Dashboard Chats - Florida's Unmarked Graves & McCleary's Sea Serpent

There's Pandemonium in the Panhandle! A mysterious broadcast filters through the radio of the truck as Cheesehead and Florida Man traverse the Florida Panhandle. Meanwhile, the Talegaters exchange tales from the City of Five Flags: McCleary’s sea serpent, the unmarked graves of Dozier School, a haunted lighthouse, wolves, whiskey, & more!

Off the coast of Pensacola Beach once lurked a oceanic beast whose serpentine head and neck craned 12 feel above the surf. It was hungry for one thing and one thing only: the flesh and bone of the teenage boys hopelessly lost as sea. We follow the story of Brian McCleary, the sole survivor of this vicious and mysterious attack. Don't believe in sea serpents? You will now. Probably. 

Florida's panhandle is home to more than just tales of sea serpents and skunk apes. It is home to numerous murders and haunted locations as well. The Talegate Podcast investigates the unmarked graves of the Dozier School boys as well as a very haunted lighthouse who seemed to have a personality all its own. 

Check out more on these topics by listening to The Talegate Podcast on Apple Podcast, Spotify, or any other fine podcast directories; and please rate, review, and subscribe. OR simply follow the link our user-friendly website at www.thetalegatepodcast.com! Also, be sure to follow us on Instagram @thetalegatepodcast and write us with your own stories at TheTalegatePodcast@gmail.com.

Transcript

DASHBOARD CHAT 6: City of 5 Flags

FLORIDA MAN: Howdy folks, and welcome to Dashboard Chats!

CHEESEHEAD: Where we record mini segments from our dashboard on the drive between our main interviews to discuss the tales and urban legends that aren’t quite fit for the mic.

FM: That’s right! Ain’t every topic ripe for interviewin’ but that don’t make them any less interesting. With that, I’m Harrison, the Florida Man. 

CH: And I’m Aaron, the Cheesehead. Today we come to you from 1-10 west-bound through the Florida panhandle, where the air is thick with the clean salty scent of the sea, and the ground is thick with People of Walmart.

FM: What, you got something against mullets and rat tails?

CH: Haircuts scare me a whole lot less than the confederate banner-waving people in their ECVs.

FM: Hate to break it to you, man, but them folk certainly ain’t exclusive to no Florida Panhandle, I’ll tell you that.

[Music plays]

CH: Hey, did you just turn on the radio?

FM: Weren’t me.

CH: Huh. And why is it on AM? Who even listens to that? 

[Scrolls through different statically stations until we come across a jazz song just as it finished (SQX theme song)]

FM: Hm. That jazz ain’t bad. 

CH: Must be local. Must be really local. Ghost in the Machine? What is that about?

FM: I didn’t even catch the girl’s name. Sounds like some nitch radio show.

CH: Hella niche.

FM: Wait, did they just say The Talegate??

CH: No way. That would be impossible. Or if they did, they probably meant like an actual sports 

tailgate.

FM: True true. Odd though.

[Fade out of the most recent episode of The Talegate]

STATIC: Welcome back. You’ve been listening to SQX Monster Radio with me, your leen, keen ghost in the machine [cigarette burn/exhale] Johnny Static. And with me is my co-host, the fancy dressed Vampiress, Emma Fatel. 

[applause]

EMMA: Pleasure as always, Johnny, pleasure as always. Unfortunately our regular featured programming, Hitting the Dusk-y Trail with Roz Feratu, has been canceled after the poor dear forgot to set her clock for daylight savings. 

[aww]

STATIC: Another one bites the dust. SQX sends the kiss off. Now, get ready for a bee in your bonnet, fore to fill this recently allotted vacancy of time, we’ve picked up a new podcast from the Outworld. 

EMMA: That’s right, Johnny. And not just any podcast, a human podcast. 

[boo]

STATIC: Ah, hold your boos for the afterparty.

[BOO]

EMMA: [aggressive and increasingly loud vampire hissing resulting in crowd silence.] Much better. 

STATIC: Spooked ‘em good. Atta dame. Tonight's show is somewhat unique. It’s called, The Talegate. We follow couple of unsuspecting boys, on a roadtrip through the United States. Boys in search of the unknown. 

EMMA: And how edibly handsome. Just look at them.

STATIC: Would if I would, old girl, but I live in the radio waves. No sight. No smell. No touch.  

EMMA: And without further adieu, SQX Monster Radio presents: The Talegate.

STATIC: Roll it.

[Talegate Theme]

CH: Odd indeed. There is something exciting yet terrifying about the Florida panhandle, I must say. Like a drive-thru zoo where you’re mesmerized by all the crazy stuff you see but, start slowing down or rolling down that window, and you risk getting a whole lot more than you bargained for.

FM: All jokes aside, many residence here are fine folk, and many of their towns and beaches hold worlds of mystery and secrets.

CH: So I’ve heard, so hows about we open up Pandora's box already and get this show started, shall we? Now, one thing I have experienced in the panhandle was Panama City Beach with you years back. Remember?

FM: How could I forget? Wolves and whiskey, baby!

FM/CH: Discuss fun bar experience and Seacrest Wolf Preserve in Chipley.

FM: But that was Panama City...the gateway into the Panhandle. Now, Pensacola Beach further west was home to one of the most terrifying sea creatures to ever lurk our briney coast. 

CH: I’m going to take a wild stab again and assume it looks just like Nessy and Champ.

FM: And again, you’re on the nose. The book, Florida’s Unexpected Wildlife, by Michael Newton tells of the account of Edward McCleary, an 18yo who went out raftin off the coast here with some buddies back in 1962. Storm caught ‘em off guard, dropped a heavy fog on ‘em, and carried them off to sea regions unknown. 

CH: That part alone is a nightmare. Just think of all those sharks and squid out there ready gnaw you in half or entangle your legs with their squishy, barbed tendrils!

FM: I’m tellin’ ya, man. Hours adrift, these frightened boys started hearing splashin’ and, stranger still, hissin’ sounds, accompanied by a dank, rotten smell. Now, these sounds were at a distance at first, but then the splashes started gettin’ closer. The Hissin louder. The smell stronger.

CH: Nope Nope and more Nope.

FM: Yep yep and more yep! ‘Cause finally, through the fog they saw, to quote McCleary, “What looked like a pole, about 10 feet high, sticking straight up out of the water. On top was a bulk-like structure.”

CH: Could be a buoy!

FM: Sure was! Just a buoy, y’all. Boys paddled ashore and lived happily ever after.

CH: Really?

FM: No! That shit was a monster! And the boys did paddle though, towards a sinking ship which McCleary assumed to have been the monster’s original target, though perhaps coulda been a transport vessel haulin the creature somewhere.

CH: Ah, some serious King Kong & Jurassic Park 2 vibes. 

FM: This one ended a whole lot more like JP2, only more like the scene with the raptors in the tall grass than the transported T-Rex. Cause as McCleary and his pals paddled toward the injured boat, he heard the echoed screams as each of his pals swimmin behind him was pulled under one by one.

CH: Yah, I’m never going to the beach again.

FM: Once reachin’ the larger boat, McCleary got one good look at the beast before summoning all his energy into an olympian burst of speed towards the shore where he was found by rescue units. Said it’s neck alone towered twelve feet above the surf, mossy in color, with the head of a razor-toothed turtle, and big green eyes with oval pupils. Now, whether they was sideways like a goats or upright weren’t specified. 

CH: Terrifying either way! And what did the rescue team and authorities do about all of this?

FM: Just ‘bout jack and shit far as I can tell. And even though newspapers and Fate Magazine wrote a piece on McCleary’s encounter, his tale just kinda faded into obscurity. 

CH: You’d think his tale only being in 1962, would have sparked a massive search. I would have imagined it would like Jaws. After all, there have been episodes of mass hysteria over far less.

FM: Yea, that is a might strange. Makes you think the authorities just brushed it off, like the mayor in Jaws, to keep the beaches open to tourists. But like… several boys died.

CH: So the question remains: What was it? it was most likely not a sea dragon or plesiosaur if this was the one and only case to occur in modern times. 

FM: True.

CH: My bet is on a sea snake or an eel. Like, maybe it was a sea serpent, but a reasonable one. Something more plausible than some sea dragon or prehistoric relic.

FM: Only problem there is that sea snakes don’t live in Atlantic waters.

CH: None of them?

FM: Of the 60 or so species of ‘em...not a one in the Atlantic. 

CH: Yah, and eels don’t really “raise their heads” from the water, do they? At least not 

ten-to-twelve feet skyward.

FM: Nah. Now back to the boat haulin it, maybe it was an anaconda or large constrictor of some sort being shipped. Today, the black market trade on exotic animals is upwards of $10 billion a year.

CH: Ah geez, that’s a good hypothesis. Shows like “Fatal Attractions” and “Tiger King” really show just how bonkers yet lucrative these illegal trades are. Yanno, constrictor snakes, while often aquatic, only thrive in fresh water though to my knowledge. 

FM: Yea, even when we was at Seacrest, they told us how some wolves escaped after huge storms compromised their structures. There have been Emu sightings out here, you name it. A lot of it is due to the destructive forces of Mother Nature. Not outlandish to believe the sunken ship crashed due to the same storm and fog the boys were caught up in, releasing whatever live cargo it may have been transportin’.

CH: So the truth behind this story may have involved a giant snake. That would explain why 

people didn’t see it again after that. The snake simply couldn’t survive long out there, not to mention that, having presumably just eaten large meals, this sluggish serpent may have fallen prey to any of the aforementioned ocean predators stalking the Gulf of Mexico. But wow, what an incredible story, tragic as it were. Any other monsters out in these parts?

FM: Fair to mention, our boy, Skunky, or at least members of his Skunk Ape family, have been reported in this area. But it’s hard to find an area in Florida ain’t seen a skunk ape. In fact I’ll include a map of FL cryptid sightings for the viewin’ pleasure of y’all at home on our Instagram @thetalegatepodcast.

CH: Okay okay, is this area known for anything besides giant ferocious beasts?

FM: Shit, Pensacola is known as the “City of Five Flags.” In fact, there is a bit of a historic rivalry between Pensacola and St Augustine.

CH: Ah, this a refreshing change of pace. How exactly did one city in Florida get five flags? And how could any city here even compete with the nation’s oldest city, St Augustine?

FM: Well, the Spanish fleet under Captain Don Tristan de Luna y Arellano, sailed to Pensacola in 1559 lookin’ to settle down, only to get smacked with a bigass hurricane not two years later. What remained of his people fled to Mexico settlements. Weren’t til 1698 when Pensacola was settled again by colonists. 

CH: Ah, so, had the hurricane not crashed into them so early on, Pensacola might have become the oldest city in the United States.

FM: Bingo.

CH: Well, I’ll be goshdarned.

FM: Also, this here city once competed as state capital with St Augustine.

CH: I thought the state capital was Tallahassee?

FM: Is, but that weren’t til 1824. So, Pensacola originally flew a Spanish flag. Then French had the city between 1719-1722 and Britain held the city a little longer than the French did between 1763-1781. In that time, the capital of the British section of Florida was Pensacola, while the capital on Spanin’s side was St. Augustine.

CH: Ah, so French, Britain, Spain, obviously the United States… that leaves only one mystery flag left.

FM: Confederacy.

CH: Oof. 

FM: Yea.

CH: While I know it’s hard to out-do a Florida Man at Florida History, I do an ace up my sleeve!

FM: What’s it doing there?

CH: Ah, I left my playing cards in my pocket when I threw everything in the wash. Completely irrelevant. But I also happen to have a story for you that goes pairs with our last encounter with the Ghost of Railroad Bill.

FM: Lay it on me!

CH: Poor Bill remained in an unmarked grave for decades before finally being recognized and given a proper tombstone. But I did a little digging while you were driving and, low and behold, Pensacola is brimming with recently-discovered unmarked graves!

FM: Yikes! There was always urban legends of unmarked graves in these parts, but I never knew it to be confirmed.

CH: Well, brace yourself because this is a very true, very haunting tale--and anyone triggered by physical abuse, you may want to skip ahead two or three minutes. We aren’t going into too many details though, so if that’s what you’re looking for, you’re going to have to do deeper research on your own.

FM: It’s that bad?

CH: It’s pretty bad. Ever heard of the Dozier School for Boys?

FM: Ain’t heard of that one.

CH: I read an article where several of the unfortunate youths who were forced to attend this reform school--those who survived anyway, reunited to speak up about their horrific experiences there. “The White House Boys,” they’re called, and spoiler alert: it’s not because they were aspiring presidential candidates.

FM: Alright, I’m hooked. 

CH: This was a boarding school that opened in the year 1900 for boys who were “troubled.” But, as it turned out, most of the boys were either just caught smoking, or ran away, or simply didn’t have families to live with. Just regular kids caught doing regular kid stuff or hung out to dry by events outside of their control. 

FM: Well, bless their hearts.

CH: The Dozier School for Boys, though it had gone by several name changes over its one-hundred and eleven year history, was notorious for its brutal punishments on the boys. 

FM: Them poor kids. Ain’t a person alive could help ‘em?

CH: No. That or everyone was just complicit. One survivor, named Jerry Cooper, attended the school as an 11 year old back in 1961. He said he was sleeping soundly when he was suddenly yanked up at 2am and carried to The White House, the school’s personal torture chamber, and strapped to a bed. There he received 135 lashes with a leather strap. 

FM: Jumpin’ Jesus. Straight out of a horror movie!

CH: Again, he was lucky he survived. Throughout this school’s longevity, there were 81 known fatalities. And worse still, nobody knew what happened to the bodies. The school only closed in 2011 after all their allegations caught up with them. 

FM: For fuck’s sake, school was open over 111 years. Took ‘em long enough, damn. Anyone ever find the bodies?

CH: For the longest time, the whereabouts of the missing boys were all up to speculation until recently. Excavations conducted through the University of South Florida have found 55 discarded remains throughout several unmarked graves so far, but speculation is that there could be hundreds. 

FM: Shit got dark real fast. How ‘bout we lighten’ up the mode with our final story from the panhandle: the Hauntin’ of the Pensacola Lighthouse?

CH: A haunted lighthouse is your idea of “lightening up the mood?”

FM: I mean compared to the Dozier school, it's a damned Disney movie. 

CH: Touche.

FM: So the year was 1826. Michaela Penalber married Jeremiah Ingraham and the two ran the Pensacola Lighthouse together. All was fine at first, but eventually there was speculation of abuse, and then Michaela started gettin’ mighty jealous of Jeremiah.

CH: Ah, was he a two-timing, no good cheater?

FM: No, that would be too normal for Michaela Penalber. As you see, she was jealous over her Lighthouse. As the weeks went on, she couldn’t handle sharing the Lighthouse with anyone else, and stabbed her husband to death. She was smart enough not to leave enough evidence to be convicted in her lifetime and worked in that lighthouse until she, herself, in 1855, finally passed on. 

CH: Ah geez, sounds she passed on but never truly left.

FM: Ever since, people been hearing her breathing, seeing her watching ‘em, and have witness the occasional inexplicable bloodstains. Apparently she throws shit, too.

CH: Girl’s got a temper. 

FM: I’m tellin’ ya. Some say Michaela was possessive over the lighthouse, others think it were the lighthouse which possessed her.

CH: Well, that sure was spooky as fuck. Oh hey, you see that? We just crossed over into Alabama! We’ve completed our first state! Whoooo!

FM: Yeeeeaaa! We made it to the border exactly at nightfall, too.

CH: Whoa, wait, Granny’s dowsing pendulum is swinging Northeast now? What could be up There and why the sudden change of direction? 

FM: Check the travel chart and see what’s out that way. I think it’s the Witch in the Wood.

CH: This is Northeast so it’s possible. Gadsden, where the Witch in the Wood lives is like, the Northeastern-most corner of the state, though. This looks more like we’re going to Abbeville according to the chart.

FM: For y’all wonderin’ how we operate, we made an exhaustive chart markin’ every urban legend, tale, and cryptid we could find in their proper locations. From there we just drive on, following in whatever direction the crystal points. As far as things line up currently, we’re on trajectory for Abbeville, AL, but I ain’t going to spoil nothin’ about who we intend to meet there, so definitely be here next week to find out.

CH: Thank you all for joining us for this week’s Dashboard Chats! Also, in the past year, 1-in-7 kids experienced abuse or neglect, much like those White House Boys. If you or someone you know has experienced abuse or is an abuser themselves, speak up. It could save a life.

For crisis intervention, information, referrals, and support, contact the Childhelp National Child Abuse Hotline at 1-800-422-4453, or contact the Crisis Text Line by texting the letters, D (delta) S (sierra), to 741741. 

FM: Yea, we’ll be posting more resources like this on our instagram. So follow us there @Thetalegatepodcast for photos, cast info, updates, and more. For any questions, art, or stories of your own, please drop us a line at TheTalegatePodcast@gmail.com.

CH: Fanart would be amazing. 

FM: I think that’s when you know you’ve made it.

CH: See yah later, tailgators!

FM: Byyyyyye