ALMOST a year to the day of the brutal murder of her 53-year-old husband, Vernon James, retired Superintendent of Public Parks and Gardens, Olive James recounted her night of terror — February 23, 1975 — for the judge and jury in the No 1 Home Circuit Court.

A packed courtroom filled with wide-eyed spectators listened in complete silence as the widow recalled how five men broke into their three-storey home – ‘The Ark’ — at Skyline Drive, Jack’s Hill in St Andrew about 10:30 that night.

Four of those men, she said, had knives and one was armed with a gun. She and her husband were dragged out of bed, slashed with the knives and kicked by the men who all the time demanded money.

“I was treated like a football. Eleven of my teeth were knocked out. A part of one ear was cut off and a shotgun was broken over my throbbing head. I glanced at my battered and bleeding husband who was told by our attackers not to groan; and the more he groaned, the more blows he got,” Mrs James said as she relived the horror.

After the prosecution had called some 20 witnesses and the accused had put forward their defence, the trial judge, the late Chief Justice Kenneth George Smith, in his 8 1/2 hours summing up to the jury, commented that he could never have imagined what he saw in the James’ bedroom from the police photographs taken after the murder. He said the furniture had been broken up and thrown about and it looked as if a cyclone had passed through it.

“It is difficult for me to believe that human beings could be capable of the type of violence the results of which the pictures show,” said the usually reserved Smith.

Four men were arrested and charged for the murder. They were Clifton Irving, 20, labourer of Cedar Valley Road, Kingston 6; Lloyd Williams, a tailor’s apprentice of Scotland Heights; Delroy ‘Baby Roy’ Rose, 20, of no stated address and Vincent O’Sullivan, 24, a mechanic, also of no fixed address.

At the end of the case, Smith passed the death sentence on Irving and O’Sullivan for what he described as a “gruesome and inhumane” killing. Rose was acquitted as the jury found him not guilty.

Williams, although also convicted by the jury on the charge of murder, was ordered detained to await Her Majesty’s pleasure upon production of a birth certificate which proved he was under the age of 18 years at the time of the commission of the offence.

Irving and O’Sullivan were hanged on the gallows at the Spanish Town District Prison in St Catherine on May 30, 1979, a tiny black flag on a pole inside the prison compound signalling the end to this tragic saga.

Crown Counsel Velma Hylton Gayle (later deputy director of public prosecutions and QC, now in private practice) and Carl Miller (later a member of parliament, also now in private practice) appeared for the prosecution.

Clifton Irving was defended by attorneys-at-law Sylvester Morris and Dorothy Lightbourne (later a minister of justice); Lloyd Williams was defended by attorneys-at-law Earl de Lisser and Carl Thomas; Vincent O’Sullivan was defended by the late Queens’ Counsel Berthan Macaulay and attorney Richard Small; and Delroy Rose was defended by attorneys Dennis Daly and Norma Linton (both subsequently appointed QC).

Giving evidence at the trial, police photographer Corporal Lloyd McKenzie said he went to the home of the deceased shortly after the murder and took photographs of the house, both inside and outside. He produced 19 photographs showing the entry made by a group of men through the kitchen on the night of James’ murder, and showing the condition of the bedroom after the crime; with a mattress thrown on the floor along with clothes and other possessions from drawers that had been ransacked.

But it was the detailed evidence of the widow Olive James that held the attention of the court.

She and her husband were in bed about 10:30 pm and were listening to the Billy Graham religious programme on the radio. Her son and her grandchildren who shared the house were away, leaving them alone.They heard sounds on the ground floor and suddenly there was a loud bang on the outer door of the study which led from the bedroom to the landing.

Five men barged into the bedroom, four with knives which looked like some she had in her kitchen, and one of them, whom she identified as O’Sullivan, was carrying a gun. They told her to switch on the light, an overhead light with three 100-watt bulbs, and so she could see the men clearly.

O’Sullivan went to the foot of the bed and pointed the gun at them, two of the men went to each side of the bed and held the knives near them. One of the men, hurling ‘bad words’, demanded money and a revolver. She and her husband said they had no revolver and she offered that there was money in her handbag in the bathroom.

Widow James told the court that the men then said they heard that the couple had a chest full of money in the house and demanded to know where it was. Both of them denied this.

It was at that point that the men dragged them out of bed and began beating them. Mrs James said she was kicked many times in her stomach and her breasts and slashed with a knife. The men were shouting obscenities and saying if they did not find the chest, they would kill them both.

In an effort to save her life, James testified, she went into her bathroom and got her handbag and gave it to a man whom she identified in court as Lloyd Williams. Then she took out cheques amounting to $650 and $200 in cash. She told the court further that she handed these to Williams and he threw the cheques down on the floor and took the cash. Then he snatched off her gold chain, her bracelet and her wedding ring. The other men helped him to pull them off before taking three watches belonging to her grandchildren and her husband.

“When I got back into the bedroom I saw my husband sitting on the floor beside the vanity dresser. He was bleeding all over… but he was still being beaten. We were both bleeding profusely. He was groaning and he was told not to groan and the more he groaned the more blows he got. He was told to shut his mouth.”

James said the men tore apart the bed and the mattress, insisting that the money must be in the mattress. Then they started smashing the furniture. They broke up all the furniture in the room, tore down the bed-head and the drapes, and then O’Sullivan found the shotgun belonging to her husband. He called her a “lying…” and hit her over the head with the gun so hard, it broke in two and a shot was discharged from it.

She got a chance to pull open the door to the north side of the balcony, switched on all the garden and flood lights surrounding the house and bawled out: “MURDER!”

The five men rushed out on the balcony after her and threatened to kill her. At that point, she recalled, she slumped to the foot of the balcony. The men then went back inside and resumed smashing the furniture. Then she heard a man’s voice call from downstairs: “A police car come.” The five ran down the stairs and across the road. She heard a police car drive up and she heard the voice of her neighbour, Mr Powell. Two policemen came upstairs.

“I was battered and beaten and my clothes had been torn up and I was covered in blood,” said Mrs James. She said she crawled to the bed and took a sheet to cover herself up and tried to stop the blood which was flowing from her neck.

Her husband was lying on the floor in a corner of the bedroom and she could hear him gasping. She was taken to the University Hospital and she never saw her husband alive again.

She identified the broken shotgun and a six-foot-long beam of wood which, she testified, the men used to batter her and her husband.

In March she went to an identification parade and identified two of the men, O’Sullivan and Williams.

Dr Percival Henry, medical officer for North St Andrew, in his evidence, said that he carried out a post-mortem examination on Vernon James on February 26, 1975. The body had multiple injuries, including four severe lacerations on the head and neck and seven stab wounds. The skull had been fractured. Death was due to shock and haemorrhage as a result of the injuries received.

Mrs James broke down and wept bitterly as Dr Henry described the injuries to the body of her 53-year-old husband. Chief Justice Smith gave permission for the weeping widow to leave and she was escorted from the court by police personnel, to return after she had regained her composure. She was later recalled for further cross-examination by the defence.

Among the mass of other witnesses for the prosecution was Superintendent Stedman (‘Sam) McKay (now ret’d deputy commissioner of police), noted as one of the finest fingerprint experts of his time. He compared facsimiles of fingerprints he had examined with photographs of prints he was shown from the house and said they were the same.

Cross-examined by defence counsel Sylvester Morris, he denied that he could be mistaken, or that different individuals had similar fingerprints. He said that he had examined well over a million fingerprints, including those of twins, triplets and quadruplets and had never come across two human beings with similar fingerprints.

At the turn of the defence, Clifton Irving, aged 20, testified in a statement from the dock that he worked with a man called Joe. On February 24 in the morning he went up Jacks Hill to see Joe, who lived near The Ark. Joe was not in, so he left a message with Joe’s wife that he would try to make it the following morning when he was due to work. He stayed in the house for a while, then left, leaving Joe’s wife talking to some crash programme workers on the road.

Irving denied knowledge of the killing, saying he had never done such a thing; he had never even stolen; he worked for his living. He said he was forced by the police to sign a statement and told the court he could not read.

His defence counsel, Earl DeLisser, then applied to make a no-case submission in the absence of the jury. This was denied by the Chief Justice who ruled that the submission must be made in the presence of the jury.

Lloyd Williams’ defence was an alibi. He said he had been at home and had gone to bed from 8 o’clock the previous night. Early in the morning, between 5:00 and 6:00, he heard a loud noise. He rose out of his sleep and heard more sounds like gunshots. Then he felt pain in the back of his head. He found himself in the Kingston Public Hospital. He had wounds in his right shoulder, one on the back of his head and one in the upper left leg.

He said that on February 28 he was taken to the Central Police Station. On March 3 two men came into his cell and carried him into a room in the police station. They told him that if he gave them information about the murder of Vernon James he would be allowed to go free. He told them he knew nothing about the crime. He claimed both men beat him on the wound in his leg and tore out the stitches and made it bleed. When he could not stand the pain any longer he signed the statement, he said, after Inspector King gave him a pen and showed him where he must sign his name.

O’Sullivan told the court he had never been to Mrs James’ house at Jacks Hill and denied having anything to do with the killing of the deceased.

Delroy Rose (Baby Roy) said he had been sentenced to 12 years’ imprisonment for rape and had escaped from prison. He said he had never been to Mrs James’ house.

The jury retired for two-and-a-half hours on March 22, 1976 and acquitted Rose and convicted O’Sullivan, Williams and Irving.

Williams produced a birth certificate showing that he was 17 years old when the crime was committed and he was ordered to be detained at Her Majesty’s pleasure.

O’Sullivan was sentenced to death. Irving was remanded for sentence until proof of his age could be ascertained. After this was done, he was sentenced to death.

Vincent O’Sullivan was to have been hanged with Irving, but he sought leave to appeal to the Judicial Committee of the UK Privy Council. This application later failed.

NEXT WEEK: The slaying of attorney Paul FitzRitson

Sybil E Hibbert is a veteran journalist and retired court reporting specialist. She is also the wife of Retired ACP Isadore ‘Dick’ Hibbert, rated as one of the top Jamaican detectives of his time. Send comments to alled@jamaicaobserver.co