# Bum Farto

Joseph "Bum" Farto (July 3, 1919 – January 1, 1986) was a fire chief and convicted drug dealer in Key West, Florida, who disappeared in 1976. He was one of several politically connected Key West individuals arrested as part of a sting operation known as Operation Conch. Farto disappeared shortly after his conviction and was declared dead in absentia in 1986. His life and disappearance has been the subject of a 2020 podcast series and a 2021 Pamela Stephenson play.

## Early life

Farto's father was a restaurant owner who came to Key West from Spain via Cuba in 1902. Farto was the youngest of three children and his mother died when he was young. As a child, he often hung out at Key West's Fire Station No. 1, which was behind his house. He was nicknamed Bum because he fetched the firefighters' coffee and shined their shoes, and at 10 he first snuck onto a fire truck that was answering a call. He quit school when his father died. Farto worked for the WPA's National Youth Administration and became a fireman in 1942. He married his wife Esther Beiro in 1955.

## Career

Farto worked his way up at the fire station from lieutenant to captain and finally to fire chief in 1964. In a Miami Herald profile, Farto was described as an excessively alert "man of motion" who did not plausibly sit behind desks and for whom being still "just doesn't look natural".
Fire Chief Farto, who also managed a little league team, was well known for his flamboyant style and ostentatious behavior. He was frequently seen smoking large cigars and wearing gold jewelry and rose-tinted glasses. He wore red outfits, typically red suits, to ward off evil spirits, and his home featured red walls and red living room carpet. This preference was attributed to a belief in voodoo, but Farto's friend Charles Felton said Farto was dedicated to Saint Barbara. Bum Farto drove a lime green Ford Galaxie 500 with mirrored tint, chrome hubcaps, an "El Jefe" license plate, and "El Jefe" written on its side. He wore a gold double-headed fire axe pinned to his tie.
In 1968, the Civil Service Board issued him a 30 day suspension from his fire chief role on eight charges, including forging another fireman's signature to cash a $90.73 check (equivalent to $820 in 2024). The Civil Service Board, which was headed by Fire Chief Farto's nephew, attracted controversy when it ultimately did not uphold the suspension. In January 1971, Farto drove into a motorcycle patrolman and was charged for failing to yield to an emergency vehicle. Later that month, he fell into an irrigation canal while on a fire call. Several nearby emergency responders had to rescue him since he could not swim.

## Arrest and conviction

In 1976, Farto was arrested and charged with selling cocaine and marijuana to an undercover officer in a sting operation called Operation Conch, a six-month investigation undertaken by the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration, the Florida Department of Criminal Law Enforcement and the Dade County Organized Crime Bureau. He was the first of twenty-eight drug dealers arrested. He was brought to county jail with fellow narcotics criminal Manny James, the city attorney and son of the police chief. A crowd of 200 gathered to watch, including a wanted heroin dealer whom agents recognized and arrested from the crowd. Farto was convicted in 30 minutes in early February 1976.

## Disappearance

After being convicted of drug trafficking Farto faced a prison sentence of up to 31 years, but he disappeared before he could be sentenced. On February 16, 1976, he jumped his $25,000 bail (equivalent to $138,143 in 2024) and drove a rental car north out of Key West, at which point he disappeared. Bum Farto was so well-known that when his wanted poster in the police station was torn up by an unknown vandal, the police chief did not replace it because "[e]verybody here knows what he looks like anyway". A Key West shop sold t-shirts with slogans such as "Where is Bum Farto?", "The Answer is Bum's Away", and "What ever happened to El Jefe?" The shopkeeper said the t-shirts were purchased in large numbers, and he reported that his buyers were "probably kids who like to do a lot of coke", as well as Charles Addams. In 1986, Bum Farto was declared legally dead so that his wife could collect his pension and insurance policies, worth about $5,000 (equivalent to $14,343 in 2024) and $2,000 (equivalent to $5,737 in 2024) respectively.

## Legacy

Farto's life story was the subject of a seven-episode podcast titled The Bum Farto Story in 2020 and a musical by Pamela Stephenson called Bum Farto – The Musical in 2021.