The most corrupt town in America

Video of this report is no longer available online

Florida lawmakers are no longer trying to dissolve Hampton, Fla. But what’s been called the most corrupt town in America still has plenty to explain.

Correspondent Sheila MacVicar went to visit the former mayor, Barry Moore, who was elected last year as a reformer. He’s now living in what the sheriff likes to call Bradford County’s only gated community: its jail.

“What I was told was the city was broke,” explained Moore, who’s awaiting trial on charges he was dealing drugs.

“According to the audit, there were $27,000 spent at Walmart on the credit card,” he said. “Nothing to show for it. I mean, the city doesn’t have a lawnmower. It doesn’t have an edger. The city doesn’t have a shovel. Where’d all the money go?”

Before he was arrested, the mayor was actually trying to clean up this 89-year-old town, population 477, and follow the money trail. It’s a sticky road, lined with missing records, missing water, missing police cars, an infamous speed trap and a swamp that likely holds even more secrets. One legislator called it something out of a Southern Gothic novel.