Randi Minetor - Death in the Everglades: Accidents, Foolhardiness, and Mayhem in South Florida

Writing is a solitary process but publishing is a business, and for this I am very grateful to the supremely talented team at Lyons Press for their work on all of the books in this series. For Death in the Everglades I thank Rick Rinehart, who had the foresight to commission the first book decades agoDeath in Yellowstone, by Lee Whittleseyand who now sees the potential in broadening this series beyond the confines of specific national parks. As always, the crack Lyons teamthis time, production editor Jessica Thwaite, layout artist Joanna Beyer, and cover artist Ponderosa Pine Designhave done an excellent job in bringing this book to fruition.

I contacted many sources in attempting to verify information I found about various crimes, accidents, and other incidents, but only a few responded: Tully Lehman at the National Insurance Crime Bureau; Tammy Sapp and Melody Kilbourn at the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission; Col. James Vitali, undersheriff in the DeSoto County Sheriffs Office; Mona Rzeszewski, office specialist, Central Records Bureau, Collier County Sheriffs Office; and Tacita Barrera, archivist assistant at Ripleys Believe It Or Not! Others did me the courtesy of responding to let me know they could not help me, including Jacquie Weisblum, vice president of communications and engagement at the Everglades Foundation, and Karie Partington, media relations bureau manager at the Collier County Sheriffs Office. An astonishing number of others did not acknowledge my requests for information, but I have found this to be par for the course in writing a book of this nature.

In addition, my old high school friend Lawrence Margolis, Miami attorney, did me the favor of sorting out how a uniquely Everglades-based insurance fraud scheme works so I could warn my readers about it. The upshot: Run a check on the vehicle identification number (VIN) before you buy a used car.

Its long past time that I give tribute to the amazing service offered by Newspapers.com, which provides online access to the archives of more than twenty thousand newspaper titles, including all of the major newspapers in Florida. This service has made it possible for me to find information that had been locked away in morgues of clippings for many decades, key ingredients in telling a complete story and sorting out fact from fiction.

My agent, dear friend, and advisor Regina Ryan made the connections that brought me into this series, and I cannot say enough about her guidance and friendship over the last sixteen years. I was lucky to find her when I made the decision to become a travel writer; this relationship changed my life for the better. Thank you again, pal.

To the friends who are forever ready to hear my stories as I sit in my little office and write and who are equally ready with drinks and celebration when a manuscript is delivered, you have no idea what your support means to me. Ken Horowitz and Rose-Anne Moore, Lisa Jaccoma, Kevin Hyde, Bruce Barton, Martha and Peter Schermerhorn, Ruth Watson and John King, Cindy Blair, my cousins Paula and Rich Landis, and Diane and Chris Hardy always have my back.

And finally, and always, my husband, Nic Minetor, sits through the gruesome descriptions over dinner of the nasty stuff I discover, makes sure that I eat and take days off, supports my writing habit, and remains my rock after thirty-seven years. No one takes the brunt of these books like he does, and for this I am eternally grateful. On to the next.

Associated Press, Babbitt Seals Swampland Buy, Florida Today, February 12, 1998, B-1, www.newspapers.com/image/174948663/?terms=death%20%22Everglades%20National%20Park%22&match=1.

Daytona Gazette-News, The End of the Everglades, June 29, 1901, 4, www.newspapers.com/image/76294221/?terms=death%20Everglades&match=1.

Detroit Free Press, Floridas State Land Opening, January 9, 1910, 15, www.newspapers.com/image/118653393/?terms=death%20everglades&match=1.

Miami News, Exhibition Farm and Two Dredges Will Help, August 13, 1909, 1, www.newspapers.com/image/297523048/?terms=death%20everglades&match=1.

Tampa Bay Times, Bush Signs Law to Help Restore Everglades, May 17, 2000, 44, www.newspapers.com/image/327301570/?terms=Everglades%20death&match=1.

Arkansas Gazette, Belle Starrs Husband, February 21, 1889, 4, www.newspapers.com/image/138023343/?terms=%22E.A.%20Watson%22&match=1.

Arkansas Gazette, Captured and Jailed, September 19, 1889, 5, www.newspapers.com/image/134042449/?terms=%22E.A.%20Watson%22&match=1.

Arkansas Gazette, Charged With the Murder, February 9, 1889, 1, www.newspapers.com/image/138022970/?terms=%22E.A.%20Watson%22&match=1.

Charles W. Tebeau, The Story of Chokoloskee Bay Country (Coral Gables, FL: University of Miami Press, 1955), 7781.

Coastal Breeze News, The Story of Edgar J. Watson: The Infamous Businessman & Serial Killer, December 17, 2020, www.coastalbreezenews.com/opinion/columnists/the-story-of-edgar-j-watson-the-infamous-businessman-serial-killer/article_e53a5f09-ff02-5b4f-9273-a0753cfbf46e.html#tncms-source=login.

Daily Arkansas Gazette, Insufficient Evidence, February 24, 1889, 1, www.newspapers.com/image/138023424/?terms=%22E.A.%20Watson%22&match=1.

Fort Pierce News, Some State Happenings, March 25, 1910, 8, www.newspapers.com/image/61701213/?terms=%22Leslie%20Cox%22escape&match=1.

Fort Smith Elevator, Trial of E. A. Watson, March 2, 1889, 4, www.newspapers.com/image/30430780/?terms=Belle%20Starr&match=1.

Gainesville Daily Sun, Mike Tolen, a Prominent Farmer Residing, March 26, 1908, 5, www.newspapers.com/image/98488370/?terms=%22Mike%20Tolen%22&match=1.

Indian Citizen, A. E. Watson, Accused of Murdering Belle Star, Atoka, OK, March 16, 1889, 2, www.newspapers.com/image/611444084/?terms=Belle%20Starr&match=1.

John OConnor, The Legend of Chokoloskee, Oxford American, November 9, 2015, https://main.oxfordamerican.org/magazine/item/695-the-legend-of-chokoloskee.

Kansas City Gazette, Belle Starr, Mo., March 7, 1889, 4, www.newspapers.com/image/367228395/?terms=Belle%20Starr&match=1.

Nixon Smiley, Witness Was LynchedMurders Unsolved, Miami Herald, October 27, 1968, 4D, www.newspapers.com/image/621683576/?terms=death%20%22Ten%20Thousand%20Islands%22&match=1.

Ocala Banner, Mike Tolen, a Prominent Columbia County Farmer, April 3, 1908, 9, www.newspapers.com/image/194784512/?terms=%22Mike%20Tolan%22&match=1.

Peter Matthiessen, Shadow Country Trilogy: Lost Mans River (New York: Modern Library, 2008).

Richard D. Arnott, Belle Starr, historynet.com, www.historynet.com/belle-starr.htm.

Tahlequah Arrow, Belle Starr, Okla., February 21, 1889, 4, www.newspapers.com/image/657441346/?terms=Belle%20Starr&match=1.

Tampa Tribune, Big Murder Trial in Madison Today, December 14, 1908, 5, www.newspapers.com/image/326021365/?terms=%22E.J.%20Watson%22&match=1.

Tampa Tribune, Death in Cane-Mill, January 14, 1904, 1, www.newspapers.com/clip/70613641/bob-daniels-dies-working-for-e-j/.

Tampa Tribune, Farmer Murdered as His Brother Was Last Summer, March 25, 1908, 1, www.newspapers.com/image/325748178/?terms=%22Mike%20Tolen%22&match=1.

Tampa Tribune, Two Men and Woman Are Murdered in Lee, October 25, 1910, 1, www.newspapers.com/image/326590932/?terms=%22Ellen%20Smith%22&match=1.

Weekly Tribune, Murderers of Three Killed by Posse Resisting Arrest, Tampa, FL, October 27, 1910, 1, www.newspapers.com/image/327943598/?terms=E.%20J.%20Watson&match=1.