Welcome to Sweet Tea Murders

In the heart of the Florida Panhandle lies the rural community of Bear Head, named for its location near the head of the creek that flows into Bear Head Pond. It lies six miles west of the heart of Defuniak Springs. Bear Head is a small, close-knit place—the kind of community where families have known one another for generations. If an unfamiliar visitor arrived asking too many questions, he might quickly hear: “You ain’t from… Read more: The Bear Head Ambush: The Cowardly Murder of Deputy Tom Blount

August in Pensacola can be downright hot. Fortunately, there’s a perfect way to spend part of your Saturday in comfort, good company, and suspense.  On Saturday, August 22, 2026, at 2:30 p.m., I’ll be presenting Midday Murder Mystery with Michael Earl Simmons at Bodacious Shops, a special storytelling event featuring one of my Sweet Tea Murders tales.  Here’s what makes this event unique: before settling in for an afternoon of mystery, you can spend the morning exploring one of Pensacola’s favorite traditions.  From 9:00 a.m. until 2:00… Read more: Make a Day of It: Midday Murder Mystery at Bodacious Shops 

John Wesley Hardin insisted that he never killed anyone who did not need killing—but the story of Charlie Webb tells us otherwise. Webb was only 26 years old, a former Texas Ranger, a Brown County deputy sheriff, and a Freemason respected enough that his lodge recovered his body and carried him home for burial. When Webb entered Comanche on May 26, 1874, and approached the Jack Wright Saloon, witnesses said Hardin deliberately stopped and provoked… Read more: What about the victims of John Wesley Hardin?

What did a Pensacola man’s death have to do with the assassination of President John F. Kennedy? In this special Sweet Tea Murders LIVE presentation, former homicide detective and police historian Michael Earl Simmons reexamines the 1964 death of Hank Killam, a local man whose reported connections reached into the shadowy circles surrounding Lee Harvey Oswald and Jack Ruby. Although Killam’s death was officially ruled a suicide, the circumstances have fueled questions and speculation for… Read more: The JFK Connection: The Mysterious Death of Hank Killam in Pensacola

Something I’ve been working on quietly is now available on Amazon. The Last Stop: The Final Capture of Ted Bundy in Pensacola tells the story of how one alert Pensacola police officer brought America’s most notorious fugitive’s flight to an end. This is not a story that glorifies Ted Bundy. It is the story of Officer David Lee—the man who stood his ground, fought back, and defeated Bundy, placing him under arrest on a dark… Read more: Ted Bundy – The Final Capture