Town file
Bristol, Florida
Bristol, Florida (Liberty County, Florida) is the town in one episode of Small Town Murder, the comedy true-crime podcast: episode 236, "Lust, Blood & Trash" (12 August 2021). Bristol, the county seat of Liberty County in the Florida panhandle, was a town of about 950 people in the mid-1970s, with a bait and tackle shop on Lake Mystic and not much else.
- Town
- Bristol
- County
- Liberty County
- State
- Florida
- Country
- USA
- Episodes
- 236
- Approximate location
- 30.426, -84.977
Episode 236 / 12 August 2021 / 151 min / full
Lust, Blood & Trash
"We're gonna go to Bristol, Florida, right smack in the heart of the panhandle; it's in Liberty County and Bristol is the county seat." about 0:06:13
The case: Murder of Lela May Coxwell (June 1976). Read the case file.
The figures, as told in 2021
- Population
- 952
- Median age
- about 38 and a half
- Median household income
- $36,354
- Median home value
- $115,100
- Two-bedroom rent
- about $694 a month
- Cost of living
- about 80, almost 84
- Religious
- 43.3%
- Property crime
- ▲ about 50% above
- Violent crime
- ▲ about 20% high
History, in brief
- Early Bristol had a store, three saw mills, two grist mills, a hotel and a great many churches. about 0:08:27
- The town was not officially established until 1958. about 0:08:40
- The area was home to the Apalachee Indians; six excavated mounds were estimated to date to the early 1200s. about 0:08:47
- A British trader maintained trading posts on the Apalachicola River. about 0:09:16
- When Florida became a territory, pioneers from Georgia and the Carolinas settled here for the good farmland. about 0:10:06
- During the Civil War the swamps made a haven for deserters. about 0:10:13
- Baptist preacher L.V. Callaway claimed the site of Bristol was the biblical Garden of Eden, and Callaway's Garden of Eden was a tourist attraction from the 1950s to the 1970s. about 0:10:58
The reviews read out
5 stars
"A small town with one caution light that blinks yellow, very little restaurants, and everyone super friendly and welcoming; you will never meet a stranger."about 0:13:43
4 stars
"Grew up here and loves the place, but wants more jobs and attractions to keep younger people occupied."about 0:14:40
Nearest Small Town Murder towns
- Greenwood, Florida33 miles
- Donalsonville, Georgia43 miles
- Monticello, Florida66 miles
- Daleville, Alabama74 miles
- Starke, Florida174 miles
- McIntosh, Florida178 miles
Everything here is as told in the episode, on the date it went out; figures and places may have changed since. Endings are covered: open an episode and use the spoiler switch to read them.