Pete Connors

1952-1990

DEATH RULED A HOMICIDE

 Author: Staff reports

Date: Jun 27, 1990 Text

Word Count: 117

Document Text

BROWARD

Peter Joseph Connors, 38, had been dead for more than two days before he was found behind his home in the 17900 block of Southwest 52nd Court Sheriff's Office spokesman Al Gordon said.

A man whose body was found behind his home in southwest Broward County on Monday died of a blow to the head, and his death has been ruled a homicide, a spokesman for the Broward Sheriff's Office said. Peter Joseph Connors, 38, had been dead for more than two days before he was found behind his home at 17970 Southwest 52nd Court, Davie, Sheriff's Office spokesman Al Gordon said. Connors ran a motorcycle and auto repair business from his home. He also owned a construction business and worked sometimes as a carpenter, Gordon said. A man who went to pick up his dog at the home discovered the body about on Monday.

  MAN CHARGED WITH MURDER

  [SUN-SENTINEL Edition 1]

  Sun Sentinel - Fort Lauderdale

  Broward Sheriff's Office detectives on Sunday arrested a suspect in Tallahassee and charged him with the murder of a 38-year-old man whose body was found last week behind the victim's house in southwest Broward County

Steven Lawrence Inloes, 34, is suspected of killing Peter Joseph Connors on June 16 and then fleeing with about $2,000 of Connors' money, some gold jewelry and the victim's motorcycle, Sheriff's Office spokesman George Crolius said.

Inloes will be returned to Broward County by Tuesday to face a charge of first-degree murder, Crolius said.

Detectives said Inloes and Connors were in the Broward County Jail on drug charges in May when Connors offered to let Inloes stay at his home after Inloes was released from jail, Crolius said.

  Pete Connor's Estate consisted of a huge house with a fully working plant nursery. In addition to that he had a construction business, several wharehouses full of Harley parts, and a car and motorcycle repair business.

Pete grew up here with his sister Sue at 178-C.

Rota Connors' House

Pete Connors first moved to Edgewater with his mother Rota and his sister Sue after the death of their Father. Rota bought a little house in the back alley of C-Section at 178-C. Raising 2 kids on a waitress’ salary wasn’t easy but she did the best she could. Pete Connors was a guy I first met when I was into go-carts. Gregory Peters, me, and the Mc Ardle brothers had a go-cart over in Greg's yard in Alden  Park. We could not get it to start and years later we realized that Greg's father, Harry, had messed with it. It had no spark but we pulled on that pull cord every day for weeks, hoping and hoping. In the end it never did run.

Now Pete had a go-cart with a 7 and a half horse motor (at least that's what he told us) that he wanted to sell. First, though, we wanted to be sure it ran. So we took it out onto the street and spent days trying to get it to run. It would start, it just wouldn't continue to run. Well, we never bought it but I got to know Pete, who also was into boats and cars. He had a 3 point hydro moored out from Doggy Beach that didn't have a motor. So I stuck my Evinrude Fastwin 18 horse on it. Man, it was fast.

So one day I'm walking past the buildings on Longstreet Avenue and I see this beautiful dark blue 64 Impala SS with a light blue interior and a 409, 4 speed with the chrome Muncie shifter with the chrome ball at the top and the reverse levers on the side. It also had dark smoke tinted windows, which was something you didn't see much back then. The whole car was THE most beautiful car I had ever seen. It had Crager SS mags in the front and Chrome reverse rims on the back. It had a For Sale sign on it. A few days later I see Pete driving it. Well, just to ride in it was great. The feel of power. And he wasn't afraid to show me some "Posi" tracks either and to bang some gears. Exhilarating! I was hooked. I never got to drive it and after a few months his mother sold it on him.

His next car was a grey primer 57 Vette, with a 283, 4 speed. This car I got to drive, and for a 13 year old, behind the wheel of a Vette with the owner saying to punch it was fantastic. Through riding around with “Ghetto” (Pete’s nickname) I got to meet "Stitchy" (Richy Palmeri). One day I'm with Pete, Stitchy's behind us, and Pete pulls over and says ride with him. So I jumped out and jumped into Ritchy Palmeri's Chevy II and that was the start of an era for me. I hung out with Pete and the guys almost regularly after that. Mostly, everybody hung out up the Stores, and occasionally Jimmy Shaw would have to come out and yell at somebody for doing burnouts. I hung out with Pete for years and eventually he moved to Fort Lauderdale. When I went down there I called his sister Sue and asked her to tell him to meet me at a Mc Donalds on SR 84 off I-95. Sure enough, here comes Pete on his '48 Harley Panhead. I stayed with Pete thru the winter which was great. Nothing like going swimming at the beach at Las Olas Blvd on a January morning. Pete, like me, wanted to live life fast and hard and hopefully not grow old having done nothing.

Pete never left Florida after that, except for Labor Day or to see his mother. Friends drifted apart as we all know happens. Pete did well down there. He managed to amass several small warehouses full of motorcycle  parts, then buy a plant nursey out in Davie, which is west of Ft. Lauderdale. He knew a lot of bikers, naturally, including the Outlaws of South Florida and the Chingalings in the South Bronx.

I once went with him and Mark Cunningham to the Chingalings building in the Bronx. They owned the building, had all their bikes parked outside, and a basement full of bike parts. I mean they had parts up the ying yang. Pete never wanted to join a bike club though because for one thing he didn't like people telling him what to do. Pete had a rebellious personality which got him into trouble with the law at times, but actually made him more popular with his friends. It wasn't that he was a bad guy, just rebellious. I liked his attitude.

  At one time in Florida you could drive a motorcycle with a regular driver's license but they changed all that. Pete never bothered with any of that. He wasn't big on paperwork and eventually he got arrested for it in Ft. Lauderdale. He always had an attitude with cops, which I liked. Being a biker in South Florida drew alot of heat and he got hassled alot. Now South Florida in the 80’s was the cocaine capital of the world. I mean even if you look at a lot of 80’s movies people snortin’ cocaine was part of it. Pete (or me, for that matter) wasn’t into working some slave job for life so he was an entrepeneur. He had a lot of friends who were both into Harley’s and drugs. One thing led to another and he followed the natural path. Dealing coke wasn’t for everyone but Pete could handle it and the people who he dealt with. Everyone and their mother was doing coke in the 80's, especially in south Florida. Real estate adds in the Keys advertised their properties as "smuggler's paradise" and ocean going boats and airplanes brought in massive amounts of it. So I don't blame him a bit for going that route. In addition to the warehouses full of motorcycle parts, his carpentry business, his repair business and then his plant nursery, Pete had definite plans of getting out of the coke business. For him, it was just a means to an end. Pete didn’t always have it easy. I remember one time he was so down on his luck he was living out of a small wharehouse. I always respected him for living life his way. He always did things his way and didn’t care what anyone thought. 

  When he first moved to Florida, I went down to see him and he invited me to stay with him. Later, I would move to Pompano Beach with my wife, Patty Lou Donovan, of Edgewater. We hung out all the time. He had a Panhead. I had a ’75 Sportster that I bought off Kenny Gress. There came a time when me and Patty moved back to Edgewater. I lost touch with him for awhile. After my divorce, I went down to see him and again he invited me to stay with him. I was with Walter Miller from Edgewater and we both stayed with him. He knew I was hurting, big time. He was way out in Davie and the guy he was partnered with had a huge piece of land. He was a machinist and built 4 wheelers and motorcycles. He even had a circular track on his propery. At the time he was living next door to the nursery that he would later buy, and got me and Wally jobs transporting the nursery plants all over the state for the guy in a box truck.

I had to come back to New York for a lawsuit I was involved in and Wally stayed down there with him. After the settlement I stayed in New York so I could visit with my daughter, Jackie.

He made tons of money and eventually bought the nursery. Things were going good for him for a few years before he got arrested. (Someone probably dimed him.) He met some guy in jail that he invited to his house after the guy got out. Apparently, the guy had no place to stay and maybe Pete offered him a job. No one knows. The guy wound up murdering him, then ransacking his house. The guy was busted in Tallahassee a few days later wearing a gold chain of Pete's. He also had one of Pete’s Harley’s.

Pete was given a Biker's Funeral by the Outlaws, concluding with them firing their guns in the air at the end of the service. The cops did nothing.

My friend Pete did things his way, and he succeeded, big time.

He was as rebellious as they come.

That he had a good heart eventually did him in.

I miss you Pete.