James W. "Jimmie" Donofrio once boasted that if FBI agents "don't know me in this town, they don't know Coca-Cola." Donofrio's popularity among the G-men stemmed from his having the ear of Tampa's longtime Mafia boss, Santo Trafficante Jr.
One of the last of Tampa's old-style gangsters, Donofrio died May 17 at age 90.
Donofrio was born in Bethlehem, Penn., and came to Tampa in 1946 after a stint in the Air Force during World War II. He was married to his wife, Dorothy, for more than 50 years. Together they owned a cigar company. After that venture, Donofrio went into the liquor business. He owned the Rio Liquors chain as well as the Deep South Lounge.
Along with his forays into the legitimate business world, Donofrio also kept company with some of Tampa's more infamous citizens and became an integral part of the Trafficante crime family. He was arrested in January 1958 on a gambling charge, along with mob soldier Ciro Bedami. Both men were found guilty, and Donofrio was sentenced to six months in jail and ordered to pay a $1,000 fine. It was his first Tampa arrest, although he had amassed a few in Pennsylvania for liquor violations.
The gambling arrest set the stage for a series of courtroom bouts between Donofrio and the State Beverage Division, which constantly sought to revoke the mobster's liquor license. In tried and true Tampa fashion, the fact that Donofrio was a convicted felon did nothing to stop the Beverage Division from continuing to issue him a liquor license.
On the night of Nov. 27, 1966, Donofrio was at a sandwich stand around the corner from Rio Liquors, when someone told him of a disturbance back at his business. Donofrio walked in to see a man with whom he had trouble in the past causing a disturbance. A scuffle ensued, and Donofrio shot the man in the back. The victim survived, but Donofrio was charged with attempted murder. The case sped through court, and the next year he was acquitted of all charges.
The verdict in the shooting case gave Donofrio unwanted publicity in the local papers, but he quietly went back to work. This time, however he was under the watchful eye of the FBI. When agents entered one of his bars to question him in December 1969, Donofrio yelled out to his manager, Robert Rodriguez, to hide the guns, referring to a handgun under the bar counter. The FBI, citing his outburst, was able to charge and convict Donofrio of weapons violations.
In 1973, Donofrio was once again in a courtroom where he was tried and convicted of income tax violations and sentenced to 18 months in Atlanta Federal Penitentiary.
When he got back to Tampa, Donofrio, looking again to boost his income, began a loan-sharking business. He found Tampa entrepreneurs to be every bit as eager as a down-on-his-luck gambler for an off-the-books loan.
In 1988, the law finally caught up with Donofrio and his loan-sharking business. He was named in an indictment stemming from loans made to two local kitchen-decorating companies. Donofrio lent $2,500 to Cartel Kitchens Home Decorating Center, with 5 percent interest per week. When the business owners began to fall behind, Donofrio smashed windows in the store and threatened to castrate the debtor.
When the loan shark case began, Donofrio came to court looking dazed and unaware of what was going on around him. His lawyers said he was suffering from Alzheimer's disease and a host of other medical maladies. He was released on bond. The state concurred that Donofrio's health was failing, and all charges were subsequently dropped.
Donofrio's name appeared again in the papers in 1992. He was named as part of the ill-fated Key Bank case. That investigation looked into reported financial misdeeds by employees of the bank as well as by many organized crime figures from Tampa. Donofrio's bank records were subpoenaed, and he was named in the affidavit as a member of the Trafficante crime family.
When the FDLE reevaluated the state of the Tampa Mafia in 1991, Donofrio did not make the cut as an active member. His health was taking a turn for the worse and in the last remaining years of his life, he hardly looked the part of a feared mobster. He was occasionally seen at his favorite restaurant, Malio's, but was mostly out of the public eye.
Scott M. Deitche can be reached at scottyyz@earthlink.net. His "Drive-by Tour" of Tampa's famed Mafia spots can be found at http://www.weeklyplanet.com/2001-04-26/cover.html.
This article appears in Jun 14-20, 2001.