The Unsolved Murder of Sir Harry Oakes

Dark Histories

Ben Cutmore

History

4.8 • 2.2K Ratings

🗓️ 14 February 2022

⏱️ 67 minutes

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Summary

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. ---------- For extended show notes, including maps, links and scripts, head over to darkhistories.com Support the show by using our link when you sign up to Audible: http://audibletrial.com/darkhistories or visit our Patreon for bonus episodes and Early Access: https://www.patreon.com/darkhistories The Dark Histories books are available to buy here: http://author.to/darkhistories Dark Histories merch is available here: https://bit.ly/3GChjk9 Connect with us on Facebook: http://facebook.com/darkhistoriespodcast Or find us on Twitter: http://twitter.com/darkhistories & Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/dark_histories/ Or you can contact us directly via email at [email protected] or via voicemail on: (415) 286-5072 or join our Discord community: https://discord.gg/cmGcBFf The Dark Histories Butterfly was drawn by Courtney, who you can find on Instagram @bewildereye 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.

Transcript

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0:00.0	In the 1940s, the Bahamas was something of a tropical paradise for the world's rich.
0:08.3	Used as a tax haven and an island getaway far removed from the battlefields of war,
0:12.9	it was an idyllic retreat for those that could afford it.
0:16.3	Its society had a somewhat darker underbelly, however, with ties to money laundries, smugglers,
0:22.5	spies and mobsters.
0:23.8	At least, that was how it started to appear in stories, after one of the richest men
0:28.7	in the world wound up dead in its Bahamian home in the summer of 1943.
0:34.8	The fact that all of this happened under the nose of the island's governor, the one-time
0:38.7	king of England, Edward the Duke of Windsor, who was at the time a suspected Nazi sympathizer,
0:45.0	made it all more intriguing, becoming the only story to ever knock the news of the war
0:49.7	from the front pages of the Daily Telegraph.
0:54.3	This is Dark History, where the facts are worse than fiction.
1:02.2	Hello and welcome to Dark History's Season 6 Episode 2, I'm Ben as always, it's good
1:08.6	to be back.
1:09.6	It's another episode that's come another week late, unfortunately.
1:13.8	Somehow I managed to actually catch COVID at last.
1:16.6	I thought I was enough of a hermit that I could get away with it, but it tracked me down
1:22.0	and got me in the end.
1:23.0	It was quite a mild event, so it wasn't too bad, really.
1:28.1	I was all jabbed up and everything, so yeah, it wasn't too bad.
1:31.7	I had a few days where it got a bit rough.
1:34.6	It seemed to be weird, actually.
	...

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