The Mammoth Book of Celebrity Murders (49 page)

During the night Christie remembered waking briefly on two occasions; the first time was because he had been bitten by a mosquito and the second time due to the noise created by a storm
outdoors. Christie stated that each time he had woken, it was only briefly, probably only for a matter of a few minutes, and during this time he heard nothing unusual inside the house.

The following morning Christie recalled eating breakfast alone, and thought that Oakes must have been taking the opportunity to sleep in. He decided to go and waken his friend, and called him
from outside the bedroom, but did not get a reply. He then knocked on the door and entered the room.

He first noticed that part of the bed appeared to be blackened and burnt, while a portion of the mosquito net which hung over the bed was similarly burnt. He rushed over to his friend to find
that he too was burnt and had blood on the left-hand side of his face.

Unaware at this stage that Oakes was dead, he tried to get him to take a drink of water from a glass which was on his bedside table. He then went to the bathroom for a towel and used the water
to try and remove some of the blood from Oakes’s face. He was now certain that his friend was beyond help and called for assistance by going to the porch window in the bedroom and shouting
for the servants to come, unaware at the time that it was the servants’ day off. When nobody came to his aid, he went downstairs to call for help on the telephone.

Godfrey Higgs now had his opportunity to question the witness. He started out by asking why Christie had decided to park his car so far away from the Oakes property, to which Christie responded
that he was wishing to conserve petrol owing to the shortage because of the war. Higgs was not satisfied and stated that he had a witness who had seen Christie as a passenger in another
person’s vehicle that night. Higgs then called for the Superintendent of the Bahamas Police Force, Captain Edward DeWitt Sears, to take the stand. He confirmed that he had seen Christie in a
station wagon travelling from Marlborough Street in Nassau, and understood that the car had come from the harbour area at a little after midnight. Christie strenuously denied having vacated the
property that evening, although this could not be corroborated by the night security guard as he had rather suspiciously drowned before the case came to court.

The jury were not informed that a speedboat had been seen in the harbour that evening and that two unknown men were observed leaving the boat and getting into a nearby parked car.

The doctor who had examined Oakes’s body not long after it had been discovered was called to give evidence. Dr Hugh Quackenbush told the courtroom that when he arrived in the
victims’ bedroom part of the mattress was still smouldering, so the murder had been extremely recent. He pointed out that Oakes had wounds on the left-hand side of his head, and that he had
been severely burnt. He described several blisters around the victim’s body, from his feet to his neck, and in his considered opinion, they had been sustained before he had died. He was
unable to provide an explanation as to what had caused these blisters, but did indicate that he believed that Oakes had died in the early hours of the morning of 8 July – between 2 a.m. and 5
a.m.

The post-mortem had been carried out by Dr Laurence Fitzmaurice and he came to court to testify, agreeing with the findings of Dr Quackenbush, but also offering a more detailed description of
the injuries he had examined on the body. He confirmed that Oakes had suffered a fractured skull, and suggested that he had been hit about the head with a heavy, blunt instrument. He described the
instrument as having a “well-defined edge” and that the wounds this inflicted were of a triangular shape around two inches in diameter. The wounds, as Dr Quackenbush had already
testified, were on the left-hand side of the face, above the ear.

Several character witnesses were questioned in court, each referring to the poor relationship between Freddie and Harry Oakes. Many were of the opinion that Oakes was unhappy with his
daughter’s choice of husband and considered that she could have done much better for herself.

The first police officer to speak with the defendant after the murder was Police Constable Wendell Parker of the Bahamas Police Department. He explained in court that the defendant had arrived
at the police station early that morning, at around 7.30 a.m., to have his car checked over, as it had recently been converted into a truck. The constable described Freddie as agitated and
distressed, and considered it unusual to have somebody arrive at the police station at such an early hour.

Other members of the police force were in court to give their statements, one of the more interesting being given by Captain James Barker, who had been assigned the case along with Captain
Edward Melchen; both had been brought in from Miami for this purpose. The day after the murder he had managed to locate the accused’s fingerprints in Oakes’s bedroom, on a Chinese
screen which was close to the bed. This discovery was directly related to the arrest of the accused, which was the following day.

The manner in which Barker had obtained the fingerprints was rather unusual – he had actually lifted the prints from the screen using a piece of rubber, thereby leaving no evidence behind
on the screen. Usual police procedure for obtaining fingerprints was quite straightforward – firstly the print was dusted with a very fine black powder to make it much more obvious and easy
to see. Secondly, it was photographed with a high-resolution camera whilst still in situ, to prove where the print was discovered. Lastly the print was lifted from the scene using a form of Scotch
tape, which was then bagged and labelled as crime scene evidence.

When the actual screen was brought into the courtroom as evidence, Captain Barker was unable to identify where he had located the fingerprints. Strangely, his colleague Captain Melchen testified
that he had not been told of the positive identification of the fingerprints until several days afterwards, by which time Freddie was already in police custody. When Higgs pushed Barker on this
point he was unable to give a reasonable answer, which must have partially destroyed his testimony to the members of the jury. Higgs pointed out that in his opinion the dubious fingerprints could
have been lifted from Freddie whilst in police custody, which explained the unusual manner in which they were collected.

Other anomalies came to light regarding Barker’s investigation of the crime scene. Areas which should have been dusted for fingerprints were simply overlooked, including the foot of
Oakes’s bed. When he was asked if all the fingerprints of any visitors to the room had been taken he confirmed that this had been done, but later in his statement he admitted this had not in
fact occurred.

Melchen made a further mistake when he was in the witness stand, telling the court that he had interviewed the defendant on the afternoon of 8 July, between 3 p.m. and 4 p.m. But Lieutenant
Douglas of the Bahamas Police Department had made out a report at the time which disagreed and stated that the accused had left his home as early as 1.30 p.m. Higgs concluded that the case had been
badly handled and recorded from start to finish.

When the defendant was called to the stand he gave a thorough testimony of the events which had occurred, and started by describing the problems he had encountered with Nancy Oakes’s
parents. He had not done anything to antagonize the Oakes, but they simply could not get along with him. He and Nancy had decided that they would never accept their son-in-law to be a good match
for their eldest child.

Just like his father-in-law, on the evening of 7 July Freddie was entertaining friends at his home. They had enjoyed a pleasant evening together and the majority had departed at midnight: at a
little after 1.00 a.m. Freddie had driven his last guest home. Also in his house that night were two others, Freddie’s good friend Georges and his girlfriend, who were in a guest bedroom. By
1.45 a.m. Freddie had returned from his trip and made his way to his own bedroom at around 2 a.m. He was awoken briefly an hour later by Georges’ cat; he also heard Georges leaving the house
to take his girlfriend home and was aware that he had returned only a quarter of an hour later. When he came back into the house Freddie called for Georges to come and remove his cat from his
bedroom, which he promptly did. Freddie only awoke once again that night, to take an indigestion remedy, and soon resumed his sleep.

He awoke early in the morning and at 10.30 a.m. his friend Mr Anderson called at his house to tell him of the death of Harry Oakes. The three shocked men made their way to Oakes’s house;
when they arrived they were mystified to discover that several of Oakes’s neighbours were wandering around what was a crime scene. They commented on how bizarre it was, and felt sure that
this was an unusual way to conduct a criminal investigation. Freddie then went home and contacted his wife by telegram before being taken by Anderson to his house for lunch, where they talked about
the events of the morning.

After lunch Freddie returned to Oakes’s house and was briefly questioned by the two leading police officers, Barker and Melchen. He told the court that his hands were inspected and that
the officers noted that he had several singed hairs; he explained that these were the result of cooking on a gas stove. Singed hairs were also noted in his beard, which Freddie said he had because
he smoked the occasional cigar. The two policemen and Lieutenant Douglas took Freddie home as they wanted to examine the clothes which he had been wearing the previous evening. He showed them the
clothing which he had in his linen basket, but could not remember which shirt he had worn the day before; the men looked through the clothing, but found nothing of interest. When Barker and Melchen
left the property, Douglas stayed as Freddie had requested him to do so.

Georges was called to give his testimony to the court; whilst being cross-examined by the prosecuting attorney, Adderley, he repeated the account of events which had previously been given by the
accused. He even remembered that he had been into Freddie’s bedroom to retrieve his cat at around 3 a.m. Adderley listened to the testimony before picking up a piece of paper and reading it
out loud to the courtroom; it was a transcript of Georges’ statement to the police in which he quite clearly says that he did not see the accused from 11 p.m. on 7 July until 10 a.m. on the
8th. This was to prove a very critical piece of evidence, which could well have ended Freddie’s hopes of a positive verdict.

Freddie’s defence counsel, Ernest Callender, immediately took the opportunity to cross-examine Georges, and quickly pointed out that the two men did not actually see one another late on
the night of 7 July until early the following morning, but did talk to one another through Freddie’s door. This corroborated with Freddie’s version of events, and proved that he was at
his home at that time.

The last testimony was given by the accused’s wife, Nancy de Marigny. She confirmed her husband’s opinion of her parents, namely that they did not approve of him and were not openly
friendly towards him. She went on to comment that she had decided that she would not speak to them until they showed her husband the respect which he deserved. She also told the court that the two
leading police officers in the case had informed her that they had located her husband’s fingerprints on the Chinese screen in her father’s bedroom.

The defence and the prosecution had their chance to sum up the case before the court and the Judge asked the jury to take their time in coming to their verdict. Within two hours the jury of 12
men returned to the court to give their verdict, finding the defendant not guilty of the murder of Sir Harry Oakes.

The news was well received by the hundreds of locals who had been gathered outside the courtroom awaiting the verdict. There were also dozens of newspaper reporters who were waiting with bated
breath, ready to write their story for the next edition of their paper. The news travelled quickly and was soon spread, quite literally, around the world. The reason for the massive worldwide
interest in the case was not only because the victim had the title of “Sir” but also because of the powerful and influential people with whom he mixed.

Sir Harry Oakes had become one of the leading figures on Nassau and was a powerful decision maker when it came to changes on the island, as he owned most of it. He was a self made man, and
although his parents enjoyed a comfortable lifestyle, this was not good enough for their determined son who was adamant that he would make his own fortune.

He was born, the middle of five children, to his parents, William Pitt Oakes and Edith, on 23 December 1874. The first decade of his life was spent in Sangerville, Maine where the Oakes children
attended local school. William and Edith had high hopes for their offspring and decided that as their education was paramount they would uproot the family to Foxcroft, also in Maine, because they
considered that the education they would receive there would be far superior. The children were enrolled at the well-regarded Foxcroft Academy, where it has to be said, they all did remarkably
well.

Harry went on to continue his education at Bowdoin College in Brunswick, Maine and later moved on to specialize in medicine at Syracuse Medical School. He stayed on his course for over two
years, but a lifelong obsession with the search for gold was just too strong to ignore and he ditched his medical studies to follow his dream.

To give his parents credit, they supported their 23-year-old son in his wishes, although this must have been difficult to come to terms with as they had set so much store by giving him a good
education and thorough training in an expert field. Nevertheless, they believed in their son and supported his decision; they also helped pay for his trips to far distant lands. By 1899 Oakes had
arrived in the Klondike, but sadly he was out of luck as the “gold rush” was all but over. He had now been on his quest for three years, and although he had been largely unsuccessful,
he was still not ready to throw the towel in. He was a determined man who had set himself a goal and was not prepared to admit defeat.