Town file
Fruitville, Florida
Fruitville, Florida (Sarasota County, Florida) is the town in one episode of Small Town Murder, the comedy true-crime podcast: episode 196, "A Man Named "Hillbilly"" (5 November 2020). Ireland Boyd, known to everyone as Hillbilly, was thirty-three years old in 1986.
- Town
- Fruitville
- County
- Sarasota County
- State
- Florida
- Country
- USA
- Episodes
- 196
- Approximate location
- 27.333, -82.459
Episode 196 / 5 November 2020 / 162 min / full
A Man Named "Hillbilly"
"We're going down to Fruitville, on the central western coast of Florida, basically a suburb of Sarasota, in Sarasota County, area code 941, 7.1 square miles" about 0:07:40
The case: Murder of Ireland 'Hillbilly' Boyd (April 26th to 27th, 1986). Read the case file.
The figures, as told in 2020
- Population
- 13,541
- Median age
- 46.8
- Median household income
- $66,000, almost $67,000
- Median home value
- $334,800
- Two-bedroom rent
- $1,560
- Cost of living
- 112
- Religious
- about 44%
- Property crime
- ▲ about one third high
- Violent crime
- ▲ about ten percent high
History, in brief
- One legend connects the name Sarasota with a girl named Sarah, the daughter of the conquistador De Soto. about 0:09:04
- Some people thought the name came from an Indian word, saracota, meaning a landfall easily observed. about 0:10:20
- The name first appeared on a map in the mid 1700s as Port Sarasota, then became Sarazota with a Z, then Sarasota. about 0:10:28
- Sarasota County was created in 1921, out of a chunk of Manatee County. about 0:10:42
- After the Civil War many families from Georgia moved to Florida because Georgia had been devastated by Sherman's army. about 0:11:26
- Joseph Daniel Anderson was born in 1867 and came down as a child; he was from southern Manatee County. about 0:11:45
- With only hand tools he turned the Florida wilderness into farmland producing vegetables, sugar cane and citrus, and he raised cattle and pigs. about 0:11:56
- He and his brother Moses prospered in ranching until the Range Law Act stopped ranchers grazing cattle on land that was not theirs. about 0:12:26
- Sleds were used to move produce, fruit and cattle to Lemon Bay, where they were transferred to boats and sometimes ferried as far as Cuba. about 0:13:28
- Anderson also pioneered commercial fishing in North Lemon Bay, which was full of mullet. about 0:13:49
- and Charles Ringling invested in property in Sarasota just after it became a city, and tourists followed because of the warmth and the water. about 0:18:28
- In 1900 the telephone was extended out to the town. about 0:19:00
The reviews read out
3 stars
"An interesting place that varies dramatically in different parts of town: some areas have a sense of luxury and wealth, others are at the other end of the spectrum; there is a lot of wealth and a rich culture downtown, but much of the population is older and things can move slowly."about 0:19:41
3 stars
"Not a lot of clubbing type places, lots of bars."about 0:20:46
3 stars
"Most people in the neighbourhood have stayed their whole lives, though a few have left because of pet restrictions."about 0:21:03
3 stars
"I have not heard of any complaints about the employment status of my neighbourhood."about 0:22:08
3 stars
"There are always buses going around for public transportation and there is one airport on one side of town."about 0:22:27
3 stars
"I have lived in this house for almost a decade and it has become a very comfortable living arrangement."about 0:22:52
Nearest Small Town Murder towns
- Sarasota, Florida5.2 miles
- Plant City, Florida52 miles
- Alturas, Florida59 miles
- New Port Richey, Florida65 miles
- Naples, Florida91 miles
- Chuluota, Florida122 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.