From the Desk of Pat Greene
Tempest Floating Through the Mist
by Pat Greene
Jesse Owens , painting by Spencer Petit
The unlit tip of Joe ’ s Pall Mall cigarette hung onto his lower lip . I kept waiting for it to fall . It didn ’ t . It never fell . The ember moved up and down slowly as he matter-of-factly stated that my brother was going to be a left-handed DiMaggio someday . The three of us were on our way to meet track and fi eld legend Jesse Owens at the Sunrise Inn , across from the beach . In a month , this area would be what it was most famous for at that time : prime spring break territory . This is where the fi lm Where the Boys Are accelerated a spring break tradition , and spawned a bunch of other fi lms that seemed to get progressively more hedonistic
9 and shallow . It was also where the New York Yankees played during spring training .
My parents told me stories of seeing the infamous “ Murph the Surf ” in Lauderdale bars in the late ’ 50s and early ’ 60s . He was known for buying entire crowded bars a round . He was young , handsome , and was known to have an extremely high IQ . Previously , he had played violin in a Pittsburgh symphony , and had been a tennis star . He used his tennis skills to hustle money in south Florida . His charm blurred suspicion that a young surf bum had plenty of money . In 1964 , he was one of the masterminds and thieves in the biggest jewel heist in American history . They broke past lax security at the at The American Museum of Natural History in New York , stealing many jewels ; most famously , the 563-carat Star of India . They were busted a few days later in Miami and served three-year sentences .
A couple of years later , following his release , he was arrested again , this time for the murder of a young woman who threatened to turn him in if he didn ’ t give her a bigger cut of a $ 500,000 stock theft that he was involved in with her and a few other people . He
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