Bolita Kingpin: Charlie Wall House

On April 19, 1955, almost every squad car in Hillsborough County lined 1216 E. 17th Avenue in Ybor City. A crowd of men, women, and children stood anxiously in the yard of the only mansion in Ybor City, waiting to hear if the rumors of another gang slaying that had spread throughout the city were true.

While gang slayings had become the norm in Tampa, the latest being the 21st in the last 23 years, this one was different. This murder was ruthless. The victim's head was caved in with a bat, and his neck was sliced from ear to ear. Most important, though, was the identity of the victim. He was not just any Mafioso or gang member; the victim was one of the most colorful and notorious men in the history of Tampa, the man known as the "White Shadow" Charlie Wall, the tall, Anglo, retired crime lord who ruled Tampa through both love and fear for most of the early part of the 20th century.

Charlie Wall's name elicits powerfully excited responses from those in Tampa who remember him from their childhood years in Ybor City or whose parents and grandparents told them stories of him. He was the White Shadow, Tampa's original crime lord!