Current and Former Miamians Remember Al Crespo (1941–2022)

Charles Albert Crespo, who died August 16 at age 80, was a civic crusader and an authority defier of the highest order who wielded public-records laws like a saber and spared no ethically challenged public official his well-calibrated rage.

You can read our obituary of Crespo — who was known to friends and foes alike as "Al" — here. Scroll down to read tributes from a handful of Miami locals and expats who knew him.

David Winker

Miami attorney

"Al was a character out of a Carl Hiassen novel. He got out of prison and made a very significant contribution to society. He would go to the City of Miami Commission meetings and say the city commission is a criminal enterprise and no one sued him. They just didn't want Crespo on their ass. And I never got the sense he was bitter about what he did. It's like he knew this place is nuts so just enjoy it. Al embraced the messiness of democracy."

Roger Craver

former Miami resident

"Al was just a rare character. He devoted all the time and energy he had in trying to keep government on the straight and narrow. He burrowed into what was going on in a city that needs all the burrowing you can do. Of course, he did so with a vocabulary that put off some people. If we ever needed more of him, it's now. He will be missed."

Chuck Strouse

Florida International University journalism professor and former Miami New Times editor-in-chief

"There was no bullshit about Al. Absolutely none. I am not gonna say he never exaggerated, because he did sometimes. But 99 percent of the time, the people he went after deserved it. No one spoke more truth to power than Al. Unless you were someone in power like Miami Mayor Francis Suarez, whom he went after like a buzz saw, you had to love the guy. That's what a good rabble rouser does."

Elaine de Valle

blogger at Political Cortadito

"He's the original government watchdog. He didn't have a journalism background but he was really good at developing sources and making public-records requests. He opened the space for blogs like mine. He was hot and cold with me. Some days, he loved me. Some days, he hated me. He chewed me out as often as he praised me. He made me better. Sometimes, he was vulgar without it being necessary, but he made it okay to be rude. He was no holds barred and he didn't mince words."

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— al crespo (@crespogram) August 20, 2022

Marc Caputo

former Miami Herald and Politico reporter now at NBC News

"Don't get me wrong. I hated the fact that he would go after some of my friends, colleagues, and peers at the Herald, but Al was incredibly helpful to me last year when I did my first-ever longform journalism piece in my 25-year career. It was a profile about Miami police Capt. Javier Ortiz. Al was the decoder ring for the criminology of the Miami Police Department and all of its crookedness, corruption, evilness, and decay. We still live in an open society where sunlight is better than darkness. Miami is going to be a little bit darker now that Al is gone."

Billy Corben

Miami filmmaker and civic activist

"Al is the definition of the person who comes to Miami to be somebody else, and he owned it. He was living proof that you can reinvent yourself and be better. He had the guts to go into [politicians'] playgrounds and sandboxes and do what you have to do to bullies: Push them down in front of everybody. As a former bank robber, he recognized the same fuckery as a professional criminal in the government here in Miami and he called it out."