Kessler -Ethel Hinely and Edgar Watson are 15th cousins once removed, once again thru the Dyches line.
Purvis- Roscoe Purvis and Edgar are 14th cousins once removed
#kesslerkinship
Well, you can't help who your kinfolk are.....
This time, folks, we have an "accused" serial killer.
(There's a bad apple in every family somewhere, lol)
Edgar J. Watson (1855 - 1910)
Edgar was born 11 Nov 1855 in Ridge Springs, Saluda County, South Carolina. He was the son of Elijah Watson and Ellen Addison.
Elijah Watson was an embittered, alcoholic Civil War veteran. People said Ed Watson’s father beat him viciously, and often attributed that to the way the son turned out. Nicknamed “Ring-Eye” Lige, because of a circular scar around one eye that he got in a knife-fight, Lige would fight anybody at the drop of a hat. Ed's mother ,Ellen, fled her loutish husband, taking her son and daughter from South Carolina to Lake City, Florida.
Over 6 feet, unusually tall for the time, and extremely strong, Watson’s appearance was additionally distinctive in that he had red hair and beard, and hands and feet that seemed visibly too small for a man of his size. The latter would come back to haunt him.
Ed got into a drunken altercation with a man in Columbia County, Florida and killed him with a knife. Fearing an arrest, he fled to Arkansas and then on into the Indian Territories (now Oklahoma), where he (supposedly) left a trail of murders.
It was here that he hooked up with the famous female outlaw, Belle Starr. Rumor went that Starr got wind of the story that Watson was a wanted man in Florida and, fearing any spotlight the law put on him would catch her in its beam as well, she told him to get out or she would report him to the authorities.
Very shortly thereafter, Belle Starr was bushwhacked and killed, blasted off her horse by a massive charge of buckshot. The shooting scene was very close to Watkins’ house, and tiny footprints found in the mud at the scene were determined to be the same size as Watkins’ unusually small boots. He was brought to court, but the case was dismissed for insufficient evidence. Just who killed Belle Starr is one of those “mysteries of the West” to this day.
Watson then high-tailed it back to Florida where he began racking up an impressive string of murders.
He wasn't long back in Florida, when he once again killed a man, Quinn Bass, in Arcadia Florida. It was over a Land dispute. He claimed self-defense and was never tried ,as no witness would step forward to claim otherwise.
In 1892, Ed , with wife and children in tow, moved to the Ten Thousand Islands area, then part of Monroe County, where he bought a 40 acre claim on the river and began raising vegetables. It wasn't long before he traded in vegetables and sugar cane.
While visiting relatives in Lake City, he had a dispute with Sam Toland, and ended up shooting him. Bloody Ed (as he was now known) was somehow acquitted of Toland’s murder, but was given an ultimatum by the local sheriff: Head back to the Ten Thousand Islands and never come back to Lake City.
After escaping yet another murder charge, he returned to south Florida and he bought Chatham Bend Key, one of the Ten Thousand Islands in the Everglades. According to "Florida’s Past" by James M. Burnett,
“It was not long before Watson had his fertile little island lush with cane crops, produce, and the valuable buttonwood, cords of which he shipped to Key West. His cane syrup was a popular product and he shipped tons of it in his 70-foot schooner to Fort Myers and to dealers in Tampa.”
While attending an auction in Key West, Watson got into an argument with local resident Adolphus Santini. The hot-headed Bloody Ed attacked Santini, slitting his throat. He likely would have killed his hapless victim, but bystanders pulled Watson off. Santini survived, but Bloody Ed was forced to pay him $900 (a fortune at the time) to drop the charges of attempted murder.
After that Watson bought a claim on the Lost Man's River, also in Monroe County. A man named Tucker soon squatted on the claim and would not leave. Eventually Tucker and his nephew were found murdered, and suspicion fell on Watson. While there was little evidence, local residents figured Watson was the killer. But since there were no lawmen to investigate (the nearest sheriff lived 90 miles away), Bloody Ed walked yet again.
In the book "Florida’s Past", Burnett writes: “…A young black boy fled Chatham Bend Key in terror, racing over river, swamp, and saw grass, to reach a group of farmers, and herdsmen near Chokoloskee. The frightened boy bore witness to a gruesome murder by Watson. The boy guided the men to the grave of a woman named Hannah Smith. At more than six feet tall and three hundred pounds, she was harder to bury than most of Watson’s victims, and they found a leg sticking out of the ground.
This was the final straw for the citizens of the Ten Thousand Islands. They disinterred the remains and soon headed for Ted Smallwood’s Store in Chololoskee, where Watson bought supplies. The crowd had heard that Watson was on his way to sell his vegetables and cane syrup.
Once he arrived, the mob was waiting. Witnesses stated that, when Watson advanced toward the men with his shotgun pointed at them, they fired on him.
Thirty-three bullets later, Chololoskee’s bad man lay dead.
It turned out that Watson had tried to fire his weapon, but the powder in his shotgun shell had been wet and wouldn’t detonate. (Smallwood’s wife had sold him the shells, and rumors circulated that she had intentionally tampered with them.)
But the story didn’t end there. Within hours, a hurricane hit the islands, tearing up the landscape. When searchers returned to Chatham Bend Key, Burnett writes that they unearthed “about 50 skeletons” on properties owned by Watson.
The tale is told ,that he would travel to Tampa or Tarpon Springs, and hire workers to help load his produce. He made sure these men had few, if any, relatives who would come looking for them. When these down-and-outers became insistent that he pay them, he would dispatch them and bury their bodies on one of his islands. In other cases, it is thought that he may have dumped many in the Gulf of Mexico.
The county sheriff eventually held an inquest into Watson’s death. No charges were ever filed against those who gunned down the killer.
Peter Matthiessen fictionalized the story in his Watson trilogy "Killing Mister Watson", "Lost Man's River", "Bone by Bone".
Family
0 Jan 1882 in Volusia County, Florida, USA, Ed married Jane S Dyall. They were married for 19 years until Jane's death in 1901 at age 38.
They had 4 known children; Robert Walker Watson (1882-1978), Carrie Watson Langford (1885–1961), Edgar Elijah Watson (1887–1974), and Lucius Hampton Watson (1889–1970).
On 20 Jun 1905 in Columbia County, Florida, Ed took a second wife; Edna Katie Bethea. Ed was 50 years old and Edna was only 17.
They are found enumerated in the 1910 census record residing in Flamingo, Monroe County, Florida, USA. It appear that Ed has at this time two children with Edna. Ruby Watson born in 1907 and Hampton Watson born in 1909. His older son Lucius Hampton age 19 is living with them as well.
Edna gave birth to a 3rd child called Anna Watson (1900-2000) just a couple of months before Edgar was murdered.
Burial
Ed is buried in the Fort Myers Cemetery, in Fort Myers, Lee County, Florida. -- Plot: Lot 8, Block 6 --
https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/6110/edgar-j-watson
Sources
Story taken from Wikitree profile.
https://kidnappingmurderandmayhem.blogspot.com/2015/06/bloody-ed-watson.html
At one time, Jeff Bridges, was to star in a film about Edgar, HBO didn't pick it up. Maybe one day....
https://collider.com/shadow-country-tv-series-scott-cooper-jeff-bridges-david-milch-hbo/
