At that point down to florida with the orders to stop in the seminole war. Robert kennedy spoke at the new england Law Institute about the impact into this is what he said. It is an obscure conflict had not sat down in jail with a pencil and paper to write to the Supreme Court and of the court t had taken the trouble to look for the merits in that petition among what it must receive every day, the machinery and the american law would have gone undisturbed. First visited fort myers and purchased this property for his familys winter retreat until thomas is back in 1931. In 1947 she needed the property to the city of fort myers. Its an incredible book about fort myers and the legacy that is left. I didnt have time to do that, and i had some difficulties, have to work. While i was researching the book i had to go to new jersey and if they had some of their original artifacts and i was in this warehouse digging into a Cardboard Box full of original documents and i pulled out a handful that fell on the ground. I reached over to pick it up and low and behold it was a 16 page handwritten account of the tripo the everglades of 1914. It started out being a very nice day. There were five cars and bottled teas and they had model t. s. They also had henry ford and claire ford and other friends. They then went over to a place called rock lake which was a very obscure place in the woods and they set up the pretense which they had ready for this trip. One was reserved and then they had a tent for the women and the men. They had a dinner that night for supper out in the woods and all of a sudden his plac wife said everybody just go to your tent now but before she could finish her statement it started raining like you have never seen before. The conversation went on and it was just incredible. She recalled an unusual Tropical Storm that on rare occasions were miserable in this part of the country. The members of the exposition came one by one into the tent. But by the time they arrived the language contained they laid her founder wrapped in mosquito netting. He worked here every year. His last project started and the reason for that was he had an experience during world war i for trying to getrying to get ce couldnt get because of world war i ended they were surrounded by german uboat and he didnt want the shortage to occur again he needed a source for them and because you use a lot of rubber on the basic automobile and because of all that, they started to be Research Corporation to find a new source of water from a vegetable that could be reprinted every year and if you had a cut off you would be in trouble and that is what he was working for he wasnt really working for a finer solution for rubber he was working for that emergency. Thus worse we had four rubber back then boast were controlled by the japanese and there were tons of personal letters and she described what they were having for lunch and supper and she wrote each one of her children, she wrote letters to her son charles saying i detest the people down here. Sometime in the early 20s she had been at tiffany and became a part of the town. She was involved in the organization. It was fun to come here and eat and sit on the swings after dinner on the porch and to walk around we like to do that and she loved to ride around and see things. She was interested about everything going on in the town and with different people. She was very curious about that and anything new that happened she wanted to know about it and be involved. She was very easy to know and to be with. And as ic i say she was curiousd wanted to know what was going on. And we even went to the bar on broadway one night because she thought i wonder whats going on. I was with them and she talked to dot owner. She came back in 1932 the year after her husband died. And when she was pulling out of the train, she wrote a letter that was extra in the difficult. Someone very dear to me from any other place. We are attached to those in fort myers in a different way from others. From the recent tri their reo fort myers florida learn about the Supreme Court case gideon versus right that paved the way for being available in all court cases. The attorney general Robert Kennedy spoke after the new england Law Institute about the impact of gideon and this is what he said. Its an obscure florida conflict named gideon hadnt sat down in jail with a pincer and people to write a letter to the Supreme Court and if the Supreme Court had taken the trouble to look for the marriage and that one petition among all of the bundles of mail it must receive every day the vast machinery of the law would have gone on functioning undisturbed but gideon did write that letter and the course of the history it has been changed. Because of taking up this pencil is why we have public defenders available. Clarence gideon was an interesting man. He was a literate drifter definitely familiar with the law. He had caugh gotten in and out f trouble most of his life. His early history as he ran from home eighth grade is that hes educated to the eighth grade. He ended up spending three years oin the juvenile institution and after that he was one of those guys who always seemed to be in the wrong place at the wrong time. It was june 31961, and the bay harbor pool hall had been broken into. Gideon was supposedly there. Eyewitnesses had seen him leave from the back alley. When the police investigated, they found that the window had been broken. Someone had broken into the vending machine and have taken wine, cigarettes, some coke and approximately 65 in change. As they said that he was a shady character and by that time he was approximately 51yearsold and he pretty much lived by running car games so gambling. He was a gambler. They found him at a different bar and he had about 25 but most of it was in claims and they just assumed during him and his past record they arrested him for larceny and breaking and entering. Whats interesting and what struck me about the case is that it would have been a misdemeanor. But breaking in made it a felony. In early august is when his case was actually tried. And he asked the judge for a lawyer because he was a director, he had no money, couldnt afford an attorney and they denied it saying that in the state of florida they only provided Legal Counsel when it was a capital case meaning rape, murder, the defendant is convicted would go to prison for life or face a death sentence. But it was that element of the breaking and that made it a felony. He wasnt given time to prepare and of course the eyewitness there were two eyewitnesses that showed him near the scene and so he was found guilty by the jury. The judge sentenced him to five years after reviewing his criminal history so he was adamant that the amendment guarantees us the right to counsel. The way that had been interpreted up until this time was you have the right to hire an attorney if you choose yes you can have an attorney if you hire one. At that time most of the States Capital offense automatic if you couldnt afford an attorney or hire one yourself one would be provided. So at this point, florida was among 13 states that interpreted the law the way they did saying its only for a capital crime. But he felt at the 14th that thh amendment is the due process amendment. The right for due process and he was adamant his due process had been violated by the denial of an attorney when he requested one. So that is what he i he stuck o. That was in his head. He was a stubborn man but again, his perseverance is what led to these events that unfolded. So, when he was sent to prison he immediately found at the library at the jail and he started studying. According to Anthony Lewis who wrote gideons trumpet which became the hallmark movie in 1980, gideon admitted to not understanding a lot of what he read. One of the documents i use in the research was his actual the letter that he wrote to the Supreme Court asking for the case to be reviewed. You could tell that he was studying other court cases and trying to model them. He was actually submitted a rate thabut he felt that means the ct is going to review it. If they look at it they are going to say we are going to review this case. He didnt even understand that what he was asking. He was using this term but what he thought is that they were going to say you get to be released from prison because he would unite your due process. So when that happened, when the court said we will review the case, he was upset because he assumed he was going to walk out of the jail. They argued before the florida Supreme Court in defense of gideon, and the questions that the court was asking were canned a lame and defend himself before oregon state trained lawyer and that was the difference is that really we cant. And so that is how the tables turned. What he worked for as the attorneattorney general for floe was sent to washington, d. C. To argue for the state of florida. He has petitioned all the states to say if this takes place the state of florida had roughly 5,000 inmates that might be affected that essentially had to defend themselves. He was upset. He thought, i dont want another child. He felt that it was being violated and he was being violated for the same crime. So its a perfect example of the irony here. Because they didnt truly understand the law. He had such intense believe on our constitution to protect its citizens. And that is what i find so fascinating about this entire case and all of the steps that take place. So we have actually written to to lawyers and asked if they would defend gideon in a second trial and they agreed to they didnt really connect somehow. He was bitter and he really felt that he should not have a second child. So he ended up he actually told the lawyer or the judge that he wanted to not let that happen. So we ended up finding a lawyer and he said you know, the due process may have been violated. Case may have been thrown out. And of course tv is oversimplifying everything. And so aranda was basically part of the council when you request it and you expanded it. And that is the other thing that is important about this book and something that was reiterated for me. And so i tried to show when i talk about schools and the books or anything, understanding how our constitution is organic. And it is the job of the Supreme Court to constantly be reviewing and interpreting how it is interpreted by the country and every state. Again, that is something that gideon was not aware of. I think most people are not aware of that. So its important to understand that that is why there are cases and little adjustments made in his understanding this and clarifying how it is interpreted. So then i think that we are not as likely to take things for granted and that is why it we have the right to not be tried for the same crime twice 30 really didnt understand those right, but it got the tears rolling to what we all benefit from today. Next from booktvs trip to fort myers, florida, we visit to location in the book called the living coast. The reason i wrote the book was in hopes that people by getting to know these animals would become loving to them. Words that are commonly found, first, mammals and reptiles and amphibians as well, including the snakes and lizards as well and the turtles. And the whole back section is where you can go in southwest florida and where you can go to actually find them. So its kind of like a cheat sheet to nature. So today we will see the refuge and some islands that we didnt visit. We are also going down to lovers kees state park. But it has some of the prettiest reaches an obviously has abundant wildlife has all kinds of shorebirds and its just a great place to visit when youre down here in fort myers. We are standing down here and they have identified 238 species of birds and another empty species of reptiles and amphibians. So in terms of this overtime they renamed it in his honor. He was a cartoonist from des moines, iowa. He won several Pulitzer Prizes and he was very into nature. And i think he was actually a follow through with Teddy Roosevelt when conservatives, being conservative men for the compilation of nature. Those two words were intertwined and so he was very much into preserving this for people to enjoy. 5200 acres and these tidal flats that are right behind me. You can see when the tide gets low all the birds come in here to feed because they can get to the crowd and all of the Different Things and if you come in here, ironically when the tide is high, there are no words to be seen. Sometimes you can drive you not see the alert. So you always have to come in when the tide is low. So i think its over 800,000 visitors a year and this is the second most visited wildlife preserve in the United States. They spend the winters down here and the summers up in montana and northern minnesota and they are all moving ahead. They dont dive light brown pelicans but theyve read with their beaks and what theyre doing is pushing the minnows ahead of them in scooping them up and its very rare to the them be. And so you can see they have their heads down and they are trying to eat little crustaceans down there. So we are standing at the manatee overlook at the state state park. In choosing all the places that we chose, sarah what i would do is contact the visitors convenn bureau and then as kind of a alternative, i contacted all the autobahn organizations and asked them about it and the lists were never the same. You have to hit the beach, one of the most beautiful beaches in all of southwest florida. No development, which makes it so wonderful. And so the beach and the bushes in the trees. So second only to the island for shelling and hopefully we will see some alligators with an Alligator Pond that we will visit as well. So we are on the blackwoods trail and we are at the Alligator Pond and behind me are seven alligators. One is rather large and six little babies ranging in size from about 2 feet to 3 feet and this is one of the only accessible freshwater ponds here. And they were in danger years back. But no longer. They are doing a great recovery as we can see behind me. There is one important thing and dont feed them anything but crust of bread, nothing. Because what happens is they way people with food and that is the cause of most of the alligator attacks. Because people feed them. It is a beach is beautiful is one as you can get anywhere in the world. Im standing here on the edge of the state park at the beach. About 1700acre park. I think that beaches overall miles long and its taken care of and managed by the state park system. Not affiliated with any kind of National Park or wildlife refuge. The gulf of mexico is different from any other body of water. If you go off of montauk, its deep almost instantly. Here in the gulf of mexico to get to 100 feet of water come you have to go 40 miles. It is so shallow and in that shallow pan, that is where all the shelves collapse. And so when the storms turn out like they did this past weekend, the shelves break free and the animal inside guys and they wash up on the beaches here. And you can find two to 300 different varieties. The reason i included this in a nature guide to southwest florida is because it offers a multitude of recreational opportunities. You have the beach, which is a given and it is gorgeous. You also have all of these canoe trails and how bored trails. And you have hiking trails as well. So whatever kind of nature appeals to you on a given day, you can find it here and hopefully the living gold coast will teach people about the youthful nature of southwest florida and indiana make in the end make them want to conserve it and appreciate it as well. Coming up next, the book peace river boundary. A story of war and peace in southwest florida. The author spoke with booktv during our recent visit to fort myers, florida, with the help of our partner, comcast. The book is actually called peace river boundary and it is these on the events that took place in this area from the late 1830s up until the late 1860s. The river itself first became a boundary in the 1830s and at that time we had the second seminole war going on and it was a lot more starting in the early 1830s and into the 1840s. By the 1839 president Martin Van Buren was becoming very concerned about the cost of the war and it was taking up 10 to 15 of the national budget. And he was very to learn about funding the National Government at that time. So he sent general alexander was the Commanding Officer at that point down to florida with the orders to stop the second seminole war. General make him really didnt know exactly how to go about that. And suggested that the seminoles probably want something so give it to them. So he comes down and he takes a number of weeks coming down through virginia, the carolinas, he finally get to the ferry landing, which is a race up there near jacksonville and he wants to find a seminal to cut a deal with. He doesnt find any seminoles there. The people say, well, youre probably going to have to go down to fort king and that is where ocala is now. So he goes all the way down the demarcation road and it was set up many years ago after the first award and in those days it went from around jacksonville through ocala down into tampa. At that point the seminole indians had been assured that if they go south of the road they could stay there indefinitely. They established farms and plantations and all of this sort of thing and then as people were coming down from the north, they realized that there was a lot of good land south of that demarcation road. And so that they got involved battling over this territory. Going all the way down the demarcation road to 14 which is sort of a ramshackle place and the people who were assigned their with the Union Army Troops at that time, they were very happy to be there. Because the story was at that time there were a lot of ways to die in florida and none of them were especially pleasant. And that could be anything from malaria to yellow fever and being bit by one of the various snakes and involved with the indian confrontations. At any rate what happened is when the general got here they waited until the seminole indians came in to pick up supplies and at that point they found some indians and they wanted to know if they co