By Michael Earl Simmons
A Captain Died on the Pensacola Waterfront, and most people today have never heard the story.
Pensacola is a beautiful city…warm Gulf breezes, historic streets, and quiet evenings along the bay. But like many old Southern towns, the past here has a darker side.
Some of those stories have been forgotten.
One of them began on a chilly night in November 1882, at a downtown waterfront saloon, where sailors once crowded into saloons after months at sea. In those days, Pensacola Bay was almost always filled with merchant ships from across the world. When the men who had been working at sea for many months finally felt firm ground under their feet, they were eager to get out and have some fun. And…with their pockets full of money, there were many saloons, dance halls, and brothels waiting for them. Made for a wild waterfront!
On that night, a man named Captain Martin Villar walked into the establishment – known as The Half Way House. Before the night was over…he would be dead.
Newspapers of the time carried the shocking headline. Men along the docks talked about the killing for weeks. But today, more than a century later, the story has nearly vanished.
Most people pass that same location, at the waterfront near Tarragona Street, without realizing a murder once happened there, and the details of that night are far more dramatic than most people would imagine.
On Thursday evening, May 28, 2026, I will be telling this story, plus giving the details about the shocking axe murder that happened in downtown Pensacola in 1926. For tickets, click here.
Michael Earl Simmons