This past weekend, the Pettis County Historical Society had a special event.  They called it a Crime Tour, and it was pretty entertaining! As soon as I heard about it, I had to be there. It was very informative. We started out in a parking lot on Main Street, and walked our way around the downtown Sedalia area. There were six stops, and each one had a volunteer telling us about an incident in that area.

I was definitely not alone on this tour - we took a break halfway through, and I stopped counting people when I got to 50.  So, we probably had about 55 or 60 in that first group. I know they wanted to be in groups of 20 to 25, and that probably would have been a little easier for some people who might not have heard everything from the back. We saw the second group, and they probably had about 30 people. I heard that the third group was pretty similar, and the last group was pretty small, so most people needed to be there first thing. I bet they had over a hundred people total. Pretty great turnout!

The heat and sun was a little uncomfortable for me, but nothing was going to keep me away from my own hometown Columbo episode. The volunteers were all great, and very knowledgeable. Some of them had scripts they read from, others just told the story from memory. Several of them had copies of the original newspaper clippings, and photos of the people involved, or photos of the scene of the crime. A few of them wore vintage clothing as well -It really brought it to life!

I absolutely hope they do it again, maybe in early fall - when it's not cold enough to wear a jacket, but the end of your nose gets a little chill? And if they do it again, I would suggest everyone use a script (to avoid rambling - not that it wasn't entertaining, but I didn't need to hear about so and so's cousin who did this that and the other, I'm here to hear about Claude Wilkerson). I think maybe also it would be better to keep the groups at twenty or so, so maybe the first twenty tickets are sold, off they go. That way, you can't have anybody else join that tour - you'd have to wait for the next one.  Maybe they could do two tours at a time that go in different routes? Not that it wasn't fun to be in such a big group, I just think it might have been a little hard on the speakers to get their voice to carry to the back. But I'm totally splitting hairs here, the experience was GREAT. 10/10, would tour again. I would go again even if it was the SAME TOUR, that's how much I liked it. It was so awesome and I will never look at Downtown Sedalia the same way ever again. Thank you to much, Pettis County Historical Society!

Historically yours,

Behka

More From Mix 92.3