A Missing Gun

Bequia reeled with shock when Jerome’s body was discovered floating in the sea off Moon-hole. His wooden water taxi had been found earlier, and the two live bullets inside the vessel had not boded well for its operator. The recovery of the body confirmed the worst fears of the island’s population, and suspicion was cast on the two people who had supposedly last seen him alive on the night of Oct. 6^th. James and Penny Fletcher’s yacht Carefree was carefully searched by the authorities, and their missing gun plus a smear of o negative blood on a storage locker was deemed sufficient to detain the couple. By that time, it was common knowledge that Penny had shot her dinghy full of holes on October 2^nd, so the couple’s claim that the gun had been stolen by the deckhand they had fired at the end of August didn’t hold much water.

The only gun I had ever seen on Bequia was Mac’s father’s rifle, it was used whenever a goat was required on Family Hill for lunch. Murder was almost unheard of on the island, and the fact that Jerome had been shot with a gun was TOTALLY unheard of. A lot of people had heard Penny Fletcher brag about her gun, she was quite proud of the birthday holes she had drilled into the yacht’s rubber dinghy. Two days before Jerome’s disappearance she had gone into a drunken rage at Buddy’s Bar, an ugly episode that Nik and his partners witnessed. She boasted about her Smith and Wesson gun, and claimed she was going to “shoot a nigger”. Penny grew quite violent, biting one of Nik’s partners and throwing bottles and glasses. A typical “yachtie” she was NOT.

The Fletchers were jailed without bail, and the preliminary hearing was set for March. Realizing the importance of finding the murder weapon, many people dove repeatedly with scuba tanks in an effort to retrieve the missing Smith and Wesson. I went along on one such dive, and quickly came to the conclusion it was not going to be found. Not knowing the sequence of events the night Jerome was shot the gun could be anywhere, and trying to find it in the deep waters of Admiralty Bay proved futile. Rumours floated about the deckhand Rudy Hanson, and the possibility that he had been paid to dispose of the weapon. It was quite obvious that the former deckhand (Benedict Redhead) had not stolen the gun, he had left Bequia at the end of August and was working in St. Lucia. My heart sank when I realized that the gun was probably not going to be found, without proof of its existence the evidence against the Fletchers would be circumstantial. Damning, yes, but would it stand up in a court of law?

The impact of two Americans awaiting trial in St. Vincent proved painful. James Fletcher’s father was a wealthy, influential man with powerful friends, and the media began to make minced meat of our peaceful island nation. St. Vincent was portrayed as an evil country, corrupt and backwards, a place where no American would ever get a fair trial. During a segment of Nightline entitled “Murder in Paradise”, host Ted Koppel suggested that Jolly Joseph was a drug pusher, and that the country was a haven for drug smugglers. He went on to say that a travelers’ advisory should be put in place so that Americans would steer clear of St. Vincent and the Grenadines, it was obviously a dangerous destination for tourists.

Prime Minister Mitchell was extremely upset about the murder on Bequia as well as the manner in which his country was being portrayed by the media, and agreed to appear on Burden of Proof. Mr. Mitchell thought he would be able to counter the negative publicity the country was receiving but was sadly mistaken, and I winced as the show’s host proceeded to make a fool of the poor man. His attempts to assure the United States of America that the Fletchers would receive a fair trial were over-ridden, and I think it’s the only time I ever saw Son Mitchell at a loss for words! He learned to his chagrin that the power of the media can be cruel, very cruel indeed.

The negative publicity DID hurt tourism, and the media coverage grew more frenzied as the preliminary hearing approached. Reporters from the United States converged on little Bequia and, although few people on the island were willing to be interviewed, the reporters were extremely persistent in their efforts. Son Mitchell had been taken aside by none other than Bill Clinton at a summit of the Caribbean Community leaders in Barbados, where the President of the United States asked for his personal assurance that the Fletchers would receive “Due Process” in court. The trial was obviously going to a big deal, it felt as though the eyes of the whole world would be watching it unfold!

The preliminary hearing was held at Paget Farm, Bequia, in March of 1997. The magistrate, after hearing about the blood found on the storage locker, seeing the bullet-torn dinghy and learning that the gun owned by the Fletchers was missing, ruled there was “probable cause” to try James and Penny for premeditated murder. The trial date was set for August, which meant several more months of jail for the American couple and several more months of pressure from the media.

The search for the missing gun would have to continue, without the murder weapon as evidence the prosecution would have a hard time proving its case in August.