ARRY Tacklyn, a career criminal and disciple of the small militant wing of the Black Beret Cadre, boasted about killing Governor Sir Richard Sharples and his Aide-de-Camp Captain Hugh Sayers only hours after the March 10, 1973 double-murder, telling how Erskine Durrant (Buck) Burrows shot the Governor's Great Dane Horsa as it moved to attack him.

W.M. Jackson told the November, 1975 inquest into the Government House killings that Tacklyn ? a long-time friend and former cellmate of Burrows, the Prospect Police headquarters trusty transformed into a once-removed killer by the fanatical hardcore of the Black Berets ? briefed him in detail both before and after the assassinations on his "mission" to "take the man on the hill".

Presided over by Coroner James Astwood, the long-delayed Magistrates' Court inquest was told by police forensics specialists that based on the trajectories of the five shots fired, the killers were likely concealed behind a balustrade leading from the forecourt of Government House to the main gardens ? and that Captain Sayers was almost certainly shot first as he and the Governor took Horsa for a late-night walk.

Jackson, a commercial fisherman,, told the nine-man coroner's jury that Tacklyn sometimes "crashed" in the basement of his home and he discovered him there early on the evening of March 10 with another man who his friend introduced as "Buck" Burrows ? "the man who took care of (Police Commissioner George) Duckett".

He said he had gone to the basement to ask Tacklyn if he wanted something to eat and heard some "rustling" between knocking on the door and opening it.

Upon entering, Jackson saw Tacklyn sitting on a sofa chair and another man on the bed.

"We are planning a mission," Jackson said Tacklyn told him. As he said this, Tacklyn got up from the chair and Jackson saw he had been sitting on a black .38 calibre revolver. Jackson assumed the sounds he heard after knocking on the door resulted from Tacklyn quickly putting the gun out of sight.

Tacklyn picked the gun up, brandished it towards the stranger on the bed and said: "This is my man Buck, the guy who took care of Duckett."

Burrows, Jackson said, then produced a .22 revolver from under the bed, said nothing, but smiled.

"Larry said he was going to take the man on the hill," Jackson told the inquest. "He said: 'We are going to take care of the devils.' I understood him to mean the Governor and other people in Government."

Tacklyn then handed Jackson the .38 to examine. As he was handling the gun, Jackson said he noticed a plastic bag containing both .38 and .22 ammunition on the sofa in the room.

When he handed the .38 back to Tacklyn, Jackson said he looked at the gun Burrows was holding. But Burrows said to him: "No one handles this gun but me. It's my personal weapon."

said he told both men they must be crazy but Tacklyn told him he and Burrows had to do what must be done. He then went upstairs to prepare Tacklyn a meal but he never came up for it. About half-an-hour after leaving, Jackson went back down to the basement to see if Tacklyn wanted the food ? which would have been about 7 p.m. ? and both men had gone.

Later that night Jackson said he heard that both the Governor and his ADC had been shot and he immediately thought of Tacklyn and Burrows.

The following morning Jackson was outside his kitchen washing his car around 8 a.m. when Tacklyn arrived carrying a small brown parcel. He was wearing a dark pair of jeans and an army jacket. The previous night he had been wearing blue jeans.

Tacklyn said to Jackson: "Did you hear about it?"Jackson said he understood immediately what Tacklyn was referring to and replied: "Yes."

"I asked him if he had got rid of his clothes and he said 'Yes'. 'Your shoes?' He said 'Yes'. 'Your gun?' and he said 'Yes'.

"I said if he had not I had some acid which would get rid of them for him. He said he did not need it."Jackson said that Tacklyn appeared to be excited and said: "Man, you should have been there. They walked right across in front of us. I took care of them and one tried to run. You should have seen their faces. The dog, the big one, tried to get me and Buck took care of him."

Jackson said Tacklyn added the police arrived at Government House so swiftly he almost fell down a hole trying to get away from the property. He said he fled on the back of Burrows' Mobylette and had not appreciated how fast the moped went until it was speeding away from Government House.

Jackson said he told Tacklyn to get away from his house because he did not want to get his family involved, saying he would see him later.

He then took his wife to work and returned to his home at about midday.

Jackson said he saw Tacklyn a couple of times later but did not discuss the Government House murders with him.

Some time later, Jackson told the inquest, he was in the basement of his home and discovered a package wrapped in brown paper hidden in between the drain pipes. He found it contained two revolvers, a .38 and a .22. The .38 was the same weapon he had seen Tacklyn with on the night of the murders but the .22 was different to the one he had seen Burrows brandish. Jackson said he was familiar with the .22 he found because he had been present when it was handed to Tacklyn and Black Beret Cadre militant Ottiwell Simmons, Jr. by underworld figure Bobby Greene outside his Greene's Grill on Court Street. Tacklyn and Simmons, said Jackson, had asked him to drive them to Greene's Grill to keep a rendezvous with Bobby Greene and he had agreed.

, intelligent, fiercely ambitious and a natural entrepreneur, was reputed to be the largest drug importer and distributor in Bermuda at the time. He was known to finance the Black Beret Cadre's militants because their more high-profile actions distracted police from his rapidly expanding street business in the late 1960s and early '70s. He is also known to have used certain Berets as strong-arm men to help protect his illicit business from competitors and to collect debts.

Tacklyn, a Black Beret hanger-on who along with Burrows first came into Simmons' orbit when they were all serving time at Casemates, was known to hero-worship this most fanatical of the black separatist paramilitaries. Tacklyn occasionally worked part-time at Greene's Grill doing menial jobs and is believed to have played equally minor roles in Bobby Greene's shadow enterprises.

It seems Greene armed Tacklyn and Simmons so they could better protect his drug turf although he was likely aware his associates might use the weapons for freelance armed robberies. Greene almost certainly had no advance knowledge of the fact the guns were going to be used for the assassination spree already being planned by the hard-core rump of the Berets. In a secret meeting with New Scotland Yard's Detective Chief Inspector Basil Haddrell in late 1973 Greene had, in fact, named Burrows, Tacklyn and others as being responsible for the killings, providing police with their first major breakthrough in the investigations into the five 1972/'73 murders.

In fact, Jackson told the inquest the .22 had originally been intended to be used in a planned armed robbery of the Pitt Tobacco Company on Happy Valley Road but the raid never took place because the security precautions in place made the job too risky.

The witness went on to tell the inquest the .38 Tacklyn had on the night of the Government House murders appeared to be new and in good condition.

"I recall now that it was not loaded because I looked in the chamber and looked down the barrel," said Jackson. "I recall it had a right-hand twist."

Jackson said he was a long-time firearms enthusiast and noted the details of guns he came into contact with.

He said he subsequently saw Tacklyn in Casemates Prison and asked him how the guns came to be in his basement. Tacklyn replied: "I do not know anything about any guns, neither do you. Just stand firm."

In answer to Crown Counsel Alistair Gunning, Jackson identified a gun produced in court as the .22 Burrows had with him on the night Sir Richard and Captain Sayers were murdered. He also identified another gun, a.32 revolver, as a weapon handed to Tacklyn and Ottiwell Simmons, Jr. outside Greene's Grill by Bobby Greene. This was the weapon used to kill supermarket executives Victor Rego and Mark Doe during the armed robbery of the Shopping Centre in April, 1973.

Jackson said he was a commercial fisherman and knew the waters off Castle Point were extremely deep, some 200 feet. There was a broken, uneven sea bed of rock and coral there.

Detective Chief Inspector John Joseph Sheehy of the Bermuda Police Force told the inquest how he had taken possession of a .38 calibre Smith & Wesson revolver from Jackson on April 24, 1974. On October 8, 1975, he said, he accompanied Jackson to the waters off Castle Point in a police launch.

Jackson indicated the area of water where he had thrown away "certain items" ? evidence relating to the Government House killings that was not specified at the inquest but which included the .38 revolver Tacklyn had with him on the night of the murders.

Det. Chief Insp. Sheehy said he went to this point on a number of occasions and supervised a number of dives that were made to retrieve the items. He said both the Bermuda Police diving team and a US Navy team from Virginia had taken part in the unsuccessful salvage attempts.

At the point which Jackson identified based on certain landmarks, the water was, in fact, 240 feet deep.

"Owing to the depth in the first instance the divers could not penetrate this, especially with the absence of suitable equipment," said the officer. "However, dives were made in that area (where the depth of the water decreased) to between 80 and 120 feet. The dives in this area did not reveal the evidence that we sought."

Detective Constable Colin Rumsby of London's Metropolitan Police Force Forensics Laboratory then explained how he had conducted scenes-of-crime examinations and gathered exhibits at Government House in March, 1973. Det. Sgt. Rumsby said on March 15 he took swabs of gunpowder marks from pillars on the right balustrade of Government House's northern staircase. On March 17 he was present at the property when another officer discovered a bullet embedded in a tree.

On March 22 he took swabs of a suspected bullet mark on the north wall of Government House, some ten feet six inches from the ground.

Sgt. Rumsby said the marks on the first and second balustrade pillars showed this was the probable firing position from where the Governor and Captain Sayers were shot. The gunmen would have been on the grass to the right of the steps with the weapons pointing up and through the pillars.

This was a distance, said the forensics officer, of nine feet from the body of Captain Sayers and 14 feet from the start of the blood trail which led to the body of Sir Richard.

The distance along the line of fire to the tree where the bullet was found was 70 feet and passed the point where the blood trail started at a height of one feet nine inches. This was the shot that passed through the Governor's knee and thigh.

From the firing point to the mark on the Government House wall was a distance of 80 feet. This passed at a height of four feet five inches above the blood trail ? indicating this was the shot that mortally wounded Sir Richard when it punched through his chest.

In answer to questions from Mr. Gunning, Det. Sgt. Rumsby said there were carriage lamps on either side of the Government House front door. But the area by the staircase balustrade was completely unilluminated at night and would have provided excellent cover for the gunmen.

The lines of trajectory and the blood trail indicated the two victims were standing side by side facing outwards over the Government House grounds when they were shot. It appeared Captain Sayers was killed instantly with his hands in his pockets. He was carrying a sidearm but did not have time to reach for the gun.

Mr. Gunning told Det. Sgt. Rumsby that Captain Sayers had completed two tours of active service in strife-torn Northern Ireland before taking up his appointment as Sir Richard's ADC in Bermuda. Det. Sgt. Rumsby said a soldier with experience of Northern Ireland's urban guerrilla warfare would likely have gone into action against the Government House assassins if he had time.

"But it would appear he did not have any time to do anything at all and he was the first to be shot," said the officer.

Anyone standing by him, said Det. Sgt. Rumsby, would have instinctively turned towards the falling man.

Sir Richard was then shot in the chest and sustained the leg wound as he was either falling or crawling towards Government House.

Taxi driver Ernest Burgess then told the inquest how he was the victim of an armed robbery on the night of July 31, 1973. Two men wearing dark clothing, capes wrapped around their faces, approached his taxi near Fort Langton and demanded money. One of the men shot out the windscreen of the vehicle when Burgess asked what they were doing then he himself was shot twice when he got out of the car to confront them, once in the stomach, once in the right leg. Neither wound was serious and the men disappeared when Burgess handed them six dollars.

Later forensics examinations of the shots fired into Burgess and his taxi confirmed the .38 calibre bullets were from the same gun used in the Government House killings.

Henry Williams, a career criminal who was a life-long friend and confidante of Tacklyn's, told the inquest how the younger man had boasted of both the Government House and Shopping Centre murders to him and implicated Burrows in the September, 1972 murder of Police Commissioner George Duckett.

"I am a self-employed carpenter and a bachelor," said Williams in a statement read out to the court that was made to police in February 1974. "I reside on Mount Hill, Pembroke. I own my own home and live by myself. I have lived at Mount Hill for about 23 years. I have been involved in crime for many years and have also associated with criminals throughout the years.

"I have been sent to prison on several occasions for various offences.

"I know Bobby Greene is behind a lot of (drug-related) stuff. I use Court Street a lot although I don't hang around there. I know for a fact that right now there are plenty of guns sold in Bermuda and I could get one quite easily."

Williams told the inquest that early in 1971 a small arsenal of guns had been imported into the island from Jamaica along with a major shipment of drugs.

"I never saw the guns," he said, "but I heard about it when they arrived. They ended up on The Block (Court Street). Later that year I was locked up for receiving stolen property from (a break-in) at Stuart's. I got two years. I was released in May, 1973. I was in prison when all five murders (Sir Richard Sharples, Captain Sayers, Police Commissioner Duckett, Mr. Rego and Mr. Doe) took place.

"When I came out of prison I started work on my building at home. At that time I only knew what I read in the papers about the murders."

Wilson said he had known Tacklyn since childhood because he had once dated his mother, Lois Tacklyn, who had moved to the United States when the boy was five or six, leaving him in the care of an elderly Miss Lottimore, who raised him at her home in Deepdale, Parsons Road.

He said Tacklyn had a troubled adolescence and had been sent to the old Junior Training School on Paget Island as a result of a number of early crimes. Later he had been in and out of Casemates for various offences and was on bail for an armed robbery carried out with Burrows at the Clarendon Building when he knocked on the door of Wilson's home at 1 a.m. one morning shortly after he had been released from prison. Tacklyn had asked to be allowed in and given some wine.

"That early morning when Tacklyn came to my home, he sat on the bed and drank the wine," said Wilson. ". . . He told me that he robbed the man at the Clarendon Building and that he was pleading, 'Don't shoot me'. He gave me the impression he regretted not shooting him.

"He struck me as a changed person from what I knew him as (because) I can say I've seen him grow up. He was talking about the Rastafarians and (other uncharacteristic) things.

"He then started to talk about the murders. He seemed anxious to talk about it. He started talking about Duckett. He told me, 'I was away at the time but my ace boy took care of him.' I took him to mean Buck Burrows as Buck was his close friend. He said, 'I could have done a better job.'

"He said everybody in the house was supposed to have been shot. He didn't say there was more than one person involved in the murder."

Tacklyn told Wilson he had been involved in "quite a few jobs" and then began discussing the Government House murders.

"He told me, 'I did it; it was a clean job'," said Wilson. "He told me he went up through the bushes at the end of Dutton Avenue. He went up near Government House by a walkway and hid in the bushes.

"He didn't say he planned the murders, but that as he knew there was going to be a blow (party ? apparently the Police Ball held on the night of the Governor's murder at the Southampton Princess Hotel and attended by most of the island's officers) that gave him the idea. It was a good time to get him.

"He mentioned that there were some people moving around from Government House. Then suddenly the Governor and his ADC came near him with the dog.

"He told me he shot the Governor first and shot the ADC immediately afterwards. He also said the dog came smelling right up close to him and he shot the dog from very close.

"He then told me he left by running down a track and across Marsh Folly. He then went right home, which was Deepdale.

"He was talking about he didn't like whitey. He didn't mention anybody being with him but only that he had done the murders himself."

Wilson said he then asked Tacklyn if he had been involved in the Shopping Centre murders as well.

"Tacklyn said, 'Yes, man. That Portagee bastard (Mr. Rego) hit me in the guts. That is the reason they both got shot.' He told me he was with his mate. He didn't tell me who his mate was.

"As far as the Shopping Centre job went, he said it was a pushover. He told me they got in the back way and hid. I think he said Rego and Doe were either counting money or dumping it out of a bag. He also said Rego put up a fight and hit himself, Tacklyn, in the stomach and he mentioned that they wouldn't have been shot but for the punch in the stomach.

"He didn't say how much money they got. He never mentioned how they got away."

said Tacklyn told him he had a number of other jobs "lined up" at the time and said he was confident both he and Burrows would be acquitted of the Clarendon Building robbery they committed together.

When he finished his wine, about an hour after arriving, Tacklyn left Wilson's home.

Wilson told the inquest he took exception to some of the comments attributed to him in the statement. When asked by Mr. Gunning if he had signed every page of the recorded statement after it had been typed, Wilson agreed that he had but added: "You people are pretty good at copying handwriting."

He did not specify which remarks in the statement he objected to.

Detective Chief Inspector Basil Haddrell, seconded from New Scotland Yard to assist the Bermuda Police Force with their investigations into the 1972/73 Bermuda murder spree, read records he kept of interviews between Burrows and Chief Superintendent Bill Wright, also of London's Metropolitan Police murder squad.

Conducted at various times throughout 1974, Burrows ? who had undergone a jailhouse conversion to Christianity after being sentenced to 25-years in prison on unrelated robbery and firearms offences in January, 1974 ? tacitly admitted involvement in all five murders ? but argued that having made a full confession to God he was not required to talk to the Police.

"About these murders, I have confessed to God and I have made my peace with him," Burrows told Chief Supt. Wright in December, 1974. "He acknowledged my confession so I don't have to confess to my fellow man. We are all equal in God's eyes."

"You have confessed to the murders, Buck?" asked Chief Supt. Wright. "Is that what you are saying?"

"Yes," said Burrows. "I have made my peace with the good Lord. He has forgiven me and I am pleased, brother ? pleased, brother. My friends, it feels so good to be at peace with the maker."

"Buck, have you ever thought of confessing these murders to me?" asked the British officer.

"I have made my confession to God and I don't have to think about it any more," said Burrows.

"Buck, do you regret being involved in these murders, and that five men are dead?" said Chief Supt. Wright. After a long pause, Burrows answered: "With some people it takes longer to see the light than others."

At that point Burrows was led into the courtroom handcuffed to a Police officer who stood with him in the witness box. The short, stocky convict, sporting a full beard, wore a black jacket over a blue shirt.

Told by Coroner James Astwood the inquest had heard evidence which suggested Burrows knew something about the deaths of Sir Richard Sharples and Captain Sayers, he was asked if he had anything to say.

, who declined to give evidence on oath, addressed the courtroom and called on Bermudians to renounce evil: "I would sincerely urge all those in Bermuda who are unsaved to repent of their sins to Jesus Christ ? now, before it becomes eternally too late to do so.

"For I say in truth that all who reject such great salvation can rest assured that hellfire will be their eternal destination. Regarding the matter at hand, I leave you with a quote by the late Pastor John A. McComb who said, and I quote: 'Concern not thyself with the sins of others without first being cleansed of your own'. Thank you very much."

The Coroner asked Burrows if that's all he had to say and Burrows replied: "Yes, sir."

Mr. Astwood said the jury could not ask Burrows any questions because he was not on oath.

Burrows was led out of Magistrates' Court as a handcuffed Larry Tacklyn was brought before the inquest. The Coroner reviewed the evidence against him and asked if Tacklyn had anything to say, adding he was not obliged to speak.

Tacklyn said he didn't "know nothing" about the murders of Sir Richard and Captain Sayers and then proceeded to air a long list of grievances concerning sanitary conditions at Casemates Prison.

"The place is not fit for a human being as far as I am concerned," said Tacklyn. "In 1975 they've still got pollies (chamber pots) up there."

". . . Four or five men in one room are sitting on a polly and having a bowel movement at 2 o'clock in the morning and smelling up the whole place. It's bad for health, you know."

The Coroner said: "Thank you, take him out."

Mr. Astwood then reviewed the facts presented to the inquest and summarised the case for the nine-man jury.

"A man who takes a gun at a distance of seven to nine feet and fires a bullet that goes through a man's body has the intention, in my view, to kill and in the circumstances this amounts to murder," he told the jury.

"The witness Jackson has told how he stumbled onto Tacklyn and Burrows in his house on the very evening when the Governor was killed. If you accept what Jackson tells you, it seems to me that these two are two of the people who killed the Governor and his ADC."

The Coroner said the facts had been put so well and so forcibly he doubted the jury would have much difficulty coming to a verdict.

After deliberating for 20 minutes, the jury returned with these verdicts: "That the said Sir Richard Sharples, Governor and Commander-in-Chief of Bermuda, was shot and killed at Government House, Bermuda on March 10, 1973. That the cause of death was haemorrhage and asphyxia by blood in the air passages from multiple bullet wound injuries. That we do say further that Larry Tacklyn, Erskine (Buck) Burrows and other persons unknown murdered the said Sir Richard Sharples.

"That the said Captain Hugh Sayers, Aide-de-Camp to Sir Richard Sharples, Governor and Commander-in-Chief of Bermuda, was shot and killed at Government House, Bermuda on March 10, 1973. That the cause of death was massive haemorrhage and multiple injuries due to a bullet wound. That we do say further that Larry Tacklyn, Erskine (Buck) Burrows and other persons unknown murdered Captain Hugh Sayers."