Show nwirijUH TTC j S I xr V z ‘ -- - f — ’ I v yr ("'sa ! the cast of characters x In one of the most baffling mysteries to confront the V lr c police were (from left to right): the victim Sir Harry Oakes his Count Alfred de Marigny his son-in-la- w daughter Nancy friend and business associate Harold Christie and Raymond Schindler the famous American detective The resolution ' of the Bahamian assembly is only the latest in a series of tragicomic unacted-o- n events in one of the most grotesque murder cases of the past half century In the cast of characters of this officially unsolved murder are the Dukfeof Windsor of England who as governor general of the Bahamas in 1943 at first believed that Sir Harry’s murder was a suicide the Miami police captain he summoned to Nassau who neglected to bring along proper fingerprintAmerican private ing equipment a world-famo- us detective (retained by the chief suspect’s wife— the murdered man’s' daughter Nancy Oakes de Marigny) who was impeded and harassed throughout his independent investigation Defendant de Marigny Nancy Oakes’ and the only person ever to stand trial for the murder was a count who raised chickens He was acquitted in short order Bahamian Cyril Stevenson is not the only one who claims to be able to name the murderer of Sir Harry Oakes The name has been whispered about the islands for 16 years Yet its bearer has never been arrested detained or even publicly accused of the crime (It will be noted that Mr Stevenson prudently did not name a man in either the House of Assembly or his newspaper) The trusted friend and business ally whom rumor accuses of having brutally killed Sir Harry to this day goes about his business on New Providence Island carrying the burden of his alleged guilt as lightly as any native woman balancing a basket of eggs on her head bludgeon-blowtorch-mutilati- on ex-ki- ng then-husba- nd oakes was bom a poor but honest Yankee who saw no future in lobster pots and in 1896 at the age of 21 set out to make his fortune Gold was his object and for 15 years he sought the yellow stuff from the Klondike to the Philippines to West Africa to Australia finally by sheer fluke in 1911 he struck a bonanza in northern Ontario Canada It became the second-riche- st gold mine in the world In 1923 a millionaire of 48 Oakes returned to Harry t Australia to marry a girl 10 years his junior who 'had been waiting for him for 20 years a Sydney jewelry-sho- p clerk named Eunice MacIntyre By 1938 when he was 63 Oakes had acquired five children six mansions an income of $3 million a year British citizenship and a baronetcy That was the year Sir Harry Oakes and a Baham- ian real-esta- te so-cal- led operator named Harold Christie became friends As a result in 1939 the Oakes family took up official residence in Nassau Bahamas" where the income tax was negligible It was from Christie that Oakes purchased Westboume a regal estate for a reported $500000 it was with Christie that he engaged in numerous lucrate tive deals At his death Oakes was worth some $200 million and he and Christie were the two most powerful men in the islands Oakes was no beloved tycoon His photos show a rough rimrock face with merciless eyes under shaggy brows a vulturine nose a mouth set in concrete and a chin and jaw like the prow of a submarine He made enemies as naturally as he made millions He manhandled his servants He spat in the faces of shopkeepers who incurred his royal displeasure He had an eye and more than an eye not only for attractive lady tourists but for their shapely sisters in permanent Bahamian residence as well his conquests were reputed to include many who had smoldering husbands A man bom” some said to be murdered And murdered he was during the night of July 7 1943 in his many-roommansion in Nassau all alone except for his old friend and business crony Harold Christie Lady Oakes and the Oakes children had gone north some time before to escape Nassau’s summer heat they were far away that night in the United States Oakes himself was planning to fly to the mainland the next morning to join them and that night he had entertained a few guests at a small select farewell party Among them was Christie -- All the guests but Christie departed about mid-nig- ht While the native servants- - cleaned up Sir te broker discussed Harry and the matters over a drink or two Shortly after 20-bedro- om real-esta- ed real-esta- some-busine- ward the servants left the house for their cabins and Sir Harry and his friend said good night and retired — Oakes to the master bedroom Christie to the East Room located 18 feet away During the night Christie testified atde Marigny’s trial he slept fitfully'1 Nevertheless he “said he heard nothing from his host’s room a tropical storm raged half the night A little before 7 a jn Christie tapped on his host’s door Getting no answer he entered to find the master bedroom filled with smoke from a smoldering mattress and rug and Sir Harry face up in his bed bloody burned and dead ss inflicted four deep triangle-shape- d Someone hadwounds behind the victim’s left ear applied an intense flame to the eyes and other parts of the body and set fire to the bed A pall of uncharred feathers from the mattress had some time later been strewn over the corpse The bestial nature of the murder plus the strewn feathers at first suggested some barbaric revenge-rit- e Professed Christians though native Bahamians are the remains of voodoo fires can still be found in remote sections of the islands’ palmetto brush But this thought was not pursued The savage murder at once turned into a tragicomedy of errors and omissions To this day no one knows or will tell who notified the police When the superintendent arrived with his constables matters worsened By actual count 13 persons were allowed to enter the murder room before an RAF photographer was asked to snap pictures of the scene of the crime By then a silk Chinese screen standing beside the victim’s bed had been moved and hundreds of fingers had left prints on it— alw though later the dead man’s was to go on hial for his life because a single print among the hundreds was alleged to be his Sir Harry had made no bones about his contempt for Nancy’s husband he had considered de Marigny a fortune hunter and at the time of the murder the two men had not been on speaking terms for months As for the counts regard for his father-in-la- w one of the first tilings Miami policemen heard on setting foot in Nassau was the rumor that son-in-la- no-acco- ' unt (Continued on page 9) Family Weakly Nor ember f JKf y |