Who is Richard Cloud?

Richard Cloud's name can be found on the Tampa Police Department Memorial.

"Sergeant Cloud was fired from his job as head of the department's Vice squad in March of 1975. He continued his pursuit of drug dealers and organized crime without a badge, working with a federal task force.

Seven months later, Cloud, 33, was shot in a mob-financed assassination after answering the door of his Seminole Heights home. The Tampa City Council re-instated him to the police force posthumously. A wife and two sons survive him. "




More details about his murder can be found in "Deathwork: Defending the Condemned" By Michael Mello starting on page 71. He was shot by Benjamin Guilford (who later commited suicide) on the orders of of a mobster named Victor Acosta. Acosta's lackey Anthony Antone hired the hit men.

A detective with HCSO wrote the following:
"Richard Cloud was the kind of policeman of which stories are written and movies are made. He was tenacious, unorthodox, implacable, and, unfortunately, very, very tough. (He was fired from the TPD for using “excessive force.”) When Det. Cloud was assigned a case, he did not let up until the perpetrator was arrested, convicted, and serving time. Needless to say, Det. Cloud was the kind of man who made enemies. In fact, it seems he was always receiving death threats, and on several occasions it had even been rumored that certain individuals had put a contract out on him. Unfortunately, when Cloud was fired from the police department, he was no longer “protected.” In other words, it is a well-known fact that gangsters do not usually kill police officers, because they do not want the entire law enforcement community breathing down their necks. But Anthony Antone, evidently thinking that Cloud was “safe,” put a contract out on Cloud and he was murdered as he answered a knock at the front door of his home. He was shot several times by a hit-man who posed as a door-to-door salesman. "

There is a lot more to the Richard Cloud story, however trying to find online references is difficult.

Updates. He lived and died at 404 W. Alva Street in South Seminole Heights. The 31st anniversarry of his death is coming up as he was shot at 9:45 a.m on October 23, 1975.

His photo was not placed on the wall with other fallen TPD offficers until 1993. Politics played a role.

In March 1975 he fired by then Police Chief Charles Otero. Two years later he was reinstarted by Mayor William Poe.

"The city's police-fire pension board then ruled he had died in the line of duty. Otero, whose run-ins with Cloud were well-known around the department, refused to put Cloud's photo on the wall. Three subsequent police chiefs never did, either. One of them, Robert Smith, now the city's public safety administrator, says he never was asked." (Tampa Trib May 24, 1993) It took "Chief Eduardo Gonzalez to give Cloud the recognition he deserved."

"Cloud's mother and his two sons, Paul and Paris, were there to hear. Cloud's widow, Wanda, later remarried, divorced and moved to Texas"

"A tall, muscular man, Cloud went from four years in the Air Force to being a beat cop. Friends said he fought crime like he fought other men: with a vengeance.Nabbing mobsters who peddled dope and catching wily safecrackers were his favorite.Prosecutors said the mob paid for Cloud's murder. He'd been digging too deep into narcotics dealers and the underworld."

"Cloud's career generated nearly as much controversy as his murder. Scores of news stories detailed his life and his work. Some said he was dirty. Others said he had dirt on the corrupt and the powerful.Seven months before he died, the 34-year-old Cloud was fired for refusing to take a lie detector test over an accusation he beat a prisoner.Even without his badge, Cloud continued his quest against corruption. He testified about the mob before federal grand juries and became an informant for the FBI."

"Eventually, four were arrested, including Acosta, for Cloud's contract murder. Anthony Antone, the arranger, died in the electric chair. Acosta and Benjamin Gilford, the gunman, committed suicide in jail. Ellis Haskew, the getaway driver and the one who agreed to testify against the others, is serving a 35-year federal prison sentence."

"Every year, on the anniversary of Cloud's death, Halligan (his former partner) puts a can of Budweiser on his grave."That was his favorite beer," Halligan said. "Dick was an uncanny cop. He could find crime around the corner. He deserves to be on that memorial wall. I think he can rest in peace now.""

Someone named Ellis Haskew died in Mount Dora, Florida on July 5, 2004.