Who Killed Sir Harry Oakes? From The Perspective Of A Relative

Harry and his wife, Eunice

 Sometime before midnight in 1943, Sir Harry Oakes, a remarkable man who had found wealth in the Klondike and had climbed the ranks of British Society, was beheaded at his home in the Bahamas. His body was doused with insecticide, and lit on fire, yet neither the body nor the crime scene had burned as the murderer had hoped. Although Oakes' close friend, the former King Edward VIII, had tried to stop the news story from breaking, The Bahamas Tribune broke the story, and it swept across the country like wildfire. For years, the mystery of who had killed Harry Oakes lay like a thick blanket across Central Maine: many believed it was his daughter who had committed the act, or a disgruntled wife. Yet, his family has a different story as to what led to Harry Oakes' demise.

This will come as a surprise to many of you, but Sir Harry Oakes was my great-great uncle. He offered my great grandfather money in hopes of providing for his children, and thought very well of the side of the family I came from. In 2021, I began writing a biography called "En Amite, Henri Oakes," which chronicled the 90 years of life my great-uncle, Henry Oakes, spent on this earth. Over the course of 28 pages, the communications and life of Sir Henry Oakes were mentioned multiple times, including his vicious murder. Because of our relation to Sir Harry, and our help with the numerous books that have been written about his death, I was able to gain access to numerous resources and bibliographies concerning the crime itself. As I poured through the pages of each volume, one fact became clear that had not been spoken about when it came to my other research: Sir Henry Oakes had been donating his fortune to the Allied Forces, while serving the former King Edward VIII and Wallis Simpson. 

For a little context about those two individuals, Edward VIII was the most recent king in English history of abdicate. His abdication came for two reasons: the first, most well known reason was his love for the American divorcee he would later call his wife, yet the second, less known reason was simple: Edward VIII was a Nazi. Edward (or Bertie, as he was called by his family) was photographed at Nazi rallies in Germany at the time, alongside his infamous wife. This posed a conflict for the British people, who were being actively targeted by the regime, and he was forced out of the role in favor of his brother, King George VI, the father of Queen Elizabeth II. In later years, more evidence has come to light that Bertie was actively betraying England during his reign, and the conflict of interest was much more deeply seated than previously thought. Nevertheless, he was exiled to the Bahamas with the title of Governor, alongside my great-great uncle. 

This leads to the realization I spoke of earlier: I believe that Edward VIII killed Sir Harry Oakes.

The evidence is very clear that whoever committed the murder was inexperienced in manslaughter, however it is very interesting that insecticide was used to douse the crime scene: anyone who has studied the atrocities of the Nazis knows of their propensity to use insecticide when executing people.  In a massive estate like that owned by Harry Oakes, any other sort of incendiary material could have been found and used to better destroy the crime scene, and yet they chose bug repellant. 

Secondly, Bertie attempted to order a gag on all Bahamian press directly after the death was discovered. This is incredibly damning, and it seems that Bertie had bragged not only that local police would be too inexperienced to investigate, but that he could not bring Scotland Yard out to investigate. In fact, the two officers who handled the case (and who probably are responsible for the case being unsolved to this day) were hired by Bertie personally. It was these two officers who arrested and unlawfully detained Count Alfred De Marigny, Harry's son-in-law, and fabricated the story that the murder had been in response to Harry Oakes refusing to acknowledge his daughter's elopement. 

All of this is too coincidental, especially in hindsight. 

Bertie had the motives to do it: Harry was a liability to his ties to the Third Reich, and was actively undoing whatever progress Germany was achieving. Bertie had not been used to consequences: the first of his being his abdication only a few years earlier. I wouldn't be surprised if he believed that he was going to get away with it, solely because of who he is and what he could do. However, being a first time killer, he failed to ignite the house properly, and left a very in-tact crime scene, which has baffled detectives for the last near-century. Yet, I am not the only one who believes Bertie had a hand in his murder, many other historians have raised the alarms as well. 

My Great Great Uncle was a wonderful person: he was always helping people, and willing to better the world around him. He used his wealth for incredible good, and it is unfortunate that he met such a brutal end. Hopefully, as more information comes to light, we can finally have justice for him.