Arson at the Melody Inn?

We here at FFFF over the years have pointed out the Florentine sidewalk theft and more recently the sham of city oversight in Florentine’s decade+ refusal to install fire sprinklers.

Those stories led a reader to send us a video that may make that fire sprinkler issue way worse in context. It’s a story about what allegedly happened at Florentine’s Melody Inn back in 1989 in Downtown Fullerton.

Give it a watch and let us know what you think.

21 Replies to “Arson at the Melody Inn?”

    1. Dude says Tony Florentine talked him into burning down the building that housed his “Melody Inn” for the insurance money.

  1. Not exactly the most reliable witness. On the othe rhand it sure sounds a lot like the sort of person that would kill a tree in front of his business or swipe a public sidewalk and plead innocence.

    let’s here from Tony Flo

  2. In the long list of Florentine bad behavior don’t ever forget the illegal conversion of the restaurant into a night club. The City smoothed out that little bump, too.

    1. Who was it that did the smoothing for the sidewalk theft? Was it the same person who gave the permit to operate the illegal night club? Does anyone know who at the City Planning Department could have pulled that off? Is there some kind of familial relations to other mob type City contractors? Inquisitive FFFF minds wants to know…..

      1. Same club: Crooked Shawn Nelson, Sharon Quirk, Pam Kellar, Mike Clearasil, Leland Wilson, Crazy Doc HeeHaw, and the terminally stupid Don Blankhead.

  3. Pete and Tony’s was a great restaurant. I always wondered why they changed the name and concept.

  4. Tax fraud is a felony. This means if the IRS plans to charge you for tax fraud in civil court, this agency can go back as far as it wants.

  5. Please play this video at a city council meeting during public comments. I’d love to see the fire heroes’ faces when they learn that one of their favored nightclub operators almost killed them for a little insurance money.

  6. I’m so old I remember that fire, and so old that I think cynically that this will happen again on the corner of Harbor and Commonwealth.
    Fullerton has a long history of stuff burning up…

    1. Weren’t there a couple fires across the street where JP23 is now?

      Do they have a manual they pass around on how to do these?

  7. Can’t wait for FloJoe to bitch and moan about unfair his life is at the next council meeting.

  8. As I recall the fire department suspected arson at the time
    I believe it was blamed on an unknown transient. There were many that thought it was an inside deal. The building was going to be torn down

    1. “There were many that thought it was an inside deal.”

      Who did Pete say Tony “borrowed” a couple ladder’s from?

  9. According to this video, Florentine and his partner torched a building in the HEART of our city and he is getting a hall pass? This casts a dark cloud on our community. Truly disappointing.

  10. For such a a great town otherwise, Fullerton has had a strain of corruption running through it as long as I’ve lived here (30 years +) and it just keeps getting worse. Now instead of only private citizens, the government is leading the charge and covers up its own misdeeds.
    This clip is so damning as is the new building immediately following the fire. I had only just discovered the Melody Inn and really liked it. They had wonderful food, and the art deco building and location just below the train bridge made it an especially fun destination. The building itself was a loss and what they replaced it with a true monstrosity.
    I wondered at the time how that could have happened, and now I know.

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