In the 1940s the Bahamas was something of a tropical paradise for the world’s rich. Used as a tax haven and an island getaway far removed from the battlefields of war, it was an idyllic retreat for those that could afford it. Its society had a somewhat darker underbelly, however, with ties to money launderers, smugglers, spies and mobsters. At least, that was how it started to appear in stories after one of the richest men in the world wound up dead in his Bahamian home in the summer of 1943. The fact that all of this happened under the nose of the island's governor, the one time King of England, Edward, the Duke of Windsor, who was at the time a suspected Nazi sympathiser, made it all the more intriguing, becoming the only story to ever knock the news of the war from the front pages of the Daily Telegraph.

SOURCES

Craton, Michael (1962) A History Of The Bahamas. Collins, UK.

Owen, James (2008) A Serpent In Eden. Hachette Digital, UK.

Daily News (1943) Didn’t Murder Oakes. Daily News, 11 July, 1943, P1. New York, USA.

The Province, (1944) Acquittal Of De Marigny Leaves Oakes Murder Unsolved Mystery. The Province, 12 November 1944. P1. Vancouver, Canada.

Le Grand, Cathleen (2010) Another Look at a Bahamian Mystery: The Murder of Sir Harry Oakes: A Critical Literature Review. International Journal of Bahamian Studies, Vol.16, The College of The Bahamas, The Bahamas.

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Music was recorded by me © Ben Cutmore 2017

Other Outro music was Paul Whiteman & his orchestra with Mildred Bailey - All of me (1931). It's out of copyright now, but if you're interested, that was that.

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