On December 27, 1884, Charles Abbe and friend, Charles Morehouse, were painting a boat on a road leading to the beach, when Charles Willard and Joseph Anderson approached them. Willard, who was wielding Anderson's double-barreled shotgun, pointed the firearm at Abbe and shot him in the face. He then turned and pointed the shotgun at Morehouse, ordering him to run for his life."The Vigilantes of Sara Sota." In Florida's Past: People and Events That Shaped the State, Volume 3, p. 82. Willard and Anderson dragged Abbe's lifeless body to a wharf near Bidwell's store, loaded it on a boat and dumped it in the Gulf of Mexico, some three miles off shore.
