became a shrimper, a charter boat captain, and a gunrunner. From 1961, Tarracino was the proprietor of Captain Tony's Saloon at 428 Greene Street in Key West, the original location of Sloppy Joe's bar frequented by Ernest Hemingway in the 1930s (the current Sloppy Joe's is located a few doors away at 201 Duval Street). He sold the bar in 1989 but remained a fixture there until shortly before his death. The bar still retains his name.

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