From designer suits to luxury cars to the deeply depressing realization that money
can't buy happiness, Brian De Palma “Scarface” has all the trappings of a classic gangster film.
Many have claimed to be the real inspiration behind one of Al Pacino's most famous roles,
Tony Montana. Today on Nutty History, we're looking at the lesser-known kingpin behind
scarface. Say hello to my little friend, Mario Tabraue and his empire of exotic animals.
You might have heard that another notorious gangster inspired Scarface's Head Honcho,
Tony Montana, Chicago My Boss Al Capone is often likened to the title character
particularly because of the scars he sported on his cheek from a knife fight.
The press later dubbed the prohibition era mobster, “Scarface”,
much to his chagrin. But that's about where the similarities end between Capone and Scarface,
at least, in the 1983 version, we all know and love. But the popular gangster film was actually
a modified version of the 1932 Scarface. The earlier film followed the Chicagoland
Gangster more reminiscent of Al Capone. While the 1983 version tells the story of Tony Montana,
a Cuban immigrant who rises up in the 80s Miami drug scene. And this character brings one man
to mind. In the 1970s and 80s, Miami became a hot spot for the drug scene, providing a great
port of entry for illegal international products particularly marijuana and cocaine. Mario Tabraue,
like Tony Montana, was a Cuban-American operating out of Florida. Authorities say
he ran a 79 million dollar drug ring for 10 years before his capture in 1987. Yeah,
unlike Montana, his kingpin status ended behind bars rather than in the Hollywood blaze of glory.
If Mario looks familiar, it's probably from his brief appearance on the much talked about Netflix
docu-series, The Tiger King. True to his fictional counterpart, Mario had and continues to have a bit
of an obsession with exotic animals. While Tony Montana is dead set on purchasing a tiger for
his property, Mario Tabraue didn't stop there. The former drug boss was well known in the 80s
for his tendency to own wild animals as pets. It appears one of his closest friends was a
chimpanzee named Caesar who wrote a shotgun in Mario's convertible, hit up the Miami hot spots
and rocked more ice in the arctic circle. Tabraue was also notorious for using unlikely drug mules.
He supposedly cut open snakes and stitched them back together with cocaine inside.
This led to the FBI titling their investigation against his drug ring
operation, “Cobra”. Mario, who is now out of prison, has continued to expand his personal zoo,
keeping a variety of rare big cats on his estate including jaguars, tigers, and cheetahs. Oh my!
Don't bother trying to visit though. This zoo is not open to the public. The real-life Tony
Montana is also big on keeping beefed up security and has 24-hour surveillance all over the grounds.
Mario Tabraue's coconut grove mansion shared some other similarities besides the presence
of life-threatening wild animals. Tony Montana's palatial estate in Scarface is
so utterly ridiculous, it doesn't seem like it could possibly be real. But Mario's 80 stream
house apparently did have mirrored ceilings and his own personal throne monogram with the initials
“MT” as opposed to the film's “TM". Coincidence? We think not. Unclear if he also snorted cocaine
from a sunken jacuzzi bathtub while watching the nature channel but we kind of hope so.
In Scarface, Tony Montana attends the fictional Babylon social club to wine and dine with Miami's
elite. Screenwriter Oliver Stone derived the spot from an actual Miami hotel and club,
The Mutiny. He even slipped up once in the script referring to The Babylon as The Mutiny. The Mutiny
was frequented by celebrities, politicians, drug lords like Mario Tabraue and Pablo Escobar,
and of course, The Fuzz, who could watch all the wheeling and dealing go down. Of course,
they could also get in on the action as Mario was known to have Miami cops on his payroll for years.
While the Dom Perignon flowed on The Mutiny’s tabletops, guns were stuffed into the booth
cushions, just in case something went down mid-party. That's one way to kill the vibe.
In the film, two hit men after Tony opened fire at The Babylon in the middle of a comedy show.
The Mutiny actually faced a similar demise shortly after Scarface hit the box office. After someone
opened fire in one of the VIP clubs, the police forced the owner to either sell the establishment
or close its doors. He sold the club and the monetary support from the kingpins went with it.
Another infamous Scarface moment that Mario may have inspired, that disgusting chainsaw scene that
had you watching through slits in your fingers. In the movie, Tony Montana and his brother-in-law
Angel find themselves in a bit of a pickle when a drug deal goes awry. And poor Angel is hacked up
with a chainsaw. In real life, however, the roles were reversed. It was Mario or one of his henchmen
wielding the chainsaw, which they reportedly used to dismember the body of an FBI informant,
Larry Nash. The jury heard the gruesome details of the murder which took place on
Mario's property in his federal racketeering trial. For this and a slew of other charges,
he was sentenced to 100 years in prison. Instead he won an appeal and got out in 12 years,
supposedly due to some insider information he gave to police. Kind of like his chainsaw victim,
but a chainsaw is too messy to be a regular weapon of choice. You'd think MT like TM also
owns several machine guns. Gotta defend yourself against these cockroaches.
On screen, Tony has a tumultuous relationship with his eventual wife, Elvira. Other than a
few flirtatious glimmers, they seem to spend most of the movie hating each other's guts. In the end,
Elvira finally leaves this chaser right before a horde of Colombians descends upon Tony in
his beyond tacky mansion. The real life story is even more grim. Mario Tabraue's first wife, Maria
died in 1981. Alongside the chainsaw murder, he was accused of shooting her 10 times. Apparently,
the couple were in the midst of getting a divorce and Maria threatened to go to the police about his
illegal career path. But the jury wasn't convinced and Mario was acquitted of this particular crime.
So which version takes the cake for you, the real-life tiger Aficionado/Coke Lord or
the fictional grenade launching sociopath? Let us know in the comments along with what
real-life character counterparts you'd like to hear about next.