It’s approaching 8 p.m. on March 18. About 400 people are crowded together elbow-to-elbow outside Brasserie Las Olas in Fort Lauderdale. A cool breeze off the Atlantic Ocean whistles through the downtown skyscrapers as everyone waits. Then comes the music. The clapping follows. “Jimmy! Jimmy! Jimmy!” the crowd chants. Jim…
On July 26, 1999, at 5:01 p.m., 57-year-old Al Polito walked into Gold Coast Check Cashing, a squat, pink, concrete-block building on the corner of Margate Boulevard and U.S. 441, with an FBI microphone strapped to his body. He was there to meet John Mamone, a six-foot-two, 260-pound New Jersey…
John Joseph Reid creates a striking image as he walks out of his pink house on NE Tenth Avenue in Wilton Manors, just two blocks from the popular bars and restaurants of Five Points. A gentle, reserved man with a coif of gray hair and a trimmed mustache, Reid wears…
Dressed in an olive suit with an American-flag pin on the lapel, Charles Clay walks into the downtown Fort Lauderdale office of New Times on a warm February morning. The 54-year-old political novice is here to explain why he’s the best man on the March 9 ballot in his tiny…
Mike Smarro offers a smile as he takes drink orders from behind the bar at Georgie’s Alibi on a sunny February afternoon. A handsome, muscular 36-year-old wearing a baseball cap and a stylish 5 o’clock shadow, Smarro has been finding the upcoming election hard to ignore. Since the beginning of…
A white, two-inch-tall teddy bear lies next to an M4 assault rifle. Behind them on a blue wall are T-shirts of Uncle Sam and the Statue of Liberty. One reads: “Fuck You Binn [sic] Laden.” “And welcome to yet another Ted-E Adventure,” a voice narrates. “This week’s adventure is more…
Martha Roldan, a 45-year-old employee of the state Department of Highway Safety and Motor Vehicles, doesn’t have a law degree. She never took the bar exam. In fact, she could be arrested if she ever purported to be an attorney. But in an office nestled on the south side of…
In the early-morning hours of Friday, July 25, 2002, Kevin Moore walked down SE Second Avenue in Deerfield Beach. The skinny, five-foot-nine-inch 23-year-old stopped in front of 1101 SE Second Ave., a yellow two-bedroom house that belonged to 92-year-old Yvonne Moss. Aiming to collect $30 for painting two iron bars…
Fort Lauderdale attorney Norm Kent made a personal vow in 1999 as he lay in bed receiving chemotherapy treatment. At the time, the gay community was in an uproar. Days earlier, the Sun-Sentinel’s coverage of the local pride parade included a photograph of two drag queens. The journalists in the…
Donna Kim waits behind the metal detector at the federal courthouse in Fort Lauderdale at 9 a.m. on Thursday, October 16. A stout woman with long, shiny, black hair who stands about five feet, five inches, she wears a blue, loose-fitting shirt and black slacks. She has on no jewelry,…
Andy Markley, a graphic designer in Sacramento, California, was finishing some work on Saturday, August 30. The Labor Day weekend upon him, Markley was ready to relax. But before leaving his office, he decided to check his e-mail one last time. To his surprise, he found hundreds of bounced-back messages…
Something unusual happened on Monday, September 9, 2002. Keith Gross was late for work. A 24-year-old with tanned white skin and brown hair cropped short on the sides, Gross was known around Kitchens to Go in Fort Lauderdale as a firebrand who spoke his mind. But during the five years…
A shiny gray Chevy Silverado propped up by oversized tires pulls into the Home Depot parking lot on the corner of Stirling Road and University Avenue in Davie. Rick McDonald, a fair-skinned 33-year-old wearing an orange baseball cap, climbs down slowly and deliberately from the truck cab, unable to conceal…
Just before noon on May 29, a black four-door 2003 Chevy Impala with darkly tinted windows barreled north on Congress Avenue toward John F. Kennedy Medical Center in Atlantis. The front driver’s-side tire was shredded, its exposed metal rim slicing into the hot black concrete. James L. Johnson, a 29-year-old…
No one sits at the reception desk in Suite 325 of the Mizner Office Complex in Boca Raton. The waiting area for Sengent, whose company logo of eight cubes creates a three-dimensional grid, has become something of a game room where stressed-out computer programmers can unwind and walk away for…
Christine Sneeringer, a 35-year-old blond with light blue eyes, sits in Barnie’s Coffee & Tea Co. in Fort Lauderdale. Her legs are crossed tightly, and her left foot dangles about eight inches above the ground. Her toenails are painted dark red, the same color as her blouse. Sneeringer is attractive,…
Driving his Yellow Cab taxi down A1A, Jay Cunningham is on a mission. “The other drivers call me Don Quixote,” he says with a slight New England accent. “But really, I’m just stubborn.” On this recent Saturday morning, Cunningham is patrolling Fort Lauderdale Beach. The weather is perfect. Tourists bustle…
At six foot one, 365 pounds, Richard Nielsen Jr. was a man-giant with huge arms that hung from broad thick shoulders. On his left biceps was an enormous tattoo of a fisherman above a line from the Book of Psalms: “They that go down to the sea in ships.” Though…
It wasn’t until after 1 a.m. on December 23 that Peter Whitney decided to go out. Whitney, a 33-year-old from Barbados with light-brown skin and short, black, curly hair, had received a call from his friend Claude Harding. Meet at Harbor Grille in Dania Beach, Harding told Whitney. It’s Jamaican…
It’s hard to miss Billy Mitchell. At six foot four, he towers above most people with his skinny body, brown shoulder-length hair, and neatly trimmed beard. He wears jeans, Oxford shirts, and Velcro shoes. An American-flag tie hangs from his neck. He owns several and wears one every day. “Remember,…
Krisztian Katona’s inviting smile hints at his unhindered optimism. Nothing seems to bother the 25-year-old with the wire-rimmed glasses, thin goatee, and wave of brown hair that crashes gently around his head. He speaks with a slow eloquence that gives his Eastern European accent a soothing rhythm. “Krisztian just likes…
The online ad was clear. Framed by images of stretched anuses dripping with cum and engorged penises, some in the mouths of mustached men, the text read: Orgy style, no attitude, private sex party for HIV POZ guys ONLY ! You must be in shape and 18-45ish. For invite, send…
