WHEN he was arrested on October 18, 1973 following the most extensive manhunt in Bermuda police history, Erskine Durrant (Buck) Burrows was heavily armed ? and had penned a ransom note for Premier Sir Edward Richards, who he was planning to kidnap and hold hostage until he was provided with an aircraft "to Africa" and $150,000 in cash.

Burrows, in hiding following a series of increasingly audacious daylight armed robberies in the autumn of 1973, concocted the desperate plot in the days before he was apprehended by Detective Chief Inspector Clive Donald and Detective Sergeant L.E. Smith following a stake-out of his rural Pembroke bolt-hole off Parsons Road.

In recently declassified British security dossiers on Burrows ? who confessed to the 1972 murder of Police Commissioner George Duckett and the 1973 assassinations of Governor Sir Richard Sharples and his Aide-de-Camp Captain Hugh Sayers ? the arrest of the killer is detailed in a series of secret communiqu?s sent to Whitehall from Government House.

Burrows, carrying a loaded Weston-Field pump action sawn-off shotgun and a loaded .32 Savage handgun, was arrested at 10.45 p.m. on October 18 following a daring police sweep on his lonely hideout.

"Long and painstaking detective work finally pinned Burrows down in one of the loneliest and densest patches of Bermuda; he was, it turned out, actually living in a tree," Governor Sir Edwin Leather reported to the Foreign & Commonwealth Office.

"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, Commissioner (L.M.) Clark was most anxious to capture him without gunplay."

The report makes clear there were elements at Government House and in the Police Force who did not share the Commissioner's view that Burrows could be taken into custody without bloodshed ("a dangerously long chance") and "more drastic methods" were discussed ? namely, having a police marksman shoot him out of the tree where he was living.

In the end Mr. Clark's view prevailed and the ambush he co-ordinated "worked out exactly as planned".

After Police Special Branch officers identified Burrows' outdoor bolt-hole, detectives spent three days staking him out before attempting to take him into custody.

"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, half-way down, were alerted by radio and, as Burrows came pedalling past Donald literally hurled himself on top of him.

"They both fell to the ground in a crash, Smith dived in, spotted the handgun and kicked it out of Burrows' reach. More men arrived and in two minutes they had him handcuffed, in the van and completely overpowered."

Government House described the arrest of Burrows as a "superb piece of police work" requiring the "highest team work, intelligence and quite outstanding courage".

Governor Sir Edwin Leather immediately requested that London allow him to award both Det. Chief Insp. Donald and Det. Sgt. Smith the Colonial Police Medal for conspicuous gallantry in the execution of their duties.

"The last point of which I can inform you at this moment is the finding of a ransom note amongst Burrows' possessions, and written in his hand," reads the Government House communiqu? to London. "Ten days ago (a confidential police source) informed Special Branch that Burrows was talking about kidnapping the Premier to use as a hostage for his own escape.

"Now, please, I beg everyone reading this to bear in mind Burrows is a single, lone, simple-minded young crook ? he may have friends of the Black Beret Cadre type, the (radical) 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 the 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 the 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 lives."

Burrows was never charged in connection with the outlandish kidnapping plot although there were indirect references to the scheme at his Supreme Court trial and the later Coroner's Inquest into Police Commissioner George Duckett's murder in June, 1975.

Aged 29 at the time of his arrest, Burrows had become the prime suspect in the 1972/3 assassinations and brutal double-murder of businessmen Victor Rego and Mark Doe during an armed robbery at the Shopping Centre on Victoria Street after a spree of daylight robberies in September and October 1973 and a series of random gun attacks.

"Over a weekend of continuous interrogation he has, at this moment, Monday, October 22, admitted the following crimes," reported Government House. "Robbing the Bank of Bermuda's Church Street branch on September 25 of more than $20,000; robbing the Piggly Wiggly Supermarket at Shelly Bay on September 29 of some $2,100; the shotgun shooting incident at Cavendish Heights on September 23 (when homes in the area were sprayed with shotgun pellets); the shotgun shooting incident at Fort Hamilton on September 28. Under our present laws and with his record the (firearms) charges alone are sufficient to put him away for 15 years."

In fact, Burrows was sentenced to 25 years in prison when he admitted the charges against him in Supreme Court on January 14, 1974.

Burrows, who described himself as a "guerrilla" to Chief Justice Sir John Summerfield, pleaded guilty to robbing the Bank of Bermuda, and the Shelly Bay Piggly Wiggly; to firing at the homes in Cavendish Heights and Fort Hamilton; and to having firearms in his possession the day he was arrested.

The court was also told that Burrows was going to hijack an aeroplane to Algeria and take a hostage ? although the fact he was planning to kidnap Sir Edward was not revealed. At the time, the Black Panther Party's Eldridge Cleaver had established a "government-in-exile" in Algiers with other American counter-culture figures including Dr. Timothy Leary, the former Harvard University psychiatrist who popularised the use of LSD. Cleaver's dissident community was supported by stipends from the Republic of North Vietnam, which the US was then at war with. His presence in Algiers had attracted any number of other former criminals turned revolutionaries to the North African country, many of whom hi-jacked planes to get to there. These hijackings had inspired Burrows' desperate plan to escape the island.

After his arrest, Burrows told Police: "I didn't know any of the people whose houses I shot at. The reason I did it was so that people would know, when I committed the (armed) robberies which followed, that I had a live weapon and that it was the real thing."

Sir John described the crimes as "extremely serious, audaciously executed with loaded firearms of a particularly dangerous nature" and said he saw no justification for showing leniency.

When asked if he had anything to say, Burrows ? who represented himself ? made disparaging remarks about the Royal Family and then raised a clenched fist in the Black Power salute. When sentenced, he screamed out slogans supporting both the Black Beret Cadre ? Bermuda's by then defunct black nationalist underground cell ? and, in broken Spanish, Fidel Castro's Cuban revolution.

Following the last armed robbery of the Shelly Bay Piggly Wiggly on September 29, 1973 Burrows had fled the shed on Smith's Hill where he had been living since losing his job as a janitor at Police Headquarters in July for chronic absenteeism.

After spending three weeks living rough, a Police team comprised of Chief Inspector Clive Donald, Inspector Basil Haddrell of Scotland Yard, Detective Sergeants Larry Smith and Neville Darrell and Detective Constable Norrell Hull were staked out on Parson's Road when they saw Burrows on October 17.

He appeared to be carrying something bulging under his coat and was very nervous. He walked a short distance on one side of the road, then crossed and walked a short distance in a tactic known to guerilla warfare. At this time the officers made the decision not to move in and arrest Burrows. However, the next day, Chief Inspector Donald, Insp. Haddrell, Det. Sgt. Smith, Det. Sgt. Ian Ganson, D.c. Michael Jent and D.c. Hull were again positioned on Parsons Road.

They saw Burrows ride into the Tribe Road. He was armed. He met a man who was waiting for him in the shadows (a Police informant). Some 25 minutes later, Burrows started off on his Mobylette ? stolen three weeks earlier from outside the home of Gary Bascombe.

As the cycle came level with the position where Chief Insp. Donald was, the officer jumped out, unarmed, and seized Burrows off the Mobylette. A tremendous struggle ensued during which Burrows tried to get his guns and Chief Insp. Donald tried to detain him. Det. Sgt. Larry Smith ran up and grabbed the .32 calibre revolver away from Burrows but as he was trying to subdue him he felt something stick into his chest. It was the barrel of the pump action shotgun.

Det. Sgt. Ganson and Insp. Haddrell eventually got the shotgun away from Burrows and discovered it was fully loaded. Fortunately, Crown Counsel Alistair Gunning told the Supreme Court, no shots were fired and no one was hurt. Burrows was arrested for armed robbery.

When searched, Burrows had 13 live shotgun shells in a purse. The shotgun had been used in the Cavendish Heights and Fort Hamilton shootings, Burrows told Police, as part of a systematic plan to demonstrate to the community that the guns were real and he was in earnest.

The shotgun, said Mr. Gunning, had also been used during the Piggly Wiggly robbery and had been fired at "Bleak House", the former residence of Police Commissioner George Duckett, on the night of September 9, 1973 ? the first anniversary of his murder.

However, Burrows did not admit this offence.

When taken to the Police Station and searched Burrows had $2410 in cash, a packet of marijuana and several reefer cigarettes, 18 copies of letters, a cartridge pouch and a cowboy-type holster. He had been interviewed by Chief Superintendent William Wright of Scotland Yard as well as Detective Chief Inspector John Sheehy and DCI Clive Donald on October 19. He had made a full confession to the armed robberies, residential shooting sprees and firearms possession charges.

The same day, Dc. Hull and other officers were searching an area near Parson's Road and in a cave found two Molotov cocktails and a plastic bottle of gasoline. Another search of the area turned up a plastic bottle containing two notes ? one of them Burrows' ransom demand for Sir Edward. In a later statement to Police, Burrows said he thought the Molotov cocktails would "come in handy" for his planned hijacking.

In passing sentence, the Chief Justice said that although Burrows was just under 30 years of age, he had "an incredible record for offences against property and the person".

"Although he has made a full confession of guilt and would be entitled to substantial consideration on that account, he has largely dissipated the effect of that by the obvious lack of contrition which has emerged from his offensive behaviour in court.

"It is no exaggeration to say that, for a while, his admitted criminal activities terrorised the community and could have had grave effects generally. I see no justification for showing leniency. I conceive it my duty to do all I reasonably can to protect the community."

He sentenced Burrows to ten years for the bank robbery and ten years for holding up the Piggly Wiggly, these sentences to run consecutively, and five years each for possession of firearms to injure property at Fort Hamilton and Cavendish Heights and five years for possession of firearms. The five year terms were to run concurrently but consecutive to the other 20 years to which he had been sentenced.

Eighteen months later Burrows appeared before a Coroner's Jury convened to investigate the murder of his one-time friend, Police Commissioner George Duckett.