After headlining the late show at the Deauville Hotel in Miami, comedian Jack Carter went out for dinner at a restaurant called the Place for Steak.
“I had barely walked through the door when out of nowhere a hood confronted us,” recalled Carter. “He said, ‘Hey you piece of shit! You think you’re a tough guy?’ Immediately he took a swing at me. All of a sudden I was in a fistfight…
“We were wrestling each other and exchanging wild punches. Out of the kitchen comes this short, stocky guy - like a James Cagney type. He lines up a succession of three or four and - like a pro fighter - knocked the guy out cold. BANG! WHAM! Finished him off. He bowed at me and said, ‘I’m sorry you had to put up with that Mr. Carter. It will not happen again.’ I had no idea who either of them were or where they came from…
“I had a close friend who lived in Miami that ran a successful haberdashery. He knew everybody who was anybody in South Florida. I called him and told him what happened. He said, ‘Jack, I think you’re in big trouble. That guy who attacked you is a big time mobster named Gil Beckley. You better go back to your hotel room and don’t leave. Stay in your room until I call you.’
“Finally he calls me at four in the morning. He says, ‘Okay, Jack. You’re clear. They called Fischetti. He says the guy was out of line. They say he’s a bum and he’ll be taken care of.’” Charlie Fischetti was a former bodyguard for Al Capone. He retained a home in Miami and had countless surrogates around the country.
“Three days later I was reading the newspaper,” says Carter. “There was a story in there. They found Gil Beckley chopped up. They chopped him up, put him in a garbage can, and threw him in the ocean.”