Mark Muncy - Eerie Florida: Chilling Tales from the Panhandle to the Keys

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Published by The History Press

Charleston, SC

www.historypress.net

Copyright 2017 by Mark Muncy

All rights reserved

Cover: Florida state seal as enhanced by Kari Schultz, 2017.
Opposite: Retro postcard of Florida. Courtesy of the St. Petersburg Museum of History.

All images are by the author unless otherwise noted.

First published 2017

e-book edition 2017

ISBN 978.1.43966.231.1

print edition ISBN 978.1.62585.985.3

Library of Congress Control Number: 2017940953

Notice: The information in this book is true and complete to the best of our knowledge. It is offered without guarantee on the part of the author or The History Press. The author and The History Press disclaim all liability in connection with the use of this book.

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form whatsoever without prior written permission from the publisher except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews.

CONTENTS

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

Kari and I know that no book ever appears from just the author and illustrator. This book is no exception. Wed like to thank primarily Marta Jones and the wonderful folks at the St. Petersburg Museum of History for all their help and support in finding so many of the amazing pictures and much of the history you will find in this book. We have to thank Deborah Fretham and Doug Stenroos (aka The Sheriff) for inspiring us with so many ghostly tales and weaving them with history between St. Petersburg and St. Augustine, respectively. We want to seriously thank Nancy Alloy and Amanda Leaders at Books at Park Place for covering so many shifts while I wrote this and for years of support. Wed like to thank our friends, the staff of Trader Joes in St. Petersburg, without whom we wouldnt be able to afford to feed ourselves, let alone travel the state. The crew has so many fun people to work with that the place truly is more like a family than just a job.

A very special thank-you to all our editors who helped get our rough first draft into fine form, including Marks previous coauthor Elizabeth Abbott, the incomparable Laura Kelleher, the charming Prudence Monroe, the multitalented Susan Irving, the dearest Kim Dunn, the wonderful hostess of Haunted Heritage Hikes in St. Petersburg Stephanie Moffett, the amazing Dani Seequin, the divine twosome of Kaitlyn and Jennifer Brass, quick-witted Tammy Ramsey, the astonishing Kim Kelly, the astounding Ivy Redfield, the spectacular Emory Morris and the incredible Valerie McBurney. A special big thank-you to Brandy Stark of SPIRITS of St. Petersburg for some fodder for additional material and lending a late assist with the edits as well.

Id love to thank my Hellview Cemetery family, who put up with our madness for over twenty years. Dale Aden Jr., Amanda Warrant, Nick Tinnerello, Madison Meeks, Sally Gage, Leisa Clark, Pat Simmons, Zachary Ryan and so many others, we couldnt have done it without you. Several of them also assisted with early reads and suggested edits. We, of course, have to thank Jimmy Haugh, who dug that fateful first grave and found the bones that started this whole journey.

A heartfelt thank-you to all the wonderful folks at The History Press! Amanda Irle, you are incredible and made of pure win!

Finally, we need to thank our families. We shall soon be joining these two groups together as one by marriage, but we are already one large family anyway. Beth and Callie have welcomed Kari with open arms. A big thank-you to Dan Blastorah for all the wonderful crab meat, BBQ and for already treating us like family. Mark even got permission from Kathy Schultz and Paul Schultz before asking Kari to marry him, which means he must be OK in their book.

INTRODUCTION

Florida is known for so many things. It is home to world-class beaches that surround the state on three sides. It is where we reach for the stars at the Florida Space Coast. It is home to the amazing tourist attraction capital of the world in Orlando. So much fun can be found in this amazing state all the way down to the wonderfully wacky Florida Keys. The state draws tourists by the millions, and every year, more and more people move to the state in record numbers. There is one more thing the state is known for, and that is crazy stories about crazy people and places.

In 1984, I was one of those people whose families decided it was time to move to Florida and leave the cold winters of the Midwest behind. My father was with the Greyhound Bus corporation and had come down to Tampa Bay in 1980 when the Skyway Bridge disaster occurred. Despite the tragic reason for his visit, he became enchanted with the area, mostly due to one amazing sunset. When he retired for health reasons a few years later, he knew St. Petersburg was to be our home.

As with any family, we visited lots of places all over the state. I was just starting high school at the time and began my first solo journeys into this wonderful state when I was able. Being attracted to the creative arts more than sports, much to my fathers original disappointment, I started working in local theaters, Renaissance festivals and even the occasional TV or voice-over gig. When my favorite time of year finally arrived, I would seek out the areas haunted houses, eventually even working for Halloween Horror Nights at Universal Studios as a scareactor.

By this time, I was a father of two, and I decided that family time was more important than scaring tourists, but my love of Halloween was very powerful. I decided to decorate my house and build a haunted house display. When digging a grave in my front yard in St. Petersburg, we discovered a mess of seashells and bones just a foot or so into the earth. When my comrade in arms, Jimmy, thought some of the remains might be human, we called the authorities. They told us it was probably a midden and theyd send somebody from the Junior College to check it out.

I had been to Serpent Mound in Ohio and had lived in South Charleston, West Virginia, where a mound dominated the center of its downtown area. Having watched so many horror movies hosted by legendary horror host Dr. Paul Bearer, my mind began to wonder what ancient evil I had unearthed. The archaeologist who came out was polite and told us this was just a shell midden and we could dig away, but to be on the lookout for any pottery or tools.

As he left, he said, Im just glad it wasnt one of the lost cemeteries.

My mind raced with the prospect of lost cemeteries. I had lived in the bay area for a number of years and had never heard about missing cemeteries. I started researching them that very night. This was in the early days of the Internet, and I even had to go to my favorite place in the world: the library. It wasnt long before I read about a few of the missing cemeteries, and one name stood out: Hillview Cemetery. The Tales from the Crypt fan in me knew my little haunted yard was going to become Hellview Cemetery and the lost graveyards of Tampa Bay would rise up every Halloween.

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