J. T. Magbee had an illustrious career. He was an attorney (one of the first in Tampa), a Florida State Constitutional Convention delegate, a Florida State Senator, an early newspaper publisher and a judge of the Circuit Court. He was also a "scalawag," (the name given to persons who changed affiliations from the South to the North just after the Civil War) and a public drunk. During one spree, locals spread molasses and cornmeal on the judge's unconscious form where it lay in a city street. Night-roaming pigs ate of the sweet mixture -- along with the judge's clothes.
