WEBVTT - Episode 2 - The Apollo 0:00:03.000 --> 0:00:08.680 All right, March from the second twenty twenty three, literally 0:00:08.800 --> 0:00:15.160 twelve o'clock on the dot, I have taken that long 0:00:15.280 --> 0:00:22.040 drive to f Daly, Orlando Lab. Start the clock on 0:00:22.120 --> 0:00:26.120 this process of trying to solve the case through science. 0:00:29.440 --> 0:00:32.760 In October of nineteen eighty six, the body of twenty 0:00:32.800 --> 0:00:36.040 eight year old Billy Halpern was discovered in his town 0:00:36.120 --> 0:00:40.839 home in Miramar, Florida. Billy, who was a bodybuilder and 0:00:40.920 --> 0:00:44.800 former firefighter, had been bound with electrical tape before being 0:00:44.840 --> 0:00:49.240 strangled and nearly decapitated in what appeared to be a 0:00:49.280 --> 0:00:56.440 brutal and bloody execution style murder. With no witnesses, no leads, 0:00:56.920 --> 0:01:00.880 and little forensic evidence left at the scene, Billy's murder 0:01:01.320 --> 0:01:09.800 went unsolved for months, but then there were four more 0:01:09.840 --> 0:01:14.240 slayings in the span of eight days. Twenty six year 0:01:14.240 --> 0:01:16.800 old Mitch Hall had gone to high school with Billy 0:01:16.840 --> 0:01:21.920 Hawburn and was also a competitive bodybuilder. He and his 0:01:22.000 --> 0:01:25.240 living girlfriend, twenty three year old shar Linda, were found 0:01:25.319 --> 0:01:29.080 inside their town home just twenty minutes away, with their 0:01:29.160 --> 0:01:35.080 throats slashed in a scene eerily similar to Billy's. A 0:01:35.160 --> 0:01:38.639 week later, another fellow bodybuild a friend of Billy's named 0:01:38.840 --> 0:01:42.600 Jimmy Hinoe, along with a man identified as a New 0:01:42.680 --> 0:01:47.800 Jersey resident, Harry Collier, were found murdered in nearby Pembroke Pines, 0:01:48.520 --> 0:01:52.920 each shot once in the back of the head, five 0:01:53.320 --> 0:02:00.560 execution style homicides in less than eight months. Hectives from 0:02:00.560 --> 0:02:04.080 Miramar and the Brower County Sheriff's Office were convinced they 0:02:04.080 --> 0:02:08.280 were all connected. Not only did Billy, Mitch, and Jimmy 0:02:08.480 --> 0:02:12.440 all know each other, they were all bodybuilders. They worked 0:02:12.480 --> 0:02:18.040 out together, competed together, and police suspected were involved in 0:02:18.320 --> 0:02:22.600 something that got them all killed was a drugs a 0:02:22.639 --> 0:02:27.359 string of robberies. Police didn't know, but one thing had 0:02:27.400 --> 0:02:31.919 become clear. The motive behind the killing spree, and more importantly, 0:02:32.320 --> 0:02:35.919 who was behind it, would likely be found in one 0:02:36.000 --> 0:02:39.600 place that Billy and the other victims had in common, 0:02:40.240 --> 0:02:47.440 a bodybuilding mecca in Hollywood Beach called the Apollo Gym. 0:02:47.520 --> 0:02:50.839 It's difficult enough to go back in time and try 0:02:50.880 --> 0:02:55.400 to investigate it one particular case, but if there's an 0:02:55.400 --> 0:03:00.480 association with another homicide, I'm essentially working two homicide cases. 0:03:01.120 --> 0:03:03.560 And then if that branches off to a third homicide, 0:03:03.880 --> 0:03:06.799 now I've got that much more work to do, so 0:03:07.160 --> 0:03:11.519 I think the complexity of this case is unique, and 0:03:11.560 --> 0:03:14.640 I've actually never heard of any other cold case that 0:03:14.760 --> 0:03:17.160 has this many complexities. 0:03:18.480 --> 0:03:23.440 I'm Scott Weinberger, investigative journalist and former deputy sheriff, and 0:03:23.600 --> 0:03:35.320 this is cold blooded. The Apollo Jim murders. Nearly forty 0:03:35.400 --> 0:03:38.600 years after his murder, cold case Detective Danny Smith and 0:03:38.640 --> 0:03:42.400 I knew that tracking down people that knew Billy Hauburn 0:03:42.680 --> 0:03:46.040 and could shed light on why he was killed would 0:03:46.120 --> 0:03:50.280 not be an easy task. But Billy's sister Laurie was 0:03:50.360 --> 0:03:52.920 able to provide us with a couple of names of 0:03:53.000 --> 0:03:57.480 friends that were still living in South Florida. 0:03:58.480 --> 0:04:01.200 I don't know. I wasn't. 0:04:02.400 --> 0:04:04.440 I was wondering when I was going to hear something 0:04:04.480 --> 0:04:05.240 from somebody. 0:04:06.440 --> 0:04:09.320 Yeah, it's been a long time and lots of answers 0:04:09.360 --> 0:04:11.080 had not come fair to. 0:04:11.040 --> 0:04:15.760 Say, yeah, well, there's a lot of unsolved murders that 0:04:15.800 --> 0:04:18.160 I think are all tied to the same people. 0:04:19.960 --> 0:04:23.680 Day Fasano met Billy Hauburn when he was still a teenager, 0:04:24.000 --> 0:04:26.920 it was clear from the beginning that the two aspiring 0:04:26.960 --> 0:04:31.880 bodybuilders were cut from the same cloth, or more accurately, 0:04:32.320 --> 0:04:34.480 from the same piece of granite. 0:04:36.600 --> 0:04:40.920 I was a bodybuilder and a competitive bodybuilder. I won 0:04:41.000 --> 0:04:46.040 Mister Teenage Florida, Mister America third Place, Mister Hollywood, Mister 0:04:46.080 --> 0:04:49.160 brit like a bunch of titles. I was a hardcore 0:04:49.240 --> 0:04:53.159 teenage bodybuilder that was doing very well. Billy was a 0:04:53.200 --> 0:04:57.000 little older than me, and he was bigger than me 0:04:57.120 --> 0:05:00.320 and my friends that were teenagers that were starting out, 0:05:00.360 --> 0:05:03.000 and we kind of became good friends with. 0:05:03.000 --> 0:05:07.839 Billion Fasano is now in his early sixties, and while 0:05:07.880 --> 0:05:10.360 he might not be as big as he was when 0:05:10.440 --> 0:05:14.360 he was competing, he's still in great shape. He sports 0:05:14.400 --> 0:05:17.120 a Goals Jym T shirt, a pair of flip flops, 0:05:17.520 --> 0:05:21.039 and a deep South Florida tan. I ventured to guests 0:05:21.400 --> 0:05:22.159 is year round. 0:05:23.800 --> 0:05:26.560 Billy and I became very good friends. 0:05:26.720 --> 0:05:29.680 And we would go out and we would go He 0:05:29.680 --> 0:05:32.159 would come to the swimming pool every day, hung out. 0:05:32.000 --> 0:05:33.760 With me, and then we went out a couple times. 0:05:33.920 --> 0:05:36.560 We'd go out partying together and picking up girls and 0:05:36.880 --> 0:05:40.200 doing bodybuilding and partying basically is what we did. 0:05:41.800 --> 0:05:45.400 Dave also reiterated something I had heard from more than 0:05:45.480 --> 0:05:49.479 one person who knew Billy Hoppurn that despite looking like 0:05:49.520 --> 0:05:53.160 a TV action hero who could take anyone out two 0:05:53.240 --> 0:05:58.640 at a time. He was just really a nice guy. 0:05:58.800 --> 0:06:00.520 I mean, he'd give you the shirt up his back, 0:06:00.560 --> 0:06:04.000 and he was handsome, and he had charisma, he was 0:06:04.040 --> 0:06:05.640 good looking, he was built. 0:06:05.760 --> 0:06:08.479 He was just a nice, humble guy. 0:06:09.120 --> 0:06:11.479 And him and a bunch of the other guys we 0:06:11.600 --> 0:06:13.560 kind of looked up to them, and they kind of 0:06:13.600 --> 0:06:16.120 mentored us a little bit, and then we ended up 0:06:16.640 --> 0:06:18.360 all ended up at Apollo Gym. 0:06:18.400 --> 0:06:18.880 In the end. 0:06:22.240 --> 0:06:25.600 Bodybuilding and keeping fit was something of an obsession in 0:06:25.640 --> 0:06:29.680 South Florida in the nineteen eighties. I was a young 0:06:29.720 --> 0:06:32.600 deputy sheriff from Browere County back then, and it seemed 0:06:32.640 --> 0:06:37.560 like new gyms were opening on every corner. But in 0:06:37.640 --> 0:06:41.839 nineteen eighty six, for the serious muscleheads, there was really 0:06:41.920 --> 0:06:45.000 just one place to go, a hole in the wall 0:06:45.200 --> 0:06:49.000 on Route four forty one near the Seminole Indian Reservation. 0:06:50.320 --> 0:06:52.760 It was called the Apollo Gym. 0:06:53.680 --> 0:06:57.320 When we went into Apollo Gym, it was the best 0:06:57.880 --> 0:07:01.600 gym around and it had all the best bodybuilders. 0:07:02.800 --> 0:07:06.160 Billy's friend Mark Lopez also worked out at the Apollo 0:07:06.440 --> 0:07:09.960 and described it to me as a no frills, concrete 0:07:10.000 --> 0:07:12.720 box dedicated to painting game. 0:07:14.600 --> 0:07:20.880 The Apollo was very unusual because it was a hardcore gym. 0:07:21.280 --> 0:07:24.200 I try to tell people today, it's not like walking 0:07:24.240 --> 0:07:25.920 into an La Fitness today. 0:07:26.600 --> 0:07:26.800 You know. 0:07:26.800 --> 0:07:30.280 It was very dungeon esque. The air conditioner wasn't always 0:07:30.320 --> 0:07:34.880 working great in the place, The ceilings leaked, the equipment 0:07:35.000 --> 0:07:37.080 a lot of it, you know, needed maintenance. 0:07:36.760 --> 0:07:37.480 Or was broken. 0:07:40.960 --> 0:07:43.360 Safe to say, this was not a place for the 0:07:43.440 --> 0:07:45.040 casual weekend warrior. 0:07:46.400 --> 0:07:49.000 There was a reputation about the place, and it was 0:07:49.560 --> 0:07:52.080 if you were a little skittish, it wasn't the place 0:07:52.120 --> 0:07:54.760 that you were going to go because you never knew 0:07:54.800 --> 0:07:58.280 what was gonna happen there, like you know, fights in 0:07:58.360 --> 0:08:02.880 the gym that ice, scrap and write in the gym. 0:08:02.960 --> 0:08:05.600 I also got the feeling from Dave and Mark that 0:08:05.840 --> 0:08:08.680 kind of like the rest of South Florida, the Apollo 0:08:09.320 --> 0:08:13.760 was in anything goes kind of place. How prevalent was 0:08:13.840 --> 0:08:16.880 story t at the Jim that you remember. 0:08:18.040 --> 0:08:18.840 All over the place. 0:08:19.240 --> 0:08:21.160 You'd walk in the bathroom, you look in the trash 0:08:21.200 --> 0:08:24.200 cannon be filled with syringes. You could buy anything you wanted, 0:08:24.200 --> 0:08:25.760 and back then you didn't go to jail for you 0:08:25.760 --> 0:08:28.160 could walk into gym'sa I need some testosterone. 0:08:28.360 --> 0:08:30.280 People would talk about it, Bam, you have it in 0:08:30.280 --> 0:08:30.720 a week. 0:08:32.840 --> 0:08:36.640 Along with the serious bodybuilders like David Mark, the Apollo 0:08:36.840 --> 0:08:40.960 also attracted cops, firefighters, and a fair share of guys 0:08:41.280 --> 0:08:45.800 who were probably using their bulk for less law abiding purposes. 0:08:47.200 --> 0:08:50.320 I'm talking about the dealers, the hustlers, and the low 0:08:50.400 --> 0:08:54.440 level gangsters that occupied the same South Florida streets and 0:08:55.040 --> 0:08:59.080 at the Apollo the same bench presses as local law. 0:08:59.000 --> 0:09:04.640 Enforcement at that time the Apollo, there are several Hollywood 0:09:04.640 --> 0:09:08.320 cops that were members there, you know, generally the local cops, 0:09:08.320 --> 0:09:11.840 the Hollywood cops, the Davy cops that I knew, they 0:09:11.920 --> 0:09:14.760 knew the element that hung out there, and that they 0:09:14.800 --> 0:09:17.360 were kind of outnumbered good guys the bad guys, so 0:09:17.480 --> 0:09:20.840 to speak. So there was a lot of fear from 0:09:20.920 --> 0:09:25.320 local law enforcement about the element there. I saw that firsthand. 0:09:27.400 --> 0:09:29.600 But there was kind of a don't ask, don't tell 0:09:29.640 --> 0:09:33.520 policy at the Apollo, creating an environment where cops and 0:09:33.600 --> 0:09:39.280 crooks could share a safe space to push iron. But 0:09:39.400 --> 0:09:43.120 as we will learn, that would ultimately prove to be 0:09:43.280 --> 0:09:52.560 a volatile and dangerous mix. The Apollogym had two owners 0:09:53.000 --> 0:09:56.720 Bert Christy was originally from New Jersey and had moved 0:09:56.720 --> 0:10:02.079 to Fort Lauderdale in the late nineteen sixties. Christy was 0:10:02.120 --> 0:10:05.800 a former Mister Florida who in his fifties had become 0:10:05.960 --> 0:10:10.320 kind of a mentor to young bodybuilders. This is Mark 0:10:10.400 --> 0:10:12.800 Lopez describing Bert Christie. 0:10:14.280 --> 0:10:16.520 Bert at the time, I'm guessing was probably in his 0:10:16.600 --> 0:10:21.320 early fifties. Not a big guy. Bert probably stood I'm 0:10:21.360 --> 0:10:25.040 guessing about five to nine. And you know, it was 0:10:25.120 --> 0:10:27.880 kind of a not a flashy guy, like not a 0:10:27.880 --> 0:10:30.319 guy that was loud and brash or anything like that. 0:10:31.000 --> 0:10:35.720 Pretty soft spoken. But you know, even though he wasn't 0:10:35.840 --> 0:10:39.400 like a big scary looking guy, he probably wasn't the 0:10:39.440 --> 0:10:40.760 guy you want to piss off. 0:10:42.120 --> 0:10:45.800 Bert Christie's partner was a former Miami Dade Police officer 0:10:46.040 --> 0:10:48.480 by the name of Gil Fernandez. 0:10:49.679 --> 0:10:52.640 When I first met Gil, I had no idea he 0:10:52.760 --> 0:10:54.960 was a former cop, right, I didn't know anything about it. 0:10:54.960 --> 0:10:57.200 I just know him some guy in the gym that 0:10:57.320 --> 0:10:58.800 worked in the same gym I did. 0:10:59.600 --> 0:11:00.880 And you know, he's a. 0:11:00.840 --> 0:11:04.840 Big, scary looking guy with his physique and the tats 0:11:04.920 --> 0:11:07.920 and the New York accent, and like I said, Gills's 0:11:07.960 --> 0:11:12.079 voice was like a combination of West Side New York 0:11:12.280 --> 0:11:15.920 with cut gravel, and when he walked in the room, 0:11:16.280 --> 0:11:18.600 he got your attention, believe me, one way or the other. 0:11:20.240 --> 0:11:24.360 At one time, then officer Fernandez had been singled out 0:11:24.360 --> 0:11:28.880 by the local paper from multiple complaints of excessive. 0:11:28.400 --> 0:11:32.599 Violence during the McDuffie riots. He basically built a reputation 0:11:32.800 --> 0:11:36.920 there as Miami's meanest cop. And you know, I'm sure 0:11:37.840 --> 0:11:39.360 the steroids didn't help. 0:11:40.320 --> 0:11:44.679 A Fasano was also well aware of Gil's reputation. 0:11:45.840 --> 0:11:47.920 I knew he was a cop, and I heard he 0:11:48.000 --> 0:11:51.080 was a racist cop, and that he was a bad cop. 0:11:51.120 --> 0:11:51.800 That's what I heard. 0:11:53.160 --> 0:11:57.480 Gil's famous temper, coupled with his enormous physique, earned him 0:11:57.720 --> 0:12:01.760 an appropriate, if predictable name, the Hulk. 0:12:03.120 --> 0:12:06.360 People were afraid of Gil. He was very aggressive and 0:12:06.880 --> 0:12:07.600 he was a bully. 0:12:08.520 --> 0:12:10.520 I knew from the beginning, like, this is not a 0:12:10.559 --> 0:12:12.880 guy that you want to piss off. He's just not 0:12:13.720 --> 0:12:15.800 I knew that within the first couple of days and 0:12:15.920 --> 0:12:16.400 knowing the. 0:12:16.360 --> 0:12:20.440 Guy at first glance. Burt and Gill were a couple 0:12:20.440 --> 0:12:24.640 of older bodybuilders mentoring young guys and drumming up attention 0:12:24.720 --> 0:12:28.880 for their business, which included sponsoring young bodybuilders like Dave 0:12:28.880 --> 0:12:30.880 Farsano in local competitions. 0:12:32.440 --> 0:12:35.960 So when I went to Apollo Gym, they immediately took 0:12:35.960 --> 0:12:38.120 me under their wing and they gave me free membership. 0:12:38.120 --> 0:12:40.160 I didn't even have to pay. They gave me free 0:12:40.200 --> 0:12:43.400 supplements and clothing. Because I was representing the gym and 0:12:43.440 --> 0:12:47.240 I was winning pretty much everything, they gave me the 0:12:47.320 --> 0:12:51.520 keys and we formed a team of bodybuilders, and Gil 0:12:51.760 --> 0:12:55.199 and Bert were best friends, and Bert was my training partner. 0:12:55.440 --> 0:12:57.720 When I won the Mister Florida, we all went and 0:12:57.720 --> 0:13:02.000 Mister Florida together as a team. 0:13:02.280 --> 0:13:06.360 These competitions were pretty low stakes, prize money in the hundreds, 0:13:06.600 --> 0:13:10.400 not thousands. It was all about the bragging rights, and 0:13:10.440 --> 0:13:13.520 the guys from the Apollo Gym were in it to 0:13:13.640 --> 0:13:14.000 win it. 0:13:16.160 --> 0:13:19.360 Billy didn't compete, but there was Guild Fernanders who was competing. 0:13:19.559 --> 0:13:22.360 There was Tommy Felts who was competing. There was Bert 0:13:22.440 --> 0:13:23.720 Christie who was competing. 0:13:24.000 --> 0:13:26.120 There was me a bunch of other guys. 0:13:26.320 --> 0:13:29.000 Now Billy wasn't part of that because he didn't compete, 0:13:29.480 --> 0:13:32.120 but Billy was in the gym all the time training. 0:13:33.120 --> 0:13:36.439 And by Billy he means Billy Halpern, who a short 0:13:36.440 --> 0:13:40.360 time later would end up dead, his throat slashed from 0:13:40.360 --> 0:13:44.720 ear to ear. Tommy Felts he was murdered too, but 0:13:45.280 --> 0:13:49.480 we'll get to that. And while on the surface, Christy 0:13:49.559 --> 0:13:53.400 and Fernandez appeared to be running a first class gym, 0:13:53.679 --> 0:13:56.440 there were rumors that the ex cop and the former 0:13:56.520 --> 0:14:00.680 mister Florida were doing more than just mentoring young muscle. 0:14:02.240 --> 0:14:05.160 Like I would be in the gym sometimes and Gil 0:14:05.240 --> 0:14:08.960 would be there with me, and Bert would show up. 0:14:09.080 --> 0:14:11.840 Might be the middle of the afternoon while it's quiet, 0:14:11.880 --> 0:14:15.439 there not a lot of people around, and they would 0:14:15.480 --> 0:14:17.760 go out front and they would do a walk and 0:14:17.800 --> 0:14:20.200 talk and they would walk up and down the plaza 0:14:20.280 --> 0:14:22.360 the whole length of the plaza, the whole way back, 0:14:22.600 --> 0:14:25.080 and then just keep turning around doing laps until they 0:14:25.080 --> 0:14:27.360 were done with their conversation. And then they would come 0:14:27.400 --> 0:14:30.240 back in the gym. So that was like an everyday occurrence. 0:14:31.160 --> 0:14:34.080 That was street smart enough to know that when I 0:14:34.120 --> 0:14:36.280 see certain things, I don't need anybody to tap me 0:14:36.320 --> 0:14:38.400 on the shoulder and say, hey, this is what's happening. 0:14:39.080 --> 0:14:41.400 I just put two and two together and I'm like, Okay, 0:14:41.400 --> 0:14:42.200 this is what's up. 0:14:43.920 --> 0:14:48.480 Dave Fasano had also heard the stories about Gil and Burt. 0:14:49.440 --> 0:14:53.280 So there was always rumors around the gym, and I 0:14:53.320 --> 0:14:57.080 always thought it was people. People talk, and people think 0:14:57.080 --> 0:15:01.320 they're cool when they talk. And I'm from New York 0:15:01.720 --> 0:15:03.720 and I never thought it was cool when people sat, Oh, 0:15:03.800 --> 0:15:05.760 my father's in the mafia or my uncle. 0:15:05.800 --> 0:15:07.800 And this they wear like a badge bond. 0:15:08.520 --> 0:15:10.560 There was rumors circulating in the gym all the time 0:15:10.600 --> 0:15:15.360 that Bert and Dial were somehow connected and they were 0:15:15.440 --> 0:15:18.120 drug dealers and they were bad people. But I never 0:15:18.160 --> 0:15:20.840 believed it. I always thought it was just talk, you know. 0:15:22.680 --> 0:15:24.840 But the truth was that the Apollo Gym was not 0:15:25.200 --> 0:15:29.000 just a clubhouse for like minded gym rats. The Apollo 0:15:29.080 --> 0:15:31.880 Gym was a front for some of the most ruthless 0:15:31.920 --> 0:15:33.800 criminals in South Florida. 0:15:34.960 --> 0:15:37.360 And there was a lot of craziness in the place. 0:15:37.480 --> 0:15:40.000 And of course not when you first walk in and 0:15:40.040 --> 0:15:43.080 see it from the surface, but won't just spend time 0:15:43.120 --> 0:15:45.960 around the place and realize kind of what's going on 0:15:46.040 --> 0:15:49.320 beneath the surface. It wasn't just a gym. It was 0:15:49.360 --> 0:15:50.480 a criminal enterprise. 0:15:58.720 --> 0:16:01.360 The more Danny and I learned about the Apollo, the 0:16:01.440 --> 0:16:05.200 more we were convinced that the truth behind Billy Halpern's 0:16:05.280 --> 0:16:10.320 murder was hidden somewhere behind its doors and its many secrets. 0:16:12.320 --> 0:16:16.400 But to better understand how a bodybuilding gym could double 0:16:16.760 --> 0:16:20.040 as a headquarters for a criminal operation, we have to 0:16:20.080 --> 0:16:26.920 go back a few years. Mark Lopez is a New 0:16:26.960 --> 0:16:29.120 Jersey native, and he was able to give us a 0:16:29.120 --> 0:16:32.680 little history lesson on the origins of the South Florida 0:16:32.720 --> 0:16:36.680 criminal underground and how the mob came to Miami. 0:16:38.600 --> 0:16:41.520 The town that I grew up in is called South Amboy. 0:16:41.640 --> 0:16:45.280 It's a little town right across from Staten Island, and 0:16:45.360 --> 0:16:49.680 my family on both sides, my mother's side and my 0:16:49.760 --> 0:16:53.240 dad's side, were both in the bar business. The house 0:16:53.280 --> 0:16:58.080 that I grew up in was a normal ranch style 0:16:58.160 --> 0:17:01.960 home in a residential zone in town. But when I 0:17:02.000 --> 0:17:05.520 grew up there, the basement, the whole basement of the 0:17:05.520 --> 0:17:08.919 house was a nightclub. A lounge was my dad's lounge 0:17:08.960 --> 0:17:12.280 called the Hideaway, which at the time was, you know, 0:17:12.440 --> 0:17:15.240 the most hop and spot in town. 0:17:17.080 --> 0:17:21.400 Upstairs, Mark lived with his parents, four sisters, and his grandmother. 0:17:22.480 --> 0:17:27.720 But downstairs the family speak easy attracted a colorful cast of. 0:17:27.760 --> 0:17:34.760 Characters, bikers, hell's angels, mob guys, you know, just miscellaneous craziness. 0:17:34.800 --> 0:17:38.040 But my dad ran a very tight ship there, like 0:17:38.080 --> 0:17:40.800 he didn't put up in any nonsense and if you 0:17:40.920 --> 0:17:42.640 acted up, you were going to go out the front 0:17:42.680 --> 0:17:43.480 door head first. 0:17:45.119 --> 0:17:47.960 But it wasn't just live music and booze flowing out 0:17:48.000 --> 0:17:48.600 of the basement. 0:17:50.000 --> 0:17:53.199 My dad was in the cannabis smuggling business, like a 0:17:53.240 --> 0:17:56.359 lot of guys were in those days, and you know, 0:17:56.440 --> 0:18:00.560 guys were bringing in product from Mexico, from Columbia. At 0:18:00.560 --> 0:18:03.000 that time, it was you know, it's cannabis is not 0:18:03.080 --> 0:18:06.320 look the way it is today. It was very taboo 0:18:06.920 --> 0:18:09.760 and if you were caught, you were going to get 0:18:09.880 --> 0:18:11.919 probably some type of draconian sentence. 0:18:12.680 --> 0:18:15.639 Safe to say that Mark was exposed to the inner 0:18:15.640 --> 0:18:19.320 workings of the criminal underworld at a very early age. 0:18:20.760 --> 0:18:23.600 You know where I grew up, I know, knew guys 0:18:23.680 --> 0:18:25.800 from the time I was in my early to mid 0:18:25.840 --> 0:18:29.080 teens that were guys that what I would call, you know, 0:18:29.200 --> 0:18:32.520 young and up and coming wanna be gangsters, right, And 0:18:32.560 --> 0:18:35.359 they were guys that were from my neck of the 0:18:35.359 --> 0:18:38.960 woods or Staten Island or Brooklyn. And these guys from 0:18:38.960 --> 0:18:41.560 the time that they're like fifteen years old were out 0:18:41.960 --> 0:18:47.480 committing crimes, selling drugs, doing collections. When they got in 0:18:47.520 --> 0:18:50.000 their late teens, they were robbing banks, they were doing 0:18:50.000 --> 0:18:53.760 home invasions, they were trying to impress the powers that be. 0:18:54.040 --> 0:18:58.159 So they were brazen, and so I saw a side 0:18:58.200 --> 0:19:01.359 of I guess adulthood at that point that I realized 0:19:01.400 --> 0:19:04.480 that it's not all pieces and cream, Like there's some 0:19:04.600 --> 0:19:07.520 rough stuff that you're going to encounter. And I was 0:19:07.560 --> 0:19:10.160 always smart enough to keep my distance away from guys 0:19:10.160 --> 0:19:12.920 that were just out of control. So, you know, before 0:19:12.960 --> 0:19:15.840 I came to Florida, which was at nineteen, I had 0:19:15.880 --> 0:19:19.320 already been exposed to a pretty rough element. 0:19:22.040 --> 0:19:24.760 But it was that experience and a few points from 0:19:24.760 --> 0:19:28.440 his dad that would give him such a unique perspective 0:19:28.680 --> 0:19:32.119 on the goings on in South Florida, or what he 0:19:32.320 --> 0:19:36.520 called the life my dad. 0:19:36.600 --> 0:19:40.280 He would tell me my entire life, like, if you're 0:19:40.320 --> 0:19:44.480 ever going to do anything illegal, you want to be invisible. 0:19:45.040 --> 0:19:48.360 You want to blend into the background. You want to 0:19:48.400 --> 0:19:51.600 look like an upstanding member of society. You want to 0:19:51.600 --> 0:19:55.600 make sure you have the legitimate business running parallel to 0:19:55.640 --> 0:19:59.400 your illegitimate business to show that you have legitimate income. 0:20:00.240 --> 0:20:04.479 Don't drive a flashy car, don't wear flashy jewelry. You know, 0:20:04.520 --> 0:20:08.720 the common mistakes that guys tied up in that element, 0:20:09.080 --> 0:20:11.640 you know, get taken down from eventually, right. 0:20:12.800 --> 0:20:16.080 Mark's family would eventually move to South Florida in the 0:20:16.119 --> 0:20:20.200 mid nineteen eighties, opening the Steakhouse in the Hollywood Beach Hotel, 0:20:20.760 --> 0:20:25.119 about twenty miles outside of Miami, which at that time 0:20:25.600 --> 0:20:29.880 was already a playground and profit center for the organized 0:20:29.920 --> 0:20:31.800 crime families from up north. 0:20:33.040 --> 0:20:36.760 Almost directly across the street from the Hollywood Beach Hotel 0:20:36.760 --> 0:20:40.320 at the time was the Gold Coast Restaurant, which was 0:20:40.720 --> 0:20:44.080 the most mobbed up joint in South Florida. I tell people, 0:20:44.240 --> 0:20:47.000 like when you see that scene in Goodfellas where they 0:20:47.080 --> 0:20:49.040 kind of tore you through the bar showing you all 0:20:49.080 --> 0:20:52.679 the cast of characters, the Gold Coast on a Friday 0:20:52.720 --> 0:20:55.159 or Saturday night in December or January back in the 0:20:55.240 --> 0:20:59.159 day was exactly like that. I mean, they're all, you know, 0:20:59.240 --> 0:21:05.520 mob guys from New York, New Jersey, Philadelphia, New England, Chicago, Cleveland, 0:21:06.119 --> 0:21:08.040 from all over the country. So it was kind of 0:21:08.080 --> 0:21:10.720 like a mutual meeting ground, if you will, And there 0:21:10.800 --> 0:21:14.560 was a lot of business done there all types of business. 0:21:15.640 --> 0:21:21.240 And along with some mafia specialties like bookmaking, prostitution, and extortion, 0:21:21.800 --> 0:21:25.600 South Florida was becoming a hub for the most profitable 0:21:25.640 --> 0:21:26.800 business of all. 0:21:28.119 --> 0:21:30.080 You know at South Florida, right, and at that time 0:21:30.119 --> 0:21:33.640 it was kind of the cocaine cowboys era, if you will. 0:21:34.080 --> 0:21:38.919 When I came here, I would say that, without exaggerating, 0:21:39.600 --> 0:21:42.720 most of the guys that I met, probably seventy five 0:21:42.760 --> 0:21:45.399 percent of them were in the cocaine business on some level. 0:21:45.920 --> 0:21:50.440 You know, you'll hear frequently when mob guys are interviewed that, oh, 0:21:51.040 --> 0:21:54.800 we don't sell drugs, it's against our rules to sell drugs. Well, 0:21:54.840 --> 0:21:57.240 that might be against the rules, but most of them 0:21:57.240 --> 0:21:57.840 are doing it. 0:21:59.440 --> 0:22:02.439 But of course this isn't just a movie. And along 0:22:02.520 --> 0:22:06.239 with the crime and the drugs came the potential. 0:22:06.080 --> 0:22:10.040 For violence because you didn't just have the mob, right 0:22:10.080 --> 0:22:12.680 in different factions of the mob, different families of the mob, 0:22:13.480 --> 0:22:16.840 but you had cartel guys. And some of these guys 0:22:16.840 --> 0:22:19.800 were scary too, because you know, all they know how 0:22:19.800 --> 0:22:20.800 to do really is killed. 0:22:22.480 --> 0:22:25.040 Not that Mark needed much help, by the way, a protection. 0:22:25.560 --> 0:22:30.520 At nineteen, the aspiring bodybuilder was already pushing two hundred 0:22:30.560 --> 0:22:32.639 and forty pounds of pure muscle. 0:22:35.440 --> 0:22:38.200 So you know, most guys really didn't want to mess 0:22:38.240 --> 0:22:40.800 with me, just because I wasn't a small guy and 0:22:40.880 --> 0:22:42.840 I was only a young kid. But I was full 0:22:42.840 --> 0:22:45.679 of piss and vinegar, and at the time, I was 0:22:45.760 --> 0:22:49.919 using steroids, and that doesn't help the matter, because you know, 0:22:50.000 --> 0:22:54.240 you're basically pumping artificial testosterone into your body, and at 0:22:54.359 --> 0:22:57.840 nineteen you're already really at peak levels naturally, So I 0:22:57.920 --> 0:23:01.480 was probably at ten fifteen, twenty times a distosterone of 0:23:01.480 --> 0:23:05.040 a natural guy my age, and that makes you very aggressive, 0:23:05.720 --> 0:23:09.200 and you know, when you're big in ornery and kind 0:23:09.200 --> 0:23:12.159 of have my background, you know, in that situation, I 0:23:12.200 --> 0:23:15.040 probably wasn't the right guy who antagonized. 0:23:15.720 --> 0:23:18.960 Which is probably why when he walked into Burton Gill's 0:23:19.200 --> 0:23:22.760 stripped down shrine to piss in vinegar, the Apollo, Jim 0:23:23.320 --> 0:23:27.480 Mark felt right at home, and for someone who had 0:23:27.520 --> 0:23:30.480 grown up in the life, it was no secret that 0:23:30.600 --> 0:23:32.960 its owners were in on the action. 0:23:35.119 --> 0:23:39.760 When those two were together, they were like John Gottie 0:23:39.800 --> 0:23:40.640 and Sammy the Bull. 0:23:41.520 --> 0:23:45.880 He had a particularly memorable first encounter with Gil Fernandez. 0:23:47.200 --> 0:23:51.119 So he walks out of the aerobics room to the 0:23:51.160 --> 0:23:53.560 men's room, which goes right in front of me where 0:23:53.560 --> 0:23:56.920 I'm sitting behind the front desk. And you know, he's 0:23:56.960 --> 0:24:01.720 a big, scary looking guy, you know, tat it up. 0:24:02.080 --> 0:24:05.399 He's wearing a tank top. The first impression to me 0:24:05.440 --> 0:24:08.280 in my mind was that guy is a fucking gangster. 0:24:09.440 --> 0:24:11.560 He says, well, what the fuck is the matter with you? 0:24:11.680 --> 0:24:14.200 He says, don't don't you ever check the fucking ben's room? 0:24:14.720 --> 0:24:16.200 And I said, what are you talking about? I said, 0:24:16.200 --> 0:24:18.440 I just cleaned the whole men's room a half hour ago. 0:24:19.200 --> 0:24:22.240 So he said, well, somebody's got the goddamn toilet clogged. 0:24:23.160 --> 0:24:26.639 Okay, a little warning here if you have a weak's stomach, 0:24:26.960 --> 0:24:29.359 you might want to brace yourself for the next part. 0:24:30.880 --> 0:24:32.240 And it's almost filled to the top. 0:24:32.280 --> 0:24:33.400 It's almost overflowing. 0:24:34.119 --> 0:24:38.000 So he, without hesitation, kneels down in front of the 0:24:38.040 --> 0:24:41.480