Welcome to Sweet Tea Murders, where the dark, often forgotten crimes of the South are examined with care and respect.
I’m Michael Earl Simmons, a second-generation retired Police Sergeant and former homicide detective, where I served for over 30 years. I have spent a lifetime researching southern lawmen and crime history. I created “Sweet Tea Murders” to share some of the fascinating – sometimes forgotten – stories that I have uncovered.
As a Southern Crime Historian, author, and storyteller, I research and share the region’s true crime stories and law enforcement legacy through books, articles, presentations, and stories. Drawing from court records and old case files, I have discovered that…every community has its secrets. Besides only the official records, newspaper accounts often tell more. And…family accounts – the stories told by those relatives that were there, or still carry the stories, are often more accurate, and always more interesting!
Sweet Tea Murders tells these tales not for spectacle, but to honor the victims, acknowledge the lawmen who worked the cases, and explore the human truths behind the crimes.
Raised in the Southern tradition of sharing history over sweet tea on front porches, I approach each story with colorful gravity and respect—bringing long-buried Southern cases back into the light, one carefully told tale at a time.
Michael Earl Simmons
Pensacola, Florida
Southern Crime Historian
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“Five Forgotten Murders in Pensacola Before 1950.”