
The Death of Sergeant “Chip” Shackleford
A Forgotten Pensacola Line-of-Duty Death – 1933 By Michael Earl Simmons On cold winter nights in downtown Pensacola, when the streets grow quiet and the glow from storefront windows reflects […]

A Forgotten Pensacola Line-of-Duty Death – 1933 By Michael Earl Simmons On cold winter nights in downtown Pensacola, when the streets grow quiet and the glow from storefront windows reflects […]

A New Downtown Storytelling Experience Coming to Pensacola For more than thirty years, I worked the streets of Pensacola as a police officer, eventually retiring as a sergeant. During that

By Michael Earl Simmons “Honor, Blood, and the Crimes the Court Pretended Not to See” There is nothing quite like the sight of a mighty oak, its great branches stretching

There are roads in the Florida Panhandle that remember things. They remember wagon wheels cutting through white sand. They remember mule hooves and the slow rattle of early automobiles. Travel

Ever been to Bon Secour? If you haven’t…you have missed it. Its name means “Safe Harbor.” The town, located in Southern Alabama, is known for its fresh seafood. It is

The Murder on South Palafox Street, Pensacola – July 1905 By Mike Simmons I have a friend named Richard Wood who writes stories about interesting crimes in West Florida. Richard

The Murder of Captain Martin Villar (1882): A Pensacola Story of Saloons, Sailors, and Frontier Justice Like a river that meanders lazily through the cypress and juniper trees of the

The Smith Family Massacre, Pensacola — 2015 “It happens once in a Blue Moon”… The blue moon rises slow over the pines, hangs silver above the bays, and shines the

By Mike Simmons Every town and city had them. You could see them every time you went downtown. And everyone knew them. They were there before SWAT teams, PR-24s, tazers,