A Tampa man refused to leave his sailboat during Hurricane Milton because he allegedly tried to set a woman on fire

The itinerant, heavily tattooed amputee sailor who captured the world's attention this week by insisting he would ride out Hurricane Milton aboard his small sailboat in Tampa Bay recently spent nearly six months behind bars in Florida, for punching a police officer, and was arrested last year on allegations of trying to set a woman on fire with gasoline.

Joseph John Malinowski, 54, of Tampa, faces a state criminal court hearing later this month in Tampa over a dispute over whether the sailboat is legally his. The courthouse is about eight blocks inland from Tampa Bay, where a storm surge of an estimated 15 feet was expected from the approaching hurricane.

The same sailor also got in trouble with the law last year for sinking another sailboat on Florida's east coast.

Malinowski made international headlines this week with appearances on CNN and a televised conversation with Jim Cantore of the Weather Channel. In a new interview Wednesday, he said he was confident he would survive Hurricane Milton aboard his sailboat. During the same interview, he paused to speak with city officials, who insisted he go to a storm shelter on land.

“I'm not afraid. I don’t know what that means,” he said. “I'm not afraid of what's going to happen. I didn't plan for any repercussions. If the boat starts to sink, I will swim away.”

Known online as Joe Sea and Lieutenant Dan, Malinowski is said to resemble the character in Forrest Gump with his tanned complexion and amputated leg below the knee. He said he lost part of his leg in a scooter accident 38 years ago.

This week he became famous – and infamous – for his refusal to heed sensible evacuation warnings for his safety in the face of a historic hurricane that President Joe Biden predicted from the White House would become the “storm of the century” and Gov. Ron would DeSantis said it would be deadly.

It is emblematic of the perceived indifference that many in Florida feel toward dangerous hurricanes. But until Wednesday, details of his past remained unexplored.

Local authorities asked Malinowski — at times in interactions captured on video — to abandon his sailboat and go to shore. Thousands of people have left supportive comments online and pledged money to help him find cover.

“I get a lot of prayers,” Malinowski said, “and then I get a lot of 'rest in peace.'”

Malinowski, whose name is sometimes spelled Malinoyski in Florida criminal court records, was released in April 2022 after serving a year in prison in a criminal case for punching a police officer in the nose. The manager of the Irish Brigade Bar in Lake Worth Beach on Florida's east coast asked him to leave the bar because he was screaming and breaking glasses.

When a sheriff's deputy tried to handcuff him, he punched the deputy, who pushed him back, court records show.

Before he was taken into custody in the case, the officer took him to a nearby hospital for evaluation, where Malinowski told nurses he wanted officers to shoot him in the head and screamed he wanted to die, court documents say. In the deputy's patrol car, he announced that he had urinated in the back seat.

Just as he plans to survive on his own, Malinowski unsuccessfully tries to represent himself in court in the case. A jury convicted him in a trial that lasted less than a day.

Last year, a Palm Beach County sheriff's deputy arrested Malinowski on suspicion of aggravated assault after a woman said he doused a park bench with gasoline and set it on fire during an argument. She said as the argument continued, Malinowski threw gasoline on her, according to court documents. “She feared for her life because the gasoline might ignite because she was holding a lit cigarette,” the deputy wrote in his arrest report.

Court records noted that Malinowski had an amputation, and the woman told the officer she took his crutch to keep him from running away. Malinowski said he burned an unspecified residue from the bench and denied intentionally spraying gas on the woman.

According to court documents, prosecutors dropped the case a month later without explanation.

Also last year, prosecutors in Palm Beach County charged Malinowski under an obscure Florida law with abandoning a sunken boat after his 26-foot sailboat, the Roan Inish, was found on its side and on a nearby seawall the Ocean Avenue Bridge in Lantana. Malinowski bought the boat for $1. That was a different boat than the one Malinowski lived on in Tampa Bay. Prosecutors agreed not to proceed to trial as part of a plea deal.

Malinowski gained a following through a University of Tampa student, Terrence Concannon, who passed Malinowski heading home the day before Hurricane Helene arrived.

Concannon, 23, said Malinowski called for help because he was stuck under a bridge. He learned of Malinowski's plan to live on his boat during Helene and documented it to his growing TikTok audience of nearly 500,000 followers. He has since started a GoFundMe that has raised nearly $23,000 for Malinowski to purchase a larger boat.

“(Malinowski) knows as soon as he walks into a hotel room it’s over for him,” Concannon said. “The hype is wearing off and it's sad, but he said he has almost nothing else to live for.”

A few weeks ago, when Malinowski said he slept through Hurricane Helene, he could see people wading through knee-high water on the other side of the dock. However, storm surges don't worry him: “People always say, 'Aren't you worried about the rising water?'” I'm in a boat, floating. So when the boat's water rises, I go with it.

An estimated 12 people died near Tampa from Helene, a Category 4 storm that hit the area worst in more than a century.

Helene and Milton won't be the only storm Malinowski has faced on his 22-foot sailboat Catalina.

He said he survived about five hurricanes, most of which occurred while he was living in a separate boat in Fort Lauderdale. In the worst case scenario, he said he used his dinghy to rescue other boats that had been pushed around in the water.

Malinowski said in addition to police officers who tried to get him to leave the boat and said they would arrest him if he didn't, Mayor Jane Castor reported that he went to a shelter.

Castor has also publicly warned Tampa residents in evacuation zones that they will die if they don't leave.

“The police chief informed her that the gentleman had agreed to go to a shelter and she thought that meant he was in a shelter,” a spokesperson for the city of Tampa wrote in an email.

But he didn't leave. And in a TikTok he said the only thing that could get him was a woman.

“If you’re a warrior — a soldier — you do what you’re told,” he said. “And God told me to come here and get a boat. I came here and got a boat. I believe in a lot of TikTok spiritual leaders that I listen to and I hear messages sent from God that he has his finger on the ball. He’s got his finger in the eye of the storm, so I don’t have to worry about that.”

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This story was produced by Fresh Take Florida, a news service of the University of Florida College of Journalism and Communications. The reporter can be reached at [email protected]. You can donate to support our students Here.