Another, proposed by Nassau newspaper editor John Marquis, was that the murder was orchestrated to prevent Oakes from moving his money off the island and that the Duke of Windsor was complicit in a cover-up by hiring corrupt detectives.

McGoun, William E., Southeast Florida Pioneers: The Palm and Treasure Coasts, 1998, Sarasota: Pineapple Press, pp. 111 and 167 The Duchess of Windsor: The Secret Life, second edition, by Charles Higham, 2005; chapter 'Death in Nassau', pp. 381-404. Oakes' former home in Kirkland Lake, Ontario, is now the Museum of Northern History, dedicated to his life and to the region's mining history. Kirkland Lake is where he made his fortune as a prospector. He was inducted into the Canadian Mining Hall of Fame.De Marigny was unpopular with the locals, but the “unsavoury group of people” de Marigny consorted with wished to see him acquitted, and if there was any suspicion of justice not being done, chaos would ensue.

Sir Harry helped turn that tropical archipelago into an international resort and he would become the largest property owner on Nassau’s New Providence Island. As a student, when asked what he planned to do after college, Harry was direct: “I plan to make a million dollars.”

Strange Ancient Places

And the Obeah/Voodoo type extra nonsense, done to further defile Sir Harry’s dying body, were the actions of a desperate man, trying to hide a secret. All of the murder theories offered over the past seventy-five years, seem to run the longest of miles just to walk 18 feet. For it was just 18 feet between Sir Harry Oakes’ bedroom, and the bedroom in which Harold Christie supposedly slept in, while Oakes was being battered, butchered and set on fire. H. G. Christie says he slept like a baby and never heard a thing or smelled a single thing.

Shirley Oakes (1929-1986), who was involved in a car accident in 1981 [12] that left her in a coma. [11]Then under questioning, the validity of the single piece of physical evidence the police had against Freddy—a fingerprint from a screen next to Sir Harry’s body—was crushed. Interestingly, former Tribune columnist John Marquis, in his 2005 “Blood and Fire” publication, speculated that certain elements within the Bay Street establishment might have had a motive to rid the colony of the dictatorial Oakes. While Marquis’ theories make for a good Agatha Christie thriller, we must bear in mind that he is only speculating. In Bar Harbor, Harry continued to spread his money—and to show stuffed-shirted summer swells how his money insulated him from the customary requirements of polite society. A simple, even if at first sight improbable suggestion, was a lovers rage, not money, is what pushed Harold Christie to murder Harry Oakes, on the night of July 7, 1943. At his peak, he owned 120,000 acres and 14 miles of oceanfront, But, like many, he was washed away by twin demons: the 1928 Okeechobee Hurricane and the real estate crash that followed. He left his city in 1931, and eight years later it changed its name to Lake Park.

Afterward, a local paper would call the whole thing “the greatest fiasco in a criminal trial in this colony.” On July 6, 1943, Harry Oakes had made plans to join his family in the U.S. But he decided to stay another day so he could show off his 1,000-acre sheep farm to the editor of a local paper and to his old pal, Sir Harold Christie, a real estate investor he’d met in Palm Beach in the 1930s. As they would be having an early start, Oakes invited Christie to spend the night at his sprawling estate. De Marigny would return to Nassau in 1990, to pitch the memoir he had written. Reporters had called in 1989 when the TV movie “ Passion in Paradise,” based on James Leasor’s “Who Killed Harry Oakes?” came out. The count died a rich recluse in 1998. The Bahamas’ governor, the Duke of Windsor (formerly King Edward VIII of the United Kingdom), who had become a close friend of Oakes during the previous three years, took charge of the investigation from the outset. The Duke first attempted to enforce press censorship, but this was unsuccessful, since the Bahamas Tribune newspaper broke the story to the world within a few hours. [17] Oakes' vast wealth, fame and British title, combined with the ghastly nature of the crime, generated worldwide interest in the case. Etienne Dupuch, the colony's foremost newspaper publisher and a close friend of Oakes, ensured constant coverage of the case for the several months which followed. [2] Dupuch had called the Oakes residence early on the morning after the crime, since he had previously arranged to visit, and spoke with Harold Christie, who had stayed there overnight; Christie reported the death to Dupuch. [18]

1874 – 1943

Another question, is why would Harold Christie even want to sleep in Oakes’ house anyway? Christie knew of Oakes’ plan to leave The Bahamas, and his friend’s fury over being cut out of the RAF land sale. Over the years, there were several leads: a Bahamian crime kingpin, a mysterious blonde, a political operative, or various combinations. A crooked business partner about to be exposed. A jealous husband who mistook Harry for his wife’s lover. Or someone seeking riches in gold the tycoon had hidden away somewhere in the Bahamas. Sir Harry is killed. Four stabs to his head. His body is set on fire and feathers from a pillow are scattered over the body. His genitals are practically burnt off.