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TRIAL OF THE
CENTURY
With lots of historical detail and a gripping narrative, Fernandina Beach author Louise Warren has penned a book on a sensational Jacksonville murder trial BY TERI SOPP • PHOTO BY REBECCA BERG
49 AMELIA ISLANDER MAGAZINE •
O
n a pleasant early evening in April 1897, the beautiful 19-year-old daughter of a prominent Jacksonville Cuban cigar manufacturer was shot and killed just inside the front gate of the family’s grand mansion in the Springfield neighborhood of Jacksonville. Her sister and the family gardener watched as a young, lovesick boy shot the young woman, then fled the scene. New of the sensational shooting made papers as far away as New York City. Just over one month later, a trial commenced in a Jacksonville courtroom that could rival any televised current “trial of the century.” Drama unfolded in a courtroom where a judge and lawyers whose names ultimately shaped Florida politics for years to come (Call, Broward, Fletcher). Slippery legal tactics, overt racism, constant press coverage, spectator antics, and a shocking verdict were all part of the show. In her new book, Fatal Switch: Murder on the Panama Road, Fernandina Beach, author Louise Stanton Warren tells the tale of the shocking murder of Marie Louise Gato. Warren, who grew up in the Springfield and Northshore areas of Jacksonville, has always been interested in Northeast Florida history. She has combined her research skills with a fascinating narrative to craft the tale of this brazen 1897 murder of a beautiful daughter of Jacksonville’s Cuban aristocracy. Warren’s recounting of the subsequent shocking brawl of a trial spotlights an injustice not widely known. Warren, who many may know as one of the founders of Jacksonville’s Old City Cemetery Tour and as the producer of the Evergreen Cemetery Halloween Tour, “Tales from the Crypt,” has family connections with the northside of Jacksonville. Her grandparents lived in Springfield when her grandfather was director of the Anti-Saloon League of Florida and her grandmother was music director of the Springfield Methodist Church. Warren’s mother grew up in Springfield and was in the first graduating class at Andrew Jackson High School. Warren became interested in the story of the murder of the beautiful young Miss Gato when a women’s service club to which she belonged began those Old City Cemetery tours as a fundraiser. “Years ago, I drove over the Mathews Bridge in my red Camaro,” Warren said, “and when I stopped at the light at the bottom of the exit, I spotted this lovely little Victorian cemetery off to the right and drove in on a rutted dirt road to explore.” When she learned that the cemetery was home to the grave of a 19-year-old girl who had been murdered, Warren‘s interest was piqued. She started researching the Gato family, the War for Cuban Independence, and Jacksonville’s nineteenth-century cigar industry. The grave of Marie Louise continued on next page
DECEMBER 2022
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