Mystery, tragedy swirled over Tierra Verde in 1963
When the father-son team developing the island died, conspiracy theorists had a field day.
By SCOTT TAYLOR HARTZELL
Published May 26, 2004
Millionaire developer Louis Berlanti unveiled plans for Tierra Verde in 1959. The 4,000-site community would be a city of 50,000 residents on 2,000 acres, he said. His son, Fred, would manage the $200-million development.
But four years later, with Tierra Verde only one-third complete, a plane carrying the Berlantis reportedly crashed into Lake Okeechobee. Body parts were discovered; no plane debris was found.
It was an accident, some residents thought. Others thought the developers disappeared to collect insurance money. Investigators theorized that Berlanti was Fidel Castro's target.
"PINKERTONS CONVINCED BERLANTIS WERE MURDERED," read a Miami Herald headline.
The St. Petersburg Times asked: "Is Fred Berlanti really dead?"
Louis Berlanti, born in 1897, operated coal mines and established New York subdivisions. He completed construction projects that included dams and turnpikes in Pennsylvania and New Jersey. Fred Berlanti, born in 1930, entered construction as a water boy at age 9.
About 1951, Tierra Verde "started out on the back of an envelope, like the Gettysburg Address," Fred Berlanti said.
Rejecting Seattle, Hawaii and Los Angeles, Berlanti and millionaires Clint W. and John D. Murchison - then the Tierra Verde Corp. - chose Florida. For $12-million in 1959, the corporation acquired the Pine, Pardee and Cabbage Key islands.
"(The Berlantis) were the center, the construction, the planning," said Robert Berlanti, 45, Fred Berlanti's son. "The Murchisons were mostly the money backers."
Little Toot and five other boats carried workers, equipment and home buyers daily to Tierra Verde. "When Louis Berlanti says he's going to do something," Wallace Rouse, Berlanti's executive assistant, said then, "consider it done."
Mrs. Myrtle Albright, at 370 First St. W, was the development's first resident.
In August 1962, Berlanti stumped three of four panelists on the televised game show To Tell the Truth. Host Bud Collyer talked of Tierra Verde's "noiseless (plastic) garbage cans."
Four months later, the Pinellas Bayway opened. "The best thing would be that we'd have a road," Fred Berlanti said. "The worst thing, no road."
On New Year's Eve 1962, Berlanti opened the resort/nightclub Port-o-Call. Guy Lombardo's Royal Canadians were regulars.
Hoping to land a foreign loan to repay a reported $18-million to the Murchisons, Berlanti, 55, and his son, 32, rented a plane on Aug. 16, 1963. They left St. Petersburg-Clearwater International Airport for Miami. Fred Berlanti, burdened with multiple sclerosis, piloted the twin-engine Beechcraft Bonanza.
On the return flight, "there was yellow flame, then blue flame and then black smoke," said Mr. and Mrs. L.E. Shockley, witnesses on the ground. "Then there was a loud noise."
In Lake Okeechobee, investigators found what they thought were the remains of Louis Berlanti: cuff links, a sapphire ring, trousers containing $35, a personal note and two arms. "Of Fred Berlanti, there was an arm and a torso," the Times wrote.
Said former St. Petersburg police Capt. E.M. Smith, 86, who matched the fingerprints of Fred Berlanti: "The FBI confirmed what I said."
Theories of robbery and murder abounded. A huge sum of money reportedly was on board. Pinkerton detectives thought Castro's agents had sabotaged the flight; Berlanti had pledged $500,000 to unseat the Cuban leader after losing several million dollars in interests there when Castro took power.
Claims were quickly paid to Berlanti's wife of 33 years, Jean Berlanti. "It was the smallest claim and the hardest to get," she said.
After the accident, the Murchison brothers hired contractors to bring Tierra Verde to its current status, now with about 3,574 residents and 1,975 housing units. Jean Berlanti returned here in 1985.
"There are a lot of questions (about the tragedy)," she said 13 years before her death at age 67. "I don't think I or anybody else will ever know."
