Our Colorful Characters...
— we’re not sure if it’s the salt air, a bit too much sun or the distance from the mainland but Miami Beach has a strong draw for the notorious, the nefarious and the just plain weird.
J. Edgar Hoover and Walter Winchell
FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover, center, with influential columnist Walter Winchell, right, and Assistant FBI Director Greg Tolson. Hoover and Tolson took their vacations the first two weeks in December in Miami. They usually had dinner together with Winchell at Joe’s Stone Crab.
Alex Daoud
Alex Daoud was Miami Beach mayor from 1985 to 1991. But in 1992, Miami Beach’s golden boy was convicted of bribery. He was hauled off to prison and spent 18 months in the federal pen. Rather than slinking off, he wrote a tell-all book naming names and setting out how the system corrupted him.
Meyer Lansky
Long-time Miami Beach resident Meyer Lansky (1902 – 1983), seen here walking his dog along Collins Avenue, was known as the “Mob’s Accountant”. He, along with “Lucky” Luciano, helped develop the “National Crime Syndicate.” Despite nearly fifty years as a member-participant in organized crime, Lansky was never found guilty of anything more serious than illegal gambling
Edna Buchanan
Edna Buchanan covered it all. She spent 18 years as “Miami’s top police reporter” covering murder and mayhem before moving on to a successful albeit less hectic career writing crime fiction. Her career started on the Miami Beach Daily Sun where it wasn’t a crime unless Edna covered it.
Alex Daoud
Daoud was first elected City Commissioner in 1979. He then served as mayor from 1985 until he was indicted on 41 counts of bribery on October 29, 1991. He served eighteen months in a federal prison. He was interviewed for the Miami Beach Visual Memoirs Project. A link to his full interview is available on the Visual Memoirs partners page.
Edna Buchanan
She started covering crime on the police beat for the Miami Beach Daily Sun. She moved on to The Miami Herald where she made a name for herself covering murders. Now she’s one of the best-known crime fiction writers around. This interview dates from 1987 and comes from our partner organization, the Lynn and Louis Wolfson II Florida Moving Image Archives