Penthouse nightclub founder murdered 30 years ago
Posted September 17, 2013 8:30 pm.
This article is more than 5 years old.
VANCOUVER (NEWS1130) – He hosted the likes of Sammy Davis Jr. and Louis Armstrong at his (in)famous Downtown Vancouver nightclub.
Joe Philliponi was known as the “Godfather of Seymour Street” and his murder shocked Vancouver.
Wednesday marks 30 years since his death.
Philliponi and his brothers came to Vancouver in the 1930s, opening what would be become the Penthouse nearly 70 years ago.
The 70-year-old was gunned down in his office the night of September 18th 1983.
“A lot of people, you know, want to make it seem like it was this big hit,” says nephew and current Penthouse owner Danny Filippone. He maintains it was a robbery gone wrong.
“At the end of the day… two people were convicted of a robbery and they both got 25 years in prison,” he explains. “One was just released not too long ago and the other one just died, maybe, I think, four years ago.”
More than 800 people showed up to Philliponi’s funeral, a crowd described as “Supreme Court justices, businessmen and dancers.”
“The one thing that always sticks out in my mind [is] when we were at the cemetery, I noticed that there was police present,” recalls Danny, who served as one of the pallbearers. “Even police guys were hiding up in trees, because at that time the investigation was well underway to see who committed the murder.”
Filippone says his uncle’s spirit lives on. “He’s still there, somehow, present, at the bar.”
These days, Filippone and his staff are gearing up for the Penthouse’s 70th anniversary.
Regular tours of the nightclub, freshly renovated after a fire in 2011, highlight its colourful past. Last week, work began on a fresh coat of paint on the club’s exterior, including a mural on the north side of the building.
