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Haunted Florida: Spooky Yarns From Your Own Backyard
Florida's
Ghostly Legends and Haunted Folklore by Greg Jenkins
(Volume
1: South and Central Florida, Pineapple Press, Paperback, 267 pp., $14.95 and Volume 2: North Florida and St. Augustine,
Pineapple Press, Paperback, 186 pp $12.95)
Reviewed by Molly McGreevy
You’re still sweating in a pair of shorts, and the lush
palms sway in the humid breeze.. How can you experience a spine-tingling chill the Floridian way? Greg Jenkins, an amateur ghost hunter and investigator of Florida’s folkloric history, has traveled from the
Keys to Tampa to Orlando and all the way up to St Augustine to explore haunted mansions, inns, restaurants, psychiatric hospitals,
cemeteries—even a Winn-Dixie supermarket. While visiting, he finds residents willing to share their
community ghost stories. The result is an enjoyable compilation of “true” ghost tales set in
two volumes: Florida's Ghostly Legends and Haunted Folklore, Volume 1: South and Central Florida and Volume
2: North Florida and St Augustine (a third volume, The Gulf Coast and Pensacola, is forthcoming next month),
that help you explore for yourself the dark underbelly of our Sunshine State. And some of the tales Jenkins
digs up will certainly haunt you. December, 1972. After Eastern
Airline Flight 401’s fatal crash into the Everglades, a night rescue worker steers his boat towards an area where he
hears loud sobbing. Peering down into the “dark waters, he saw…a bleach-white face of a man,
his blank eye sockets staring up at him with his mouth opening and closing as if trying to scream.” When
he turned back, there was “No survivor . . . no body . . . nothing.” To this day, on dark foggy
nights, some claim the victims of this crash can be seen hulking together in groups of fifty to a hundred, a dark mass of
souls searching for their way out of the swamp. Passing through Oviedo on her way
to work early one morning, a woman spots three children in white gowns walking through a field. Since the
children look distraught, perhaps lost, she pulls over, shining her headlights into dark. But “when
she got to the middle of the field, however, an icy chill overcame her, and she finally noticed she was alone.”
These are the young siblings who died in an 1878 carriage accident, their mother the only survivor. For generations
they have been “wandering a portion of these desolate celery fields in the early hours of particular foggy mornings…looking
for their mother.” The shadow people of the Sugar Mill Ruins in
New Smyrna Beach are “very dark, almost black shadows that creep into dense trees at dusk and climb onto the walls and
rubble,” watching the tourists who visit there. Locals believe these are the spirits of Native Americans
killed in the Seminole Wars of the 1800s. Some tales call back figures from a fading past,
but others include Florida’s more famous players. Henry Flagler appears from time to time in the
lobby of his Hotel Ponce (now Flagler College), while strange lights flutter from its fourth floor’s mirrored suite,
where his distressed mistress once hanged herself from a chandelier. Meanwhile, in his Whitehall Mansion
in Palm Beach, his third wife Mary Lily smashes the heirlooms Flagler left to his children. In the Castillo
de San Marcos in St Augustine, the remains of a young lady and her lover were found shackled inside a hidden dungeon, buried
alive by the fort’s part-commander and jealous husband, Colonel Marti. In St. Petersburg, the real
estate developer Thomas Rowe still resides at his magnificent Don CeSar hotel, appearing some days on the beachside courtyard,
staring out at the sea. These and many more are lovingly written by Jenkins,
who has a knack for spooky stories and a passion for local history. Each chapter is divided into three
sections. “A Little History” begins with a detailed history of the locale and its people as
it concerns the modern-day spirits. “Ghostly Legends and Haunted Folklore” contains the ghost
narratives retold in Jenkin’s own voice using interviews and hearsay from local townspeople. And
the final section “Afterthoughts” gives good-humored ghost-hunting advice, such as “If …you hear
a moan or low mutterings coming from an old darkened room, don’t walk out . . . run!” This
last section sometimes offers driving directions, hotel phone numbers, and for the more scientifically-minded, suggestions
about what paranormal equipment should be brought to best record the event. If you’re not sure what
an EMF Detector is, you can always check it out in Appendix A: Tools of the Modern Ghosthunter. Jenkins, who conducts psychic investigations and is founder of the Florida Psychical Research Group, sprinkles these
stories with his own asides regarding the paranormal: Is the old Princeton Hospital haunted? That
may be hard to say for those who choose not to believe, but for the paranormal investigator…the hospital does indeed
appear to be haunted. One thing is for sure, the security officers who heard voices echoing and the shaking
of locked doors and the technician who saw the dead eyes staring through the restraining room’s window, they believe….wouldn’t
you? You may turn your nose at such ideas, even chuckle as you accompany him doing
a field test on the “tripping” seventh stair at the Casa Marina Hotel, but for me, I choose to see a man whose
poetic sensibility leads him to believe the psychic energy of the “unfortunate past” must be buried alive in our
present-day lives. The spirit of the past is all around us, just waiting to be noticed—if only
we are willing to stop and pay attention. So read these tales. Enjoy
the Florida folklore. But don’t be so sure these are yarns for your pure amusement. You
never know who—or what—might be staring in your bedroom window. Jenkins might advise to close
the curtains and lock your doors while reading. I did . . . Wouldn’t you?
Molly
McGreevy lives in Miami and is an MFA student at FIU. As far as she knows, there is currently no paranormal
activity in her backyard.
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| Stranahan House Ghost |
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Pirates and Buried Treasure on Florida Islands by Jack Beater
(Great Outdoors, Paperback,
118 pp., $4.95)
Reviewed by James Barrett-Morison
José Gaspar, born in Spain in 1756, was a pirate from the first. He started his piracy at
age twelve, when he kidnapped a neighbor's daughter and held her for ransom. That thirst for piracy remained in
him, despite his rise as a naval officer. When he was betrayed by a wealthy princess and a Prime Minister of Spain,
his immediate instinct was to commandeer a ship and begin his notorious life of piracy.
Pirates and Buried Treasure on Florida Islands tells of the exploits of Gaspar, later known as Gasparilla, and those
around him. His chapter, the first and longest, is also the one that holds the rest of the book together. Nearly
every one of the vignettes is tied in to him in some way, telling of islands he or his pirate mates inhabited, of those who
worked with or against him, or of the treasure he may have left behind.
Nothing
in Pirates and Buried Treasure on Florida Islands should be taken as fact, as most of it is hearsay. The publisher
inserted a note at the beginning of the book saying, “. . . the stories in this book are a mixture of historic fact,
myth, and fabrication. Serious historians don't accept the exploits attributed to José Gaspar as being true and
accurate, and many deny that he existed at all.” While the author, Jack Beater, who wrote this book in the 1950s
and died in 1969, seems to have no doubt of Gaspar’s existence, he does caution several times that the information he
gives should not be used for treasure hunting.
Nevertheless, the book is still
a rich resource for the history of the islands off of Florida's southwest coast. Boca Grande is central, as it was
Gasparilla's primary base, but others also played a role. Sanibel was home to Henri Caesar, a black pirate who made
a deal with Gasparilla: Caesar could live on Sanibel if he guarded the mouth of Pine Island Sound from the Spanish (and, later,
the Americans). The book tells of the name origins of a number of these islands. Captiva was used to house rich
and aristocratic women being held for ransom. Pavilion Key is named for the pavilion constructed there as the temporary
home of a captive Dutchwoman, Kaaren Van Bokkelen. Useppa Island derives from Josefa Inez de Mayorga, a young Spanish
aristocrat held there until her murder at Gasparilla's hand.
Pirates and
Buried Treasure on Florida Islands additionally offers funny historical tidbits. Two of the most famous pirates
ever, Calico Jack and Anne Bonny, met in Charleston, South Carolina, and fell in love almost immediately – or, at least,
Calico Jack fell in love with Anne Bonny and Anne fell in love with the pirating life. Their honeymoon cruise went
awry, however, when the combination of a collapsed mast and a Gulf storm forced them to camp out on Estero Island, now known
as Fort Myers Beach. This pair, probably the most disastrous couple ever to strike trade in the Caribbean and Gulf
of Mexico, were the first honeymooners in southwestern Florida, long before the area became a major vacation destination.
The last third of the book moves away from a historical account of the pirates'
exploits and towards treasure-seeking. Beater tells stories that either happened to him or that he heard from friends,
even thirdhand. One of these stories is told by a man who tried to find gold on Cayo Pelau, a small islet in Gasparilla
Sound. But the island is cursed – his lunch floats away, and his boat seizes up, forcing him to paddle back to
Placida. During Gasparilla's time, the island was used by the more noisy and rowdy pirates, so they could have
a good time while not disturbing Gasparilla in the main camp.
Alas, all pirates
(and book reviews) must meet their end, and Gasparilla is no exception. His death, ironically, was closely linked to
Florida's statehood. The Spanish government viewed Gasparilla and other pirates more as a nuisance than as an enemy,
and didn't bother to spend time and resources hunting them down. The United States, on the other hand, did, and
a need to eradicate piracy in the Gulf of Mexico is one reason why the United States acquired Florida from Spain in 1821.
Gasparilla decided that this was a sign his pirating days were over, and he began to pack up to leave Boca Grande.
But, on the morning of his departure, he sighted a seemingly unarmed merchant vessel just outside of the harbor. Tempted
by one last chance at victory, he approached, and it was too late when his intended victim hoisted the American flag and opened
fire on Gasparilla's ship. His last words were an oath screamed at the Americans before he “twisted a length
of anchor chain around his slim waist. . . and threw himself into the Gulf.” James Barrett-Morison is a junior at Ransom Everglades School in
Coconut Grove, Florida. He is also a contributing editor at Florida Book Review.
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Also, see our Childrens' Page for a Review of The Ghost Orchid Ghost and Other Tales
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