Publication Date August 12, 2005

October 23, 1973

SECRET & PERSONAL IN order to get the time frame of this dispatch clear I should point out that the aide-memoire was written on September 28; I started drafting the dispatch itself on October 15; Burrows was captured by the police on October 18.

Completing the document now, on October 23, some of it is outdated by the capture of Burrows but I find no need to redraft anything written previously.

This is much the happiest letter I have had occasion to write since I took up my present office, and it will contain no speculation nor guessing, but just hard facts for your edification.

On Thursday night, October 18 at 2245 hours Buck Burrows was captured by the police while travelling armed with a loaded sawed-off shotgun and a loaded .32 hand gun. Under our present laws and with his record this charge alone is sufficient to put him away for 15 years.

Over a weekend of continuous interrogation he has, at this moment, Monday morning the 22nd, admitted to the following crimes.

1. Robbing the Bank of Bermuda on September 25 of more than $20,000.

2. Robbing the Piggly Wiggly Supermarket on September 29 of some $2,100.

3. The shot gun shooting incident at Cavendish Heights on September 23.

4. The shot gun shooting incident at Fort Hamilton on September 28.

He is being charged with these offences in Magistrates' Court as I write.

A most detailed search is now going on of the area where Burrows was found hiding, and we know we are looking for, at least, a .38 hand gun, ammunition, and something over than $20,000. Already a number of items of personal clothing, several gas masks and a ransom note have been located in various parts of a tree and buried in the ground nearby.

In order to make the picture further clear, it is necessary to give you a little background.

First, on Burrows himself. Since he was 15, and during the few brief periods of his life when he was not in jail, he has always lived, literally, like an animal: in the open, in and under trees, in dense bush, and on every occasion when he was arrested in the past various items have been subsequently discovered buried in the ground in polythene bags.

Now that armed danger no longer exists in the area, and searching including digging can be carried out openly and in full safety, there is every chance that more interesting items will be brought to light. I shall, of course, keep you informed of progress.

Second, the area in which he was hiding. After the first week (of the manhunt for Burrows) I found it impossible to understand just why the police could not find him: until the Commissioner himself took me all through the area so I could see it myself with my own eyes.

The "back of town" area, where Burrows was born and lived all his life out of jail, is a bit over a square mile on the north east edge of Hamilton, its western end debouching into the Court Street area, while its eastern end fades into the Arboretum, a golf course and what ? in Bermuda ? is the wide open spaces.

The area is one of the most undulating and broken on the islands. It contains some 500 houses, tumble-down old shops, garages, shacks and warehouses, many of them unoccupied for years.

And in and around all these buildings are open spaces, small fields, vacant lots and common ground all most densely covered with trees, bush, vine and semi-tropical vegetation. It is not a slum, but the closest thing we have to one anywhere in Bermuda.

Long and painstaking detective work finally pinned Burrows down in one of the densest and loneliest patches; he was, it turned out, actually living in a tree.

Knowing he was heavily armed and alert like a wild animal, and bearing in mind the great desirability of capturing him alive, as well as the safety of the lives of his own men, the Commissioner was most anxious to capture him without gunplay (I am bound to admit I thought this a dangerously long chance myself and discussed more drastic methods with the Commissioner, but in the end it worked out exactly as they planned it).

A police agent finally got into Burrows' confidence and for three nights Burrows was using him as a point of contact with his friends.

The plan, conceived and carried out by Chief Inspector Clive Donald and Detective Sergeant L.E. Smith, was therefore based on an ambush.

On the night, a detective posted near to Burrows' hideout spotted him emerging from the bushes, get on a moped and pedal off down a lane. Donald, Smith and their men, halfway down, were alerted by radio and as Burrows came pedalling past Donald literally hurled himself on him; they both fell to the ground in a crash, Smith dived in, spotted the hand gun, and kicked it out of Burrows' reach.

More men arrived, and in two minutes they had him hand-cuffed, in the van and completely overpowered.

The last point of which I can inform you at this moment is the finding of a ransom note among Burrows' possessions, and written in his hand.

Ten days ago an agent informed police that Burrows was talking about kidnapping Premier Sir Edward Richards to use as a hostage for his own escape (now, please, I beg everyone reading this to bear in mind that Burrows is a single, lone, simple-minded young crook ? he may have had friends of the Black Beret Cadre type, the likes of which can be found in every university in Britain, but neither he nor they are part of some sinister international conspiracy ? this whole sad story must be kept in perspective).

Whether this ransom note will be used in prosecution is a matter for much further study at this moment: in brief, it had been written for use after a hostage had been taken, demanded $150,000 in cash and air passage "to Africa" after which the hostage would be released.

In cold blood, all it really demonstrates is the dream/nightmare world in which this tragic young man lived.

So now we have Burrows, Larry Tacklyn and Mr. X all in custody, and there is no doubt all of them for a very long time. At this time we know that Beret Yellow is hiding out in Canada where the Royal Canadian Mounted Police have tabs on him.

Our information "leaks" are showing some promising results; a (BBC leader) and a common crook (associated with the Black Berets) have had two flaming rows on the telephone and have started to threaten each other; (other Black Beret members) show signs of being very worried young men indeed.

How much we can prove on the Black Beret Cadre boys is still very open to question but of some things I am reasonably sure: we have broken the back of the group who has been responsible for very nearly all the unpleasantness in Bermuda for the last 16 months.

And we have rallied public opinion in support of the police in a most gratifying manner. The Commissioner and all his men have earned the gratitude and admiration of us all.

Aide-Memoire When I arrived in Bermuda in mid-July I had carefully read every document relating to the murders the FCO could produce for me.

I had formed the clear opinion that the murder of the Governor in particular must have been a very carefully, expertly planned and executed job, and presented us with a really sinister situation: certainly I met no one in Whitehall or Bermuda who tried to alter that opinion.

I have for four-five weeks now been satisfied that that view was utterly wrong. A child could have done it. Further, I believe it was an error of judgement that such official secrecy was enforced after the murders: the total lack of information to the public has in itself done much to harm public morale and undermine confidence in the authorities in the intervening months.

The situation at the moment is this. As and when we arrest the bank robber (Burrows), he can be sent down for a long stretch. Of that there is no doubt at all. The police have several good witnesses and more direct evidence that makes an open-and-shut case against him for these crimes ...

But to send him down for this alone would be a tragedy. As my reports have stated for months, Burrows, like Larry Tacklyn and Mr. X, has been closely associated with the Black Beret Cadre. At the right time, and in closely controlled circumstances, this vital link must be made public.

Burrows has been seen by people, policemen and civilians, who will testify that he had been carrying both a shotgun and a handgun. Throughout the whole sad sequence of the events of the last 16 months only four weapons have been employed, one shotgun, one .38 (calibre hand gun), one .32 and one .22.

Ballistic tests have proved that the shot from the shot gun has been used in every incident where a shot gun was used. The shooting on September 20 near Fort Hamilton (several homes were sprayed with shot) was once again from the same shot gun.

An agent's report has quoted conversations between Burrows and a Black Beret leader which clearly indicates a .38 in Burrows' possession is the gun which killed the Governor; we have bullets from that incident. THE WHOLE PICTURE IS BEGINNING TO FALL INTO PLACE AND THE TRAIN OF EVENTS CAN NOW BE VERY NEARLY CONNECTED UP.

The key to the situation I believe to be this. About 14-15 months ago it just happened that three of the island's most confirmed and hardened criminals were all out of prison at the same time, Buck Burrows, Mr. X and Larry Tacklyn. They are all long-time criminals of low intelligence but the kind of sly cunning such people often exhibit.

At this time they all came into contact with the remaining ringleaders of the defunct Black Beret Cadre, most especially Beret Yellow. Tacklyn and Burrows in particular have been known to express the greatest admiration, even hero worship, for Beret Yellow.

What I am convinced happened is that, at that moment of time, and probably quite accidentally, the small group of Black Beret ringleaders still surreptitiously meeting together... suddenly realised that fate had put a new weapon in their hands in the form of these easily impressed and not very bright young criminals. They played on them, influenced them, almost certainly inspired some of the violent acts that followed, and very probably planned them.

But, of course, none of that can be proved.

At this moment we have no hard evidence beyond that of an undercover agent who cannot be blown: and the link in the chain that one cartridge from the shot gun was found in Beret Yellow's apartment; and the remarkable fact that it was precisely at that instant that Beret Yellow clouted a policeman and took off, first into hiding, a few days later abroad disguised as a Black Muslim woman.

Just how or why Burrows suddenly took it into his head to come out into the open with a daylight bank robbery last week will probably always be a matter of conjecture. The only thing that matters is that he did: for the first time we have positive identification of the man and of the guns.

Our cases against Beret Yellow and the real ring leaders, however, hang on only one shot gun cartridge and inadmissible evidence.

At most Beret Yellow might be sent down for six months or a year if he returned to Bermuda. I am strongly of the opinion that would do more harm than good for the whole situation.

Therefore it seems to me infinitely preferable that he should stay up in Canada and the more we can harry him the better. The more we can drop stories into the Press ? our only means of communication with him ? that might make him say: "God! They know that do they! I wonder how much more they know?"

The more we can make his friends still here in Bermuda, against whom we have no case at all, feel nervous and jittery the better.

If it is true, as we have been told, that Beret Yellow has started taking heroin, then it is good news: far better that he should drug himself to death up in Canada than come back to Bermuda to do a few months in jail, and thereafter be a bigger menace to the community than ever before.

We must employ skilful propaganda to help worry him to further foolish acts, anything but return to Bermuda, to causing his own death by drugs if possible.

This is psychological warfare and the more the enemy can be made to worry, to fear, and if humanly possible, to start squabbling among themselves, the greater our chances of clearing out the whole lot of them.

It is in this last context that (a known criminal associate of the Black Berets) "squealing" is so important. He has named who he thinks killed the Governor.

Whether he is right or not is of little importance in this context. What is important is that someone has squealed. Not who has squealed. Probably the best time to use this (information) will be one or two weeks after Burrows has been taken into custody.

We shall encourage speculation that Burrows is trying to save his own skin by ratting on his associates. We can force (the Black Beret leadership) to advise Beret Yellow to stay where he is and not dare come back to Bermuda because the police have a lot more on him than we actually have.

Let it be hinted, true or not, when the guns are in our possession that several different fingerprints have been found on them. By every means possible we must keep up the war of nerves.

. . . What Bermuda is dealing with is primarily a crime problem, not a political problem. (Of course) some of the wild young gentlemen of the defunct Black Beret Cadre still exist, we may not be able to change them and, of course, they can always do more mischief.

ut they are not a serious political force in any possible sense of the term as understood in the UK. (Successive) attempts by half-a-dozen Black Beret members over nearly four years to secure public support, even within the ranks of the Progressive Labour Party, have been totally unproductive from their point of view.

If you will think of them in terms of dozens, if not hundreds, of so-called "revolutionary" groups that exist in every university in Great Britain you will, in my view, have a much more accurate measurement of the problem.

Do not read into this, I pray you, more than I have actually written: I am not complacent. the price of liberty is still eternal vigilance.

I am, however, quite confident that we have broken the back of the particular group that has caused most, and possibly all, of the troubles of the past year: the gunmen are or soon will be in jail, the "intellectuals" that are left are frightened, dispirited young men. We shall try to keep them that way.

SIR EDWIN LEATHER Governor and Commander-in-Chief, Bermuda