Here is the first statewide collection of true Florida murders, and, as the saying goes, truth is stranger than fiction. The Sunshine State has played host to a memorable and varied array of crimes of passion, greed, and revenge.

In stories spanning from the 1860s to the 1990s, you will meet such varied characters as Lena Clarke, a killer with both her feet planted in a dozen bewildering worlds; Terry Jo, the Sea Waif; Chief Tigertail; the outlaw Ed Watson; Blue, the Enforcer; President Franklin Roosevelt; the Duke of Windsor; novelist Zora Neale Hurston; Lobster Boy; the Gulf Stream Pirate; Brother Gillette, a gentle Shaker who killed out of compassion; and Pensacola's Black Widow, a Spider Woman who killed without mercy.