You may have guessed that Bum Farto wasn't his real name. He was born Joseph Farto. Farto was the Chief of the Key West Fire Department from 1964 until he disappeared in 1976. He was a well-known local character as well as a skilled firefighter, wearing bright red leisure suits and driving a lime green car with a Santeria shrine on the hood. Farto was also a drug dealer. He would sell marijuana and cocaine right in front of the fire station, and no one thought much about it. After all, that was Key West in the 1970s.
But the law finally caught up with Farto, and between his conviction and his sentencing, he just disappeared. In doing so, he became more famous than ever, sparking the sale of t-shirts like the one seen above. Farto is now a legend in Key West, and there was even a musical written about him as recent as 2022. Read what we know about Bum Farto and where he went at Mental Floss.
(Image credit: Jenni Konrad)