Sir Harry Oakes, 68, Murdered 8 July 1943, Nassau, Bahamas

[Richard]

Unraveling The Mysterious Death of Sir Harry Oakes in the Bahamas

Take one very rich man, family hatreds, financial secrets, Nazi sympathizers and the notorious Duke and Duchess of Windsor, and what do you get?

Written by Nancy Bilyeau
It was July 8, 1943, an hour after dawn; a time and a season for everything to be quiet and slow-moving on the island of New Providence in the Bahamas. But not this morning. Frantic phone calls destroyed the drowsy, sultry calm. The largest landowner in the Bahamas, a man worth $200 million, had been found dead, and the cause was anything but natural.

Sir Harry Oakes, 68, born and raised in Maine, possessor of a Canadian gold-mine fortune and a British title, had been bludgeoned to death in the bedroom of Westbourne, his bougainvillea-adorned Nassau estate. From the looks of the crime scene, he’d also been set on fire. The walls bore bloodstains. Feathers were everywhere, their source a torn pillow, although some of the wilder rumors claimed they came from a chicken, evidence of a voodoo ritual...

LINKS:

https://dujour.com/culture/mysterious-death-of-sir-harry-oakes-in-the-bahamas/

The Oakes Murder: Were Two More People Killed To Hide A Dark Secret of Homosexuality? 1943 · Bahamianology

 

[Richard]

The murder of Sir Harry Oakes
At the height of the Second World War in 1943, the wealthiest man in the British Empire was found murdered in his Bahamian home.

Sir Harry Oakes had been bludgeoned to death and his body set on fire as he lay in bed. What followed was a catalogue of catastrophic errors or, perhaps worse, a conspiracy to ensure that the killer would never be caught.

Central to this was the former King Edward VIII, now the Duke of Windsor and governor of the Bahamas whose actions were at best incompetent or at worst an attempt to frame an innocent man and to mask his own Nazi sympathies...

LINK:

The murder of Sir Harry Oakes – Historical Murder Presentations.

 

[Waller]

Bludgeoned to death...poor man what a horrible way to die
Unfortunately I don't think this case would be ever solved
Maybe new DNA tests could help...who knows...

 

[Richard]

78 years ago in the Bahamas...

The murder of Sir Harry Oakes
At the height of the Second World War in 1943, the wealthiest man in the British Empire was found
murdered in his Bahamian home. Sir Harry Oakes had been bludgeoned to death and his body set on fire as he lay in bed. What followed was a catalogue of catastrophic errors or, perhaps worse, a conspiracy to ensure that the killer would never be caught. Central to this was the former King Edward VIII, now the Duke of Windsor and governor of the Bahamas whose actions were at best incompetent or at worst an attempt to frame an innocent man and to mask his own Nazi sympathies.

LINKS:

The murder of Sir Harry Oakes – Historical Murder Presentations

The Oakes Murder: Were Two More People Killed To Hide A Dark Secret of Homosexuality? 1943 · Bahamianology

“Wasn’t Me. One White Man Did It” Said Negro Church Deacon Convicted Of Extortion Of The Widow of Sir Harry Oakes 1950 · Bahamianology

Murder In Paradise: Sir Harry Oakes, the Bahamian Yankee | PORTLAND MAGAZINE

 

[dotr]

1943 cold case murder victim made a fortune in Ontario's gold rush

Sir Harry Oakes was a prospector who made millions after finding gold in Kirkland Lake, he moved to the Bahamas, hob-nobbed with royalty, and was violently murdered in his sleep

www.collingwoodtoday.ca

june 8 '24
''But it all came to a crashing end on July 7, 1943, when Sir Harry Oakes was brutally murdered in his bed at his Nassau estate.

Discovered by Harold Christie, a family friend who just happened to be staying in the mansion overnight, Sir Harry had been bludgeoned (or shot, depending on whose testimony you believe) and then set on fire while he slept.

Christie claimed not to have heard or seen anything.

The bizarre murder method, the botched investigation, the arrest of his son-in-law (and his subsequent acquittal), the fact Christie was never a suspect, the manipulation of the trial by the Duke of Windsor and the failure to find the person or persons responsible for the death of the richest man in the Bahamas has created one of the world’s best-unsolved crime stories.''

 

[Richard]

Sir Harry Oakes, age 68, murdered 8 July 1943, Nassau, Bahamas

 

[dotr]

by Emily Burnham June 7, 2025

This Maine-born gold tycoon’s murder is still a scandal

Who was this remarkable self-made man — and how did he go from Piscataquis County to owning a gold mine, hobnobbing with royalty and living in a palatial Caribbean estate?

www.bangordailynews.com

Sir Harry Oakes, left, and his friend the Duke of Windsor, the former King Edward VIII of England. Credit: Museum of Northern History | Museum of Northern History
This story was originally published in April 2020.

Sir Harry Oakes, right, and his wife, Eunice, in the 1930s. Credit: Museum of Northern History
''Within a few years, Oakes grew tired of paying high Canadian taxes on his constantly accruing wealth. In the late 1920s, the family moved to the Bahamas, where there were no taxes. Still, Oakes regularly traveled between his new home in the Caribbean, his mine in Canada, his mansion at Niagara Falls, his properties in Florida and the “cottage” he purchased in Bar Harbor — an estate called the Willows, which today is part of the Atlantic Oceanside Hotel complex.''

''One thing none of the books, movies and articles published on the crime have been able to come to an agreement on, however, is who killed Oakes all those years ago. The truth lies buried in a cemetery in Dover-Foxcroft, with a man from Maine who set out to make his fortune over a century ago''.