Serving Hypoluxo Island, South Palm Beach, Manalapan, Ocean Ridge, Briny Breezes, Gulf Stream and Coastal Delray Beach
June 2015
Volume 8 Issue 6
Along the Coast
Manalapan
60 years on, Chillingworth murders
Rise in property values reflects growth in economy
STILL SHOCKING
By Tao Woolfe
Judge, wife were abducted from Manalapan home and drowned 60 years ago this month By Tim Pallesen The abduction and drowning of Circuit Judge Curtis Chillingworth and his wife, Marjorie, from their Manalapan oceanfront home still ranks as the county’s most terrifying crime 60 years later. It was 1 a.m. on June 15, 1955, when the county’s senior judge answered a knock at his back door. The judge
and his wife were abducted in their bedclothes by two thugs, forced into a boat, weighted down and thrown in the ocean to drown. The case was a twisted tale of judicial betrayal. The thugs later testified that a corrupt West Palm Beach municipal judge had ordered the higher judge’s killing. Chillingworth was one of only two circuit judges in Palm Beach County at
the time. The county had only 150,000 residents back then, compared to more than 1.3 million today. Manalapan had only 27 registered voters. Police arrived at the couple’s twostory cottage near 1550 S. Ocean Blvd. after the judge didn’t appear for a 10 a.m. hearing and his courthouse colleagues became concerned. See CHILLINGWORTH on page 24
Taxable property values in Palm Beach County rose an estimated 8.7 percent overall in the past year — and upward of 10 percent in some coastal municipalities — according to just-released preliminary figures from the Palm Beach County Property Appraiser’s Office. The county’s taxable values have increased steadily over the past four years, but the 8.7 percent increase is the largest jump in more than a decade. “It shows that Palm Beach County has left the recession behind,” says John Thomas, director of residential appraisal services for the county. “At the end of a strong economic cycle like a recession, there are ripples in values that occur in the real estate industry. These numbers show that those ripples have calmed.” Among the municipalities with the largest jumps in taxable property values was Delray Beach with a 10 percent increase, and Lantana, with at 10.1 percent bump. Boca Raton, Highland Beach, Ocean Ridge, and Gulf Stream all stayed below 7 percent. Thomas says the lower numbers generally indicate that cities have a lower level of new construction and a higher percentage of the population claiming a homestead exemption. The higher percentage See TAXES on page 14
Briny Breezes
Briny lifers pledge life together among old friends
By Ron Hayes
David and Edith celebrate their marriage. Jerry Lower/The Coastal Star
Inside Change is brewing New laws will benefit local craft beer makers. Page AT6
Quiet, please, we’re about to begin. Shortly after 2 p.m. on a sweltering Saturday in May, a caterer moved among the tables in the Briny Breezes Oceanfront Clubhouse, gently ringing a dinner bell to calm the guests. The tray of cheese-and-cracker hors d’oeuvres was set aside, Jimmy Buffett silenced on the stereo. The Rev. Ray Brower, a minister of
Life’s a beach
Exhibit explores a century along the Boca Raton shore. Page AT1
Briny Breezes Community Church, took his place at the front of the hall, smiling as the bride and groom stepped slowly forward to join him. “I’m so glad I can be here with you today,” the reverend began with a great, wide smile. “Because this could have been done some time ago.” And the guests chuckled, knowingly. After nearly 60 years together in Briny Breezes — first as children, then neighbors, adults and romantic partners
— David Hugh David, 63, and Edith Louise Behm, 66, are getting married. At last. • When they arrived at this little trailer campground in the 1950s, the sandy dune where the clubhouse stands today was occupied by a tiny office, a general store and a restaurant called the Seascape, where the red snapper entrée cost $2.75 and the shrimp cocktail a dollar. See BRINY on page 12
Well heeled
George’s Shoe Repair hoofs it from downtown Delray Beach to Boynton Beach. Page 29