How Key West Killed JFK: The Shocking Story Hidden in America’s Southernmost City
By David L. Sloan, author of How Key West Killed JFK
In 2013, I wasn’t searching for JFK’s killers.
I was searching for Bum Farto, Key West’s notorious missing fire chief who vanished in 1976 after being convicted of trafficking cocaine. I expected a strange story. I didn’t expect to uncover a secret history of Key West that tied directly into the assassination of President John F. Kennedy.
But that is exactly what happened.
My hunt for Bum Farto opened a door into little-known CIA records, long-buried FBI documents, and declassified files that painted a shocking picture:
Key West wasn’t just a bystander in America’s most infamous murder; it was a crossroads where intelligence agents, Mafia bosses, Cuban exiles, and Cold War power players converged.
And in the middle of it all was one name that changed everything:
Gilberto Policarpo Lopez.
A Key West baker.
A suspected second gunman.
And a man who vanished across the Mexican border on the night Kennedy was killed.
What follows is the story behind my new book, How Key West Killed JFK, and how the Southernmost City holds the keys to a mystery that has baffled the world for more than 60 years.
The Search That Accidentally Opened a CIA File Cabinet
When I began investigating Joseph “Bum” Farto, I thought I’d write a book about corruption, smuggling, and Key West’s wild 1970s. Instead, the trail led me into restricted archives, FOIA releases, and weirdly redacted CIA documents connected to Florida, Cuba, and Dallas.
What I found in those files shocked me:
Lee Harvey Oswald sightings on the docks of Stock Island
Oswald registered at a Key West hotel
Jack Ruby smuggling guns in Islamorada
Ruby and Oswald together at the Key West Airport
CIA front operations tied to Keys businessmen and fishermen
Anti-Castro assassination teams training in the Lower Keys
There were so many Florida Keys connections to the JFK assassination that it began making the Bum Farto story sound tame. So I boxed them up, told myself I’d come back later, and moved on. But I couldn’t stop thinking about what I’d found.
Every few months, a new story surfaced.
A name connected to a Key West family.
A new declassified document.
Another rumor that matched an obscure footnote in a CIA file.
All the roads kept leading back to Key West.
The Baker Who Slipped Through the Cracks of History
Among the hundreds of pages, one case stood out above all others:
Gilberto Policarpo Lopez
A soft-spoken baker from Key West.
A man with epilepsy, a bad passport photo, and no known reason to kill a president.
Yet in declassified files, he appears again and again, fingered by U.S. intelligence and mainstream media as a potential second gunman.
According to CIA and FBI documents:
He traveled from Key West to Texas shortly before the assassination
He crossed into Mexico shortly after the November 22, 1963, assassination.
He flew to Cuba and vanished.
The CIA considered him a suspicious individual connected to the case.
But there was a problem.
No one could connect him to a motive.
No one could link him to the Mafia, the Cubans, the CIA, or the exile groups who hated Kennedy.
This is where thirty years of living, breathing, and researching Key West helped me see what others couldn’t.
The Breakthrough: Key West’s Families Unlock the Mystery
If you spend enough time studying Key West history, you begin to understand one thing clearly:
Families are the backbone of this island.
Names cross generations. Connections run deep.
A misspelled name in a CIA file can hide a powerful story.
And that’s precisely what happened.
Once I recognized specific Key West surnames in declassified documents, I discovered names of families with deep ties to Cuba, Tampa, law enforcement, smuggling, and organized crime. The web started to reveal itself.
After thirty years in Key West, people trust me.
They don’t trust government agents, and they are less likely to open up to out-of-state researchers.
People connected to the case, people who had stayed silent for decades, sat down with me and shared the stories they never told the FBI:
A duffle bag full of guns
An argument about Dallas
A fear of being watched
A connection to the Tampa Mafia
A confession of violence years after 1963
These interviews filled in the missing pieces that the government had never been able to uncover.
The Final Twist: Gilberto Lopez Didn’t Stay in Cuba
As I neared completion of the book, I decided to track down Gilberto Policarpo Lopez in Cuba and see if he was still alive.
I called my friend and research partner, Cheryl Sanchez-Simmons, and we started digging. Within weeks, she made a stunning discovery:
Gilberto Lopez was not in Cuba.
He had returned to the United States completely undetected.
He changed his name.
He had a family.
He lived quietly.
And he died in Hialeah, Florida in 2021.
Then came the breakthrough I never expected:
We found his children.
One daughter agreed to speak with me.
Her story filled in sixty years of missing history, and it may change what the world believes about the JFK assassination.
This is the heart of How Key West Killed JFK.
Why Visitors, Locals, and Researchers Will Love This Book
For Key West Visitors
This book reveals the overlooked history of the island with stories of:
Prohibition rum-running
Gun-smuggling
Gambling
CIA operations
Cuban exile networks
Local characters with shocking secrets
It’s the perfect action-packed beach read.
For Key West Locals
You’ll see familiar names of families who pop up in unexpected roles in the most infamous murder in American history.
For JFK Researchers
You’ll find new evidence, new witnesses, and new leads on:
The Key West baker suspected as a second gunman
Parallels between Oswald and Lopez
The Tampa-Key West-CIA nexus
Why Lopez’s return to the U.S. matters
The first photos of Gilberto Policarpo Lopez
This is the story the Warren Commission never had access to.
Where to Get the Book
📘 Available now on Amazon
How Key West Killed JFK — by David L. Sloan
✍️ Autographed copies
Available in 2026 at the Alex Vega Key West Firehouse Museum.
Conclusion: The Island That Changed History
When I began searching for Bum Farto in 2013, I had no idea the trail would lead to the Kennedy assassination, but the deeper I dug, the clearer it became.
Key West wasn’t just a tropical backdrop to history. It was a secret stage where powerful forces collided, and it may have been the path that led to Dallas.
This book tells that story.
And once you read it, you’ll never look at Key West the same way again.
