By Mike Pound

Globe columnist

mpound@joplinglobe.com

Captain Tony liked women.

I don’t mean Captain Tony liked women in the way that most men like women. I mean Captain Tony really liked women. Captain Tony made Bill Clinton look like a Benedictine monk. I think the first time Captain Tony ever said anything to me was when my wife and I were sitting at the bar in his Key West, Fla., saloon, and what he said was inspired by my wife.

It was the summer of 1993. My wife and I were on vacation in Key West. Because we were in Key West, my wife, who I am proud to say is easy on the eyes, was wearing a bathing-suit top. She was drinking some sort of rum-punch concoction and I was drinking a beer when Captain Tony walked up to me and said: “Here kid, here’s 10 bucks. Why don’t you run up to Miami and get me a pack of Lucky Strikes?” And then he laughed.

So did I. So did my wife. Only my wife had a look on her face that said, “Yeah, kid, why don’t you run up to Miami?”

Anthony Tarracino, better known as Captain Tony, was a Key West legend who passed away earlier this week at the age of 92. Born and raised in the mean streets of New Jersey, Captain Tony fled his home state in 1948 after a disagreement with the mob resulted in him being beaten almost to death. He arrived in Key West with $18, and a limitless amount of guts and ego. Before long he had his own shrimp boat, and Anthony Tarracino from Jersey became Captain Tony from Key West.







Long before he was immortalized by Jimmy Buffett in the song “Last Mango in Paris,” Captain Tony had earned a legendary reputation as a gambler, charter-boat captain, gun runner, saloon owner and, for a time, duly elected mayor of Key West.

In the mid- to late 1960s, Walter Cronkite walked into Captain Tony’s saloon and announced that he was there to go fishing with Captain Tony. When he was told that Captain Tony wasn’t in, the most trusted man in America said, “That’s OK, I’ll wait,” and then he sat down at the bar and drank until Captain Tony showed up.

How strong is that?

I think that Walter Cronkite story is true. The reason I say “I think” it’s true is because Captain Tony told the story. Captain Tony loved to tell stories. Most of them, I’m sure, had some basis of fact in them, but most of them also, shall we say, grew over time. The story of how and why he wound up in Key West, for example, has changed several times over the years. But that never really seemed to matter to most folks. If Captain Tony wanted to tell a story, people listened.

A few hours after Captain Tony asked me to zip up to Miami and get him a pack a cigarettes, he sat down next to me to talk about Eric Clapton. The song “Tears in Heaven” was playing. The song is about Eric’s young son who was killed in a tragic accident. Captain Tony knew Eric Clapton. He told me that Eric called him after the death of his son.

I listened while Captain Tony talked. Later, he told me a story about Tennessee Williams. I listened while he talked. I asked him if he had met Ernest Hemingway. He had. He told me that contrary to popular legend, Hemingway hated cats. “If he saw one, he would grab it by its neck and throw it over the fence,” he said.

Later, I asked him about a couple of my favorite writers: Jim Harrison and Tom McGuane, who hung out in Key West in the 1970s. Captain Tony said he knew them and liked their books.

“But back then they all did too many drugs,” he said.

I listened to Captain Tony talk until almost 3 in the morning. The next night, my wife and I went back to Captain Tony’s. He offered me 10 bucks to go to Miami and get him a pack of Lucky Strikes. And then later, he sat down next to me and told me some more stories. Again, we sat at that bar until almost 3 in the morning.

We saw a lot of Captain Tony that week we were in Key West. He invited us to his birthday party, where I met (and this is true) a professional sword swallower. Guess what we talked about. Duh! Sword swallowing.

When we returned to Key West the next year, my wife and I walked into Captain Tony’s. Later, when Captain Tony walked in, I thought he might recognize me, but he didn’t. But he did seem to recognize my wife because when he saw her sitting next to me, he walked over and said: “Here, kid, here’s 10 bucks. Why don’t you run up to Miami and get me a pack of Lucky Strikes?”