Crypt of Echoes × The Salty Rag · October 14, 2026
Where the investigation goes next
Nine focused reporting routes, tied to documents we already hold.
These are proposed next steps. No new records requests, appeals or paid research were submitted as part of this package. Existing requests retain their current status. Obtain a written estimate and approval before any chargeable work.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
NARA guidance received; no federal case established. Lower priority than directly named state evidence.