Only in the Keys

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1941 – Mom’s Tea Room near Fort Taylor was raided, and three women were arrested on charges of prostitution.

 

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The start of the downfall of KW

1950 – Residents of Billygoat Alley petitioned the city of Key West to change the name to Hibiscus Lane. The request was approved by City Manager Dave King.

 

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1961 – The film “Operation Abolition” was being screened at various locations in and around Marathon. It was a documentary picture produced by the House Committee on Un-American Activities to warn U.S. residents of the dangers of communism.

 

[rschap1]

Time for a reboot

“Operation Abolition II”

 

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August 25, 1963 – A strike by retail clerks of the Food Fair supermarkets in the Florida Keys became violent. In Key West, there was a bomb threat, a company accountant was beaten, and a newly hired cashier had his tires slashed. In Marathon, the store manager was threatened by a young man carrying a rifle.

 

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1959 – The Monroe County Commission voted to ask the State Road Department to allocate $25,000 for a survey to determine the feasibility of the construction of a highway from Big Pine Key to Cape Sable on the southwest coast of Florida.

 

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1946 – Key West Police arrested two men and two women for swimming nude at South Beach. The four nighttime skinny dippers were hauled – sans clothing – to the station in the “Black Betsy” wagon, and they would face a judge the next day.

 

[Bobcat]

Wouldn't hurt to do this again.


1861 – Major William H. French issued an order that all male citizens of the island must take an oath of allegiance to the United States within 60 days, or they would be removed from Key West.

 

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1987 – The nuclear-powered fast attack submarine the USS Key West was commissioned in Norfolk, VA. This was the third Navy vessel to carry the name Key West.

 

[Bobcat]

MCSO - Florida Keys
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Follow​

2 hours ago ·


An intoxicated 20-year-old Choctaw, Oklahoma man was arrested on Sept. 15, 2026, after he was kicked out of a residence in Marathon only to return with a gun. The gun was not fired and there were no reported life-threatening injuries.
Ronnie Raphiel Garcia was charged with battery, aggravated assault, home Invasion with a deadly weapon, resisting arrest, possession of a firearm while intoxicated, and assault on EMS.
The Sheriff’s Office responded to a residence on Knights Key Boulevard at approximately 9:10 p.m. regarding a man armed with a gun. Deputies arrived to find Garica detained by multiple people. Witnesses stated Garcia was previously at the residence but others there told him to leave. Garcia returned with a handgun and kicked the door in. Garcia then pointed the gun at the victims who were able to detain him. Garcia bit one of the victims on the arm. Garica told the Sheriff’s Office, “It was their fault I am drunk.”
Garcia urinated himself and attempted to splash that urine on EMS while they were checking his vitals. He was medically cleared at Fishermen’s Hospital and taken to jail.
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1993 – A defecting Cuban Air Force pilot landed his MIG-21 fighter plane at the Naval Air Station. The plane was detected on radar about four minutes before it landed.

 

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Florida Keys History Center - Monroe County Public Library​

5 hours ago ·


September 27, 1954 – Key West Police Chief Bienvenido Perez continued a crackdown on vice in the city by personally conducting a raid of the Mardi Gras Club on Duval Street. Three women were arrested and charged with “participating in a performance of an indecent and immoral nature.” The club manager was arrested, too.
Also on this date:
1864 – Two soldiers were arrested at the Dry Tortugas after they forged an order for whiskey and presented it to the commissary. When the supply officer detected the fraud, they began to throw bricks at him. The men were court-martialed and ordered to spend 30 days wearing a ball and chain with no pay.

1963 – Roger A. Foster, who was accused of murdering Key West captain Douglas Trevor and his son Edward on the charter boat Dream Girl, was found to be insane and committed to the state mental institution. He would later be judged competent and then tried and convicted for the murders.
1976 – Members of the Army Special Forces underwater team issued a warning to other divers that they had seen a 12-foot, 1,800-pound great white shark in the waters off Sand Key. It was the second sighting of the creature in the area in six weeks.