In the early 1970s, Charles River Laboratories brought 1,000 rhesus monkeys to the Florida Keys. The facility, housed on two islands, was used to breed monkeys for research purposes globally. Rumors ran rampant in the 1980s of genetic experiments being performed on Lois Key. Company attorneys denied the allegations, but the rumors persisted. In the late 1990s, litigation forced the Big Pharma giant to close its facilities and remove the monkeys from the Keys. After the Big Tide in 2024, odd reports of strange, man-like creatures plundering abandoned houses began to emerge from the backcountry. Most people wrote it off as an “urban legend.”

Following the events associated with the murder of long-time Keys’ personage Toby Ireland, life had returned to some semblance of normal, and the little archipelago that could, kept on keeping on. All eyes were on the upcoming Southernmost Blues Festival headlined by the Tedeschi/Trucks band. A week of great music and island food had been planned. Key West was ready for a party having narrowly escaped harm from the “voodoo army” amassed by an evil genius intent on taking over Cayo Hueso, or Bone Island as the early Spanish explorers called Key West.

A week prior to the start of the festival a strange report crossed the desk of Lt. Norman James, the acting Police Chief and man of the hour. He read the report three times, slowly. He then called his second-in-command into his office, shut the door, and had Cheryl McIntosh read it. She looked at him with concern and then said,
“We need to get Finn and Dr. Sullivan in here as soon as possible.”

Jerry Buckley is a former resident of Big Pine Key. An avid kayaker and fisherman, he writes of the unique beauty, the quirky characters, and the mysterious happenings in the Florida Keys. His familiarity with the Upper, Middle, and Lower Keys is evident in the stories he writes.