Greenwood, Florida

Episode 164 / 26 March 2020 / 164 min / full

The Idiotic Avenger

"It's Greenwood, Florida. Probably never heard of it... northwestern Florida, straight panhandle... Jackson County this is in." about 0:06:23

The case: Murders of Georgia Kennedy and Gerald Boysfort (September 1989). Read the case file.

The figures, as told in 2020

Population

797

Median household income

$45,708

Median home value

$91,000

Two-bedroom rent

about $694

Cost of living

77

Religious

48%

Property crime

▲ about 10% above average

Violent crime

right at the national average

History, in brief

• After the Civil War Greenwood was overrun with violence, with many Confederate veterans angry at the free black people now in the area. about 0:08:14
• The area was one of the early hotbeds of the Klan, with a Klan chapter established early. about 0:08:41
• A historian said Jackson County was so thoroughly dominated by the Klan at every level that county and state governments were powerless to stop them. about 0:09:42
• In 1871 the sheriff resigned, saying the lawlessness meant he could no longer carry out his duties. about 0:10:16
• Before the sheriff resigned, the clerk of the circuit court was assassinated; the previous clerk had also been assassinated. about 0:10:31
• In 1943 Cellos Harrison, who had twice been convicted by an all-white jury and sentenced to death, was dragged from the county jail in Marianna and hanged while his appeals were ongoing; it was the last lynching in the county. about 0:10:52
• Pender's store was built in 1869 by Napoleon B. Riley; Lawrence Pender bought a store in 1896 and changed it to Pender's, and the family has operated it ever since. about 0:12:14
• In 1940 L.S. Pender's sons bought the store and renamed it Pender Sons; it is now run by another generation, Lawrence Pender the Second. about 0:12:32
• The store still has its original shelves, heart pine floors and wooden blinds. about 0:13:35
• Greenwood town hall is across from Pender's store. about 0:14:51
• The northern part of the town hall building was the post office until 1988, and the southern part was a Pure Oil Company service station in the 1930s. about 0:14:55
• Hurricane Michael came through in October 2018 and devastated Greenwood. about 0:15:08
• The town's only grocery store caught fire after the hurricane; as of late 2019 it had not been replaced. about 0:15:21
• Greenwood has no restaurants and no petrol stations. about 0:18:35

The reviews read out

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