Throw Back Thursdays

The wonderful library staff that is managing the Brevard County Libraries Google+ page have asked me to provide them with an interesting historical photo to feature once a week on what they want to call "Throw Back Thursdays." Since the Central Brevard Library is also home to the Brevard County Historical Commission's collection we hope to draw upon this resource, and others, to provide you with some interesting images relating to the history of our area. I will also post those photos here on my blog so that you all can enjoy them too.

Please consider following Brevard County Libraries on Google+. We can use your support!!!!



Above is a photo taken from the Cocoa Water tower around 1957 looking towards the Indian River. The site of the Central Brevard Library, which occupies the former Florida Today newspaper building, is near the top of the photo, just about in the middle. Forrest Ave. is the road pictured running north and south, and this view also shows the early path of the railroad tracks that have since been removed.



Ethel Allen's Date With The Devil

Well I don't know if this October will bring any paranormal experiences like last year's ghost hunt at the historic Pritchard House in Titusville, check out my archives for the low down on that spooky night, but it has brought us new information on an infamous local crime that I chronicled in this blog on April 9, 2011. I am speaking about the brutal murder of Cocoa's Ethel Allen, whose mutilated and burned body was found on the bank of the Indian River on November 21, 1934. This murder has continued to fascinate in part due to the violence involved in the crime and partly because no one was ever arrested for it. That such a sensational crime occurred at all in sleepy Brevard County at that early of a date also adds to the shock factor. However, some 78 years later local authors Gail Sheldon and Gloria Falco set out to try and solve this very cold case and have put together their findings on the crime in a new book entitled "Ethel Allen's Date With The Devil."

In addition to using traditional investigative methods the authors used paranormal techniques like searching for EVP's in Ashleys restaurant, a place that has had a long, assocation with her story. One of these techniques actually uses dowsing rods to search for high electro magnetic fields. A question such as "Where you were killed?" can be asked of a spirit and in the hands of an experienced user the rods will point in a direction which can then be followed.

If you are interested in learning the "latest" on the Ethel Allen case be sure to check this out!