Who Killed Sir Harry Oakes?

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Shirley Oakes (1929-1986), who was involved in a car accident in 1981 [12] that left her in a coma. [11] The Duke of Windsor brought in two Miami detectives he knew who took over the investigation completely from local police. Alfred's wife organized his defense and stood by him throughout, believing him innocent. Her private investigator and their British lawyer found serious flaws in the prosecution's case. Alfred de Marigny was acquitted after fingerprint evidence was proven fabricated just as depicted in the film.

Upon arriving in the Bahamas, the Duke and Duchess immediately declared the governor’s residence to be uninhabitable. It needed a complete overhaul. Sir Harry Oakes rode to the rescue. He had several homes on the island, and he offered the Duke the use of his best house while the governor’s mansion was renovated. Sir Harry had bought island property for a pittance before the war, and soon found himself sitting on a gold mine of a different kind. Alfred de MarignyPatricia Luisa Oakes (born 1951-2012), who married Franklin D. Roosevelt Jr. (1914–1988) in 1977, with whom she had one son before divorcing in 1981. Patricia later married Robert Leigh-Wood in 1984, [12] with whom she had a daughter. [13] Patricia's children are: And Harold Christie? With Oakes dead he never had to repay the money he owed. He became a significant property developer in the Bahamas and made many millions. By sublime irony he was knighted by the duke's niece, Queen Elizabeth II, in 1964. Christie's most successful property speculation occurred when he bought up some marshy land to the west of Nassau and sold it for redevelopment. It became a luxurious gated community that was named Lyford Cay. Christie died, a very wealthy man, in 1973. The first-day story said the Duke of Windsor “cancelled appointments to take a personal hand in the investigation.” In fact, he’d solicited the services of Miami police detective Capt. James Baker, along with Miami police homicide squad Capt. Edward S. Melchen, “a personal acquaintance of the duke.” The two cops also hopped a plane.

McGoun, William E., Southeast Florida Pioneers: The Palm and Treasure Coasts, 1998, Sarasota: Pineapple Press, pp. 111 and 167 The trial of Alfred deMarigny, Oakes' son-in-law, made international news and his eventual acquittal left the case unsolved -- it remains unsolved today. Let us not forget the recurring legend of all the “unexplained killings of people directly, or indirectly, involved” with the Harry Oakes murder. (Marquis 6) Designed as an amphitheatre, Oakes Garden Theatre was opened in September 1937. Oakes, a member of the Niagara Parks Commission, donated the land at the foot of Clifton Hill and Niagara Parkway to the commission in 1936. The landscape architecture was done by Howard and Lorrie Dunington-Grubb, [28] the building's architect was William Lyon Somerville with sculptures by Florence Wyle, Frances Loring and Elizabeth Wyn Wood. [29] Oak Hall [ edit ]Historians have alleged that the Duke of Windsor bungled the case, by enlisting the assistance of Miami policemen James Baker and Edward S. Melchen, rather than relying on Bahamian detectives, which was typical of the widespread racial discrimination in that era.

Harold Christie said he tried to give Sir Harry Oakes, a dead man with four gaping bloody holes in his head and burnt up body, wait for it… a glass of water. A glass of water! Seventy-five years ago this week, Sir Harry Oakes was found dead in his bed in Nassau. He’d been bludgeoned and set afire. Sullen thunder rumbled in the distance. The night draped a tropical curtain over Nassau. In the bedroom of the huge house slept Sir Harry Oakes,” began the dispatch of mystery writer Erle Stanley Gardner, writing as Perry Mason as part of the Miami Daily News’ publicity stunt. As a student, when asked what he planned to do after college, Harry was direct: “I plan to make a million dollars.” Homosexuality was the last and most unthinkable option in relation to the Oakes case. They were happy to blame it on a supposedly conniving son in law.Indeed, the governor especially feared civil disobedience from the local population, warning Oliver Stanley, Secretary of State for the Colonies, “If the coloured people are ever given the slightest reason to suspect the jury, then the consequences may be grave.”

The chief suspect was Oakes’ eccentric son-in-law Count Marie Alfred de Fouquereaux de Marigny, a 33-year-old Mauritian, who had eloped with Oakes’ 18-year-old daughter, Nancy, in Mexico. Nancy was his third wife. The two had met in New Providence. From as early as July 6, 1911, a 17 year old Harold Christie traveled to Brooklyn, New York. He gave his profession as clerk. In September 1918, just a few months before the end of World War I hostilities, Harold Christie then 22 years old, and four other Bahamian left Nassau to join the Canadian army at Toronto Ontario. Quiet, stubborn, driven, generous, proud, short-tempered—all these could describe Sir Harry Oakes. At the time of his death, at age 68, some saw a mellowing multimillionaire finally relaxing into his wealth and status. Others saw a tyrannical drunk tilting at decades-old slights and insults and bent on self-destruction. The Duchess of Windsor: The Secret Life, second edition, by Charles Higham, 2005; chapter 'Death in Nassau', pp. 381-404.The Duke of Windsor was quoted saying de Marigny was "an unscrupulous adventurer [with] an evil reputation for immoral conduct with young girls." His marriage to Nancy Oakes was de Marigny's third; he was married twice to wealthy women who broke off those relationships soon after marriage. But his next and final marriage lasted 46 years and produced three sons. He married Nancy the day after her 18th birthday and there was an approximate 14-year difference in their ages; he was approximately 32 years old at the time.