Road Camp 12 — further evidence and custodians to pursue

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PROPOSED REPORTING — NOT REQUESTS ALREADY SENT No new records requests, appeals or paid research submitted in this review. Existing request status is separate. 1 · Underlying testimony and inquest Where: State Archives of Florida; Florida corrections historical-records custodian; First Judicial Circuit State Attorney; Santa Rosa County Judge/coroner-records custodian Seek: S923 appendices I–IV and VI: survivor interrogations July 19, 20 and 24; inquest witness material; complete transcript; coroner’s report; eight Apalachee statements. Ask for any indexes, transfer/accession or disposition references. Purpose: Compare actual questions, answers and signed finding with the official summary and newspaper name conflict. Status: Locate; not yet newly requested. 2 · Family questions and the governor’s investigation Where: State Archives, Governor Kirk correspondence and investigative files; state-attorney records Seek: Quick/Bill Quick reports, notes, August 16 meeting and typed Cole questions; Laraine Cole letter; Ledden October 9 inquiry; Stafford November 29 reply and enclosures. Purpose: Recover the family’s direct words and the investigative response, rather than relying only on an official’s description. Status: Supplement COE-RC12-012; draft scope only. 3 · Keys, exits, water and safety implementation Where: Corrections records; DFS/State Fire Marshal; FDOT historical records; State Archives Seek: Fire plan 64-M8, posted/initialed copy, key instructions before and after July 16, inspection sheets including June 6, 1967, door/lock drawings, work orders, water/pump plans, training and drill logs. Purpose: Test the relationship between evacuation duties, armory access and later changes; separate orders from completed work. Status: DFS 4608-2026 and FDOT PRR-2026-9634 already pending; targeted supplement proposed. 4 · Live Oak experiment Where: DFS/State Fire Marshal and State Archives Seek: September 7, 1967 test protocol, complete technical report promised in September 12 minutes, photographs/film, instrument data, paint/bedding specifications and observer notes. Purpose: Determine what the experiment measured and what its authors concluded; avoid treating summary temperatures as measurements from Jay. Status: Existing DFS request pending; more precise locating details proposed. 5 · Identification and burial Where: State Archives; state-attorney/coroner records; appropriate vital-records and cemetery custodians; successor funeral-home records where accessible Seek: Appendices V and VII–X: funeral bids/advice, court order, bag-identification sheets, autopsies and dental reports; Century burial register/plot map; Aultman arrangements; Rifas/Mitchell correspondence and disposition. Purpose: Trace individual identification and burial histories and reconcile the Mitchell request with the unclaimed-body listing. Status: Access and surviving custody must be established; no sensitive individual file presumed public. 6 · Closure money, claims and legislative follow-through Where: State Archives; House/Senate historical records; corrections budget and FDOT custodians Seek: July 24 $887,447 proposal, appropriations/allocations, 67 positions, six camp closure orders, work-release proposal, claims mentioned September 26, records supplied to legislators and any actual Gibson inquiry. Purpose: Establish which proposals were funded, implemented or rejected and whether compensation or hearings followed. Status: Specific new locating inquiries proposed; do not claim hearings occurred. 7 · Rescue and medical response Where: Navy/CNIC under existing number; Whiting historical/medical records custodian; local mutual-aid departments; Milton city/history collections Seek: July 16–18 duty, dispatch, ambulance, rescue, medical and body-bag records; Ellison HCR 1954 supporting statements; personal papers and commendation presentation records. Purpose: Reconstruct who responded and what they encountered; identify copies outside lost Milton files. Status: 2026-NavyFOIA-012516 pending; Ellison House journal received; remaining routes proposed. 8 · Local collections, photographs and site identity Where: Santa Rosa Family History Center; UWF Archives; West Florida Public Libraries; FDOT and corrections property archives Seek: Milton Press Gazette coverage; uncropped photos and captions; McLendon’s 12 photographs; floor/bunk plan, visitors register, watchman dial; Camp 12/RP32 numbering and property maps. Purpose: Check publication provenance, individual accounts and exact site without conflating a later Berrydale facility. Status: Library referral received; UWF delivery unconfirmed; do not repeat unverified fax routes. 9 · Federal leads only if a filing is established Where: Pensacola U.S. District Court index custodian; NARA Atlanta; FBI only after scope review Seek: Limited name/index search sufficient to identify an actual federal case number; review FBI search terms before any supplement or appeal. Purpose: Prevent a county inquest from being misrepresented as a federal court case. Status: NARA guidance received; no federal case established. Lower priority than directly named state evidence.

Date

Research snapshot: October 14, 2026

Reference collection

Crypt of Echoes

Cited record locations checked against available originals. Allegations distinguished from findings; no exhaustive human transcription or independent verification of every historical claim is asserted.

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