Tallulah Bankhead

Iggy Pop

Concern has been expressed about the events that I am going to relate in this article, particularly by those involved with the issues dealt with here. I wish it to be known that the events herein, and the names used, are a matter of public record and can be found in the pages of the Nassau Guardian, the Nassau Tribune, the Detroit Free Press, Time magazine, and Practical Sailor magazine. In one instance a name was changed for obvious reasons. I reveal nothing here that is not a matter of public record or public knowledge.

I am often asked by those not familiar with cruising in the Caribbean, and cruising in The Bahamas in particular, are there any pirates in those waters? I never know what to say, usually I just laugh and say that there are indeed pirates still lurking in the waters between Florida and Trinidad, but they won’t approach you with a broadside of cannon a’blazing. Instead they’ll plunder your worth in other ways far more subtle and barely legal. Today’s pirates are the shoddy mechanics and shipwrights, corrupt government officials, taxi drivers, and many others that you may meet on any day during your travels.

In reality though, as we begin the twenty-first century there is virtually nothing even akin to true piracy in the waters of the Caribbean and Bahamas (except, perhaps, for portions of the northern coast of Venezuela), though the last couple of decades certainly saw their share of newspaper headlines. Certainly somebody might steal a boat or a dinghy every now and then, or some crackhead might even try to come aboard and burglarize your vessel while you’re asleep in Nassau or some other large port, but those crimes should be classified as simply theft or robbery, not true piracy. I believe that true piracy has vanished from these waters and we are not likely to see it again except perhaps in an isolated incident of criminal activity (again, such as on the northern coast of Venezuela). I for one am grateful for that. I have enough to worry about trying to navigate the islands and the maze of taxi drivers, chandlers, marina operators, and all the other folks whose sole purpose seems to be to separate me from my dollars without having to keep an eye out for the skull and crossbones.

The islands of The Bahamas have gone through several periods of feast or famine. Throughout the times of the wreckers, privateers, pirates, blockade-runners, and bootleggers, when the money flowed, it flowed like a river, but the 1970’s and 1980’s would bring a flow of money of tidal wave proportions. Once again America demanded and The Bahamas delivered, this time it was marijuana and cocaine. The Bahamas became an important staging area for boats and planes delivering South American and Jamaican goods to the U.S. Virtually every island group had some sort of smuggling activity going on during these years and in many of these areas locals in positions of authority, even some policemen and Customs agents, were kept well satisfied with huge amounts of cash, sometimes as much as $100,000 per run. As the smugglers evolved from marijuana smuggling to cocaine smuggling, the profits and risks multiplied. Andros, due to its size and proximity to the American shore, was one of the better-publicized centers of drug smuggling and piratical activity for several years.

Andros is the largest of all Bahamian Islands with over 2300 square miles of land area lying about 20 miles from New Providence at its closest point. The approximately 105 mile by 40 mile island resembles a huge jigsaw puzzle separated by hundreds of creeks creating a massive swampy interior that is best explored by small boat or dinghy. There are three "rivers" which divide the pine-forested island into three distinct sections at North, Middle, and South Bight, while Mangrove Cay serves to separate the northern from the southern part of Andros. Andros is widely known for its vast mangrove creeks that offer some of the finest, if not the best, bonefishing in the world as well as some of the finest duck and pigeon hunting in The Bahamas in years past. Offshore, the island is home to the world’s third largest barrier reef along its eastern shore at the Tongue of the Ocean.

The western shore of Andros is undeveloped and the settlement of Red Bay on the northwestern tip of the island is the only inhabited area on the entire western shore. The very shallow waters off the western shore of Andros are known as The Mud, a fantastic, rich, 20-mile wide sponging ground running from South Bight to the northern tip of Andros. But over the last few decades the western shore of Andros has gained notoriety for the drug smuggling activity in the area rather than its sponges. For the better part of the late 1970’s through the mid-to-late 1980’s, Andros was a very popular spot with those who sought their fortunes by running cocaine and marijuana to the United States. One person I know who lived on Andros during this time decided to visit Red Bay one day. On the road to Red Bay he was met by two locals on motorcycles with automatic weapons who suggested that my friend really did not wish to visit Red Bay that particular day. Of course he agreed and went elsewhere, thankful for the sound advice.

Most of the local areas of Andros had their own "groups" of young people who were often involved with illegal activities, some would now call them gangs, and each group had their own "turf." For example, there might be a group called, say, the Mastic Point Boys, or the Nicoll’s Town Boys, or the Lowe Point Boys (all fictitious names mind you). They even had a bar where they partied and that each group treated as neutral territory. At first it was called the Bush Bar but later its name changed to The Pirates Nest.

During this period pilots were warned not to fly low over Andros. It seems that planes that were flying low over Andros were considered drug runners and certain, roguish characters would shoot at the wings or wing tanks hoping that they would blow up and the plane would crash but not burn, saving the precious cargo for the shooters. This is nothing more than a modern version of the old Bahamian art of wrecking. I’ve heard tales of two pilots who were found deep within the pine barrens of Andros hanging from a tree with their throats cut. On December 2, 1978 a single engine aircraft was found on Little Wood Cay off Andros. Inside was the partially decomposed body of the pilot, Edward Harmon of Miami. Authorities said Harmon had been dead for 5-8 days from a gunshot wound to the left shoulder when his plane was discovered. On August 23, 1980 personnel from the local AUTEC base found a plane in 12’ of water. Divers later found two white males aboard and several bales of marijuana.

Mariners during these years were advised by the U.S. Coast Guard to avoid the waters to the west of Andros. Williams Island, just to the west of Andros, was known to be popular with smugglers, and on May 20, 1978, seven local residents left Lowe Sound in a 30’ boat for Williams Island. They claimed that they were going fishing, but the authorities believed that they were actually going to look for a cache of marijuana that was allegedly stashed on the cay. Early the next morning, as the group passed between Pumpion Cay and Green Cay, a low-flying aircraft fired several shots at the boat fatally wounding one of the occupants, Melrey Campbell. The next afternoon, May 22, a group of police officers from Andros were nearing Williams Island by boat to investigate the incident when another low-flying aircraft fired at them but did not hit anyone. When the police landed on the cay the plane returned and fired off a few more rounds, again without hitting anyone. The police checked the cay, found nothing, and departed. The next day a police aircraft flew over Williams Island and spotted 10 white men with firearms wandering about the island. By the time the police could get to Williams Island the armed group had disappeared. In 1979, there was a shoot-out on the cay in which a Bahamian was killed and an American and several Cubans arrested. A year later, on July 14, 1980, two American pilots, James McKesson and Moises Montanez, had engine trouble and made an emergency landing on Williams Cay. They reported that shortly after landing a group of 15 armed men ransacked their plane and took all their cash.

Many rumors and stories of boats being hijacked surfaced during this era. Piracy seemed to go hand in hand with smuggling during these years as the smugglers sought to increase profit margins by using pirated boats for runs and then burning or sinking them. It is said that these "pirates" would come out in small boats at night to sneak aboard their prey and kill all on board. In 1977, the U.S. Coast Guard warned mariners of pirate attacks on boats sailing through The Bahamas, especially in the vicinity of Andros though hijackings were also taking place in the Biminis and around Freeport. Now if you are one of those folks that think the above words are just the same old rhetoric that has been spouted by hack writers for decades, let me offer the following examples for clarification.

While most of the boats hijacked during this period were fishing boats, these modern-day pirates did not restrict their activities to just working vessels. In 1982, three pirates boarded a 37’ cruising boat off the Joulter’s Cays just north of Andros. As one of them held a knife to owner Lawrence Halloway’s throat, his wife came up the companionway with a 45-caliber automatic pistol. This distracted the pirates for a moment giving Halloway a chance to grab the gun and shoot the knife-wielding intruder. Halloway then shot and killed the other two men as they tried to overpower him. Halloway was cleared of any wrongdoing by Bahamian authorities, but not with out significant outcry from the local community on Andros.

About 15 miles north of the northern end of Morgan’s Bluff, Andros, the 47’ cruiser Rig-n-Tom was reportedly almost lured to disaster near Chub Cay in the Berry Islands in 1979. Owner Thomas Loberg, and his wife Rignor, picked up an SOS on the VHF and realized that something was funny when the caller asked for their position instead of giving his own. A crewman had been reading about false distress signals and asked Loberg to insist upon the other vessel’s position. There was no answer but five minutes later a high-powered fishing boat appeared on the horizon and began chasing Rig-n-Tom. The boat only veered away when Loberg brought his boat up into the lee of a friendly sailboat. It’s interesting to note that the smuggler Paul Hindelang operated out of this area between 1974 and 1981 and testified that he handled only marijuana, offloading from mother ships from Columbia. Hindelang also testified to using Walker’s Cay in the Abacos for a couple of his runs.

Further north in the Berry Islands, the 45’ Polymer III left Great Harbour Cay for West Palm Beach, a trip owner Lester Conrad had made over 40 times. The vessel was reported missing and was never found. Friends and family suspected foul play although the Coast Guard did not. The Polymer III, with its 22-knot speed and 3,000 mile range would have made an attractive smuggling vessel. This is not an entirely misguided suspicion. Cistern Cay lies just off Great Harbour Cay and was used regularly for storing large quantities of marijuana by Luis Garcia and Frank Barber, two names you shall soon learn more about.

Nearby Anderson Cay was home to an incident that occurred on April 28, 1978 when two Bahamian brothers, Alvin and Dale Rolle, went out in their small boat to gather starfish. They stopped by a cave on Anderson Cay where two white men began firing shots at them, shooting Alvin through both elbows. The boys fled and later that same day two policemen from Great Harbour Cay, Constables Danny Reckley and Franklyn Forbes, and a former police officer named Neville Sears, went to Anderson Cay to investigate. The Constables checked the cave and found 56 bales of marijuana. They then tracked the men to Little Stirrup Cay and came under fire by the smugglers. All three officers were shot with Forbes and Sears dying of their wounds. The bad guys got away and no one was ever charged with the shootings but George Ford Jr. of Orlando, Florida was arrested in September of 1978 in connection with the drugs found in the cave. Ford, who was 26 at the time, received a two-year sentence for his part in the smuggling activity.

The island of Grand Bahama also gained a certain amount of infamy with its reputation as a hotbed of smuggling. In 1979, a huge store of marijuana was found on Black Rock just off Grand Bahama. The cache was estimated to be 6’ high and over two miles long. Now that is a lot of pot, a Rastafarian’s utopia.

Nearby Bimini, already infamous for its rum running activities during America’s Prohibition years, became a center of drug smuggling that was documented as far back as 1968. A former Assistant Commissioner of Police once said that as far as piracy goes, Bimini had the worst reputation of any Bahamian island during these years. The airstrip on South Bimini was very, very popular with drug smugglers as the number of wrecked planes on land and in the surrounding waters will testify.

A Cuban-American named Luis Garcia, usually just called by his nickname Kojak, used Bimini extensively from late 1979 until around May of 1980, when he left the island after a shootout between his men and the police (even though he had a policeman named Lionel Glinton on his payroll). Bahamian Robert Holbert may have apparently irritated Garcia during the time that he was on Bimini. One evening four Cuban Americans riddled Holbert’s house with automatic weapons but no one was injured. After leaving Bimini, Garcia moved his operation to Inagua where the island itself caused him no end of problems. Inagua was so far from the U.S. mainland that using small boats for moving the shipments was not feasible and secondly, Garcia hated the mosquitoes.

In an unrelated incident in Inagua on December 9, 1977, a small plane with two occupants, Miami residents Armando Garcia and Horacio Martinez, landed at Inagua and upon inspection it was found to contain "…8 bags of marijuana." When the contraband was discovered, Garcia and Martinez took the police and Customs officials hostage in a small boat and put to sea. The officers were later rescued and Garcia and Martinez wound up serving six years.

When Garcia became disgusted with Inagua he then moved his operation to Great Harbour Cay in the Berry Islands until November of 1981. Garcia frequently used Great Harbour Cay Marina to load his fleet of small boats for runs to the U.S. Concluding his operations in the Berrys, Garcia then moved to Marsh Harbour, Abaco but was only successful in two of four planned runs.

Garcia also played a big role in the smuggling activity at another Abaco island, Gorda Cay. Gorda Cay, lying between Sandy Point and Moores Island in the Bight of Abaco, is an attractive little sub-tropical paradise with a paved airstrip and a nice harbor. Today, Gorda Cay is a stopover for Disney cruise ships, Castaway Cay as it is now called, had quite a past. Gorda Cay was the hub of a huge smuggling operation in the Abacos between 1979 and 1983. Gorda Cay’s operations went through four different phases, each run in turn by Frank Barber, Garcia, Abner Pinder of Spanish Wells, and Barry Thompson.

Frank Barber fist bought Gorda Cay in 1979 and hired Bahamian, Barry Thompson, as caretaker. Thompson, who had just finished doing three years and eight months in prison, hired on for $500 a week. When Thompson realized that the cay was being used as a smuggling operation he demanded more money which he finally received after several arguments and threats.

Barber’s security was lax on Gorda Cay and in October of his first year on the cay two young men from Sandy Point stumbled onto the airstrip and Barry Thompson brought them to Barber at gunpoint. Barber wanted to kill them on the spot but changed his mind and told Thompson to take them instead to Gorda Rock, a tiny uninhabited scrub covered rock, and maroon them.

Security was no better when on March 10, 1980, when five masked men armed with automatic weapons arrived on Gorda Cay and took Barry Thompson hostage. The next day Barber and several of his associates arrived and were also held at gunpoint. The gunmen went about looting and eventually left the island but were later arrested and charged with kidnapping. During routine questioning after their arrest, they informed police of Barber’s smuggling activities on Gorda Cay. When questioned by Police about these allegations Barber said that the people of Sandy Point had been using Gorda Cay for years as a smugglers base but that since he arrived all smuggling activity had ceased and he intended to keep it that way. Barber and his men then established a security system using armed guards and dogs to keep intruders off the cay but which did nothing but create animosity with the population of nearby Sandy Point.

When Frank Barber boasted of cleaning up Gorda Cay the DEA did not believe him and their Operation Grouper focused on the drug smuggling activities alleged to be going on at Gorda Cay. Prime Minister Sir Lynden Pindling contended that the DEA operation was illegal and was executed without the knowledge and cooperation of the Bahamian government. The Bahamas insisted that the DEA even helped set up Barber’s operation on Gorda Cay to catch smugglers and that they actually caught some of their own people. The Government of The Bahamas insisted that when Frank Barber was caught, he was offered a chance to help the DEA nab more suspects in return for reducing his charges to a minor offense. Barber allegedly agreed and the DEA netted some 90 persons in the U.S. and Bahamas in connection with Barber’s activities on Gorda Cay. The Bahamian government insisted that Jeffery Scharlatt, whom the DEA called an "investor in Gorda Cay" and who was sentenced to five years and fined $15,000, was actually a former DEA agent. Perhaps I should explain something at this point. During these years, many law enforcement agencies took to running "sting" operations to lure smugglers and would-be smugglers. Unfortunately, they often snared members of other law enforcement agencies involved with other investigations. For security reasons data was not passed between agencies so often the left hand of the law did not know what the right hand of the law was doing. There are several tales of cops busting cops during this period.

Barber had been arrested in the spring of 1982, and later that year sold the island to Abner Pinder, a fisherman from Spanish Wells. Garcia began his operations on the Cay just after Barber’s arrest and continued until the end of 1982. Pinder also started operations in October of 1982 overlapping Garcia by a few months during which time Garcia paid Pinder for the use of his island. Actually, on the first night of Pinder’s new ownership, Barry Thompson and some of his associates, all armed with automatic weapons, confronted Pinder. They told Pinder that they worked for Garcia and that if Pinder did not allow them to use the cay, Thompson would make sure that Pinder would never be able to make use of it. Pinder agreed and Garcia eventually paid Pinder $1,000 per kilo of coke and $20 per pound of pot that he moved through Gorda Cay. By this time Garcia had virtually retired from the drug smuggling business for a quieter life in sunny South Florida. In a meeting with Garcia in Miami where he had gone to pick up a payment, Pinder told Garcia that he did not trust Barry Thompson and wanted him off the cay. Word of this filtered down to Thompson who once again confronted Pinder at gunpoint, stealing a large quantity of marijuana and a boat from him. In January of 1983, through Garcia’s intervention, Pinder settled his differences with Thompson. By mutual agreement, Pinder left the workings of Gorda Cay to Thompson and Garcia guaranteed Pinder would continue to receive his payments. Although Pinder received no further payments from either Garcia or Thompson, he did receive $120,000 from two Cuban Americans for using his cay. The Cubans should have paid him more but they complained that Barry Thompson had stolen part of their shipment.

Disillusioned, Abner Pinder agreed to sell Gorda Cay to Barry Thompson for three million dollars. Thompson gave him a down payment of $400,000 and a subsequent payment of $300,000 and then, true to form, the payments stopped. Thompson continued to run drugs through Gorda Cay until September of 1983 when a permanent police presence was established on the island and the illegal activities came to an end. That same year Pinder claimed to have given up involvement with drugs of any kind and estimated that he cleared over a million dollars from Gorda Cay.

Today, Abner Pinder is in his 60s and is involved with local government for Spanish Wells as Chief Council (the equivalent of a Mayor). Pinder has been quoted in the Nassau Guardian saying: "For the past 20 years, I just about devoted my life entirely to helping other people. The greatest satisfaction that I get out of life, is being able to help and do things for other people that they can’t do for themselves." In 2005, Pinder recieved a plaque for helping to apprehend two suspects in the armed robbery of the Royal Bank of Canada on Spanish Wells. Well done Mr. Pinder!

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Over on Cat Island, Hawk’s Nest Point was a prime location for smuggling offering easy access by sea and air. In 1978, Ron Elliott purchased the Hawk’s Nest Club and airstrip for $300,000 and he immediately took over operation of the resort. Elliott’s associate, Frank Brady, slowly took over control of the operation of the club as Elliott was having legal problems concerning a certain amount of illegal drugs found inside his airplane. Residents soon became suspicious of the goings on at the resort, quite often mother ships would unload their cargo at the resort to have it flown out of the small airstrip at Hawk’s Nest Point. The police staged several raids, most times coming up empty handed, but finally finding a warehouse full of marijuana. Brady and an accomplice were arrested, made bail, and eventually disappeared.  Today, at the mouth of Hawk’s Nest Creek, there sits an old multi-story house that at one time was said to have hosted Manuel Noriega, the Panamanian dictator and convicted drug smuggler. You can still look inside and see the false floors that the DEA ripped up when they raided the place. In nearby San Salvador, two policemen were accused of smuggling drugs and were dismissed from the force. The police corporal who took action against the two had his life threatened and others in the community swore to work Obeah, a type of magic, against him.

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Even though places like Abaco, Andros, and Cat Island were vital links in the smugglers system none of them gained the notoriety of the Exumas when it came to the smuggling business. A popular T-shirt slogan in Exuma today seems to sum up the events of the previous three decades: ‘Nobody move, nobody get hurt!’ That saying allegedly came about through a drug rip-off and the circumstances of its revenge.

It seems that an American gentleman who was hanging around Sampson Cay during those years stole a load of someone’s drugs and stashed it on a nearby cay. Another gentleman, a Bahamian who lived on another cay a few more miles away decided to ‘tief back de tiefed’ drugs. He armed himself to the teeth and paid a visit to the American and his stash where the first words out of his mouth were ‘Nobody move, nobody get hurt!’ The Bahamian was successful and now owns a small bar on his home cay and the American didn’t move and was later deported, a persona non grata. The Bahamian in question soon had a fleet of three fast boats all named Nobody move, nobody get hurt! As a side note, the American paid another Bahamian, let’s call him Calico for lack of a better description and to avoid a lawsuit, $10,000 to ‘tief back his tiefed drugs’ and never saw Calico again. Remember Calico’s name, you will see it again in a few minutes.

Just off the island of Little Exuma sits Pigeon Cay, a pleasant anchorage in settled weather and a great spot in the late 1970’s for smugglers to load and transfer shipments of drugs to various other areas of The Bahamas. There were a lot of small fast boats operating in these waters during these years. One day a friend of mine was driving over the bridge at The Ferry and saw an estimated 25-30 small cigarette type boats milling about. They were waiting for gasoline and soon a fuel truck pulled up onto the bridge and dropped its hose over the side to feed his customers. Just south of The Ferry sits the remains of the old Sanddollar Inn. Back in the smuggling heyday it was used by smugglers as a home away from home. The guys driving the boats didn’t want anybody to trace them back to their homes so they would live at the Sanddollar for weeks or months at time to keep the heat off their families and their homes.

Darby Island was also used as a transshipment point for smugglers. Tilton Lamar Chester, who hailed from Cleveland, Georgia, U.S.A., became interested in Darby Island in the early 1970’s and when the island came up for sale in 1978, Chester rounded up a group of investors to purchase the cay and he wound up with unlimited access to Darby Island. Drugs were usually brought in by boat and flown out by Chester himself. Chester is said to have made over 200 flights from The Bahamas to the U.S. and he insisted they were with the knowledge of The Bahamas Police, the Defence Force, the DEA, the FBI, and U.S. Customs. The DEA denied all of this except to say that Chester was an informant for them from June 1983 through August 1983. Perhaps that is why everyone connected with the Darby Island operation was indicted including Chester himself.

Chester hooked up with another flying smuggler, Jack Devoe, and offered him the usage of Darby and Little Darby Island. Devoe (owner of Devoe Airlines, A.K.A. Race Aviation, a small commuter airline serving Miami and several smaller Florida cities), cut a deal with Harry Hall, the owner of nearby Rudder Cut Cay, to use the airstrip at Rudder for $15,000 a flight. This would allow the smugglers to land marijuana and cocaine in larger planes from South American, and then transport them by boat a little over a mile to Darby Island where Chester could then fly them to the States. Between June of 1982 and March of 1983, Chester and Devoe ran an estimated 10-12 trips through Rudder Cut Cay and 30-40 from Darby Island to Ocean Reef in Florida before their smuggling days came to an end on June 20, 1985, when Tilton Lamar Chester died in a questionable plane crash with his young daughter.  The plane apparently ran out of gas but many say Chester was too good a pilot to fly a plane low on gas.  Others speculate that the CIA was behind the crash because of fears about Lamar's upcoming testimony concerning CIA activities.  Devoe is said to be in the witness protection program. A 1992 book alleges that Devoe was also a "...CIA-connected arms smuggler." The book, The Mafia, The CIA, and George Bush, written by Peter Brewton, suggests that Devoe agreed to leave the U.S. in return for the dropping of all weapons and drug smuggling charges against him.

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In spite of the all the activity at Pigeon Cay, Darby Island, and Rudder Cut Cay, the absolute center of all the action in Exuma, was without a doubt at Norman’s Cay.

In January of 1979 a newly registered Bahamian company called International Dutch Resources Ltd. bought half of the 650-acre island. The $500,000 purchase price included the old Norman’s Cay Yacht Club with its dock, airstrip, grocery and liquor store, and 10 rental units. A Colombian of German ancestry, his father was German and his mother was Colombian, Carlos Enrique Lehder Rivas (usually just called Joe or Carlos Lehder), was the controlling shareholder of International Dutch Resources Ltd. It was said that Lehder’s father was a Nazi who escaped to Columbia after the war, which may explain Lehder’s fascination with Adolf Hitler. Lehder first appeared on Norman’s Cay in 1977 and shortly thereafter purchased a villa. He systematically began purchasing other properties, at first making the homeowners feel unwelcome, later threatening and intimidating them when he could not get his way. Lehder then sank over $5 million into renovations, lengthening the airstrip and enlarging the dock. Some say Lehder and his cronies almost ruined the island by destroying cisterns, machine gunning vacant buildings, shooting the nurse sharks in the pond, and bringing pigs to the island. Lehder had already been smuggling cocaine from Norman’s since 1978 to airstrips in Florida and South Georgia fully two years after another smuggler, Ed Ward, started doing so. Lehder’s armed guards patrolled the beaches with dogs, in jeeps and by helicopter, intent on keeping intruders off and away from the cay, including, in two noteworthy incidents, American journalist and respected newsman Walter Cronkite, and an MP, a Member of Parliament for The Bahamas.

The airstrip soon became a hub of activity and aroused suspicions. It was during this period that Lehder’s new plane crashed on the flats at Norman’s Cay while doing a routine fly-by. It is said that the plane was flying in a load of sod for the island, and the pilot decided to do a maneuver called a touch and go to simulate a takeoff with a full load of cocaine, which the pilot was scheduled to depart with as soon as the sod was unloaded. Something went wrong and the new plane crashed into the bay. Lehder just shook his head and told his men to order another plane. No matter what you hear, this plane was NOT shot down by the DEA, although perhaps it does make for a better story than the truth.

The DEA began an investigation of the goings on at Norman’s Cay and soon organized a task force called Operation Caribe that targeted Carlos Lehder. Agents disguised as boaters feigned mechanical breakdowns in the anchorage while other agents set up surveillance from Shroud Cay and from a Coast Guard cutter offshore. On September 14, 1979, a raid by 260 Bahamian police officers netted 33 Germans, Americans, and Colombians. Lehder himself was apprehended attempting to flee in a small boat. He told officials he thought the raiding party was coming to kidnap him. A Bahamian official allegedly warned Lehder’s people of the raid and arrangements were made to have the cay spotless. Lehder and his inner circle were actually on Wax Cay at the time of the raid. A Bahamian police official is reported to have released Lehder uncharged after he turned over a suitcase that is said to have contained $250,000. Lehder’s men were released and back on the cay within 48 hours. After the failed raid many allegations of wrongdoing on the part of the police surfaced and American reporters came to Norman’s Cay and one, an ex-cop turned newsman, said that there was no way that Lehder could have been using the cay for smuggling cocaine based on what he found. The runway was full of holes and the alleged refrigerated hangars were old, unused, and full of spider webs. An irate DEA official stated that Lehder not only owned Norman’s Cay, he owned "…the whole damned country." Lehder fired one hundred Bahamian workers on the cay shortly after the raid saying that he was offended by the raid and that he and his company, who were busy "developing the island," would not stand for such treatment. Construction was halted and Lehder said he would put the island up for sale. The Bahamian workers were angry, not with Carlos Lehder, but at their own government. They claimed that because of government harassment of the innocent businessmen on Normans Cay they were now out of a job.

Some very famous names were allegedly associated with Lehder’s operation including Fidel Castro, Manuel Noriega, and Robert L. Vesco, the fugitive American financier who was living just south of Norman’s Cay on Cistern Cay at this time. An NBC News report on September 5, 1980, implicated the Bahamian Government including the Prime Minister, but no charges were ever filed, either in the U.S. or The Bahamas, on any high-ranking government member. NBC reported that Vesco was involved and that he and Lehder had been paying $100,000 a month in bribe money to keep their operation running.

The DEA began to choke off Lehder’s cash flow by arresting his pilots and confiscating his shipments. Finally on January 8, 1981, a 39-count indictment was handed down in the United States naming Carlos Lehder and 13 others. Lehder was not overly concerned as he continued to enjoy the freedom that Norman’s Cay and the Bahamian government offered him. By 1983 Lehder had seriously curtailed his Norman’s Cay activities and had not been on the cay for over 6 months. During this time, his men had ransacked all the villas on the cay. Joe Lehder began living in Columbia as a fugitive and was finally captured just outside Medellin by Colombian authorities on February 5, 1987. Lehder was extradited to the United States and on May 19, 1988, he was convicted and sentenced to life without parole plus 135 years. Norman’s Cay today reflects little of Lehder’s lawless days except for some bullet holes in the buildings on the southern end of the island and the plane that rests in silent tribute in the anchorage.

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One of the most publicized incidents of piracy/murder in The Bahamas, if indeed it was piracy, is the case of the 41’ sloop Kalia III in 1980. Allegations concerning this crime and Lehder’s activity on Norman’s Cay were brought out in the September 5, 1980 NBC News report that pointed a finger at a corrupt Bahamian government. This outraged the Bahamian people, especially those in office, and the Nassau and American papers carried related stories for months afterwards.

The story of the Kalia III centers not only on the owners, Bill and Patty Kamerer, but also 8^th District Illinois State Representative Harry Yourell who discovered and reported the incident. William Kamerer, 55, electrician, writer, rigger, and "Jack of all trades," and his vivacious and athletic new wife Patty, 46, a surgical nurse, met in 1974 when Kamerer was in the middle of his latest boat building project. Bill had built two boats, and his latest, the sloop rigged 41’ Kalia III, was a modified Surefire 41, designed and built by Gene Broadbent. Over the next few years Bill, with Patty’s help, completed Kalia III from a bare hull. In April of 1980, Bill Kamerer quit his job in Fort Meyers as a rigger and general boat repairman and he, his new wife Patty, and their ship’s cat Gypsy, skilled sailors all, set sail for a six month cruising sabbatical in The Bahamas.

The Kamerers sailed to Abaco before heading south to Eleuthera to spend some time with friends that flew in from Fort Meyers. When their friends asked them if they were scared about cruising in The Bahamas Patty replied that they did not fear the Bahamians, she felt that most were very gentle and polite. From Eleuthera Kalia III headed to the Exumas and eventually stopped at Norman’s Cay. Here it is said Bill noticed some of Lehder’s activity and guessed what was happening. Some locals say Kamerer threatened to inform the authorities about what he saw but this would hardly have concerned Carlos Lehder who was enjoying the freedom that huge amounts of cash is alleged to have provided him. Kalia III sailed further south and at 5 p.m., July 25^th, Patty made her final log entry: "Sailed all day. Moored at Pipe Cay."

In Dania, Florida, Harry Yourell and his 20-year-old son Pete put their

25’ powerboat Classic into the water on July 20^th and prepared for their own voyage through the islands of The Bahamas. Yourell stopped in at Highborne Cay a week into the cruise and nearby saw a 70’ Colombian trawler and several Cigarette boats that he believes were running back and forth to nearby Norman’s Cay.

On the morning of July 31, Classic charged southward into a gray sky and 20 knots of southeast wind. That kind of a wind produces short, steep seas on the Great Bahama Bank west of the Exumas and Yourell and his son discussed heading in towards shore in search of calmer seas in the lee of the cays. Closer in they spotted a triangular structure that they mistook for Harvey Cay Light but that was in reality one of the tripods marking the entrance channel to the old Decca station on Pipe Cay, approximately six miles north of their destination, Staniel Cay. Behind the small rocks that lie just west of Pipe Cay, they saw a sailboat mast and Yourell decided to cruise over and say hello. Yourell hailed the sailboat Kalia III with his power-hailer three times and received no response. He assumed that the owners were off snorkeling or perhaps hiking on Pipe Cay. Then he noticed something odd. The anchor rode had no scope, it was hanging vertical. The boat was adrift and Yourell and his son sensed that something was wrong.

At 1:06 p.m., they eased alongside the sloop and Yourell noticed a seat cushion hanging over the side covered in what appeared to be dried blood. As Yourell passed by the port side of Kalia III they saw the ship’s hard dinghy half-filled with water. Inside the dinghy was a body, its bottom half stuffed into a blue sail bag and trussed up with line, the upper half of the torso hanging in the water. The decomposing body was that of a male Caucasian with his head, face, and arms in the water. The skin had separated from the skull in places, the inside of the left arm was bruised, and the back of the white T-shirt was covered in blood.

The Yourells took a moment to compose themselves and then called Kenneth Rolle at the Happy People Marina in Staniel Cay with the information. They gave Kenneth a description of the vessel including its numbers and requested that Kenneth call Nassau and get some assistance to the site as soon as possible. Kenneth got word to the police in Nassau who sent out an officer by plane at 7:15 p.m. After his conversation with Kenneth Rolle, Yourell began taking pictures of the carnage shooting nine rolls of 35mm stills and one reel of 16mm film. Some of the photos were later used by the media and one clearly shows Kalia III with its dinghy and what appears to be a body hanging over the side of the dinghy into the water.

Rep. Yourell told his son Pete to get his .30-30 rifle and to shoot anyone who comes up out of the companionway on the sloop as Yourell boarded her to try and set an anchor. Kalia III was aground on a small reef and Yourell could not get it free but he did manage to look around in the cockpit where he saw three spent shells from a flare gun lying in a cockpit slick with blood. Yourell also tells of seeing a John D. MacDonald paperback in the cockpit drain, a blood splattered woman’s bikini top, and a blood stained pair of glasses later identified as Patty’s. Yourell noticed numerous "bullet holes" in the boat and a gas can that was tied to the stern rail. Yourell climbed back aboard Classic to wait and shortly Kenneth Rolle and another man arrived by boat. As evening approached a small plane made several low passes overhead around 7:40 PM. Yourell says that he saw the occupant taking photos of the site. This was the plane that Constable Bradley Pratt from Nassau was aboard. Rolle departed and the Yourells soon followed.

When the two boats reached Staniel Cay, Constable Pratt was on hand to greet them. Pratt admitted in front of dozens of witnesses to taking photographs of the boat and seeing the body in the dinghy. Yourell insisted on returning to Kalia III, but Pratt refused saying he did not have a body bag (although the mortician who was supposed to accompany Constable Pratt and his partner Constable Lundy, insisted he gave the officers a body bag). Yourell was outraged at this. He suggested that they wrap the body in a sail and reminded Pratt that sharks might get the body or even worse, the killers themselves might return to hide the evidence overnight. Pratt responded saying that a Defence Force vessel would be there the next morning and they would take care of the situation then. In all fairness Pratt had a legitimate concern, moving the body without a body bag could be a nasty affair. This is where Yourell claims a whitewash began. He suggests that the Bahamians did not want the hassle of dealing with a murder and that if there was no body, there could be no murder. Yourell tells of a man at the Staniel Cay Yacht Club who later warned him "If something like this happens again, look the other way; we don’t want all that publicity down here."

Constable Pratt, along with his partner, Constable Lundy, flew back to Nassau. They returned the next day with a mortician and a body bag.

At 0730 the next morning, a friend of mine who lived in the area went to the site to investigate and to render assistance if needed. None of what he told me has appeared in any of the police reports on this matter. Like several other persons I know who lived in this area at that time and offered what they knew of the event, they will remain nameless.

As my friend approached the sloop he first noticed small gray spots all over the transom. Upon closer inspection he saw that these were actually small chips missing out of the fiberglass gel-coat. He deduced that it was not bullets, but a shotgun that had done the damage. He saw an empty dinghy still secured to the sloop. Looking into the cockpit next to the companionway he saw a mass of smeared blood which appeared as if someone had been shot and slid down the aft end of the cabin top. The cockpit itself was a bloody mess along with the decks where he saw the prints of bare feet that had walked through the blood. He set an anchor to keep the vessel from drifting away as it had come up off the reef with the tide during the night. He stepped onto the cockpit seats taking great pains not to disturb anything or leave imprints of his own. He looked below and noticed that the electronics as well as the binoculars were still onboard and the Kamerers passports were in the galley. He had met the Kamerers at Sampson Cay and knew that Patty had been a nurse and he noticed that their extensive medical kit was not aboard when he was startled by a scream. Gypsy, the Kamerer’s cat, suddenly leaped out of the cabin into the cockpit half-starved and covered in dried blood

My friend headed to Staniel Cay where at 1000, the Defence Force vessel Exuma arrived with the Kalia III in tow. He noted that the Exuma towed the sloop at a very high speed washing away several bits of evidence and blood that he had witnessed just hours earlier. He looked at Kalia III and she was very, very clean. The police made no attempt to seal off the boat from the curious and Yourell deemed this action irresponsible, anybody could climb aboard and look at the blood.

Yourell asked about the body and was told by a Defence Force officer that no body was found. Yourell started feeling like he was unwelcome, he was called troublemaker and worse names by folks on Staniel Cay. He tried to get a room at the hotel and was told that none were available though Constable Pratt received a double room for himself and the coroner even though nobody knew they were coming. In spite of this the Yourells stayed on at Staniel Cay for a week and met Bill Kamerer’s 27-year-old son Bill, Jr. He described what he saw to the young man who confirmed that the body, from Yourell’s description, was indeed that of his father. Bill Kamerer’s best friend Skip Nichols soon arrived in Staniel Cay and thoroughly searched Pipe Cay for evidence of what happened. He looked for empty beer cans that Kamerer loved to tear up when he had finished their contents, but found none on Pipe Cay or in the waters near where the boat was found. On August 2^nd Kalia III was towed to Nassau and Skip Nichols was allowed to board her there. He discovered that Bill Kamerer’s .308 Savage lever-action rifle was missing along with the gray sock he knew contained Bill and Patty’s cash, somewhere between $1,000-$2,000. Do not imply from this report that these items were missing from police custody, rather they were missing since the time of the murders themselves and nobody knew it until Skip Nichols had mentioned that the items should have been there.

Yourell left the islands and it seems that with him went most of the impetus for the investigation. Bill Kamerer Jr. was having trouble getting any information at all from Bahamian authorities. The Ministry of Transport took over control of Kalia III and Bill Jr. was told that he would have to pay a $3,000 fee to retrieve his dad’s boat. He was told the sloop was a wreck and was therefore subject to such fees. The younger Kamerer complained to the U.S. Embassy but got nowhere. The subject of murder was avoided by all involved it seemed. Media reports all but ceased from the police. There was no body so there was no crime. Everybody promised investigations, blood tests, and so on but nothing concrete was produced. The $3,000 fee for retrieval of the sloop was withdrawn but nothing else was being done in the way of the investigation.

In Ft. Lauderdale, Rep. Yourell had his gruesome film developed and several copies of his now famous still of Kalia III and the dinghy made front pages around the country. The head of the CID in Nassau, Addington Darville, called Rep. Yourell on August 26 inquiring about the pictures he had of Kalia III. He asked for a copy of the photo and Yourell thought this odd as Pratt had taken several shots while flying overhead. It seems that all of a sudden Constable Pratt denied taking any photographs. Yourell’s film sparked a renewed interest in the case and the CBS news program 60 Minutes eventually purchased the film from Yourell.

Bending to international pressure about an alleged "cover-up" and that devastating NBC News report, at the end of October the Government of The Bahamas released a five-page report on the incident as well as lists of the numerous guns, planes, and boats that they had confiscated in the last year. The government exonerated the police for their actions in the case and finally related the facts exactly as presented by Rep. Yourell and even admitted that foul play was suspected in the Kalia III incident but no suspects were in custody. The case is still open and nobody has ever been charged with the crime although Carlos Lehder, and he may not know it, came close.

During Lehder’s trial the prosecuting attorney conferred with a gentleman from Exuma who was called to testify against Lehder. He showed him the photos of Kalia III and asked him what he knew of the incident and what Lehder’s role was in it. Because of Kamerer’s alleged remarks concerning informing the authorities about Lehder’s activity on Norman’s Cay, the prosecutor thought this motive enough for Lehder and was ready to charge him with the crime. He pointed to what looked like a row of bullet holes on the sides of Kalia III that appeared to have been made by an automatic weapon, automatic weapons being Lehder’s weapon of choice. He suggested Lehder had the Kamerers killed and their boat towed to Pipe Cay (how he would explain Patty Kamerer’s final entry in her log on July 25 at Pipe Cay was uncertain). The witness, an experienced sailor, looked at the photos and laughed. He informed the prosecutor that the "holes" in Yourell’s photo that the U.S. Attorney was basing his case on were simply the chain plate bolts. If the U.S. Attorney had gone to court with that evidence his career would have fared far worse than Lehder on that one particular charge. Lehder was far too big, and whatever action Kamerer could ever hoped to stir up far too small for Lehder to be concerned with. This case was not connected to Carlos Lehder and Norman’s Cay.

So what did happen to Bill and Patty Kamerer? What I am about to relate in the following paragraphs is known to very few people, only those who lived there at that time and knew who and what was going on up and down the Exuma Cays. Although nobody can say that they witnessed the actual murders, certain people who were living in the area "know" who did it. I will attempt to present what may best be described as a theory, circumstantial evidence at best. Besides the Kamerers, only one or two people actually know for sure what really happened and they certainly aren’t talking. There are two scenarios that people have come up with over the years. The most popular theory is that the Kamerers stumbled onto a drug deal, the other theory touts the murders as being a crime of opportunity, the results of a robbery. It was most likely a bit of both.

The Kalia III incident had nothing to do with Carlos Lehder. During this period there was an enormous amount of drug smuggling up and down the Exumas and we have only touched upon the largest and best known of the operations in this chapter. It seemed like everywhere you looked there were people with fast boats, independent smugglers with no real connections, carrying a load here or there for a price.

The island of The Bahamas are a beautiful, peaceful paradise, but thanks to their proximity to the American mainland they became a major transshipment point in the northward flow of drugs and the southward flow of cash. It was like a huge conveyor belt that was plopped down smack dab in the middle of The Bahamas. Bahamians didn’t ask for it, but they couldn’t ignore it and they couldn’t fight it, so many simply joined it. Sometimes they would work for one of the big guys like Lehder, Chester, or Devoe, while at other times they would hire out to haul the wares of any small time entrepreneur with a wad of cash. For the most part they were businessmen, and as fortunes were made throughout The Bahamas at this time much of the profits were being funneled back into The Bahamas. Some of the bars, hotels, and restaurants you see today may have been bought and paid for in this way. However, some of these men were little more than violent bullies who suddenly found themselves wrapped up in a whirlwind of guns, power, drugs, and very easy money. This was Calico (remember him from earlier?).

Short, muscular, Calico hailed from Ragged Island and drove a red Cigarette-type boat and anybody who knew Calico knew what he did for a living. Calico loved to party, he loved his gold, and he loved to make that easy, easy money.

Calico was in the area of Sampson Cay and Staniel Cay the last week in July of 1980. Calico and his brother pulled into Sampson Cay Marina to buy fuel and were refused. The marina manager, who knew Calico well, told the young smuggler that he should not pull up to the gas dock the way he did when the marina was full of guests. Calico’s boat was so loaded with drugs that it was down by the bow and he and his brother were both smoking enormous spliffs as they pulled up to secure their lines. An enraged Calico pulled out his shotgun and leveled it at the manager and swore he would kill him if he would not sell him fuel. The manager again refused and he admitted to me that he felt were it not for Calico’s bother taking the shotgun away from him he would have died right there and then. So now we have now placed Calico in the same area as the Kamerers with a shotgun and an attitude at the time of the murders.

Calico was an opportunist, making money when he could, ripping off drugs and cash when he couldn’t as you have already seen. The Kamerer’s cash filled sock and rifle were missing from Kalia III as well as Patty’s well-stocked medical kit with its supply of prescription drugs. Prosecutors often use theft as a motive for murder and there was certainly enough onboard Kalia III to interest Calico. One gentleman from Exuma suggested that rape might have also been a motive, especially since Yourell did not see Patty’s body aboard. So now we have Calico in the area, with a shotgun, an attitude, and a motive.

One would wonder if that were not enough for the police to arrest Calico. Apparently it was. The Bahamian police actually did arrest Calico in connection with the Kalia III case and kept him in custody for several days. During that time they took all the gold that he so dearly loved to wear and beat him senseless several times trying to get him to confess, but he never did. Calico held firm knowing that they had no witnesses and no evidence. The police eventually had to release Calico and a friend of mine saw him soon after. He told me that Calico was healing rather nicely and that he still denied any involvement with the case. My friend knew Calico well and assures me that yes, Calico was lying to him.

So, apparently it looks like a simple crime of robbery and murder right? Sure, it looks that way, and we can establish a motive, but it is most likely that the robbery was an afterthought. Robbery alone was not why the Kamerer’s were murdered. Cruisers have been advised for years that if they something suspicious going on, as in a drug drop, to simply ignore what they see and proceed elsewhere immediately. The Kamerers were witnesses to a drug drop and if Bill and Patty Kamerer had heeded this advice they would probably still be alive today. Several residents, American and Bahamian, who lived in the area at the time remember Patty getting on the VHF radio and describing what they saw, a drug transaction taking place. The residents, fearing for their own safety, did not involve themselves though someone should have perhaps told the Kamerers to shut up and move. They tell of Patty describing in a loud, excited voice, the exact details of what she and her husband Bill were witnessing, including the actions of a red Cigarette-type boat. The people listening knew the Kamerers were as good as dead, the smugglers also monitor the VHF for obvious reasons. Those that heard Patty’s narration ‘knew’ what Bill and Patty had stumbled upon and were quite aware of what would likely follow Patty’s outburst on the radio. The exact details of what happened next are known only to Calico and whoever was with him, if anybody, that midsummer’s day in 1980.

So what can be done? Nothing! Nada! Nil! Zip! You cannot convict a person without evidence and simply "knowing" Calico did it is not enough. The murderer, or murderers, of Bill and Patty Kamerer will probably never be brought to justice and there is nothing that anyone can do about it without adequate proof. By the way, few people have seen Calico over the last few years, but it has been said that he is living in the U.S. and has been "saved." It seems that he may have repented and changed his ways. Calico is older, wiser, and claims to have no involvement with drugs or criminals of any sort. It’s a pity for Bill and Patty Kamerer that Calico’s "religious awakening" did not occur prior to July of 1980.

* * *

Today, almost three decades later, there is still a bit of smuggling going on in the isles of June. As long as America asks, someone will deliver. The smuggling that takes place today goes on in a very small scale compared to the activities of two or three decades ago. Today the chances are slim that you’ll ever see a drug drop. For the better part of two decades of cruising over 80,000 miles in The Bahamas I have never seen a suspected transaction, I’ve seen more activity in the States than in The Bahamas. Today’s smugglers are so sophisticated and wary of prying eyes that you’ll never even know they’re around. However, if on that one in a million chance you happen upon something untoward, perhaps you’d better go elsewhere at the very least. It’s like walking up on a rattlesnake. You know it’s deadly, but it’s also as wary of you as you are of it. The snake wants nothing more than to get away from you, every bit as much as you want to distance yourself from it. If you don’t poke it, it won’t likely strike at you.