Published April 18, 2003

SCOTLAND Yard detectives who flew to Bermuda to investigate the September 9, 1972 assassination of Police Commissioner George Duckett feared the murder was a perfect crime ? and would likely go unsolved unless the killer or killers struck again.

On March 10, 1973, almost six months to the day after Duckett was shot at his home ? Bleak House in Devonshire, near the present site of the Tynes Bay incinerator ? Governor Sir Richard Sharples and his aide-de-camp Captain Hugh Sayers were gunned down in Government House grounds by Black Power-inspired militants.

Erskine Durrant (Buck) Burrows later volunteered detailed confessions to those murders as well as the Duckett assassination ? including specifics of the Police Commissioner's shooting known only to Scotland Yard, the Bermuda Police and the killer.

British-born George Duckett became Bermuda's Police Commissioner at the height of a Black Beret Cadre-led wave of insurrection and rioting, a destabilisation campaign that almost led the Foreign Office to cancel a trip to the island by Prince Charles in 1971 because of fears the heir to the throne might find himself in the cross-hairs of an assassin's gun.

Despite the fact that Bermuda had been convulsed by four years of racial militancy between 1968 and 1972, Duckett's murder was so unprecedented in the Bermuda experience that authorities initially believed he had been targeted by either a career criminal harbouring a personal grudge against the Commissioner or a lunatic.

But as long as 18 months before he was killed, now declassified Bermuda Intelligence Committee reports submitted to Governor Lord Martonmere ? in his capacity as co-ordinator of the island's internal security services ? said Duckett was being singled out for particularly venomous criticism at Black Beret Cadre meetings.

"The Commissioner was described as a mercenary and a killer who had virtually a free hand in suppressing black people and who, despite being a mercenary, was efficient and planned his moves in advance," reported the Intelligence Committee on a February 16, 1971 Black Beret meeting.

In a perceptive analysis of the Black Berets compiled for the Foreign Office in 1971, Martonmere noted a significant shift in the organisation's tactics if not in its overall strategy of attempting to impose a radical Black Power agenda on the island's political and social affairs through the application of revolutionary main force.

"The Black Beret Cadre appears to be more firmly entrenched with an increased hard core and peripheral support," he said. "It is developing a Jekyll and Hyde image of reason on the one hand and hate-filled obsession with racialism, violence and fire-arms on the other. Both these presentations must have an effect.

"Liberal-minded black people ? many of whom would hate to back a loser ? cannot avoid being influenced by the more reasonable approach, particularly if they have financial or housing problems, while others are intimidated by threats and acts of violence.

"Conversely, the criminals, hooligans and layabouts, though not in any greater proportion than in other communities, will welcome any Cadre lead which results in revenge against the authority they have chosen to ignore."

The murder of the 45-year-old Police Commissioner by Cadre associate Burrows was apparently planned as the ultimate act of revenge against that authority.

"Buck was primed by one or two individuals in the Cadre leadership who did not have the guts to use a gun themselves; he was a Black Beret hanger-on, a decent but easily led guy. Poor Buck. He was really Bermuda's Manchurian Candidate ? he was in effect brainwashed into committing murders by his controllers, controllers who weren't up to doing the jobs themselves ? who did not want blood on their own hands," says a former police officer and friend of Burrows from his days as a trusty at Police Headquarters in Prospect.

A former Black Beret concurs: "Essentially, that is right. Buck was used. He was a nice guy, a bit slow but not retarded or anything. And he actually liked Duckett. You may not know this but up until about 1971, early '72 Buck had viewed the Police Force as his extended family: he used to babysit for policemen's families.

"Then he had the shit kicked out of him by a couple of rogue cops who thought ? wrongly ? that he was breaking into houses around Prospect; that broke him, broke Buck's spirit. After that he was putty in the hands of the Cadre leadership."

News of Duckett's killing was telexed to Whitehall by Acting Governor Ian (Tim) Kinnear within hours of the assassination.

"George Duckett, the Commissioner of Police, was shot and killed in his house this evening. His wife is safe, his daughter Marcia was injured but not seriously. I would be grateful for the assistance of a Scotland Yard murder squad as soon as possible."

The following day Kinnear fleshed out his initial bare-bones telegram to the Foreign Office in a second communique that provided details of the murder.

"The murder was planned and premeditated," said Kinnear. "The telephone wires to the house were cut and the wire to the microphone on the police radio in the Commissioner's car was also cut.

"The bulb in a security light at the back of the house appears to have been unscrewed. The Commissioner, who had been sitting in the kitchen with his wife, went out to investigate why the light was not on and was shot in the back, probably while trying to reach the light.

"He managed to get back to the door of the house and was pulled inside by his wife, who shut the door.

"The attacker then waited outside the kitchen window and fired five shots through the window when the Commissioner's daughter appeared (from her bedroom). She was hit by one, but luckily not seriously injured.

"Mrs. Duckett got to her own car and went to the Police Operations Room (at Prospect) for help." Kinnear said police had quickly identified the weapon as a .32 calibre revolver, adding there was no immediate suggestion the murder had a political motive as the internal security situation in Bermuda had cooled off in recent months.

"At the moment the most likely explanation seems to be that the murder was committed by a criminal with a grudge against the Commissioner or by someone of a deranged mind," he said. "The press have been told no more than that the Commissioner has been killed and his daughter injured.

"The fact that the telephone wires had been cut has not been disclosed to them." Kinnear's public statement on the assassination extolled Duckett both as an individual and a leader ? although the Acting Governor, while admiring his abilities, actually had private qualms about his suitability to serve as the Bermudian Police Commissioner.

"Mr. Duckett was a highly experienced, professional policeman and a man of considerable courage," said Kinnear in his offical statement. "He was dedicated to the concept and ideal of the police providing a service to the community and he devoted his time and energy to encouraging this.

"He was proud of the Bermuda Police: His men knew they had in him a Commissioner who would always support them. His death is a great loss, not only to the force but also to the community."

But in a private and confidential letter he wrote to the Foreign Office on September 12, Kinnear said the assassination of the big, bluff, plainspoken Duckett was not altogether surprising, describing him as "somewhat immature for his age" and a "volatile personality".

"There is still nothing to indicate that there was a political motive in the crime," said Kinnear. "A number of ugly and unfounded rumours are going around already about the Ducketts' personal lives ? all the things that nasty minds seem capable of dreaming up on occasions of this sort.

"I gather that the New York representatives of (British newspapers) the Daily Mirror and the Daily Express are here; but the (Government) Press Information Officer tells me that they are both sensible journalists and can be relied upon not to listen to rumours of this sort.

"The most likely explanation still remains a criminal with a grudge against the Commissioner personally or the police in general, or someone of unsound mind ? and this island has more than its fair share of the latter.

"In a way I suppose I am not altogether surprised that this has happened. George Duckett was a large man who met opposition head-on without compromise. He was desperately sensitive to criticism of himself and his force, not only because he was a sensitive man, but because he was a dedicated policeman and this led, as you know, to the occasional outburst.

"He had his faults: but he was competent and professional at his job. He did a great deal to improve the morale of the police and to try and integrate them into the community.

"But his sheer size, his volatile nature and outspoken approach made him a conspicuous figure on this small island and he was, therefore, a likely target for anyone with a grudge against the police."

After hurriedly consulting with Governor designate Sir Richard Sharples in London, Kinnear temporarily appointed Deputy Commissioner L.M. (Nobby) Clarke to serve as acting Police Commissioner following Duckett's death ? an appointment that was made permanent in November, 1972.

Scotland Yard murder investigators Chief Superintendent Bill Wright and Detective Sergeant Basil Haddrell arrived in Bermuda within 48 hours of the assassination and immediately set to work with colleagues in the Bermuda Police they had first worked with in 1971 during the investigation into the murder of Royal Gazette reporter Jean Burrows.

"I am glad that these two particular officers have been sent here," said Kinnear in the same letter. "They know Bermuda well as they were here last year for the Jean Burrows murder; and they have a very impressive record. Thank you for seeing that they got here so promptly.

"It was important to get them out as soon as possible, not only for them to be in at the beginning of the investigation but because Duckett's murder has badly shaken confidence locally and it is important that people can see something is being done."

Despite the assistance of two top Scotland Yard detectives, the investigation into Duckett's murder initially yielded few clues and no working theories as to either a motive or a likely suspect.

"There is still no solution to the murder of the former Commissioner of Police, Mr. George Duckett," said Kinnear in a "most secret" letter to British Foreign Secretary Alec Douglas-Home in late September, 1972.

"...There is still no evidence to suggest that the motive for the murder was political; but we do not know enough about the activities of the small, hard-core of the Black Beret Cadre to be sure of this and a police guard is still being maintained at certain houses at night (including that of Premier Sir Edward Richards) as a precautionary measure.

"This cannot go on indefinitely and we are obtainining advice on measures to make the houses concerned more secure."

Within a month of the killing, the Duckett murder was officially being viewed by police and Government House as an "isolated incident" and no extraordinary security arrangements were put into place when Governor Sir Richard Sharpes arrived here on October 12.

"Sir Richard and Lady Sharples arrived yesterday according to plan," said Kinnear in a letter to the Foreign Office. "He was sworn in at mid-day in the Legislative Council Chamber (now the Senate). He got a friendly reception and everything seems to have got off to a good start."

On the same day he sent his despatch to London about Sharples' arrival, Kinnear reported to the Foreign Office that little headway had been made in the Duckett murder investigation.

"I'm afraid that there is nothing to report on the George Duckett murder case," he said. "(Chief Superintendent) Wright, who has been working on the theory that it was local and non-political, has so far drawn a blank and we are forced back increasingly to look for a possible political motive.

"There are virtually no clues at the scene of the crime, which makes it all the more difficult.

"As Wright puts it, if it is political we may never solve it until there is a second one ? which doesn't give me much comfort." On March 10, 1973 Wright's grimly sardonic prediction was fulfilled ? along with Kinnear's worst fears.

Just five months after his "friendly reception" in Bermuda, the second and third political killings took place when Sir Richard Sharples and Captain Hugh Sayers were assassinated.

PHOTO Names in the '70s news: Clockwise from top left: Murdered George Duckett, Premier Sir Edward Richards, and British detectives Basil Haddrell and Bill Wright