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01:31In May, British and American forces completed the job of driving the German and Italian armies out of North Africa.
01:44While in the Pacific, American forces had driven the Japanese off Guadalcanal and were pushing forward in the Solomon Islands.
02:03Amid these dramatic events, the British colony of the Bahamas was very much a backwater.
02:14Yet in the stormy early hours of the 8th of July, 1943, its peace was to be shattered.
02:27At this palatial house, the body of Sir Harry Oaks, the colony's richest citizen, was found by his friend Harold
02:34Christie, who had been staying the night.
02:41Christy had walked from his bedroom two doors away, down the veranda, to wake Sir Harry for breakfast.
02:50He found Sir Harry's half-burned body lying on the bed with a bloody wound on his head.
03:03After contacting the police, Christie rang the governor's mansion to tell one of Oak's most influential friends the horrific news.
03:10This was the Duke of Windsor, the former King Edward VIII, who had abdicated in 1936 after insisting that he
03:17must marry twice-divorced Wallis Simpson.
03:19He was now serving as governor of the Bahamas.
03:25The Duke told Christie to keep the news secret, but it was already too late.
03:29Soon it was on front pages all over the world.
03:35When the police and doctor arrived, they found that the body, bedclothes and curtains had been splashed with petrol and
03:42set alight.
03:43But high winds during the night had blown the flames out before they could get a proper hold.
03:50The room was in disorder, and a pillow had been ripped open, and feathers scattered over the body.
03:57Sir Harry's head was untouched by the fire, and just above the left ear was a wound with four distinct
04:04puncture marks.
04:05Blood from this had dried upwards over the cheeks and nose, proving that Sir Harry must have been moved after
04:11he was attacked.
04:13There was a bloody handprint on one wall, and an ornate Chinese lacquer screen near the bed was smeared with
04:19blood and fingerprints.
04:25The inner hall and staircase were covered with blood and sand, and seemed to have the footprints of several different
04:32men on them.
04:37After talking to the local police chief, the Duke of Windsor announced that he would be calling in outside help,
04:43surprisingly not from a British force, but from the United States.
04:48At 10 to 11, the Duke rang the chief of police in Miami, and asked specifically for Captain Edward Melchon,
04:55a detective who had acted as his bodyguard during holidays in Florida.
05:00The Duke also asked by name for Captain James Barker, who was a fingerprint expert.
05:07The two detectives caught the midday flight from Miami, and reached Westbourne at 2 in the afternoon.
05:13There, they took charge of the case, with Barker announcing that no fingerprints could be taken that day, since the
05:19weather was too humid.
05:22The detectives seemed surprisingly uninterested in the footprints which had been found on the stairs.
05:30They did not request a search of the grounds, and seemed to attach little importance to finding and questioning the
05:36two night watchmen who had disappeared.
05:42When a post-mortem showed that Sir Harry's stomach contained an amount of black, viscous liquid, they did not feel
05:49it necessary to get a detailed analysis.
05:52Instead, they asked everyone close to Sir Harry Oaks to come to the mansion to be questioned.
06:01The murdered man was not a native Bohemian.
06:04He had been born in the United States in 1875, in Sangerville, Maine.
06:09His family was prosperous, and he had originally intended to become a doctor.
06:14But in his twenties, Oaks had become obsessed with gold prospecting,
06:17and borrowed money from his family to join the gold rush in the Klondike.
06:24For the next 15 years, Harry Oaks roamed the world, prospecting in Australia and California,
06:30before striking lucky in northern Canada.
06:39Encouraged by a small strike near the Ontario town of Swastika,
06:43he bought land on the edge of Kirkland Lake.
06:46There he found a seam of gold some forty foot thick and miles long.
06:53By 1921, Oaks' Lakeshore mine was in full production,
06:57making him one of the richest men in the world.
07:00The lonely years, as a struggling prospector, had made Oaks an abrupt and gruff person,
07:05but he could be enormously generous with his wealth.
07:10During a world cruise, he met and married an Australian girl.
07:13They soon had five children.
07:20Oaks objected to paying Canada's heavy taxes.
07:23A chance meeting with Harold Christie, one of the leading Bohemian property developers,
07:28persuaded him to move to the British colony, where tax rates were negligible.
07:34He soon gained a reputation throughout the Bahamas for his generosity,
07:38funding educational and health schemes for the poor.
07:54As a Bohemian citizen, Oaks now plunged into pre-war British society,
07:58giving massively to charities.
08:02Shortly before the Second World War,
08:04this generosity led to him being created a baronet.
08:11Sir Harry earned his adopted empire's further gratitude
08:14by funding three Spitfires, which fought in the Battle of Britain.
08:21Sir Harry Oaks was inevitably one of the leading figures
08:24with whom the Duke of Windsor came into contact
08:26when he arrived in the Bahamas in 1941 as governor.
08:32Britain's former king had found that life as an ex-monarch was not easy.
08:37The woman he loved and for whom he had sacrificed his throne
08:40was turning out to have been as much interested in his job as his devotion.
08:44At one point during the constitutional crisis,
08:46she had been heard to remark,
08:48anything would be better than abdication.
08:54Once the worst had happened,
08:55she diverted herself with massively extravagant shopping sprees.
09:02Her husband also earned considerable bad publicity
09:05by visiting Nazi Germany
09:06and showing open approval for the activities of Hitler's government.
09:14When the war started,
09:16the Duke did his best to support the Allied war effort,
09:19acting as a sort of unofficial ambassador to the French.
09:30Forced to flee to Portugal by the fall of France,
09:33the Duke reluctantly accepted Winston Churchill's offer
09:36of the governorship of the Bahamas.
09:42The royal couple arrived in Nassau in August 1940.
09:46They regarded the place as a dump
09:48and barely concealed their boredom.
09:51At that time,
09:53the Bahamas had not become
09:53the cosmopolitan playground they are today.
09:56Power was tightly controlled
09:57by a small group of wealthy white businessmen,
10:00among them Harold Christie,
10:02known as the Bay Street Boys
10:03after Nassau's main street
10:05where most of them had their offices.
10:10The Duke and Duchess despised most of the people
10:13they were forced to mix with.
10:16But Sir Harry Oakes was not one of these.
10:21For the Duke,
10:23like his grandfather,
10:24Edward VII,
10:25was fascinated by the company of self-made men.
10:29The two men began to see each other regularly,
10:31and the Duke was very sympathetic
10:33when Sir Harry heard
10:34that his 19-year-old daughter Nancy
10:35had got engaged
10:37to a twice-divorced French Mauritian
10:39named Count Freddy de Marigny.
10:44De Marigny
10:45and his closest friend,
10:47Marquis Georges de Vidalou,
10:49had arrived in the Bahamas
10:50shortly before the Second World War.
10:57De Marigny had moved
10:59from Mauritius to London,
11:00where he had lived high,
11:02successfully selling shares
11:03and marrying a banker's daughter.
11:11When she fell for de Vidalou,
11:14he had agreed to an amicable divorce,
11:16and the three of them
11:17set off aboard the luxury liner Normandy
11:19to try their luck in New York.
11:26Once there,
11:27De Marigny again proved his financial skills
11:29as a stockbroker,
11:30while his charm soon captivated
11:33the daughter of one of his senior partner's wealthy relatives.
11:40During their honeymoon,
11:41the couple fell in love with the Bahamas
11:43and went to live on a Lutheran.
11:45Shortly after the war broke out,
11:47they got amicably divorced for tax reasons.
11:56tall, dark, handsome,
11:58and enormously attractive to women,
12:00De Marigny soon became a leader
12:01of the island's younger and faster social set.
12:05He was an excellent sailor,
12:07and his yacht concubine
12:08won many of the Caribbean's major trophies.
12:12But more traditional Bahamas society
12:14hated De Marigny for his arrogance.
12:16They regarded him as a foreigner,
12:18a dangerous womanizer,
12:20and a cad.
12:22De Marigny also fell out with the Duke of Windsor
12:24and made no secret of his contempt
12:26for the man he described as
12:28not my favourite ex-king.
12:38So there was considerable scandal
12:39when Nancy Oaks revealed
12:41that she and De Marigny
12:42were not just engaged,
12:44but had got secretly married in New York.
12:47At first, Sir Harry seemed to be ready
12:49to make the best of it.
12:51He admired his new son-in-law's business acumen
12:53and independent-mindedness.
12:58But shortly before Sir Harry's death,
12:59it became known that the two had quarrelled
13:01over De Marigny's refusal
13:02to attend a cocktail party
13:04given by the Duke.
13:05There were rumours that De Marigny
13:07had threatened to crack
13:08his father-in-law's head.
13:16De Marigny was among those
13:17called to Westbourne
13:18on the afternoon of Sir Harry Oak's death
13:20by Melchin and Barker,
13:22and they paid him particular attention.
13:28He told them that he and De Vidalou
13:29had been at a dinner party
13:30the previous night.
13:31He had driven two of the guests home
13:33at about one o'clock.
13:35He acknowledged that his route home
13:37would have taken him past Westbourne.
13:41De Vidalou confirmed this,
13:43revealing that he had seen
13:44De Marigny again at about three o'clock
13:46after driving another guest,
13:47Betty Roberts, home.
13:49He had gone to his friend's room
13:51to collect his pet cat,
13:52which had gone to sleep with him.
13:58Harold Christie described
13:59how he and two other friends
14:01had dined with Sir Harry at Westbourne.
14:03The other guests had left at about eleven,
14:05and he had gone to bed shortly afterwards.
14:08The night had been stormy,
14:09and despite only being
14:11a few yards down the veranda,
14:12he had heard nothing.
14:19Detectives Barker and Melchin
14:21returned to De Marigny's statement,
14:22asking him to show them
14:24the clothes he had been wearing.
14:25His suit had already been cleaned,
14:27and he couldn't remember
14:29which shirt he had had on.
14:32The next morning,
14:33the two Miami detectives
14:34took fingerprints.
14:36De Marigny was asked
14:37back to the house for questioning.
14:39He was taken upstairs
14:40and into the bedroom.
14:42At various times while there,
14:45Melchin asked him
14:45for a glass of water
14:46and threw him a packet of cigarettes.
14:52At 7.30 that evening,
14:54De Marigny was astonished
14:56to be arrested
14:56and charged with the murder.
15:02After revealing further details
15:03about the killing,
15:04the detectives flew to see
15:06Lady Oaks in the United States,
15:08where she was on holiday.
15:12They gave her a graphic
15:14and gory account
15:15of how De Marigny
15:16had beaten her husband unconscious
15:17and then finished off the job
15:19by dousing him with petrol
15:20and burning him alive.
15:24Nancy alone stood by her husband.
15:26She hired a well-known
15:27American private investigator,
15:29Raymond Schindler,
15:30and sent him to Nassau.
15:34Once there,
15:35Schindler soon found
15:36that strange things
15:37started happening.
15:38He arrived at Westbourne
15:40to find the police
15:41scrubbing away
15:41all fingerprints,
15:43bloodstains,
15:44and footprints.
15:44They refused to let him
15:46examine any that remained.
15:50Then he heard rumours
15:51of strange landings
15:52from a motor launch
15:53on the night of the crime.
15:54The eyewitness he contacted
15:56was suddenly drowned.
15:58Schindler's phone was tapped
16:00and he was followed.
16:01Anyone he spoke to
16:02was interrogated by the police.
16:06The Bahamas police chief,
16:08Erskine Lindop,
16:09who had been openly critical
16:10of the Miami detectives,
16:12suddenly found himself
16:13promoted to be
16:14assistant chief of police
16:15in Trinidad
16:16and sent away immediately.
16:20The message sent by de Marigny
16:22to the leading Nassau barrister,
16:23Alfred Adderley,
16:24asking him to lead his defence,
16:26never reached Adderley.
16:28He was briefed
16:29to appear for the prosecution.
16:31When de Marigny
16:33appeared for committal,
16:34the most critical piece
16:35of evidence against him
16:36was a single,
16:37clean fingerprint
16:37which Barker claimed
16:38to have found
16:39on the Chinese screen
16:40shortly after his arrival.
16:46Barker claimed
16:47that de Marigny
16:47had not been taken
16:48up to the bedroom
16:49until later that afternoon,
16:50so the print
16:51must have been placed
16:52there earlier.
16:55Even ignoring the fact
16:56that Barker
16:57had apparently refused
16:58to collect any prints
16:59that afternoon
17:00because it was too muggy,
17:01de Marigny was able
17:02to show that he had been
17:03in the bedroom
17:04in the company
17:04of the police that morning,
17:06long before Barker
17:07had even arrived
17:08on the island.
17:10de Marigny stated
17:11that he had hurried
17:12to his father-in-law's house
17:13as soon as he had heard
17:14of the murder
17:15and had gone upstairs
17:16in the company
17:17of Chief of Police
17:17Erskine Lindop.
17:23It was unfortunate
17:24that Erskine Lindop
17:25would not be able
17:26to be present
17:26at de Marigny's trial
17:28to corroborate
17:28that he had accompanied him
17:29to the murdered man's bedroom.
17:38Freddy de Marigny's trial
17:40began on the 18th of October, 1943,
17:43in the Bahamas Supreme Court
17:45in Bay Street, Nassau.
17:47From early morning,
17:48there were queues
17:49waiting to get
17:49into the spectator's seats,
17:51mostly servants
17:52carrying cushions
17:53to reserve places
17:54for their masters.
17:56A relaxed-looking de Marigny
17:58was brought from Nassau's main jail.
18:02It was noted
18:03that the Duke
18:03and Duchess of Windsor
18:04would only just return
18:05from an eight-week holiday
18:06in the United States
18:07now found it necessary
18:09to return there
18:10for the duration
18:10of the trial.
18:16The presiding judge
18:17was Sir Oscar Daly,
18:19Chief Justice
18:19of the Bahamas.
18:26His procedure
18:27of writing down
18:27every word of evidence
18:28in a black ledger
18:29meant that the trial
18:31proceeded at a stately pace.
18:35De Marigny had persuaded
18:37another leading
18:37Bahamas barrister,
18:39Godfrey Higgs,
18:39to lead his defence.
18:41He worked closely
18:43with Raymond Schindler.
18:45The prosecution was led
18:46by the Bahamas
18:47Attorney General,
18:48Eric Hallinan,
18:49with Alfred Dadderley
18:50in support.
18:54The prosecution began
18:55by claiming that
18:56de Marigny
18:56had hated his father-in-law
18:58and had murdered him
18:59to get hold
18:59of the wealth
19:00his wife would
19:00one day inherit.
19:06However,
19:06once the prosecution
19:07moved on to the events
19:08of the night of the murder,
19:09its case began
19:10to look somewhat threadbare.
19:17Harold Christie
19:18soon lost his air
19:19of confidence
19:19when his claim
19:20that he had gone to bed
19:21at eleven o'clock
19:22was contradicted
19:23by testimony
19:23from Captain Edward Sears,
19:25a senior traffic policeman
19:27who stated that he had
19:28seen Christie
19:29being driven down
19:30Bay Street at midnight.
19:32It had been raining,
19:33so Sears had been unable
19:34to see who else
19:35had been in the car.
19:38Christie could only
19:39repeat his testimony
19:40and insist that Sears,
19:42who knew him well,
19:43must be mistaken.
19:48The Miami detectives
19:50were not called
19:50until the second week.
19:52Then Melchin
19:53caused a sensation
19:54when he admitted
19:55under defense
19:56cross-examination
19:57that Barker
19:58had not told him
19:58about the discovery
19:59of the vital fingerprint
20:00on the Chinese screen
20:01for more than a week.
20:03When Barker was called,
20:05he was forced to admit
20:06that he had no proof
20:07that the fingerprint
20:08had actually come off the screen,
20:09since he had forgotten
20:10to bring his fingerprint camera
20:12to record it in position.
20:15The defense produced
20:16a series of specimens
20:17showing that any fingerprint
20:18lifted off the screen
20:19would inevitably
20:20have been much less clear
20:21than the print
20:22produced by Barker.
20:25Instead of following
20:26standard police procedure
20:27of dusting every print
20:28and photographing it
20:29in position
20:29before being witnessed,
20:31lifting it off
20:32with transparent tape,
20:33Barker had succeeded
20:34in destroying
20:35all but one of them.
20:41He could not refute
20:43the defense suggestion
20:44that this one
20:45could easily have come
20:46from the glass
20:46or cigarette packet
20:47that de Marigny had handled
20:49while being interrogated.
20:52Nor could Barker explain
20:53why he had not examined
20:54any of the bloodstains,
20:55the footprints,
20:56or the bloody handprint,
20:58and had allowed them
20:59to be destroyed
21:00without proper records
21:01being made.
21:07When the defense
21:08began its case,
21:09much was made
21:10of these lapses
21:11and the total lack
21:12of evidence,
21:13other than one
21:14dubious fingerprint,
21:15that de Marigny
21:16had gone to Westbourne
21:17that evening.
21:19His alibi remained solid,
21:21with David Alou
21:21adamant that he had
21:22spoken to his friend
21:23both at one o'clock
21:24when de Marigny
21:25left the dinner party
21:26and at three o'clock
21:27when he had retrieved
21:28his cat from
21:29de Marigny's bedroom.
21:32The trial lasted
21:33for three weeks,
21:34during which public opinion
21:35swung more and more
21:36onto de Marigny's side.
21:39When on the 11th of November
21:41Sir Oscar Daly
21:42came to sum up
21:43for the jury,
21:44he was scathing
21:45about the incompetence
21:46of the Miami detectives,
21:47calling Barker's performance
21:49incredible,
21:50with his failure
21:50to take fingerprints properly
21:52and to follow up
21:53all the other evidence.
21:55The jury retired
21:57on the afternoon
21:58of the 12th of November.
22:02They were back
22:02in an hour and a half
22:03and found de Marigny
22:05not guilty
22:05by a nine-to-three majority.
22:11A jubilant de Marigny
22:13left the court
22:14but his freedom
22:15was severely limited
22:16for the jury
22:17had taken the unusual step
22:18of recommending
22:19that both he
22:19and David Alou
22:20should be deported
22:21immediately.
22:29The Duke of Windsor
22:30was particularly keen
22:31that this should happen
22:32and was infuriated
22:33when he got back
22:34after the trial
22:35to find that de Marigny
22:36was still in the Bahamas.
22:41When the United States
22:43refused de Marigny a visa,
22:44he slipped away to Cuba,
22:46almost penniless
22:47after his massive legal bills.
22:54He was to spend
22:55the rest of his life
22:56as a penniless wanderer
22:57since Nancy left him
22:59in 1944
22:59to return to the United States.
23:03Little was done
23:04subsequently
23:05to reopen the case
23:06of her father's murder
23:07and it remains
23:08officially unsolved.
23:11But soon,
23:12rumours were circulating
23:13which could account
23:14for the high-level cover-up
23:15and framing
23:16of an obviously
23:17innocent man
23:18which began
23:18on that stormy night
23:20in 1943.
23:24When James Barker
23:25was shot accidentally
23:26by his own son
23:27two years later,
23:28it emerged
23:29that he had long
23:30been working
23:30for the Mafia.
23:33Organised crime
23:34had first become
23:35interested in the Bahamas
23:36during Prohibition
23:37in the 1920s
23:38and the islands
23:39were a natural
23:40jumping-off point
23:41for running contraband liquor
23:42into the United States.
23:45Crime chiefs
23:46such as Meyer Lansky
23:47who later took control
23:49of gambling
23:49in nearby Cuba
23:50are believed
23:51to have also
23:52targeted the Bahamas.
23:56His interest
23:56coincided with that
23:57of some of the
23:58Bay Street boys
23:59among them
24:00Harold Christie
24:01who were determined
24:02to make the islands
24:03one of the world's
24:04gambling and tourist
24:05capitals.
24:07The only snag
24:08was that gambling
24:08was forbidden
24:09on the islands
24:10and the majority
24:11of the Bahamas executive
24:12led by Sir Harry Oaks
24:14were determined
24:14to keep it that way.
24:17But rumours
24:18abounded
24:19that Oaks
24:20Christie
24:20and even the Duke
24:21of Windsor
24:22had not been
24:23over-scrupulous
24:24in sending cash
24:24abroad from the islands
24:26in breach
24:26of the wartime
24:27British currency
24:28regulations.
24:30Aware of this
24:31the Mafia
24:32may have been
24:32putting pressure
24:33on Sir Harry Oaks
24:34to get him
24:34to change his mind.
24:37It is suggested
24:38that at a meeting
24:39that evening
24:39to which he was
24:40taken by Harold Christie
24:41Sir Harry was killed
24:43either accidentally
24:44or deliberately
24:44by a blow
24:45to the head.
24:52His body
24:52was brought back
24:53to his house
24:54where attempts
24:55to make the kidding
24:55look like a robbery
24:56or accidental fire
24:58were botched.
25:05incriminating evidence
25:06remained.
25:09Freddy de Marigny
25:10was selected
25:11as a scapegoat
25:12to cover up
25:13the possibility
25:13that the currency
25:14smuggling activities
25:15of some of the most
25:16powerful men
25:17in the Bahamas
25:17might come to light.
25:19the