And the Sea Will Tell

by Vincent Bugliosi

  “Yes, they did. Fresh fish is much more of a tasty meal than things that come out of cans.”

  “Getting back to the chronology of events, after Buck came by around 9:00 A.M. and told you about the dinner invitation, what’s the next thing that happened, as far as you can recall?”

  “Well, then I went over to Buck’s camp and…he made some coffee, we had a cup of coffee. And I…we made a couple of trips back and forth together carrying things from his camp area to the Iola. And then I stayed on the Iola getting those things stored.”

  “These trips that you and Buck took between the Iola and the tent—approximately how long did that take?”

  “Well, the tent was quite close to the Iola. So, I would say probably…an hour, maybe an hour and a half, altogether. All the trips back and forth.”

  “So that would take us to approximately ten-thirty or eleven o’clock?”

  “Someplace in there, yes,” she agreed.

  “What were your plans for the remainder of the day at that point?”

  “Well, I was going to stay on board the Iola and do all the things required to make her shipshape, getting everything stowed away, and swabbing and cleaning. And I wanted to do a lot of baking for the trip. And Buck was going to get his camp in order. He had all of this furniture that didn’t belong to us, that we’d accumulated from various buildings on the island. Beds, and tables, and chairs, and things like that. And he was going to move all of that furniture to the Refrigerator House, and bring the tent, which was ours, back to the Iola.”

  “To your knowledge, did Buck actually bring the furniture to the Refrigerator House that day?”

  “I don’t know.”

  “From August 30th to September 11th, when you left Palmyra, did you ever go to Buck’s tent area, or to the Refrigerator House?”

  “No, I don’t remember going there at all during that period.”

  “Did Buck bring the tent back to the Iola that day?”

  “No, he didn’t.”

  “Did you ask him why he did not?”

  “Yes. He said it was dilapidated and falling apart, and just wasn’t worth bothering with.”

  “Did you agree with Buck’s assessment of the tent?”

  “Well, he knew it better than I did. He was living in it. It didn’t appear to leak, but I guess it could have been mildewed.”

  Jennifer said that after seeing Buck between 10:30 and eleven A.M. that morning, she next saw him “two or three hours” later. “It was sometime in the early afternoon. I remember him coming by the Iola and saying something.”

  “I take it you can’t recall every time you saw Buck that day.”

  “No.”

  “When Buck would come by, would he always come aboard the Iola?”

  “No. Not always. Sometimes he just talked to me from the shore.”

  “When is the next time that you recall seeing Buck that day?”

  “It was several hours later, around four.”

  “And what happened at that time?”

  “He came by, and he said that he’d been on his way to bathe, and he had run into Mac, and that Mac had said that he and Muff were still doing all kinds of things around the camp—and they hadn’t gotten a chance to go fishing yet. But he said they were still going to do that. And so we should come over around six-thirty. And that if they weren’t back by then, we should just go on board and make ourselves at home, and they would be along presently.”

  “Would there be anything left out for you?”

  “They said they would leave out some nibbles or something.”

  Jennifer went on to testify to her hearing, a half hour or so after Buck left, Mac’s dinghy being operated in the lagoon.

  “Would you please go to the chart, Jennifer, and with the pointer, indicate to the jury the direction in which you sensed, from the sound, that the Zodiac was traveling?”

  “Well…here’s where the Iola was, and here’s the Sea Wind. It sounded like it was going further away from the Sea Wind and the Iola.”

  She indicated a path starting from the area of the Sea Wind and proceeding in a westerly direction away from both the Sea Wind and the Iola.

  “You heard the sound of the Zodiac going away from you. Did you hear it coming back that day?”

  “No.”

  “From the cabin of the Iola, could you see outside?”

  “Yes. There were windows. And also I could see out the opened hatch.”

  “So, you would not have to go on deck to see what was happening in the lagoon?”

  “Yes, that’s correct.”

  “However, if the Zodiac dinghy were being operated or driven in the direction that you have indicated, could you have seen it from the cabin of the Iola?”

  “No,” she answered.

  “Why not?”

  “Because of that same jut of land that separated the Sea Wind from the Iola and with all the dense foliage.”

  “If someone were operating a dinghy, let’s say in the middle of the lagoon during daylight, would you have been able to see and identify the operator from the Iola?”

  “Yes.”

  Asked if there was any way she might have confused Buck with Mac, Jennifer said no, because they “didn’t look anything alike.”

  “From the Iola, could you see any boat leaving or entering the channel?”

  “Yes.”

  The courtroom was perfectly still, so I knew everyone was following Jennifer’s testimony closely. Everyone, that is, with the possible exception of Judge King’s wife, Ann, who had accompanied her husband to San Francisco. Other than those days when she enjoyed shopping in the city’s countless boutiques, she sat quietly in the back row of the courtroom, busily knitting colorful sweaters for her grandchildren, only occasionally looking up from her work.

  “After you heard the dinghy, when is the next time you recall seeing Buck?” I asked.

  “Buck came by…maybe an hour later, an hour and a half, something like that. And he said that he was going to go bathe, and did I want to go with him.”

  “And did you?”

  “No. I was still baking.”

  “You testified earlier that around 4:00 P.M., or thereabouts, Buck came by and told you that he had been on his way to take a bath, when he claimed he bumped into Mac. Were you surprised that an hour and a half later, he still hadn’t bathed?”

  “No, I didn’t think anything of it.”

  “You never gave it a thought at that point?”

  “No.”

  “Did you agree to meet each other later?”

  “Yes. I told him that when I was through baking, I would go take a bath. And he said he would meet me over at Mac and Muff’s.”

  “When is the next time that you saw Buck as far as you recall?”

  “On my way to bathe, Buck was coming back from bathing.”

  “Did you talk to him at that point?”

  “I said I would see him at Mac’s.”

  At ten-thirty, the judge asked if it was a good time for a fifteen-minute recess, and I said it was. I sped down to the law library on the sixteenth floor of the courthouse to research a point of law.

  In the hallway, I saw Jennifer, who was being cooled down like an overheated racehorse. Her brother and mother were at her side, walking her slowly. As I passed her, I patted her gently on the back and told her she was doing just fine.

  When Judge King took the bench shortly after ten forty-five, I was, unfortunately, nowhere to be seen and was unaccounted for. I had simply stayed a minute too long in the library.

  “He’ll be back in a moment,” Len bluffed gamely.

  “I hope so,” Judge King sniffed. He had not called in the jury, and wouldn’t do so in my absence.

  Lawyers are required to await every whim or impulse of judges as a matter of course. But seconds have a way of stretching swiftly into intolerable eons when a judge is waiting for a lawyer. It’s the universe upended.

  “I tell you what,” the judge barked,
his cheeks flaming. “You call me when Mr. Bugliosi’s ready. I don’t wait for the lawyers. They wait for me.”

  Judge King left the bench with powerful strides.

  Just as I barreled through the double doors into the courtroom, the door to his chambers closed with thumping finality.

  CHAPTER 39

  AFTER A WAIT OF SEVERAL MINUTES—possibly he was evening the score—the judge materialized, mounted the bench, and signaled the bailiff to summon the jury.

  I apologized for my tardiness.

  Judge King nodded curtly. “You may resume.”

  “Jennifer, on August 30, 1974, did you see either Mac or Muff at any time that day?”

  “No, I didn’t.”

  “Did you hear any screaming or gunshots?”

  “No.”

  “Or any other sound that aroused your attention?”

  “No.”

  “During the period of time that you were on Palmyra, other than when Buck fired at fish in the lagoon, were you aware of any guns being fired on the island?”

  “Well, once—I don’t remember whether it was someone from the Shearwater or the Toloa—they told me that they were with Mac and Muff when they had been target practicing.”

  “Did you hear any gunshots that time?” I asked.

  “No, I didn’t.”

  “Was it difficult or easy to hear things on the island?”

  “It was difficult.”

  “Would you relate for the jury the various sounds that inhibited one’s ability to hear things on the island?”

  “The birds made a terrific racket with their squawking. And there were the sounds of the ocean breaking on the outside shore, and the water in the lagoon lapping against the boat. There were also the winds, and the winds rustling through the trees would make quite a bit of noise. The dense foliage muted sounds, too.”

  “Did you see any fire or smoke on the island on August 30, 1974?”

  “No.”

  In answer to my question, Jennifer said one “couldn’t see anything on shore from the Iola.”

  “So, you couldn’t see the Sea Wind or Buck’s tent or the Refrigerator House or anything else on the island?”

  “That’s correct.”

  “From the Iola you just saw a wall of green foliage. Is that correct?”

  “Yes.”

  Jennifer explained that when she arrived at the Sea Wind’s anchorage at six-thirty that night, Buck had already been there, waiting for her.

  “Was it getting dark around that time?”

  “It was approaching sunset.”

  Was the masthead light of the Sea Wind on?”

  “No.”

  “Were the Grahams on the boat?”

  “No. I hailed them and there was no answer. And their Zodiac wasn’t tied to the side of the boat, which was usually an indication that nobody was aboard.”

  “Everything appeared to be still?”

  “Yes,” she said.

  “What happened next?”

  “Well, Buck and I just sat there at the lanai area for maybe ten or fifteen minutes or so, talking. And then Buck said that we should go aboard because they had said that if they weren’t back by six-thirty, to go aboard and make ourselves at home. So we did.”

  “What did you observe once you went aboard the Sea Wind?”

  “There were some things left out on the table in the kitchen area. There was some alcohol and some nibble things.”

  “Did it appear to you or did you believe that what had been left out had been left for you by Muff?”

  “Yes.”

  I purposefully didn’t bring up the apricot brandy. It was evidence favorable to my prosecution of Buck, but I feared the jury might think it sounded contrived so that Jennifer could point the finger of guilt at her former lover. It was one of those two-edged swords peculiar to the trial of a lawsuit. If it somehow came out on cross-examination, of course, the suspicion of contrivance would be substantially reduced, and this is what I was hoping for.

  “What did you and Buck do at that point?”

  “Well, we poured ourselves a drink, and I think Buck grabbed a box of cookies. We both went topside and sat and waited for Mac and Muff.”

  “Was it getting darker then?”

  “Yes.”

  Jennifer said that by around seven o’clock, it was completely dark.

  “So you’re on deck with Buck and it’s around seven o’clock and the Grahams are not there. What’s your state of mind at that point?”

  “I started getting very worried. They knew that we were coming over and I knew that it was dangerous to be out on the lagoon after dark.”

  “Why is that?”

  “Well, you couldn’t see where you were going. You wouldn’t know whether you were in the middle of the lagoon or if you were getting toward the shore. And there were metal poles sticking up in the water. I…got worried…about Mac and Muff.”

  Since the recess, Jennifer had been answering my questions rather dispassionately. She had been responsive and detailed, but not clearly engaged emotionally. But now her composure began to crack at the seams.

  “Did Buck appear to be worried?”

  “I…I don’t know.”

  I gave her a moment to recover. She sipped from a cup of water and took a deep breath. She patted her nose with a tissue she had balled up in her hand.

  “Would you tell the jury and Judge King what happened next—the sequence of events?”

  “I went looking for the switch for the masthead light,” Jennifer said haltingly. “I put it on so that if Mac and Muff were coming in the dark, they would be able to see the boat. And then…I was just mostly up on deck, watching and listening for them.”

  “What happened next?”

  “Buck said that he was hungry and he was going to open something to eat. I told him that I didn’t think he should, because if…when they came back, they would see that we had eaten something of their stores, and that wouldn’t be right. It would be embarrassing.”

  “What’s the next thing that happened?”

  Jennifer testified that she stayed on deck most of the night, listening and looking out across the lagoon, trying to see if she could see any type of light or anything Mac and Muff might have been using trying to signal. She finally dozed off and awakened around dawn. She immediately woke Buck up, he got the Grahams’ other dinghy (wooden), and they started to search for Mac and Muff.

  “From your starting point in the cove, you could have proceeded, I guess, in one of three directions. Across the lagoon or to the left or to the right. Is that correct?”

  “Yes.”

  “Who was operating the Grahams’ wooden dinghy?”

  “Buck was.”

  “In which direction did he go?” I asked.

  “He went off to the right, going along the shore.”

  “What’s the next thing that happened?”

  “I spotted the Zodiac dinghy a ways up the coast from where the Sea Wind was.”

  “Approximately how far from the Sea Wind?”

  “Maybe a quarter mile or half mile—something like that. I’m not sure.”

  “Was it on the beach?”

  “Yes, it was on the beach.”

  “The dinghy was not in the water?”

  “No. The dinghy was on the beach.”

  “Was any portion of the dinghy in the water?”

  “No. It was about a foot and a half, two feet above the waterline.”

  I had Jennifer go again to the large chart of Palmyra to her right and mark the approximate location of the beached Zodiac.*

  “What did you and Buck do at that point?”

  “Well, the dinghy was upside down on the beach. And I thought maybe they had turned the dinghy over themselves as protection from the night. And I knocked on the dinghy and called their names. And then I peeked under it and they weren’t there.”

  “Didn’t you think Mac and Muff would have simply walked back to the Sea Wind instead of stayin
g underneath the dinghy all night?”

  “Well, it would have been hard in the dark, and with all the vegetation, to make it back.”

  “What’s the next thing that happened?” I asked.

  “I remember I started to call their names. Then Buck and I went up this rise that was there and I continued to call out their names and look around.”

  She had controlled herself almost too well in these last answers, but my next questions restored the human element.

  “What was your state of mind at this particular point?”

  “I was just about frantic.”

  “How did Buck appear to be taking it?”

  “I was so upset, I didn’t notice.”

  “What’s the next thing that happened?”

  “We came back down the hill, and down the beach a little ways I saw the gas tank from the dinghy. Buck went down and got the gas tank. The two of us turned the dinghy right side up and moved it into the water.”

  “So, the gas tank was also on the beach?”

  “Yes.”

  This had to be burned in.

  “It was not in the water?”

  “No.”

  “Jennifer, based on your previous testimony, am I correct in assuming that from where the Iola was moored, you would also be unable to see the location where you and Buck found the dinghy because the portion of Cooper Island protruding out into the lagoon obstructed your line of sight?”

  “That’s correct.”

  “Jennifer, did you tell FBI agent Calvin Shishido that you found the dinghy in the lagoon?”

  “I don’t remember exactly what I told Mr. Shishido, but I found the dinghy on the beach. If I said in the lagoon, it could have been to differentiate between finding the dinghy on the beach in the lagoon as opposed to on the beach on the ocean side.”

  “Did you tell Agent Shishido that you saw the gas tank of the dinghy floating in the lagoon near the dinghy?”

  “No, he got that wrong. I told him that I thought the gas tank had floated to shore.”

  “After you found the gas tank, did Buck reattach it to the dinghy?”

  “Yes.”

  “What happened next?”

  Jennifer thought a moment. “Buck tried starting up the Zodiac dinghy, and he pulled the cord a bunch of times, and finally, the motor started. And we took the wooden dinghy back to the Sea Wind and started searching for Mac and Muff in the Zodiac.”