REEFER MADNESS FLORIDA

That there was a serial Axe murderer operating in the Tampa area at the time?

That the Licata family was NOT the only Tampa family cut down by an Axe murderer?

That one of the other families slain by the serial Axe murderer was the Rowell Family --same last name as the author of -- On the Trail of Marihuana, the Weed of Madness”?

That Victor Licata (to his dying day) DENIED that he has ever used Marihuana?   And that there was never a scratch of evidence to even suggest that he ever had?

That at least one of the major players (the Detective chief who had accused Victor Licata of having committed the murders) has been caught (documented) lying about the matter?

That much of the (alleged) evidence against Victor Licata was fabricated and so fake it wouldn’t have stood the light of day in a courtroom?

That many of the higher up’s within the Tampa judicial justice system knew the truth – and choose (for whatever reason), to deliberately keep quiet?

WANT TO KNOW MORE READ THE BOOK VICTOR LICATA --- A RUSH TO JUDGEMENT

What the Narc’s were claiming
[ AXE MURDERER – KILLED WHOLE FAMILY ]
A seventeen-year-old boy in a Southern state smoked a marijuana cigarette handed him in a poolroom.   When he arrived home, he imagined that his family had been conspiring to dismember him.   To forestall this, he hacked his father, mother, sister and two brothers to death with an ax while they slept   --- COLLIER’S - June 1949

In Florida a 21-year-old boy under the influence of this drug killed his parents and his brothers and sisters.   The evidence showed that he had smoked marihuana.   --- Mr. Anslinger 1937 Congressional Testimony

Relation to Crime.   Homicides, suicides and assaults, particularly those upon sex, are among the more grave indictments of marihuana.   Perhaps the most lurid and frequently repeated case is that of a Florida youth, who, while said to have been under the influence, imagined some people were going to cut off his arms and legs; whereupon, in a frenzy, he seized an ax, killed his father and mother, 2 brothers and a sister.   --- American Journal of the Medical Sciences - 1938 pg 351

A teen-age lad awoke in a southern jail and called for his parents.   "How do you feel?" an officer asked him.
"Wonderful!" the lad exclaimed.   "Like a champion!   I could lick Joe Louis."
After he told the officers about a high school party he attended the night before at which tea was smoked, he heard the story of what happened afterward: "Well, son, after the party, you went home, murdered your father, your mother and your sister with an axe.   You set the house afire and when the firemen came you attacked them with an axe.   Do you remember that?"
No, he couldn't.   All he remembered was a terrible dream, in which he had to protect himself from dreadful monsters.   --- Fortnight Newsmagazine Aug 20, 1951

Florida.   A young man who had become addicted to smoking Marihuana cigarettes, while under the effects of the drug, imagined that a number of people were trying to cut off his arms and legs, seized an axe and killed his father, mother, two brothers and a sister, wiping out the entire family.   --- Finger Print & Identification Magazine March 1938 pp3

A 16 year old kills his entire family of five in Florida;   ---Chicago Tribune Jan 17, 1962 pg 5 -- “Reefers: A Fast Road Downhill” by Harry J. Anslinger; Will Oursler

1967 - Murdered parents, sister, two brothers with an ax after smoking marijuana; unaware of actions until next day.   --- The Truth about Marijuana - STEPPING STONE to DESTRUCTION June 1967

In Florida some years ago we had the case of a 20-year-old boy who killed his brothers, a sister, and his parents while under the influence of marihuana.   --- Mr. Anslinger 1937 Congressional Testimony

Then we have the case of a young boy in Florida.   The story runs as follows: "A young boy who had become addicted to smoking marihuana cigarettes, in a fit of frenzy because, as he stated while still under the marihuana influence, a number of people were trying to cut off his arms and legs, seized an axe and killed his father, mother, two brothers and a sister, wiping out the entire family except himself."   --- Mr. Anslinger 1937 Congressional Testimony

A boy in Tampa, Florida, smoked two cigarettes one afternoon.   That night he got an axe and crushed the skulls of his father, mother, sister, and two brothers, as they lay in their beds.   When arrested, he explained to the police that his mother and father had been attempting to cut off his arms and legs and he was only defending himself.   Incidentally, the father was a peddler and had been using his son to "push" the cigarettes at school.   --- True Story (Magazine) -- Dec. 1948

It happened in Florida.   A young boy marijuana addict, while still under the influence of marijuana, believed that a number of persons were trying to cut off his arms and legs; so he seized an ax and killed his father, mother, two brothers, and a sister.   --- Heath Magazine Oct. 1938

Another in Tampa, Florida (scene of the Wall-Zarate-Gullo case, subject of a chapter to come), murders his mother, father, sister, and two brothers with an ax.   --- Narcotic Agent: by Maurice Helbrant (book) 1941

In Florida a young boy who had become addicted to smoking marihuana cigarets seized an ax and killed his father, mother, two brothers and a sister, wiping out his entire family.   In a fit of frenzy from the effects of the dope he then ran to the porch of the house shrieking madly that a number of people were trying to cut off his arms and his legs.   --- Denver Post – Feb 24, 1935 Sec 3 page 2

In Florida another reefer-smoking youth murdered his entire family, including his parents and brothers, and then killed himself.   --- “Narcotics: America’s Peril” by Will Oursler (1952)

1933 - V. Licata, - Tampa, Fla. - M - Murdered his father, mother, sister.   and two brothers with an axe, while under influence of marihuana.   Didn't know of all this until next morning.   - Arrested   --- 6th conference report - INEOA 1965

The one who sets forth with knife or ax---like the Florida boy of seventeen who hacked to death all the five other members of his own family---is of the maniacal type, who has often wished for the physical prowess that would permit mass mayhem, but who always before lacked the courage.   --- American Weekly [Sunday supplement] – S.F Examiner - July 28, 1940

Some months ago a boy living in Florida murdered his parents, two brothers and a sister.   He explained to the police that he had believed they were going to cut off his arms and his legs.   --- THE DAILY OKLAHOMAN Nov. 8, 1938

Murder While Drugged - In Florida, marijuana led a young man to kill his father, mother, sister and two brothers with in axe.   --- The CHRISTIAN CENTURY - June 29, 1938

TAMPA, FLA.   October 1933.   Victor Licata, while under the influence of marihuana, murdered his mother, father, sister and two brothers with an axe.   -- MARIHUANA; The New Dangerous Drug (pamphlet) by Frederick T. Merrill 1950 version

One of the most atrocious examples of the effects of this age-old drug was the case, cited by Anslinger and others, of the youthful addict in Florida who murdered his entire family.   When officers arrived at the home, they found the youth staggering about in a human slaughterhouse.   With an axe he had killed his father, his mother, two brothers and a sister.   He seemed to be in a daze.   - He had no recollection of having committed the multiple crime.   The officers knew him ordinarily as a sane, rather quiet young man; now he was pitifully crazed.   They sought the reason.   The boy said he had been in the habit of smoking something which youthful friends called "muggles," the childish name for marihuana.   --- INTERNATIONAL MEDICAL DIGEST – Sep, 1937

In Florida, a marijuana victim butchered with an ax his father, sister, and two brothers.   -- FORUM AND CENTURY – Jan. 1939

. . . and a Florida youngster put the ax to his mother and father.   --- News Week August 14, 1937

FLORIDA---"'Victor Licata, while under the influence of marihuana, murdered his mother, father, sister and two brothers with an axe.   --- Survey Graphic (Magazine) April 1938

It is sad that we Americans often have to be shocked into taking legislative action.   In Tampa, Florida a boy killed his father, mother, sister, and brother.   When questioned afterward, all he could remember of the experience was that he had been smoking marijuana cigarettes all day.   [Marijuana is the name in the western world for the drug derived from Indian hemp.   It is identical with the oriental drug, hashish.   It is deadly in its narcotic effect.] After the quadruple murder, a shocked Florida pushed the Uniform Narcotic Act through at once.   --- GOOD HOUSEKEEPING – Feb. 1935

"A young boy who had become addicted to smoking marihuana cigarets killed his father, mother, two brothers and a sister, wiping out the entire family except himself*."  --- SIERRA EDUCATIONAL NEWS – Nov. 1938 (California Teachers Association)

There was an axe murder by a Florida boy who, in butchering his family while crazed by marihuana, brought about the passage of a Uniform State Narcotic Drug Act.   --- TAMPA, FLA.   October 1933.   Victor Licata, while under the influence of marihuana, murdered his mother, father, sister and two brothers with an axe.

…you may wake up sobbing, as did the young boy in Florida, who murdered his entire family.   As the officers walked in this young addict was sobbing, "I have had a terrible dream.   People tried to hack off my arms.   It was my uncle, I believe.   He slashed me with a knife." And there stood a youth, in his early teens, under the influence of Marijuana, in a human slaughter house with the ax in his hand.   He had killed his father, mother, two brothers and a sister.   --- Kiwanis Magazine - Oct. 1938

A Rochester pastor told me of a boy he knew about while pastor in Miami, Fla., who, after smoking two Marijuanas, slaughtered his father, mother, two brothers and a sister, with an axe!   --- War With The Underworld (Book) 1946

FLORIDA'S
UNSOLVED GORE FILE CASES

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