"A weird place that we call home"
From the Ocala Star-Banner, a really good primer on Marion County:
I don't know how long you may have lived here: a month, a year, a decade, a century. But sooner or later, all of us realize that this home of ours is very odd, that Marion County, Fla., is a peculiar place.
**********
On the positive side, Marion County attracts celebrities: John Travolta and Kelly Preston, of course, but also Country Music Hall of Famer Mel Tillis, actress Elizabeth Ashley, guitarist Steve Morse and others.
On the not-so-positive side, this area seems sometimes to be at the center of a vortex of crazy crime.
It is a magnet, for example, for serial killers. Seriously. They seem drawn to this place.
Aileen Wuornos killed here. So did the Railroad Killer Angel Resendez. Danny Rolling was captured here. Then, in January 2006, when Leo L. Boatman wanted to become a serial killer, he rode up from Largo to murder in Marion County.
Don't be surprised when you see a dumb-criminal story with an Ocala dateline in the national news - like last week, when police say Patrick Shane Johnson used his own personal checks as notes while robbing banks.
Simply recognize, once again, a little of the weirdness that we call home.
This interesting bit of observation is one of the few things I agree with that's printed in our daily (NY Times-owned) fish wrapper. Every day, from crime to politics to social events, I am usually struck by just how weird we are in my part of the state.
And since we are in Florida, that is saying something.
I don't know how long you may have lived here: a month, a year, a decade, a century. But sooner or later, all of us realize that this home of ours is very odd, that Marion County, Fla., is a peculiar place.
**********
On the positive side, Marion County attracts celebrities: John Travolta and Kelly Preston, of course, but also Country Music Hall of Famer Mel Tillis, actress Elizabeth Ashley, guitarist Steve Morse and others.
On the not-so-positive side, this area seems sometimes to be at the center of a vortex of crazy crime.
It is a magnet, for example, for serial killers. Seriously. They seem drawn to this place.
Aileen Wuornos killed here. So did the Railroad Killer Angel Resendez. Danny Rolling was captured here. Then, in January 2006, when Leo L. Boatman wanted to become a serial killer, he rode up from Largo to murder in Marion County.
Don't be surprised when you see a dumb-criminal story with an Ocala dateline in the national news - like last week, when police say Patrick Shane Johnson used his own personal checks as notes while robbing banks.
Simply recognize, once again, a little of the weirdness that we call home.
This interesting bit of observation is one of the few things I agree with that's printed in our daily (NY Times-owned) fish wrapper. Every day, from crime to politics to social events, I am usually struck by just how weird we are in my part of the state.
And since we are in Florida, that is saying something.
posted by RightinFlorida | 8:12 AM
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