COTLAND Yard murder squad detective Basil Haddrell first met Erskine Durrant (Buck) Burrows at "Bleak House" on September 12, 1972, the afternoon he arrived in Bermuda to assist Police with their investigation into Commissioner George Duckett's murder.

In a grisly irony, Detective Chief Superintendent Haddrell encountered Burrows at the murder scene ? two days after shooting Duckett in the back, the Police Headquarters janitor-turned-self-styled urban guerrilla had been despatched to "Bleak House" to mop up the dried blood that pooled around his victim as he lay dying on his kitchen floor.

Almost four years later Det. Chief Supt. Haddrell ? whose investigations had conclusively linked the former trusty to the five 1972/'73 murders and who co-ordinated the potentially hazardous Police ambush that led to the arrest of a heavily armed Burrows on Parsons Road in October 1973 ? faced the accused killer across Bermuda's Supreme Court.

It had required a long and torturous journey to arrive at this point.

Following coroner's inquests verdicts that had named Burrows as the killer of Duckett and Burrows and his long-time friend and criminal associate Larry Winfield Tacklyn as the murderers of supermarket managers Victor Rego and Mark Doe, brutally slain during a robbery of the Shopping Centre on Victoria Street in April 1973, a third inquest into the March 10, 1973 shootings of Governor Sir Richard Sharples and his Aide-de-Camp Captain Hugh Sayers was held in November 1975.

The inquest was held at Magistrates' Court before Chief Magistrate James Astwood, acting in his capacity as the island's Coroner. On November 27, 1975, at the conclusion of the evidence, the nine-man jury returned a verdict that Burrows and Tacklyn were responsible for the Government House murders.

As a result of the three inquest verdicts, Attorney General Gerald Collett made a successful application for a voluntary bill of indictment against Burrows and Tacklyn. On May 25, 1976 the two men were arraigned before Mr. Justice Earle Seaton and charged with seven criminal counts between them.

Erskine Durrant Burrows, Larry Winfield Tacklyn and others not before the court between January 1, 1970 and July 9, 1973 in Pembroke Parish and elsewhere within and without these islands conspired together to murder high officials of Her Majesty's Government for Bermuda.

Erskine Durrant Burrows on September 9, 1972 in Devonshire Parish murdered George Duckett.

Erskine Durrant Burrows, Larry Winfield Tacklyn and others not before the court on March 10, 1973 in Pembroke Parish murdered Sir Richard Sharples.

Erskine Durrant Burrows, Larry Winfield Tacklyn and others not before the court on March 10, 1973 in Pembroke Parish murdered Captain Hugh Sayers.

Erskine Durrant Burrows, Larry Winfield Tacklyn and others not before the court on April 6, 1973 in Pembroke Parish murdered Victor Rego.

Erskine Durrant Burrows, Larry Winfield Tacklyn and others not before the court on April 6, 1973 in Pembroke Parish murdered Mark Doe.

Erskine Durrant Burrows, Larry Winfield Tacklyn and others not before the court on April 6, 1973 in Pembroke Parish being armed with offensive weapons, namely handguns, robbed Victor Rego and Mark Doe of $12,332 in money.

In June 1976 Burrows stood trial first. He was tried jointly for killing Duckett, Sir Richard Sharples and Captain Sayers. Larry Winfield Tacklyn, his alleged co-conspirator in four of the five murders, was later tried separately for his alleged role in the Government House killings. Both men were tried together for the murders of supermarket managers Rego and Doe.

Burrows refused to plead to the charges against him. A plea of not guilty was entered on his behalf.

also declined all offers of legal assistance and asking Mr. Justice Seaton to dismiss former Solicitor General Peter Smith ? who had been appointed a "friend of the court" to safeguard his legal rights ? Burrows arrived in Supreme Court clutching a Bible as prosecutor John Marriage, QC, assisted by Crown Counsel Alistair Gunning, outlined the case against him.

The circumstances surrounding the Duckett murder were addressed first.

"Let it be firmly understood that there are in this court at this moment 13 judges ? 12 of you (on the jury) and you, my Lord," said Mr. Marriage. "

The jury, he explained, would decide the facts: had the prosecution proved to their satisfaction that Burrows had killed Duckett and was involved in the murders of Sir Richard and Captain Sayers.

"You will know that in most cases the accused is represented," said Mr. Marriage. "Mr. Burrows has refused all efforts to get him legal aid and you will even have heard that when someone came here to assist the court (on his behalf), Mr. Burrows did not even want that. It is not the wish of the Crown that this man should not be represented."

Mr. Marriage went on to describe the three matters before the jury ? describing them as "foul, cold-blooded killings of people who were at their homes, doing ordinary, everyday acts such as changing an electric light bulb or taking the dog for a walk before bedtime when they were ambushed and gunned down.

"Having used these somewhat emotional words ? which you may think from the evidence to come were totally accurate ? we can put emotion entirely to one side. The only question you will have to ask is ? was it Erskine Burrows? Emotion must not in any way cloud your judgement . . . You are not concerned with the wickedness and horror of the crimes themselves, you are concerned with whether Burrows did it."

Mr. Marriage then opened his summary of the evidence in the Duckett murder.

"In December 1969 Mr. Duckett was made Chief of Police and on his appointment moved into 'Bleak House' on North Shore Road in Devonshire," he said. "It is a fact which will be proved that Burrows at one time worked at 'Bleak House': he knew his way round the house and the immediately surrounding area."

At about 2 p.m. on September 9, 1972 Duckett left Police Headquarters where he had been carrying out his normal duties as Police Commissioner. He returned home to "Bleak House" and his family, wife Jane and daughter Marcia, then aged 17.

"Mr. Duckett passed a quiet family afternoon relaxing after a week's work," said Mr. Marriage. "Just before 4.30 that afternoon Mrs. Duckett used the phone. The only point about that is that she found the phone was working.

"It was a September evening and about 7 p.m. was beginning to get dark. The lights were put on and the family settled down to watch . Those that had supper ? I think Mr. Duckett did not because he was trying to lose a bit of weight ? ate with plates on their knees before the television. About 9 p.m. they finished watching and Mr. Duckett helped his wife take the plates through to the kitchen.

"When they did this they noticed that the security light outside the kitchen door was not working. There was some discussion between the Ducketts, complaining that the bulb did not seem to have lasted long, and on the question of whether the bulb should be changed.

"Mrs. Duckett suggested leaving it until the morning but Mr. Duckett fatally decided that that particular security light bulb should be changed that night. He opened the inner kitchen door and the outer screen door and because he was a tall man he stood on tip-toe and stretched up to get hold of the bulb."

The prosecutor said Mr. Duckett had stepped directly into the line of fire of a gunman hidden in the shadows.

"That was the last real action Mrs. Duckett ever saw her husband make," said Mr. Marriage. "As she waited in the kitchen, not thinking too much about it, her husband opened the two doors and stretched up. She heard what she describes as a 'pop' ? not even a loud bang. And her husband fell onto the kitchen floor bleeding very heavily ? the floor where he subsequently died.

"Luckily, perhaps, as he fell into the kitchen he managed to slam the door shut so that anyone outside shooting would not be able to come in. As he lay on the floor, blood was pouring from his face."

The prosecutor said Mrs. Duckett did "much the most sensible thing" ? she went to the phone only to find it was dead because someone had cut the wires.

"The unfortunate lady screamed and Marcia, who had been watching the television, came into the kitchen," said Mr. Marriage. "They found themselves slipping and sliding in the blood on the floor. Marcia, obviously not believing her mother when she said the phone was not working, went to the phone in the kitchen to try and see if she could get through and, as she was doing so, turned to face the kitchen window. She would be in full view and in line with the kitchen window.

"As she stood at the phone ? and you can imagine the horror with all these things happening and the phone not working ? someone fired five bullets through the kitchen window. Four ricocheted about the kitchen and did no harm. And one entered Marcia's chest.

"She felt some sort of pain but did not think much about it. As you can imagine everyone was distraught with worry as to what had happened to Mr. Duckett. Blood almost at once began to flow from her chest but both wife and daughter were desperately worried to get help for Mr. Duckett."

Duckett, said the prosecutor, kept her wits about her and went outside to try and call for help on the police radio in the Commissioner's car. She found that someone had cut off the handset.

"She then did the only thing possible," said Mr. Marriage. "She drove off to the operations room at Police Headquarters to get help. The Police came as quickly as they could but found Mr. Duckett lying dead on the floor with a bullet through his back.

"Marcia was sitting outside, holding a cloth to her right breast. She was taken to hospital and Dr. (James) King found a .22 bullet which had entered the front of her chest . . . One is glad to be able to say the bullet had not done too much harm and Marcia recovered.

"At 9 p.m. that evening that little family group was having a perfectly normal family evening. An hour later Mr. Duckett was dead and Marcia was in hospital having a bullet removed. Of course, the Police, led by Detective Chief Superintendent (John Joseph) Sheehy, started a search of the house and the surrounding area and found some very interesting evidence."

The prosecutor said the light outside the kitchen door proved to be in perfect working order ? someone had unscrewed it by a turn or two in its socket, sufficient to break the electrical contact.

"All the evidence suggests that the loosening was done by someone who left his prints behind," said Mr. Marriage. "If the person was doing something for a criminal reason, he would make a point of not leaving his prints behind. Anybody seeing the bulb would say to himself, 'The kitchen bulb is broken, let's change it'. You may think that was a very cunning way of luring Mr. Duckett out to put himself in a position where he was stationary under the bulb. He was almost like a sitting duck."

The prosecutor said the second thing police discovered was the bullet which killed Mr. Duckett had passed through the outer screen door from so close that a fragment of the metal screen was carried on the bullet's nose into the Commissioner's body. It would seem, said Mr. Marriage, the killer was concealed somewhere near a drain outside the kitchen door.

"It would be almost impossible to miss a man in Mr. Duckett's position," he said.

The third thing police found, the prosecutor continued, were footmarks in the soil around the water tank and on top of it.

"(This) shows that someone stood near and on the tank," he said. "For what purpose? In order to be able to see into the kitchen and fire bullets through the window ? one of which entered the chest of Marcia Duckett."

The prosecutor said there was another matter of very great importance that police discovered early in their inquiries ? the "Bleak House" telephone had been working in the afternoon but not on the evening of September 9, 1972.

"The reason it wasn't working was this," said Mr. Marriage. "The line was cut. The electricity wires were not cut. Had they been cut, not only would the person who cut hem get a very nasty shock, the house would have been plunged into darkness and anyone wanting to do any killing would not have been able to see their victims. It was vital that the electricity wires were not cut.

". . . What obviously happened was that someone who knew which (the telephone) wire was had climbed up a tree in the dark and cut the telephone wire. You may think it was someone who knew the area well who was able to cut the right one. You may remember that Burrows worked for Mr. Duckett. It was somebody who knew their way around."

Realising the murderer was someone familiar with the "Bleak House" property, in the days following the killing Police interviewed a number of workmen and visitors to the house ? including "Buck" Burrows.

Interviewed by Detective Sergeant Ed Bailey on September 12, Burrows said he was employed as a janitor at Police Headquarters. As well as his janitorial duties at Prospect, he said, he also worked as a handyman at the Commissioner's house.

But he had never been there after dark and no one had ever approached him for information about the lay-out of "Bleak House".

Burrows said he was in his room at Police Headquarters until about 7.45 p.m. on the night of the murder and then went up to the Arboretum to exercise. He was there alone until about 11 p.m.

Then, Burrows said, he walked to Court Street where he was surprised to hear the Police Commissioner had been killed. He sat on a wall talking to a number of people who appeared to be glad Mr. Duckett had been shot and stayed in the area until about 1 a.m. At the time, Burrows said, he had no idea who had shot the Commissioner but he told Det. Sgt. Bailey if he found out anything he would contact the Police.

Burrows said Mr. Duckett had "always been very good to him" and he liked him "quite a bit."

the most important piece of evidence the jury would hear, said Mr. Marriage, involved the .22 Schmidt revolver used to kill Mr. Duckett ? a handgun "Buck" Burrows had asked his distant relative Michael Hollis to help him sell during the summer of 1973. The weapon had subsequently come into Police hands.

"You may say to yourself that that is all very well," said Mr. Marriage. "Because 'Buck' Burrows has the gun in his possession it does not prove he had the gun in September 1972, a year or nine months earlier. That is so, and if it were that 'Buck' Burrows were to say to Police, 'Yes, I recognise that gun. I bought it from a man and got rid of it two or three months later and I certainly did not have it in September 1972', then OK.

"But he did not say that.

"In March 1974 (Scotland Yard Chief Superintendent) William Wright, the man in charge of these inquiries, showed 'Buck' Burrows the gun. He asked Burrows if he had ever seen it before. He said 'No'. Mr. Wright said, 'Never before?' And Burrows replied, 'No, it's the first time I've seen it'. He was lying his head off to the Police if he said he had never seen it before."