Paranormal Florida, Ghosts, Aliens and the Unexplainable…
Ghost Gifts from Paranormal Florida
When you think of sunshine, beaches, spring break, partying, Disney and all the other bright and shiny pastimes of Florida, only certain people think about the ghosts.
Florida is the oldest occupied state in America. The Spaniards were the first to set foot here way back in 1513 when Ponce De Leon first discovered this Land of Flowers. The French and English would soon follow. Before the white man arrived the Native populations had been here 12,000 years. The fact remains if there is a lot of life, there is a lot of death and sometimes it’s not just ghosts of people, but of the past as well. Crimes never solved, wrongs never righted, wrongs that never could be righted… The ghosts of those things will haunt forever.
In 1564 Rene Laudonniere was commissioned by the French king to continue where Jean Ribault left off and establish a colony and fort in Florida. Fort Caroline was built just north of the city of Jacksonville close to the St. John’s. 300 people were brought there to help get the settlement going, just barely a year later nearly everyone was dead or had disappeared. Sickness, starvation and Native attacks were the main causes. This was bad news as the French had the full attention of the Spanish now. Pedro Menendez was a monster compared to Jean Ribault.
Menendez sailed up the coast in 1565 and attacked Fort Caroline killing everyone. He was well known for his total and brutal annihilation… The Spanish, who obviously were not the superstitious type, continued to occupy the fort until 1569. After that, the place simply disappeared. No one has been able to find any evidence of where its exact location was. They have a pretty good idea though and you can visit a historically accurate replica of the site. Bring your EMF though… Between the ancient tribes, the massacred French and the disappearing Spanish, there are quite a few spirits out there in those trees…
Ghost Gifts from Paranormal Florida
Menendez must have been feeling particularly murderous in the year 1565. With the poor laundry skills of the 16th century, he must have smelled very much like a corpse himself most of the time. His main objective was to get rid of the French and their non-Catholic Huguenots and he aimed to do it with precision. After swinging up to Jax and taking out all of those guys, he went back to his lair in nearby St. Augustine and waited for the survivors. The survivors had incredibly bad luck. While trying to creep past St. Augustine, the ship was destroyed by a hurricane. The remaining French were washed up on the banks of the intercoastal (the river) close to the Castillo De San Marco, right into the arms of a waiting Menendez. He proceeded to go on a rampage and slaughtered every one of them until the water in the river turned a deep bloody burgundy color… This river is named the Matanzas and everyone in town loves to mention that the word Matanzas means Massacre… You’d think they would’ve changed that shit by now.
People have seen full bodied apparitions on the shores of the Matanzas and the water turns blood red on the night of the full moon. An event that priests have spoken of all the way back to the late 1700’s. The river is something you can stay out of… Walking the city is a little more frightful…
A hundred years is what it took to get St. Augustine off the ground. Storms, plagues, lack of supplies, Native attacks, illness… All of these things killed the Spanish in waves and they were replaced in waves until things finally started to even out. By 1665 the city was built with a decent population and turns out, sitting right in the sights of pirates. English pirates who didn’t much like the Spanish.
Sir Francis Drake would launch the first notable attack when he burned the fledgling city in 1586. It wasn’t the worst, mainly because there wasn’t much there at the time. Robert Searle was the one who really made Spain pay attention. The pirate and his crew raided the place at night and killed 60 people. They took as many as hostages. It was a horrible large scale attack and it prompted the Queen to build the Castillo, otherwise known to me as “The Ol Fort”.
This is the paved over, blood soaked dirt that we walk over… Build over…
Ghost Gifts from Paranormal Florida
St. Augustine, Florida is probably one of the most haunted places in the United States of America but… Nowadays it is a very busy place and modern developers are not deterred by ghosts, spirits… Death. Some very scary buildings are occupied by what will probably be very short term renters. If you notice, certain businesses in St. Augustine operate during very specific hours. There are shops and offices where people absolutely will not work in after dark, alone, or early in the morning. One of them on King street operated as a Pizza Hut for awhile. I’m pretty sure that was the longest running business in there. Now it changes faces about every year or so. It is a notoriously haunted building that sits coincidentally, under some of the rooms in the Casa Monica Hotel. The Casa Monica is well known for its spectral residents as well.
There are many ghosts in St. Augustine and not enough time in a lifetime to tell all their stories. A person could take every ghost tour in the city and still never experience how many souls are hanging around the place.
Sometimes tourists get a first hand look at just where they are… All it takes is a couple good days of heavy rain… sometimes the bones start to float…
St. Augustine is a very small city. A city no one knew existed until about 30 years ago I might add… Anyways… It is small and when you have a lot of death over the centuries in a small city you tend to run out of places to be buried. In fact, burials in the city were complicated at best and touchy subjects hundreds of years later.
The Timuquana Indians were the Native people here when the Spanish invited the Franciscan monks to come in and convert them into Catholics in the late 1500’s.
There is one cemetery in town that is so very small yet so very big. It has been there since before St. Augustine was ever thought of and the city is dread to ever say it is haunted… The Tolomato cemetery is almost dead center of the city and there is a good reason why. The original city was of course patterned after the Timuquana village that was there when the Spaniards arrived in 1565. One of the documented sites is right over at the Castillo where evidence has been found of a large, occupied area. It was not a burial site. That my friends was, over where the Tolomato is.
Ghost Gifts from Paranormal Florida
The Franciscans built a monastery in that location and established a Catholic cemetery where the original Native site was. Except they only took a small portion… There are large county school administration buildings sitting next to Potter’s Wax Museum. There is a mid-size parking lot and a large parking garage across the street. Under all of this is where the actual Native burial site used to be.
Spirits, especially vengeful ones, have a way of guiding people. They can creep into your subconscious and influence you to do things you wouldn’t even think of doing. I find it strange when one particular area of ground tends to hold the same type of business forever. Apparently the Natives thought this property was good for death, then the Franciscans. Later the Spanish priests would carry on with the burials.
When the church was gone a pharmacy with a mortician and morgue was built here where it still stands today. It was still the city’s oldest drug store in operation when I was a kid in the early 1980’s and when I came home in 1999; It had appropriately been deserted and was used for ghost tours. A different continuation of the celebration of death on this spot of ground.
The building that is now home to Potter’s Wax Museum is probably one of the oldest original structures in town and you look at it and wonder how it stands there. It may be emaciated, but it has been well fed for a very long time…
All that said… There have been multiple instances where, after a hurricane, days of rain, or construction, bones have literally popped up between the bricks from under the street.
Over on Aviles in front of the Spanish Military Hospital it happened when a water main broke under the street in the 60’s I believe. When hurricanes caused Charlotte Street to flood. Bones and bricks floated around with tour trains and gawking tourists trying to get around the mess until the cops and archaeologists showed up. It’s funny too, it goes back to that space thing. Any ancient old bones that decide to make an appearance around there gets a good talking to and put right back down into the ground. It’s where they’ve been, might as well put them back.
The best place in the city to scope out some semi-harmless spirits for fun is the Lighthouse. I personally have had experiences there. The park across from it was one of my mom’s favorite places to take my cousins and I when we were kids. She loved Anastasia Island, it’s technically where the lighthouse is located. We would go there, play and mess around the old lighthouse.
It was not the tourist attraction it is today. The paint was old, it was not well kept and the lighthouse keeper’s house, though I didn’t realize it then, was deserted. It seems that the man in the brown pants, dark gray jacket and black floppy hat that I saw walking from the house to the lighthouse all the time, was the lighthouse keeper, he’d just been dead for a very long time. Mom never told me this even though I had mentioned the man to her on many occasions. She would just say “that’s the lighthouse keeper” or “there goes the lighthouse keeper then”…
Years later, we take my step-daughter, her brother and sister on a ghost tour of St. Augustine for her 13th birthday. The fine ghost people at Ghost Augustine, with the first and best ghost tours in St. Augustine by the way, took us to the lighthouse. It was all good, we were part of a large group and it is a whole lot less scary out there now than when I was a kid so no big deal. The guide is telling the stories… I notice my 8 year old stepson has appeared so close to me he could jump in my pocket.
Ghost Gifts from Paranormal Florida
He was white as a sheet. I’m like what’s wrong, and he tells me someone touched his shoulder. The look on his face said there was more to it than that. I just looked at him and he tells me it was the little girls, so apparently he had been fraternizing with them before they reached out and physically touched him. By this time his sisters had crowded around and he was all good again. The “little girls” out there are ghosts of course. They died a long time ago but for some reason, whatever it may be, the lighthouse is a hard place to leave…
Little bit of lesser known info about St. Johns County… My grandmother was pretty adamant all my life that it was the home of the largest witchcraft coven in America. There were always… I mean always… Some kind of sacrificial meats like steaks and shit out in the middle of the intersection of US1 and 206 near where I grew up. She about had a fit when one of my cousins asked her to make him a black cape for Halloween. It was the early 80’s, Dungeons and Dragons, Ozzy, etc… and all that. There had been some sacrificed cats and Satanic stuff on Anastasia Island and that’s where he and my aunt lived. She swore he was trying to get her to help him worship the devil. She would not make the cape.
Voodoo
If you are one of those people who should watch how they treat others, this would be a really good place to start. One day in the early 2000’s I was driving around Lincolnville and came upon what I know was a Voodoo church. The building was a half built cinder block frame painted stark white and lined with “haint” blue, a light sky colored blue paint. There were offerings like dolls, glasses, jars, tiles and vases inside the unfinished windows and little piles of wildflowers in the doorway and down the walk. Somehow, sometimes, you just look at a thing and know exactly what it is. That’s how it was and since that day I wanted to know how deep the Voodoo went in my hometown.
Deep, and quiet… Like the St. Johns or even closer to home, the Congo, Voodoo is there. It came there through some of the last of the original African slaves from South Carolina finding refuge at Fort Mose.
It came here through the best and smartest of the Haitian Spanish generals who with his large family, had some extremely dramatic “parties” at his home on St. George Street. He was one of the richest men in town.
I’ve seen it in the eyes of the woman with the blue dress, white head wrap and piercing, searching eyes looking into mine, reading me, as she asked for directions to the oldest Catholic church in America, Nombre De Dios. They do have the best Holy Water there… 😉
Ghost Gifts from Paranormal Florida
That little Voodoo church in Lincolnville is gone now. I drove by and they had bull dozed it, the lot was cleared and dirt had been spread. 3 or 4 years later I drove by and there is a large and expensive house built on the land that belonged to the Presbyterian church in the 1980’s. Wonder how it’s going in there for them???
But enough about ol’ spooky St. Augustine, it’s not the only place with ghosts or bones. In fact when it comes to bone stories, St. Augustine doesn’t’ even come close to…
Lake Okeechobee…
Imagine a fisherman sitting in his little boat, motor cut, rocking gently near the early morning foggy bank of a lake so large you could never see the other side. He’s sipping some coffee from a mug, watching his line when something bobbing nearby catches his eye. He puts his coffee down. Leaning over the edge with his net he plucks at the water until the thing is close enough for him to scoop it up and see… He gives a short yelp and jumps, dropping what he now knows is a human skull back into the water. It disappears for a second then bobs back, face up, grinning at the man in an evil manner… Laughing at his fear… He furiously tugs at the motor cord and speeds off to find someone, anyone, alive…
There are thousands upon thousands of bones lying in the silt and mud at the bottom of Lake Okeechobee. Fun fact, no one knows exactly where they all came from and apparently no one cares. There are assumptions, ideas and there are some accountable numbers. The Great Miami Hurricane killed about 300 people when it flooded the lake in 1926. In 1928 it happened again. The Okeechobee Hurricane killed way more this time. Approximately 2500 people were washed into this great inland ocean.
Even with this. There are so many more bones in this lake than that as unimaginable as it may be. A good portion of them are much older than the 1920’s too.
At one point people thought that the bones were of Seminoles who killed themselves during the Seminole Wars. That would have only accounted for about 100 or so and they still were not old enough.
The lake lay silent and held onto its bones until 2008 when a drought occurred, lowering the water level and showing off it’s pearly whites again. This time, there were artifacts from ancient Native tribes found as well. It does seem, though still unexcavated and unproven, that the entire Lake Okeechobee basin was used as a huge Indian burial site or…. Native tribes living on the banks of the lake were hit by equally devastating hurricanes as those unsuspecting folks in the 1920’s.
All washed away into the water over and over again. Terrifying…
As of today there are approximately 2.9 million people with homes built around the banks of this massive underwater graveyard.
Ghost Gifts from Paranormal Florida
The two areas above are both places where massive amounts of souls have been returned to the nether. Meaning, more people have died in these two places than many other places across the entire United States. It’s not just the living that die here though… Many things find death in Florida… People, animals, dreams… It may sound like one, but the last thing there may not be such a joke. For such a small state there are quite a few ghost towns where funds and dreams have clearly dried up and died completely. I think I read Florida has more than most states.
While there are many, many ghost towns here, the two below are really haunted. Haunted by the ghosts of racism, greed, time… Not to mention multiple unrestful spirits. One of the worst and definitely the most haunted and haunting is a place that many people do not know is even in this state. Movies have been made about it and still…
Ghost Towns
Rosewood
The Rosewood massacre was one of the most horrific episodes of racism in 1920’s Florida. The town was comprised of about 350 African Americans. A white mob decimated the town one night burning every black owned building to the ground. The real number of dead is still unknown as the count was deliberately and ridiculously stopped at 8, people later would find 27 bodies and bury them in a mass grave in the woods. It is approximated that anywhere upwards of 100 or more African Americans were killed in their beds or driven from their homes and murdered in those same woods around the town.
The town was deserted and none of the previous residents ever came back. The murderers were never looked for, found or convicted. When people are possessed of such inherent evil it really does not matter the whys of a situation. Simply the atrocity of what was done.
I have driven through this town. The pain and anger still linger in the air, the injustices and the things left unresolved. It seemed to me a hazy, misty smoke was over everything left there. Old buildings from the 80’s, signs, grass lots… The sun beating through that smoky haze… It was and is a very dead place, should be now and always will be, one of the truest ghost towns I’ve ever seen.
Pine Level
There are living, thriving, modern cities right now, in this state, that would remind you of the old west but we had some real ones back in the day. Real old west style towns. One of the most popular ones was located down by Sarasota, just west of Arcadia in DeSoto County.
Everyone hears the word Cracker and laughs but it is a real term for the cowboys who ran swamp cows throughout Florida in the late 1800’s. They were noticed towards the end of the Civil War when the cattle they raised was needed to feed the armies. The word “Cracker” comes from the sound of their whips as they rounded up the cows. So much like out west, we had our own type of cowboys here. Ones who could herd cows and wrestle the gators that would eat them… Made for some pretty tough stock.
Pine Level was the largest town in and county seat of Manatee County in 1866, just after the Civil War. Back then the government had offered land grants during the Seminole Wars to anyone who wanted to fight off Indians and settle the land. Just like the old west… The prize was 150 acres of God knows what in the Florida wilderness. The men and women of Pine Level were nothing to mess with.
On top of that, also like old western towns, Pine Level had more saloons than anything else in town. Shoot outs were common and not only did many men die in the dirt street that ran through town; but they hung out regularly around the old Hanging Tree that was behind the courthouse. Forever.
The town became famous for some major criminals who chose to make it their home. The Sarasota Gang was tracked down here and 9 of them were brought to justice at that very tree. Like most places that have seen too much blood and too much death, the town caught ghost sickness and slowly died itself.
By 2011 even the Hanging Tree was taken out by a hurricane. All that is left now is the Methodist Church, and the original Pine Level Cemetery.
Ghost Gifts from Paranormal Florida
Thirteen Really Haunted Places in Florida
The majority of the places haunted by real spirits, demons and other things, are usually private residences. Empty, ruined and condemned buildings. Graveyards. Unfortunate for the renters and owners, unless they have decided to vacate and turn the place into a paranormal theme park for ghost investigators.
Two houses in Virginia, an apartment in Daytona Beach, a house in Crescent City… I’ve been made aware that unbelievably cheap and cool housing can come with some very sneaky ghosts. I will say that mom rented the two in Va and the one in Daytona was an ex’s place… I’m responsible for the house that almost killed someone though. I rented that one.
So… There ya go. There are a few of those and they become public domains. On the other hand, three of the most haunted houses in St. Augustine are not to be mentioned on ghost tours and whatnot per request of the owners.
Some instances are for safety, like in the case where the spirits like to push people down stairs and out of windows. Some instances are for real estate purposes and property value, like in the case of the woman who had her head cut off with a machete on her front lawn at 8 in the morning. The third is simply a series of horrible stories no one really wants to tell anymore. That particular house is one I used to see a little ghost boy in the attic window, every time we went to Hardees for breakfast. Now those windows are boarded up.
Personally, I stay the hell away from the inside of “haunted” places. If I even smell a hint of a ghost, I don’t want to be in there. I’ll stand outside, I’ll take pictures and tell you the story but I don’t want to go in.
I took a job one time as a ghost tour guide in St. Aug. I thought… I thought that it was just standing outside the places telling the stories, something I’ve done all my life. Oh no, I had to go in, stay in there for more time than I wanted, and tell the stories. Two buildings. I wish it had worked out better… Loved my coworkers though…
I don’t mind being around it short amounts of time, having a little fun with it, helping people stay safe at it… Humans need to know, need to find out what is out there in the Great Nether. People used to know, maybe we can find out again. It is good to explore, safely.
There are some very, very bad places out there in Florida, in the world… They are not on this list. They are extremely unsafe places. Hopefully people never find them again. Unfortunately 95% spirits are dangerous. You may think you are talking to your sweet dead Grandma… You are probably not. Hopefully, Grandma is long gone and chilling up there in Heaven right? Possibly reincarnated into some future billionaire??
Eternity on Earth… That is allotted to one type of ethereal character I’m afraid. Careful out there folks.
The places people want to hear about, I assume, are the ones they can go to, get possessed at, and/or get some good video and photo ops. I’m not sure if all of these are those places but some may be. In some instances even the very ground is fucked up so no matter what is put there, and it will always have issues.
More than likely those issues will result in a timeline of bad things, racking up a pretty good number of spirits regardless of how old a structure may be. The places I write about here would probably be best explored in the light of day. Most are not accessible after dark anyways and I’m sure they are well known “haunts” to the local Sheriff’s offices. Really, there are ghosts everywhere all the time so it doesn’t matter. Maybe one is just more open to it at night… Thinning out of the veil and all after Midnight…
Number 1. Coon Hill Cemetery – Jay, Fl (Pensacola)
The oldest cemetery in Santa Rosa County Florida, it was created by the first pioneers of the area. It actually is part of a ghost town because the surrounding area used to have numerous businesses and homes. Many prominent people from the turn of the century are buried in this cemetery.
Currently the cemetery is protected as vandals and other idiots have caused thousands of dollars in damage to statuary and memorials. This is not an abandoned cemetery. It is a haunted cemetery though and apparently it’s not only the locals who want to keep people away at night…
A short wall runs around the graveyard and there are accounts of people being pushed off of it if they try to walk on it. Children’s voices have been heard laughing and talking. The weather has changed on people while they were in there. Screams. Strange animals have been seen and heard.
Number 2. Olustee Battlefield – Olustee, Fl.
If you are looking for ghosts this place never disappoints. As you drive through the straight and solemn pines, you can feel it before you even get there. Shadows move through those pines, darting back and forth, hiding from the naked eye. You can almost see a soldier, head down, plunging through those spiky palmettos, crashing through the gallberry bushes… It is misty a lot out here. Smoky looking.
There is a good reason for this and it seems to always be this way…
It was a misty morning on February 20, 1864. Fog mixed in with the smoke from the nights campfires and made a thick soup. Soon that soup would be joined by smoke and fire from the guns and canons yet to come. Two huge battalions of soldiers met here, one Union and one Confederate. They clashed with the force of two great titans beating each other to death and that they did. There were thousands of soldiers on the battlefield that day and of those thousands, approximately 946 men were left here in spirit.
The battle itself was particularly ferocious. Given that the Union troops mostly consisted of freed slaves, they had more than one reason to fight as hard as they did.
Ghost Gifts from Paranormal Florida
This was the only large scale Civil War battle fought in Florida and the second Union loss this bad. It was horribly bloody and worse fighting than most had seen throughout the course of the war. Unfortunately the Union was forced to retreat as their leader had not anticipated the amount of soldiers or skill of the Confederates they encountered.
There have been many tales of ghostly encounters in this quiet place. People have heard men shouting and rifles firing. They have smelled smoke and seen shadows and full blown ghosts. A reenactment of the battle is done and the actors camp out there for the duration.
They have the best tales and one of them described waking up one morning to see what he thought was his friend dressed and waving to him from the nearby trees. He got up and as he got nearer to him of course the man started walking into the trees. The actor followed him and kept trying to get him to say something but they just kept going.
Finally, far enough away from camp to no longer be able to see it, the “friend” that the man had been following stepped behind a tree and simply disappeared. The man walked back to camp alone and wondering… He guessed that wasn’t his friend then, it was real hard to tell since they were all wearing period regalia from the reenactment….
Number 3. Kingsley Plantation – Jacksonville, Fl
The entire area is located on what is considered Fort George Island. With its proximity to the area where the lost Fort Caroline is imagined to be, and the amount of native Timucuans that first lived on this land, the place is riddled with spirits and mysteries.
Driving into Kingsley Plantation is an Old Florida experience in itself. Take note of the tabby ruins at the beginning of the dirt road stretching back into the dark swampy recesses. It too is a home for ghosts and looks every bit of it. There is a story of a plantation worker who was building this house for the love of his life. He never finished, possibly because he died. His lonely ghost haunts the tabby ruins and has been seen by many.
The plantation house. Now here is a strangely peaceful but creepy place. The whole property has the air of a cemetery. Swaying moss from huge ancient oaks stretching their limbs out over dirt drives lined with thick, green, soft grass. Those trees hold secrets… Secrets from those ruined slave buildings across the way… Secrets from that well in the ground over by the house. Secrets whispering loudly from the house that is always empty now except for her… There are many ghosts here, from the ones that lurk around behind you as you explore, to the one still pissed off from a hundred years ago.
Ghost Gifts from Paranormal Florida
The legendary “Ol Red Eyes” is out there somewhere. The spirit of a human who did not act like one while on the Earth. He attacked and murdered people on the property and was hung from the branches of one of those many oaks. It is said that he is trapped there and cannot leave…
There is a prominent spirit in the house and another in the building east of the well.
Number 4. The Old Clay County Courthouse – Green Cove Springs, Fl
Wheww… This thing is jeepers creepers all the way. I would never go past that door frame after dark… Maybe not even during the day. I was out there on a perfect gray and rainy day. No one around but that ghost looking at me, looking at her, in the front window.
Place gave me the willies when I first laid eyes on it and it was no surprise that it has all those danger signs on the front door. It is and has been unoccupied for a very long time. Also no surprise a spirit came watching, and these are cell phone pictures, it was a surprise to see the face.
From 1889 to 1973 this building saw many, many people cross its thresh hold. I know it has been more than one can count because I know Green Cove. Better do that speed limit going through town, for real. The jail is over to the right of this building and houses some things with a life sentence… The courtyard in front of the building, and at another time, to the left of the building in between it and the jail, was a convenient place to erect scaffolding for hangings.
There were 6 executions here before Ol’ Sparky (the electric chair) was built and set to zapping people up in Raiford. That amount of folks seems very low compared to the amount of years this place has been in operation so just think about that one…
Number 5. San Sebastian Cemetery – St. Augustine, Fl.
If you are a respectful and thoughtful type of person, you probably don’t have many issues with either your fellow man on Earth or those deceased.
If you are not that type of person and you are one who trashes things, steals, vandalizes and does other shitty things, you probably should not come to this particular cemetery, or any at all for that matter. The dead deserve a certain reverence and respect for them as well as for one’s own personal safety. Especially when you are in their house.
This cemetery is one of the most important in the state if not the country. It is the oldest African American cemetery in Florida. There is evidence of this in the archive of burials being created by the Florida Public Archaeology Network. Many former slaves are buried here and many traditions from Africa have been brought forward and continued on in this place. San Sebastian is a timeline of African American history from the first burials of people, fugitive slaves, who probably came here from South Carolina and beyond; On to World War II veterans and current burials.
Of course it is haunted as well. Many, many Guardian spirits stay here so don’t mess around. I’d be willing to bet anyone coming here with ill intentions has left with way more bad luck than they ever bargained for. Orbs by the hundreds can be photographed as well, night or day. This is not a spooky, scary place. It is a sacred and holy place that should be treated as one would treat a church. Tread softly here.
Number 6. Cracker Swamp Road – Hastings, Fl.
Again, it is named after the Cracker cowboys who used to run their cows through this swamp. They were called Crackers due to the sound their whip made as they ran the cattle through the trees. Now that that is cleared up. It also is one of the least known, yet most haunted roads in St. Johns County. It runs from Hwy 13 to Hwy 207 and from the beginning to the end it has been marked by death.
Starting at the Hwy 13 end, the road runs under beautiful and old overhanging trees. A creek runs alongside it to the left, you can’t see it but it is there. That is Deep Creek and it comes to a sort of natural damn at the bridge, the water has to slow down to trickle through all the brush and stuff. This area is where quite a few unfortunate souls have been found having long departed this world. I believe the last one in the news was a young man about fifteen years ago. Sadly, that particular case is still unsolved.
My grandparents moved out here in the 90’s. They had a place in the middle of a damn field. Ridiculous isolation. When I came home from Virginia, my Grandmother was very adamant that I be careful driving on Cracker Swamp Road and she, with Grandpa’s backup, told me this story.
It happened to them after they first moved out there. Apparently it was a terribly stormy night. Grandma said the rain was awful, you couldn’t see anything and it was late, about midnight or so. All of a sudden there is this “framming” at the door. That’s how she used to describe violent knocking on her door, “framming” lol… Grandpa goes to open the door and there is this girl standing there, about 20 or so they figured, and she is soaking wet, muddy… A mess. She asked to use the phone and told them that her and her friends had run their car into the ditch. She had to climb out of the car and then get out of the ditch which was full of about 6 feet of water. She had to call 911, so they did…
That young lady and her friends were very lucky. Many others were not. Between the narrowness of the road, the incredibly deep ditches on either side of it, and the crazy young people who think they are at NASCAR out there, this is a dangerous road.
My Grandma had a different story about a young man who went into the ditch and drowned in his car. She used to point the place out where it happened every time we went by it just past the Ried Packing House intersection.
Might as well call this place in the road Death Valley, so many people have expired here due to car accidents. There was an unexplainable incident in 2016 where a young man in a pickup truck ran the stop sign there doing almost 80 miles an hour. He hit a lady and killed her, injured the other two passengers. It is the question that is answered by what? Youth, stupidity? When you look at how many people have expired in this particular intersection, maybe something else…
Ghost Gifts from Paranormal Florida
Moving down this road from here one will experience some beautiful scenery. It becomes shady and the trees curve over the road gracefully, creating a canopy with sunlight beaming through in dappled glory. All of a sudden it will spit you out into the wide open fields of Florida agriculture… Please hold your nose, that smell is old cabbage and manure…
The sky meets the land and you head through a safer, much less haunting intersection and back into the trees. Round this area is where the white lady has been seen most often. Careful here as she has run people off of the road with her appearances. It is very strange to see a white lady ghost slipping around the trees by the road but that is what she does. Sometimes she has been seen just standing there, between the road and the ditch. No one knows who she is, but people have some good ideas…
Sometimes you exist next to someone and never know who they are. We all know this. The impact of it though hits harder when you realize that who you knew and talked to regularly was a serial killer. One who you not only went to school with and knew, but ended up living and killing not too far from where you just moved.
St. Augustine is really a small town, my Grandfather, born and raised there. He didn’t know what to say at all when he found out about ol’ William Darrell Lindsey and what he had been doing down at the end of the road.
William Lindsey’s mom was a nurse, so was my Grandpa’s. He left Ketterlinus High School where my aunt graduated from, in 1956, the year my mother was born. Also in 1956 he moved to Palatka and began working at the Hudson Paper Mill. A place which almost 100 years later would be called Georgia Pacific, I myself worked there awhile.
Lindsey started to kill in 1983 and would not be caught until 1996. He would not be convicted of it until 1999. The year I came home from Virginia.
He chose his first victim as she was leaving the Tradewinds bar in downtown St. Augustine. My uncle was the bouncer there about that time.
The last two known victims of this asshole were never found. Consequently, he lived in a trailer off of Cracker Swamp Road, not too far from the intersection with Hastings Blvd., where the white lady is seen most often in the trees.
Ms. Haile had spent the day with him at his place there. Upon leaving to take her back where he picked her up, he beat her to death in the car before they even got to the end of the road. This was by his own admission and I am assuming that it was the end of Hastings Blvd. He said he threw her body in the creek… That would be Deep Creek again… He said, but she was never found.
The monster picked up one of his victims at the Pic N Save on King Street. Mom let me get my first pair of leopard spotted legging pants with zippers there… How strange it is, when you read these tales, these facts. It is an odd feeling to know how close you can be, walking along the same pathways, the same store aisles, as a dangerous and specialized killer. Then you wonder, how many? How many times? Probably way more than one…
Number 7. Poor Farm Cemetery – Palatka, Fl
There is sadness in the air out here in this desolate place. Fresh fill dirt covered roads leads back until you are warned that you have reached the end of county maintenance. Ponds and dry woods line the way along with the random trailer or house. It may feel like you are alone but I guarantee you are not. The memorial is directly at the end of the road, you can’t miss the small iron fencing around an even smaller mound.
To understand this whole thing, you must first understand a little about Palatka. It is a really cool place not many people know about. Home to one of the first mural painting societies in the state and the only art school in North Florida, it holds many hidden gems. One of them is the people. Good hearted souls that are not as “country” as you might think; it is no surprise to find that some of the nation’s neediest people found their way here.
Now, back in the early 1900’s there was no Social Security. No social services at all for people in this country who had nothing. Imagine that… If you were 98 years old with no family, couldn’t work and were sick, there was nothing for you to do but die where you lay sometimes. It was horrible, so when we think it’s bad now, I really need people to imagine life back then.
Palatka actually took care of them though and while the actions of the past didn’t really move forward into the future, that cannot reflect on citizens who care about those living and are in need.
Ghost Gifts from Paranormal Florida
The Poor House or the Poor Farm was society’s solution for the problem at the time. Anyone in America who was too poor, too sick, too crazy or just all around too messed up could go to the poor house or farm. They could go voluntarily or involuntarily. Certain writings say otherwise, but looking at documents, it seems people could leave when they wanted and come back. The Poor Farm in Palatka Florida was located off Hwy 17 and down Poor Farm Rd.
It wasn’t a big place but it was large enough to have a small clinic and beds for those who would normally just lay down and die on the side of the road. The county has published a record of those who died there and were buried in its mid-sized cemetery. The cemetery that is no longer there. Bodies and bones are still there, but no cemetery. Yeah…
This little mound and memorial is here for the bones which are under the road, parking lot, house next door and all around this area. There were at least 100 documented burials from the poor farm and that should encompass way more space than we are looking at here. The county seems to agree in this documentation.
It also seems the electric company had little regard for the cemetery on their newly acquired land when they bulldozed it. You can’t just blame them though, it was once county owned land. A county and electric company who nonchalantly and eventually after public outcry, figured it was only right to put a memorial up here… Maybe a poltergeist like situation was forming back at their homes, who knows?
At least there is one now, as opposed to hundreds of sites across Florida where the burials are still there and unacknowledged. Yes, you read that right. Better EMF sweep that new subdivision home you just got…
While it is an honorable thought, we must realize that it would take years of excavation of this entire site to find, gather and catalog all the bones that were strewn everywhere by the super needed, right there in that special spot, power line pole construction.
Number 8. Pierson Hotel – Pierson, Fl.
Fearless bastards. That is what I think of when I think about anyone trying to run booze up and down Highway 17 in the 1930’s, much less head across the Ocala National Forest. They did though. Florida has always been one of the major importers of contraband into the US. During Prohibition, rum runners coming into Miami would meet up with some of the hardest gangsters of the times and, like the St. John’s River, it ran in a Northerly direction.
Ninety percent of mobsters in the country found their way down here to Florida but I think one of the biggest was Al Capone. In fact he loved it so much he moved to Miami Beach in 1928. He lived out his days and died there but in the meantime, he loved roadtrips.
Back then Hwy 17 was a major road down the middle of Florida. It provided a straight shot from Jacksonville to Fort Myers and then on to Tampa and Miami. Of course there were some sweet little hotels, speakeasy’s, and boarding houses tucked all into the swamp along the way.
Pierson is about right in the middle of the road, almost directly east across the Ocala National Forest from Ma Barker’s house in Lake Weir. It is also the fern capital of the world, so next time you get an arrangement of flowers from the florist, know that the fern sprigs in there probably came from Pierson, Florida.
Driving along Hwy 17 to W. 2nd St. You would take a left there at Volusia Street and right on the left after that, is a very large Spanish style, gold/beige colored building. It is the only hotel in Pierson and it is a really neat place. I stayed there back in 2004 maybe? It is definitely haunted.
Spirits walked me down the hallways and smoked with me on the porch. Looking at photos of the room later on, apparently they hung out there as well… At the time the place was like a small boarding house or hostel and run by some super cool people. There were old black and white gangster photos in the main lobby or living area…
It was volunteered information that back in the day Al Capone had stayed here. While the ghosts in this place are prevalent and plentiful, I’m not sure Capone was here as it was built in 1947, the year that Capone died. So if not Capone, then who?
Ghost Gifts from Paranormal Florida
Funny you should ask… Like most dead towns in Florida, Pierson actually used to be a hoppin little place. When the railroad was booming of course. In fact, there was a citrus packing house in the late 1800’s and a store on this land in 1920’s. Next door to it, another store, The Pleasing Store to be exact. So in lieu of the fact that sometimes stores sold booze, maybe Mr. Capone did frequent the area. There were also two boarding houses within these two blocks. The ghosts could be anyone but they are definitely there.
Photo of Capone Fishing https://historydaily.org/life-of-al-capone-through-15-vintage-photos
Number 9. The Ocala National Forest – Ocala, Fl.
While most people visualize a haunted forest as looking like something from Hansel and Gretel, us here in Florida can easily picture something much different.
Sandspurs are pretty damn scary for one thing… Tall barren pine forests and dune type sand pits. Vines covered in thorns and Stinging nettle abounds. Palmettos full of Rattlesnakes, wild pigs, sand gnats, crazy people, and a relentless burning sun beaming down from above. Any shade is about a 2ft wide 100ft long strip. Yup…
Scary as hell… Even scarier when the forest is actually haunted by ghosts and evil spirits.
Once again we encounter a place where the ground has turned. Changed into something that emits strange energies and causes people to do even stranger things.
Where at one point in time this forest may have been like any other, human events have altered its future. This place is a mess. Go ahead, Google this: “murder ocala national forest”… Get ready for it and no, those are not all the same events. It would take half this page to list all of the murders that have occurred here since the mid 1990’s, it would take a book to list them all the way back into the 1920’s and probably beyond. This writer has done a good job listing a few here.
All of that is not to mention the natural deaths that happen in there though the murder numbers outweigh that by hundreds. There are slashed campers, murder-suicides, Aileen Wuornos (Daytona’s lady serial killer) victims, and people who literally accidentally shot themselves or others. This forest is our own little version of the Chelsea…
I see these places and I always wonder what happened? What causes such a problem that the Earth itself has a vendetta against humans walking on it in certain places? I always look too, always hoping it was some ancient thing under the ground, I don’t know, like some cursed old church or tomb. Maybe Cthulhu is living under the Forest or something like that… Some old witch’s curse..
It never is. Why would it? Curses that last for generations, life times… Thousands of years, those curses always come as a sort of karma for horrible acts and wrongs. It always involves theft and desecration of burials. Always murder and massacre. These are the grounds we have come to live on as a country. These are the things, actions we must always guard against.
There were three factions of Timuquana natives living in the Ocala forest area when Ponce De Leon arrived in 1513. In Florida as a whole, the native population was over 350,000 people. Over the course of the next 200 years there would be not one of the Timucua people left anywhere in the state. Massacre, disease, slavery, murder and suicide pretty much sealed the deal. All their villages, all their churches to the sky… All their things… Gone. Destroyed. Bits of broken clay pots and limestone in the sand. Bones… Shells… All the burial mounds that were in Silver Glen Springs are gone now… While the Timucuans are pretty much known to be a relatively peaceful band of natives, there were accounts of them doing and acting otherwise…
What Catholic priests and Spanish representatives wrote about the native tribes when they started living among them in the new land, could very well be bullshit.
Horror stories were told about them sacrificing and eating their babies, drinking blood, dancing with the devil and other debauched acts due to their savage ways. They must be converted of course and that seemed to be a good enough reason to do all the terrible things that were done to these people. If one hadn’t noticed, this was a common theme when anything other than Catholicism was encountered in those days.
On the other hand… These were primitive people living in a practical jungle. There have been certain findings that could possibly link these natives to the South American tribes who loved to sacrifice and kill things. So you never know. What we do know is that they did have elaborate ceremonies and rituals. Archaeology has proven that.
We also know that from the dawn of man, desecration of graves and sacred sites acted out on humans by other humans; Has always been taboo and tends to lead to some very bad situations…I think maybe the year that the worst curses were laid was 1538. That was the year that the Spanish DeSoto really pissed off the Timucua.
All of them, state wide. They vowed to kill all and any intruders. While they physically were unable to accomplish this in the long run, I’m sure some well laid supernatural plans were set for the future.
Number 10. Tomoka State Park – Daytona Beach, Fl.
Speaking of native Indian curses, I have to give it to this one. Went to camp out there one time and had to leave in the middle of the night. Dog wouldn’t stop barking and growling. Creatures prowled and rustled the bushes all night. Music and strange noises filled the air… There was no peace or sleep to be had…
It was Bike Week… I had forgotten… All R.V.’s and jokes aside, this park really does have a strange vibe to it. I’ve never been able to put my finger on it. It’s a peaceful enough park, but there is something… Something like a story from a science fiction novel.
Ghost Gifts from Paranormal Florida
There are two really popular stories about this place. One involves a pink cloud of gas that strips the flesh off of anything it comes in contact with. Just melts it into a puddle apparently. This cloud was also held accountable for a number of disappearances that had occurred over time. Knowing Daytona, it was no cloud making people disappear in there, just saying…
The other tale is about the Tomoka Lights which have been seen by many, many locals. The lights occur out on Tomoka Farms Road which runs through the park and out towards the intracoastal waterway. There are two of them and sometimes they travel together towards oncoming traffic, sometimes they split and run down either side of the road. As far as legends and curses go, it is said that the pink carnivorous cloud was a gift.. er…curse… from a prior Timucua chief named Tomokie.
Maybe the incredibly cool, campy and large statue of the chief that resides in the park is a peace offering… It was built in 1955 and that is just around the time that people stopped seeing the cloud and lights.
All legends aside there have been two occasions with 10 years apart, where two different men have been found dismembered in the park. In 2017 police seemed to have a solid person of interest in the cases. The park was also the sad dumping grounds for serial killer Gerald Stanos and the spirit of a young lady has been seen often around the river.
The Fairchild Oak up the road is a place worth checking out for some real feels as well. This particular oak has been the accomplice to at least two deaths. The first episode was where the owner of the property was found dead under it for no apparent reason. The second was an actual suicide that took place resulting in another dead man in about the same location as the first, under the tree. Needless to say, one can be hit with immeasurable amounts of sadness in this sorrowful and suicidal little park.
Number 11. Possibly Any Hotel Room – Anywhere, Fl.
Especially the lower grades and ones nearest the highways. I think it was two years ago or so, we went down to Tampa for a birthday. The hotel we stayed at was nice enough, pool, not cheap… We woke up in the morning to the paramedics in the parking lot and a nurse (who was staying at the hotel for a convention) telling me the story of how she tried to revive the guy in the room but he was already dead when she got there. Apparently he had overdosed. Being that she was in the room next door she heard the commotion and blammo, she was involved…
Just one of the more recent experiences I have had in a Florida hotel room. The Grand Seas in Daytona Beach, Super 8 Wyndham Resort in Orlando Room 206, Seven Sisters Inn in Ocala, St. Francis Inn in St. Augustine… I think you get the picture. These are really haunted places. I hated being alone in the hallways of the Grand Seas when we would go over there to swim in the pool. Creepiest thing I swear. Like things were looking at you from both directions…
Those hotels listed are just the fancy ones. Imagine what you will encounter in some of the shitty roadside dives near the exit ramps. If you don’t believe me you can check out this Roadside America account of the Fairview Inn in Port Orange. Like they say, if you can’t stay in Room 9 where Ms. Wuornos did, you can check out Room 4 where two men dismembered a young lady in 2007.
Please, please, bring that Holy Water and Sage… Better yet, just sleep in the car.
Number 12. Villa Paula – Miami, Fl.
This is one beautiful home. Seems though, they have a really hard time keeping it leased or sold. Since it was built for the wife of the Cuban Consulate in 1926, many believe that the home is haunted by her ghost, and maybe it is. There just aren’t too many one-legged, long dress wearing, coffee drinking and piano playing ghosts and that would fit the perfect description of Mrs. Paula Milord herself.
Guess it depends on how much she loved the home because sources say that she did not die there, nor was she buried in the backyard as suggested by the stone box that is back there. So once again, what could be the real story?
Ghost Gifts from Paranormal Florida
Maybe it goes back farther than Mrs. Paula, maybe there is an ill fortune connected to the home from the beginning. The lady did suffer with illness and had a leg amputated before she died. Oddly enough she wasn’t given a headstone either. Strange for a woman of her status.
Looking at the history of the area before this mansion was built here, I discovered a monster tornado had blown through here in April of 1925. It killed 5, wounded hundreds and left countless numbers missing. All of the homes and properties in it’s path were obliterated.
The area where Villa Paula sits now was in the direct line of this tornado before it exited out of Miami Shores. So I wonder… who and/or what sat there before the beautiful, regularly vacant, and cantankerously haunted Villa Paula.
Number 13. Apollo 1 Launch Pad – Cape Canaveral, Fl.
Some things you never forget. The fact that most Floridians grew up next to the idea of imminent space travel is something people should consider about us. Space, the Final Frontier, is not so far fetched an idea to some of us.
In the 80’s it never occurred to us that one of those brilliant rockets, shooting up into the sky like a fiery reversed shooting star, would ever explode over us. One did though. I was standing on my Aunt Millie’s front porch watching the launch… I’m sure half of Florida was, it has always been a big deal. We saw it go up… and then burst apart like fireworks in the sky.
My mom sucking in her breath was what I heard, I was a little kid, I had no idea what happened. My aunt and mom did though and rushed us all into the trailer. One of those strange moments in time. Later on, after I learned what happened, it would horrify me and still kind of does.
The people involved in the shuttle test for Apollo I that day were much more horrified by what they witnessed and went through. Three men died when the capsule of the shuttle caught on fire. They had sat there all day trying to get things together. It just never happened. It was painful for everyone involved and that pain resonates in the isolation of the launch pad to this very day.
I remember the first time I got to tour Cape Canaveral. I was in Space Camp and about 10 I think? I was amazed at how desolate it is out there. At least it was in the early 80’s. Burning sun on white pavement and scrub bushes. The gift shop was in an empty parking lot landscaped by palmettos and stinging nettles. It has been a long time since I’ve seen Cape Canaveral or what it has now become but the area which was the Apollo 1 site is now a memorial.
Ghost Gifts from Paranormal Florida
People are welcome to go out there read the plaque and stand in the place where men gave their lives for space exploration and their dreams. Where such energy, such desperation was expelled, trying to save their lives. Such sadness when that didn’t occur.
It was breathtaking as a child and I’m sure it is no different today.
If you are planning a trip out there to Launch Complex 34, be sure to check the tour website at the Kennedy Space Center and make sure the base is open. Yes, it is an actual military base so you should definitely call ahead or make proper arrangements that reflect this. Don’t forget your identification!
Aliens
Yeah… Florida has aliens. Alll kinds. But are they little green men from Mars??? Hmmm… With the Space Center right here and constantly shooting things up into the atmosphere, one would think that Florida would be number one for alien visitations.
Either NASA, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration, doesn’t want the bad press, or, the aliens are still trying to get their ship out of Roswell. There just aren’t that many alien encounters here. We see things in the sky…
One must keep in mind though that it’s not just NASA shooting things from the Earth, we also have one of the world’s largest Navy bases here and God knows what else. My current interests are just the tip of the iceberg I’m sure…
When looking for Aliens one of the best sites to access would be the National UFO Reporting Center. They update daily information on all things alien related. What was seen in the sky and where.
Here in Florida there have been a plethora of reported cases of activity in the night sky over many years but some of them really do stand out. In 1952 a boy scout leader investigated some strange lights he saw descend from the sky into the woods. Though discredited as a hoax for no real reason, his account of his encounter with an actual alien ship near West Palm, looks more like a true story to me.
There was another popular event in Gulf Coast in the eighties but that has since been proven to be a hoax.
NASA is the next place, and why not? It is where all of our space related activity is centered no?
NASA began in 1958 as a result to the Russian satellite Sputnik which was launched in 1957. 1957 to 1975 was NASA’s time to shine and they did.
They had full funding from the Feds to beat the Russians to the Moon and we did. It’s not a conspiracy, they went. Unfortunately it seems after this goal was met, things shifted downward. Funding was lost and hard to get, private entrepreneurs became involved.
In response to our current Earth crisis, it seems it is gaining momentum again as we look towards space as an alternative to our current but future destroyed home.NASA admits they are looking for new life in space. You can check out their progress at this website. It is no secret that they believe in aliens but have they had any successes? Last year in 2019 they teamed up with SETI, the Search for Extraterrestrial
Intelligence Institute, to really get to the bottom of all the extraterrestrial sounds that they hear coming out of space. Scientists have decided to launch a satellite for this very purpose. As of yet, no one has had any proven contact with aliens from other planets.
Ghost Gifts from Paranormal Florida
Maybe they just don’t want to be found and many scientists have suggested this very thing. Between the slaughtered cattle, strange crop circles and the whole thought of alien abductions and probes; I tend to lean towards Stephen Hawking’s theory that contact with aliens may turn out to be very bad for us indeed.
Apparently Mr. Hawking was not the only one to think this, despite our very low rate of alien contact in general, Florida is one of the very, very rare states that offers insurance for alien abduction.
References:
Ghosts:
http://staugustineghosttours.net/timucua-are-alive-and-well/
https://ufdc.ufl.edu/USACH00516/00005 Bones at Aviles and Charlotte Streets
https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/remains-early-colonists-unearthed-st-augustine-180962385/ Bones under Wine Shop
https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/remains-early-colonists-unearthed-st-augustine-180962385/
https://oldcityghosts.com/the-haunts-of-the-spanish-hospital/ https://riskandinsurance.com/the-day-the-dike-breaks/
https://www.tripadvisor.com/ShowUserReviews-g34599-d85724-r292075795-Casa_Monica_Resort_Spa_Autograph_Collection-St_Augustine_Florida.html
https://www.hauntedjourneys.com/haunted-inns/1544-haunted-florida-casa-monica-hotel
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lake_Okeechobee
Ghost Towns:
Rosewood
https://www.tampabay.com/data/2018/06/06/the-last-house-in-rosewood/
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rosewood_massacre
Pine Level
https://scholarcommons.usf.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=4940&context=etd
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pine_Level,_DeSoto_County,_Florida
https://www.flpublicarchaeology.org/blog/wcrc/2014/10/13/pine-level-townsite-makes-it-to-the-national-register-of-historic-places/
13 Haunted Locations:
- Coon Hill Cemetery, Jay
https://hauntedplacesofusa.blogspot.com/2009/09/formerly-posted-as-being-in-jay-coon.html
http://www.jayhistoricalsociety.org/pioneerstories/Coon_Hill_Cemetery.pdf
http://www.ghostsofamerica.com/3/Florida_Jay_ghost_sightings.html - Olustee Battlefield
https://www.floridastateparks.org/parks-and-trails/olustee-battlefield-historic-state-park
http://battleofolustee.org/battle.html
https://www.sun-sentinel.com/news/fl-xpm-1998-10-30-9810280104-story.html
http://www.southernspiritguide.org/florida-hauntings-county-by-county-part-i/
https://books.google.com/books?id=j3t3V6rYEswC&pg=PA54&lpg=PA54&dq=olustee+battlefield+ghosts&source=bl&ots=wa2oAHNh76&sig=ACfU3U0RJtTV_vvBmfs_VlFshatkP4Xh2g&hl=en&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwiJtpWsvfXoAhUCaq0KHfNVAn04ChDoATACegQICBAB#v=onepage&q=olustee%20battlefield%20ghosts&f=false
- Kingsley Plantation, Jacksonville
https://www.thejaxsonmag.com/article/old-red-eyes-and-the-ghosts-of-kingsley-plantation/
https://www.hauntjaunts.net/black-history-month-the-ghosts-of-kingsley-plantation/ - The Old Clay County Courthouse
https://www.claytodayonline.com/stories/ghost-hunters-encounter-spirits-at-old-jail,880
http://archives.clayclerk.com/paranormal/ - San Sebastian Cemetery, St. Augustine
http://fpangoingpublic.blogspot.com/2017/03/san-sebastian-cemetery-recording.html
https://www.staugustine.com/article/20150503/NEWS/305039934
https://drgraveyard.com/african-americanchristian-burial-artifacts-and-their-symbolism/ - Cracker Swamp Road, Hastings
https://www.sjso.org/community-resources/unsolved-homicides/
https://www.staugustine.com/news/20180601/sheriffs-office-arrests-man-in-connection-with-fatal-2016-crash
http://maamodt.asp.radford.edu/Psyc%20405/serial%20killers/Lindsey,%20William%20Darrell%20-%20fall,%202005.pdf
https://murderpedia.org/male.L/l/lindsey-william-darrell.htm - Poor Farm Cemetery, Palatka
https://www.thefencepost.com/news/the-poor-farm/
https://www.abcactionnews.com/news/region-hillsborough/new-claims-surface-that-thousands-could-be-buried-under-hillsborough-forgotten-poor-farm
http://putnam-fl-cemeteries.org/Cemeteries/POOR%20FARM/PoorFarm.htm
http://putnam-fl-cemeteries.org/Cemeteries/POOR%20FARM/Pofarm2.htm
http://putnam-fl-cemeteries.org/Cemeteries/monument_for_poor_farm_cemetery.htm - Pierson Hotel, Pierson
https://www.ocala.com/article/LK/20070429/News/604229840/OS
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ma_Barker
https://www.orlandosentinel.com/news/os-xpm-1990-08-02-9008010763-story.html
https://www.recoveryfirst.org/florida-history-drugs-crime/
http://maps1.vcgov.org/EcoTourism/HistoricWalkTour/PIERSON.pdf
Fern Capital of the World https://www.myoldflorida.com/pierson.html - Ocala National Forest
https://www.gainesville.com/article/LK/20060115/News/604163999/GS
http://kidnappingmurderandmayhem.blogspot.com/2008/06/dark-forest.html
https://www.ocala.com/article/LK/20030101/News/604228845/OS
https://floridatrailblazer.com/2018/03/14/tishler-indian-mound-in-ocala-national-forest/
https://www.jaxhistory.org/jacksonville-first-residents/timucuan-spiritual-beliefs/
https://www.colemanconcierge.com/true-scary-stories-suwannee/
https://fsu.digital.flvc.org/islandora/object/fsu:176115/datastream/PDF/view - Tomoka State Park Daytona Beach
https://www.ormondbeachobserver.com/article/tomoka-lights-ufos-or-just-swamp-gas
https://www.roadsideamerica.com/tip/23969
https://www.news-journalonline.com/news/20180119/police-daytona-woman-who-killed-dismembered-boyfriend-is-linked-to-similar-cold-case
https://www.news-journalonline.com/news/20200109/canadian-killerrsquos-sentence-trimmed-but-he-remains-in-florida-for-1986-murder
https://www.news-journalonline.com/news/20190116/serial-killer-gerald-stano-of-ormond-was-executed-20-years-ago
https://www.daytonabeach.com/blog/post/myth-or-fact-hear-the-haunted-story-of-the-fairchild-oak/ - Room 206 Super 8 Motel Orlando
https://www.hauntedplaces.org/item/super-8-international-drive/
https://www.orlandohauntedhouses.com/blog/orlandos-haunted-history-will-make-you-a-believer.html
https://www.roadsideamerica.com/story/41509 - Villa Paula Miami
http://www.cassisburkecollection.com/villa-paula-the-haunted-jewel-of-miami/
https://www.miaminewtimes.com/news/is-miamis-former-cuban-consulate-villa-paula-really-haunted-11297543
https://networks.h-net.org/node/28441/discussions/76005/history-cuban-embassy-16th-street
https://journals.ametsoc.org/doi/abs/10.1175/1520-0493(1925)53%3C145%3ATTOANM%3E2.0.CO%3B2
http://www.floridahistorynetwork.com/april-5-1925—great-miami-tornado-kills-5-destroys-250-homes.html - Apollo 1 Launch Pad Cape Canaveral
https://www.vice.com/en_us/article/9adbba/apollo-fire-feature
https://www.smithsonianmag.com/science-nature/legacy-apollo-1-disaster-180961917/
https://www.kennedyspacecenter.com/explore-attractions/behind-the-gates/cape-canaveral-early-space-tour
Aliens
http://www.nuforc.org/
https://www.history.com/news/ufo-encounter-florida-desvergers-scoutmaster-burned
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gulf_Breeze_UFO_incident
https://history.nasa.gov/factsheet.htm
https://www.seti.org/about-us/mission
https://www.businessinsider.com/why-no-contact-with-aliens-2019-9#today-powerful-space-telescopes-are-changing-our-understanding-of-the-cosmos-nasas-planet-hunting-kepler-space-telescope-which-launched-in-2009-discovered-more-than-2000-exoplanets-by-the-time-it-retired-in-2018-2
https://phys.org/news/2019-10-nasa-telescope-board-intelligent-aliens.html
https://www.businessinsider.com/why-no-contact-with-aliens-2019-9#today-powerful-space-telescopes-are-changing-our-understanding-of-the-cosmos-nasas-planet-hunting-kepler-space-telescope-which-launched-in-2009-discovered-more-than-2000-exoplanets-by-the-time-it-retired-in-2018-2
https://www.theguardian.com/science/2010/apr/30/stephen-hawking-right-aliens