From a speak-easy during Prohibition to the Blind Pig to the Silver Slipper to Sloppy Joe’s.

Here’s how it happened.

I’m working on a new piece of crime fiction – based on a true story – working title: “The Marsh Murders” – part of it takes place at Sloppy Joe’s in Key West – I wanted to add some color and flavor – so I started Chapter 8 with these six paragraphs.

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Ernest Hemingway called Key West home at the beginning of the 1930s – during the Prohibition Era. Hemingway lived next door to a speak-easy owned by a man named Joe Russell.

During Prohibition, Hemingway and Russell made frequent trips to Havana, Cuba – 105 miles across the Gulf of Mexico to the south. They went to escape the ban on alcohol, to gamble, and to take part in the nightlife.

They frequented a bar in Old Havana called Sloppy Joe’s.

The bar’s clientele included an abundance of prostitutes, American celebrities like Frank Sinatra and heavyweight champion Joe Louis, and tourists who wanted to mingle with the celebrities.

With the repeal of Prohibition in 1933, Russell turned his speak-easy into a legal bar called the Blind Pig. It became a hangout for locals and offered gambling, 15-cent whiskey, and 10-cent shots of gin.

Later, Russell added a dance floor and changed the name of the bar to the Silver Slipper. And Hemingway, a regular in all three versions of the bar, eventually convinced Russell to change the name to Sloppy Joe’s.

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The part about Sinatra & Joe Louis is true – but they were 18-year-old nobodies at that time – so I had to delete their names.

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Warner Books published Born to Be Wild in 1992 & it still sells every day at Amazon & Kindle. True story about certain members of the Warlocks motorcycle gang.

The story takes 21 years to play out – with many twists & turns – an amalgam of Sons of Anarchy & Breaking Bad – but these outlaw bikers make the Sons look like Cub Scouts.