John Miceli

About

Florida Man Media produces original, enriching content that touches on several facets of Florida's unique culture.


I created the site and work on it in my free time. It's helped me hone my long-form writing and video editing skills. 

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Sample Articles

I've conducted in-depth research, carried out on-camera interviews, licensed images, and shot B-roll for the site's first project below about the history of the mafia in Florida. The series is ongoing, with both video and written pieces, and I continuously work on it as a hobby.

Florida Man Media •

Florida Mobsters: From Prohibition to Prosecution

This series will recount the history of the mafia in Florida over four articles with the help of expert interviews and rare pictures.

This second article outlines the mafia’s expansion and proliferation in the first half of the 20th century in Florida, where we see some of organized crime’s biggest names arrive center stage. Read article one for valuable historical context here.

Prohibition provided the perfect launching point for Florida mobsters to ramp up their activities with profitable ne
Florida Man Media •

The History of the Mafia in Florida | Part 1 (of 3)

Wacky headlines. Memorable crimes. Florida's unique breed of criminals has become synonymous with the state's name. Florida men and women are immortalizing the Sunshine State in headlines across the globe, but their actions pale in comparison to Florida's original notorious felons: the mafia.

This first series on the channel will cover the history of organized crime and the mafia in Florida in three parts. This first part lays the necessary groundwork to contextualize the major names and events that occur in Florida in the coming years, which will be covered in parts two and three.

Thank you for watching. Please subscribe if you enjoyed and are interested in seeing more. Please comment - any feedback is appreciated! Let me know what you liked, what you didn’t like, and how I can improve.

Read more on the the history of the mafia in Florida on the website at:
https://www.floridaman.media/

Special thanks to Scott Deitche, who was kind enough to sit down with me for an interview and whose books are a wealth of information on this topic. He does great work. Please check it out at:
https://tampamafia.com/scott-m-deitche/

If you’re ever in the Tampa area, consider his Ybor City historical crime walking tour:
https://tampamafia.com/tampa-mafia-tours/

Another special thanks to author, collector and organized crime expert Avi Bash, who contributed some great pictures for this video series:
https://www.bashcollection.com/

Credits:
Footage: Library of Congress, Wolfson Archives, State Archives of Florida, Wikimedia Commons, Internet Archives, Pexels, Pixabay

Images: Library of Congress, State Archives of Florida, Wikimedia Commons, Avi Bash

Audio and Sound Effects: Pixabay

Chapters:
0:00: Intro
1:57: The Roots of the Mafia
3:20: The Spread to Florida
4:49: Crime Flows Into Tampa
8:45: Bolita
11:00: Outro
Florida Man Media •

The Foundation of Organized Crime in Florida

This series will recount the history of the mafia in Florida over three articles with the help of expert interviews and rare pictures. This first article will explain how the paths of settlement and expansion in Florida’s earliest days allowed mobsters to plant their seeds in the state’s landscape from the very beginning. The immigration patterns and urban development of early Florida add valuable context to trends that would endure throughout Florida’s organized crime history.

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