7 episodes
THE SHERIFF: Murder, Lies & Revenge in Okaloosa County Gannett
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- True Crime
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4.0 • 66 Ratings
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THE SHERIFF is a new podcast from The Northwest Florida Daily News and The Gannett Company, hosted by Tony Adame, about the 1940 assassination of Lester Wilson, a Sheriff’s candidate in small-town Florida, and the conspiracy of silence that let the murder go unsolved for 18 years. At the heart of the story is Lester Wilson’s son, Ray Wilson, a Korean War hero and the youngest Sheriff in Florida history after he won the office his father pursued at just 28 years old. Openly disavowing any need for revenge, Ray’s secret investigation into his father’s murder would untangle a web of murder, sex, drugs, small-town politics and corruption unlike any the state has ever seen and eventually bring him face-to-face with his father's killers.
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THE SHERIFF: ODDS & ENDS
The Sheriff host and writer Tony Adame and producer Nick Tomecek talk about the experience of researching and recording the six-part podcast series.
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THE SHERIFF (Episode 6) - Coram Nobis
Which things remain in our presence? (Season finale)
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THE SHERIFF (Episode 5) - Dig Two Graves
Long-buried secrets are revealed as the saga of Lester Wilson’s murder comes to an end.
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THE SHERIFF ( Episode 4) - Mattie Lee
The Wilsons close ranks after a threat against one of their own. The truth about the night of March 15, 1940, begins to come into focus.
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THE SHERIFF (Episode 3) - Elect Ray Wilson
Okaloosa County’s new Sheriff gains a crucial ally. One Crestview family’s rise and fall leads to a break in the investigation of Lester Wilson’s murder.
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THE SHERIFF (Episode 2) - The Night Gunman
The investigation into Lester Wilson’s murder runs into problems from the start. The McArthurs’ history in Okaloosa County goes under the microscope.
Customer Reviews
Well Researched and Interesting Story!
The details are really the main anchor for the podcast. I would definitely recommend this for anyone who likes true crime, but I will say the narrator’s voice is not right for podcasts, at least for my ears. I think the re-enactments were a smart way to tell those pieces of the story, but the acting and background music sort of made you dread those parts. Another thing I didn’t get was the random interruption to remind us what podcast we were listening to and where we can find it to listen to it, it just seemed misplaced.
I still gave it 4 stars because it was overall very good and well researched. I also liked the order that the story was told as it was easy to follow. The other parts are just my opinion.
Love it!!
I love this true story. This is one of many great true stories about rural Florida. I hope there are more stories like this to come. One I hope someone covers is the hit on Mayor of Williston Florida in the 1970s Mayor was run off the road and shot while come back from dinner with friends there was 4 people including his wife in the car. Mayor Bayle
Encore
The interactions between twenty something Ray Wilson and 19 yr old Cash Moore (owner Cash’s liquors other “unsavory” establishments for the times). Ray Wilson would confiscate Cash’s slot machines from under churches and bars and dump the machines still filled with $ over the Brookes bridge in Fwb with young Cash in the back seat of Ray Wilson’s cruiser so he could watch. Tons of awesome stories of them going head to head . Cash was also an important, intriguing figure in those times. It sounded like moral, polar opposites battling for control of Okaloosa from my conversations with them both.