Guyana has always been a fugitive’s haven

Oct 02, 2017 News

---

 

The revelation that prominent and recently-murdered Brazilian miner Antonio Da Silva was actually a notorious killer named Siviomar Antônio de Oliveira, has raised alarm bells among Guyanese.
Many are now wondering how many more dangerous criminals might be unknowingly in their midst.
But Guyana has always been a fugitive’s haven, even when this nation was a British colony.
THE MAN FROM DEVIL’S ISLAND
One of Guyana’s most popular fugitives was a Frenchman named Henri Charriere, (also called ‘Papillion,’ for the butterfly tattoo on his chest).
According to Charriere’s popular biography ‘Papillion,’ he was condemned in 1931 for a crime he did not commit. He allegedly made several daring escapes from prison, and was eventually shipped to the penal settlement off French Guiana called ‘Devil’s Island.’
While this story is disputed by some, ‘Papillion’ claimed that he eventually escaped by floating on sacks of coconuts.
Stopping briefly in Trinidad, Charriere later settled in British Guiana; reportedly owning a restaurant in Water Street and earning a living by putting tattoos on the bodies on young women.
A best-selling book on his life was made into the popular movie Papillion, which starred Steve McQueen and Dustin Hoffman.
ABDUL MALIK, CHARISMATIC KILLER
It was in Guyana, too, that the manhunt for a brutal Trinidadian killer came to an end.
It began in February, 1972, with a visit to these shores by Trinidad-born Black power advocate Michael DeFreitas, also known as Michael X and Abdul Malik. However, while here, news reached Guyana that Malik’s posh Christie Gardens home, located in a commune that he had established, had been razed by a mystery fire.
Police, checking the premises, unearthed two bodies in Malik’s yard. The victims, hacked to death, were identified as Gail Ann Benson, the daughter of Conservative MP Leonard F. Plugge, and 25-year-old Joseph Skerrit, a barber, and cousin of Malik’s.
By this time, Malik, who had stayed in a popular Georgetown hotel, had disappeared. A hot tip that Malik was hiding out in Linden yielded no results. But they were not far off the trail. Malik was found hiding in a coal pit on the Soesdyke/ Linden highway.
He was escorted back to Trinidad, where he was tried and eventually hanged in 1975 for Skerritt’s murder.
BASHING IN HEADS WITH A HAMMER
Like Malik, a former US army paratrooper found out that the Soesdyke/Linden backlands were no safe haven.
That man was Steven King, a Guyanese, who had killed two store employees.
On October 30, 1990, in Saginaw County, in the state of Michigan. 30-year-old King, bashed in the heads of Bertha Aldridge, 18, and George Bowles, 23, with a hammer.
He then took US$40 from the cash register and fled the scene.
King then disappeared. Police in the US told counterparts in Guyana that the killer might have fled to his former homeland.
The local cops learned that King was hiding out in the backlands off the Soesdyke/Linden Highway.
At nightfall, in almost total darkness, an informant led the team of detectives to a small clearing in which a cot had been set up. A man was lying on the cot. He appeared to be fast asleep.
While one man guarded the reluctant informant, four other ranks pounced upon the sleeping man, who awoke with a scream. The captive was Steven King. A search of the camp revealed several months’ supply of canned food.
In April 1992, Steven King was extradited to the US. On January 3, 1993, Steven King was found guilty of murder. He was sentenced to life imprisonment without parole.
MURDERING THE WRONG GIRL
On Friday, March 22, 1996, a Guyanese woman, Linda Jairam and her husband, Gregory Grayson, were rudely awakened by banging at the front door of their Almond Street, Queenstown home. The visitors identified themselves as ranks from the Guyana Police Force and demanded that the occupants open.
Grayson, an American citizen, eventually opened and several policemen entered.
“Are you John Anthony Diaz?” one of the policemen asked.
Grayson said that he was not.
“Are you Gregory Grayson?” the officer then asked.
When Linda Jairam’s husband confirmed that he was indeed Grayson, the officer said: “That’s the person we want.”
Linda Jairam then listened incredulously as the policemen informed Grayson that they had an arrest warrant for him for murder.

What Linda Jairam had not known was that her American husband’s real name was John Anthony Diaz, and he had killed a woman named Dawn Brown in the States.
Back in the summer of 1991, John Anthony Diaz was living in Cape Cod and was employed as a physical therapist aide while attending Springfield College.
During this time he started dating a young Caucasian woman named Kimberlee Brown Goldstein.
But in the spring of 1992, Diaz’s girlfriend told him that she wanted to break off the relationship. In May of 1992, the ex-girlfriend began dating another man who she would eventually marry.
On May 11, 1993, Diaz purchased a Glock .40 calibre semi-automatic handgun and Black Talon ammunition.
On July 10, 1993, the ex-girlfriend, Kimberlee Brown Goldstein, held her bridal shower at her mother’s home in Quincy, Massachusetts. Also in attendance was Kimberlee’s sister, Dawn Brown. That evening, the sister went out for refreshments and ice cream with her boyfriend and her teenage nephew.
The three returned at around 23:00 hrs.
Around the same time, Diaz, who was apparently stalking his girlfriend, was also outside the premises.
On spotting the blonde-haired woman, Diaz stood a foot away from the victim, pointed his Glock semi-automatic handgun at her head, called out his girlfriend’s name, and fired.

Leaving the mortally wounded woman on the ground, Diaz drove his vehicle to John F. Kennedy International Airport in New York City. Using a false passport and $10,000, he boarded a flight, and eventually arrived in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.
On July 13, 1993, from his hotel room in Malaysia, he telephoned a friend who lived in Hyannis, Massachusetts, to confirm whether his ex-girlfriend was dead.
Diaz was shocked to learn that Kimberlee was very much alive.
Kimberlee’s sister, Dawn Brown, had recently dyed her hair blonde. That blonde hair made Dawn Brown look just like Kimberlee, the sister with whom Diaz was obsessed.
John Anthony Diaz had killed the wrong sister.
On being told of his mistake, Diaz reportedly told the friend: “I am not fit to live.”
Now a fugitive from justice, Diaz left Malaysia and travelled though several countries before arriving in Guyana on September 30, 1993. He met and married Linda Jairam. He got a job. He made friends, among them some members of the Guyana Police Force with whom he trained at a weightlifting gym.
For almost three years, Linda and the man she knew as Gregory Grayson lived happily in Almond Street with Jairam’s two children.
But on one fateful night in March 1996, the producers of the popular television series ‘Unsolved Mysteries’ aired a story about a woman who was mistakenly slain by her sister’s ex-boyfriend.
A photograph of the killer identified him as John Anthony Diaz.
The programme was broadcast on a local television station and someone who was watching it recognised the photograph as that of Gregory Grayson.
The Massachusetts State Police were informed of Diaz’s whereabouts and notified the Guyanese authorities of his presence in the country.
On March 22, 1996, after obtaining an arrest warrant, ranks from the Guyana Police Force swooped on the Almond Street home where Diaz was staying and arrested him.
On April 22, 1996, Diaz was transported to the Timehri Airport, and turned over to the Massachusetts State Police.
Despite a strong defence, a jury eventually convicted John Anthony Diaz of murder in the first degree. He was sentenced to life imprisonment. An appeal for a retrial was denied.

---

---