Recipe for a Scandal

Why go under a house to die? That’s the question many people in Pensacola, Florida have been asking since Willie Junior, the first Black man elected to the Escambia County Commission in recent history, turned up dead under a house in 2004. 

The coroner ruled his death a suicide. 

Junior had reason to be stressed, his role in a government corruption scandal cost him his job and lavish lifestyle and was about to send him to prison, along with another powerful politician. 

Junior, the man who once had everybody talking about his “drive through mortuary” business, was now the talk-of-the-town for taking a cash bribe in a collard greens pot.

Still, many thought crawling under a house to drink beer and anti-freeze seemed like an unusual way to commit suicide, especially for Junior who enjoyed the finer things in life like nice suits and flashy cars. He even got a haircut the day he disappeared. 

In this episode of Gulf Coast Confidential, "Recipe for a Scandal," join me for more on one of the biggest political scandals to rock Northwest Florida.