Shirley, May I suggest that there may be an easier way to get the information--and other interesting things--on Sim Johnson? At this point, the prison folks are not likely to want to help, even if you know where he was imprisoned, and unless the Ft. Myers library has an obituary index in which to look up victim Henderson, they and the newspapers probably won't be much interested, especially since you're not sure when it all took place. I would check in or query the Clerk of the Circuit Court's criminal docket indexes in Lee County (formed in 1887 from Monroe) as a first approach. That MAY lead you to the criminal case files, which SHOULD give you names and the dates of all of the major activities concerning the killing, the case, the imprisonment, etc. Then, once you have a narrower time-span, the newspapers, the librarians, and the prison recordkeepers might be more interested in your problem. Good luck! -Brian Michaels ******************************************************* Shirley Hale wrote: > > To the list, > > Okay this is my Ggrandfather. My father told this story after my mom passed > away about his grandfather. Sim Johnson supposedly killed a well known > citizen of Ft Myers by the name of Henderson and was sent to prison(don't > know what year) in the late 1800s to early1900s. He never came back to his > family which lived in Arcadia at the time. > I have two questions. How do I go about finding any newspaper articles > about this so I can find out his full name and where or how do I find out > if he died in prison or was released? > Maybe this is a part of a family tree that some might not want to look for > but I am trying to find out his legal name so I can go from there. All I > have is his birth date. > Born in Ga. in 1846. > Thanks for any help ..........................Shirley Hale