Athalia Ponsell

Athalia Ponsell Lindsley, born July 25, 1917, in Toledo, Ohio, was an American model, Broadway dancer, television personality, and political activist. Raised on the Isle of Pines, a Caribbean island possession of Cuba, she came from a wealthy family before spending two decades in New York City working as a model, chorus line dancer, and television hostess. She died on January 23, 1974, in St. Augustine, Florida, under violent circumstances that remain officially unsolved.

Ponsell's Broadway career included an appearance in the 1941 musical Viva O'Brien. Alongside her stage work, she built a career as a model and served as hostess on Winner Take All, a television game show hosted by Bud Collyer. During her years in New York, she dated Joseph P. Kennedy Jr., the elder brother of future President John F. Kennedy. Reports of a possible engagement between them circulated, though Kennedy was killed while serving on active duty during World War II.

Later in life, Ponsell relocated to St. Augustine, Florida, where she pursued political ambitions, making an unsuccessful bid for state senator and planning a run for a seat on the St. Johns County Commission. Four months before her death, she married James "Jinx" Lindsley, a former mayor of St. Augustine and real estate agent. Despite their recent marriage, the two lived separately; she resided at 124 Marine Street along the Matanzas River, while he divided his time between the historic Lindsley House at 214 St. George Street and a residence on Anastasia Island.

Lindsley had been engaged in a prolonged dispute with her neighbor Alan Griffin Stanford Jr., who lived at 126 Marine Street. Among the points of contention were six stray dogs she had taken in, whose persistent barking contributed to tensions between them. At an October 1973 county meeting, Lindsley stated on record that Stanford had threatened her life.

Between 5:30 and 6:00 p.m. on January 23, 1974, Lindsley was attacked on the front steps of her home by a middle-aged white male dressed in a white shirt and dark pants. Medical examiner Dr. Arthur Schwartz determined through autopsy that she had been struck nine times with a machete, sustaining wounds to her hand, arm, and head. One of her fingers was severed, and she was nearly decapitated. An 18-year-old neighbor, Locke McCormick, witnessed the end of the attack and reportedly called out that Stanford was striking Lindsley. After the attacker fled, the McCormicks found her lying in a pool of blood on her porch and contacted police. The only item found missing from her home was a pet blue jay, whose cage had been smashed.

Stanford was indicted and pleaded not guilty. Following two hours of jury deliberation, he was acquitted. Critics subsequently alleged that police had mishandled the investigation and compromised evidence. The case attracted ongoing media attention, including an A&E City Confidential documentary in 2000 titled St. Augustine: The Socialite and the Politician, and coverage in April 2019 on the online true crime program BuzzFeed Unsolved. A work of fiction drawing on facts from the case, Bloody Sunset in St. Augustine, was published locally in 1998 by Jim Mast and Nancy Powell, who had been friends of Lindsley. Her murder has never been officially solved.