And the Sea Will Tell

by Vincent Bugliosi

  “Yes, I knew the right thing to do was to contact the authorities to tell them what happened to Mac and Muff, and if we were going to take the boat at all, to take it directly back to the mainland of the United States and get in touch with Mary Muncey.”

  “In leaving Palmyra on the Sea Wind, which is a boat that did not belong to you and Buck, did you think that you were stealing the Sea Wind?”

  “No. I never planned to steal the Sea Wind and I never intended to keep her.”

  “You can’t speak for Buck, but as far as you were concerned, you had no intent to steal that boat?”

  “That’s correct.”

  Now we moved on to the topic of the other sailboat at Palmyra, the Iola, about whose fate Jennifer had lied over the years:

  “Buck had told me it was impossible to tow the Iola, so I thought we would just leave her tied up at the dolphins. But he said we couldn’t do that because she would continue to take on water and ultimately she would sink and become a navigational hazard in the lagoon.”

  “So what did you and Buck do with respect to the Iola?”

  “Buck towed the Iola out of the lagoon with the Sea Wind. Puffer and I were on her. Then Buck came over and got Puffer and me and took us over to the Sea Wind. And he went back to the Iola and opened up all her through-hull fittings and just headed her off into the ocean.”

  “In what direction was the Iola headed at that point?”

  “South by southeast.”

  “And you assume that the Iola sank in the ocean?”

  “Yes.”

  “Did you observe it sink in the ocean?”

  “No.”

  “Jennifer, at a previous proceeding in 1975 for the theft of the Sea Wind, you testified that in towing the Iola out of the channel, the Iola went aground in the channel and that you could not get it free. So you and Buck left it in the channel. You are aware you so testified?”

  “Yes.”

  “That testimony, I take it, was not the truth. Is that correct?”

  “That’s correct.”

  “How did you come up with this story?”

  “Buck told me that if anybody ever asked what happened to the Iola, I shouldn’t say that we sunk her because that would sound very bad. It would sound as though we had stolen the Sea Wind.”

  “Did you think there was any merit in what Buck was telling you?”

  “I didn’t feel we were stealing the Sea Wind. I guess it did sound like it had merit because I did it.”

  “When you were interrogated by FBI Agent Shishido on October 29, 1974, did you tell him this same untruthful story?”

  “Yes, I did.”

  “At this earlier proceeding, Jennifer, back in 1975, you took an oath to tell the truth, did you not?”

  “Yes, I did.”

  “And with respect to your not testifying truthfully on this point, you violated your oath. Is that correct?”

  “Yes.”

  “Why did you do this?”

  “I was advised that if I didn’t testify consistently during that proceeding, that it would go badly for me.”

  “You say ‘testify consistently.’ Consistent with what you had told FBI Agent Shishido?”

  “Yes.”

  I had debated whether Jennifer should testify who it was who had so advised her. She had told me it was one of her two lawyers (the other had “gone along” with the idea). I realized that most probably the prosecutors would contact him. If he denied so counseling her, they might very well call him as a witness and it would become a big, contested issue we could lose. Even a victory wouldn’t be much comfort, since Jennifer had committed perjury. I finally decided that Jennifer should testify on direct merely to what she was advised. If, of course, she was asked on cross-examination by whom she was advised, she’d have to identify the lawyer.

  “Going back for a moment, you testified that Buck, on the Sea Wind, towed you and Puffer on the Iola out of the channel. Once out of the channel, were any photographs taken by either you or Buck?”

  “Yes, I took some photographs of Buck on the Iola.”

  These were the very photographs, of course, about which Jennifer had lied at her theft trial.

  “You testified earlier that you discontinued your search for Mac and Muff on September 3, 1974. Yet, you never left Palmyra until September 11th. What did you and Buck do during this period?”

  “We loaded all the things from the Iola onto the Sea Wind and we gathered all the things that were on shore from Mac’s workshop and brought them back on the Sea Wind, and we just generally made her shipshape, stowed everything away, and made her ready to go.”

  Jennifer’s diary suddenly, and strangely, terminated on September 10. I asked her why.

  “The next day, the Iola was sunk. And the diary was the log of the Iola.”

  I asked Jennifer if anything unusual had happened to her and Buck on their way back to Hawaii. She began her longest answer since taking the stand. I leaned slightly against the podium, listening to her narrate in detail the swordfish incident. I knew it in my sleep.

  “Jennifer, where was the name Sea Wind located on the sailboat?”

  “It was on the stern,” she answered, “and I think it was in another place on the side somewhere.”

  “Did either you or Buck remove the name Sea Wind from the boat at Palmyra?”

  “Yes, Buck did.”

  While they were at Pokai Bay, she said, Buck invited Larry Seibert to visit.

  “When Seibert visited you, he asked you and Buck how you had come into possession of the boat, is that correct?”

  “Yes.”

  “Did Buck respond to this question in your presence?”

  “Yes.”

  “And he said that he, Buck, had won the boat in a chess game with a multimillionaire?”

  “Yes.”

  “What, if anything, did you say or do at this point?”

  “I just cringed.”

  “And Seibert at some time thereafter asked you if what Buck told him was the truth?”

  “Yes.”

  “What did you tell Seibert?”

  “I told him no, it wasn’t the truth.”

  “Any time, Mr. Bugliosi,” the judge interrupted.

  I glanced at the wall clock above the jury box, surprised to see it was almost noon. The morning had flown by for me, and I could easily have forged on. But Jennifer definitely looked as if she needed time out.

  “This would be a good time, your honor.”

  “We’ll break for lunch, then.”

  As people in the gallery stood, stretched, and began filing out of the courtroom, Jennifer went over to her brother to say something.

  While talking to Len, I noticed Sunny Jenkins standing alone, a worried frown on her vulnerable, friendly face. I could imagine what kind of hell she was enduring. I went over to try to soften her ordeal.

  “She’s doing fine,” I said.

  “You think so, Vince?” Her voice cracked.

  “Yes. Len agrees. He just said she’s doing great. Go have lunch and relax a little, Mrs. Jenkins.”

  I didn’t take my own advice. In the empty courtroom, I remained at the defense table, going over the pages of questions I would be asking Jennifer that afternoon. (Throughout the trial, I made use of the noon recess, bringing my lunch so I could work in the courtroom or the law library of the U.S. Attorney’s Office, or eating and working in the cafeteria downstairs.)

  The bailiff, after making sure I was aware of my fate, locked the courtroom doors and himself went to lunch.

  Jennifer was holding up emotionally and covering the details I wanted her to—of that much I was certain. But there was no way to know whether or not the jury was believing a single word she was saying.

  THAT AFTERNOON, 1:45 P.M.

  “JENNIFER, DID you have any conversation with anyone at Pokai Bay concerning repairing the damage to the hull of the Sea Wind caused by the swordfish?” I asked.

  “Yes. With Lorraine Wollen, on
e of the witnesses at this trial.”

  “And what did she tell you?”

  “She recommended Tuna Packers in Honolulu as the best place—the least expensive place to haul out and repair the damage.”

  “You heard Mrs. Wollen testify that when you invited her aboard the Sea Wind for coffee at Pokai Bay you told her that the previous owners of the Sea Wind got tired of maintaining it, so they sold it to you and Buck?”

  “Yes.”

  “Did you in fact tell her this?”

  “Yes.”

  “Do you recall the circumstances surrounding your telling her this?”

  Jennifer responded eagerly. “Yes. She had wanted to come on board and see the boat, because it’s such a unique-looking boat. And so I invited her on board. While she was there, she saw the pictures of Mac and Muff on the wall, and she asked: ‘Who are these people?’ I told her that they were the previous owners. She wanted to know why they had gotten rid of the boat. I told her that…they had just gotten tired of maintaining it.”

  “Was there a reason that you didn’t tell her the truth?”

  “I couldn’t tell her the truth. If I told her the whole story…she would have asked me if I had reported it. I mean, Buck was sitting right there. And I just…I couldn’t tell her the truth.”

  “Is Mrs. Wollen the only person you ever told this story to?”

  “Yes.”

  “Was there any reason why you kept Mac’s and Muff’s pictures on the wall of the Sea Wind?”

  “Yes. I never wanted to change anything about the boat. I wanted to keep it just the way they had it.”

  Jennifer testified that after repairing the hole in the hull, they scraped the barnacles off the bottom, sanded the hull and covered it with bottom paint (a special type of protective paint), and then repainted the rest of the boat’s exterior above the waterline.

  I now wrestled with this ostensibly incriminating act of repainting the Sea Wind. I asked if repainting the boat was normal boat maintenance. Jennifer answered yes, that whenever you “haul out a boat,” as they had done, one normally repaints the boat, since “one does not haul a boat out frequently.”

  “Were you in favor of repainting the boat?”

  “Well, as long as we were hauled out, I didn’t see anything wrong with painting the topside of the boat. But Buck wanted to change the color of the boat, and I was against this.”

  “Why were you against changing the color?”

  “I didn’t want to change it from the way Mac and Muff had it.”

  Topside, the Sea Wind had been white with blue stripes. Jennifer said they repainted the white areas white, but painted lavender over the blue.

  “Was it your intent when you repainted the Sea Wind to disguise its identity?”

  “No. I didn’t feel that any color that boat was painted would alter it, or disguise it. It was a very unique boat. Mac had customized the cabin, and it had an old-style rigging on it called ‘dead-eye’ rigging. It was just a totally unique boat.”

  “Did you feel that anyone who saw that boat, who had seen it previously, would recognize it immediately?”

  “Yes.”

  “Irrespective of what color you painted it?”

  “That’s correct.”

  “Did Buck, while you were in Hawaii, in fact reregister the Sea Wind?”

  “Yes, he did.”

  “Did he have any discussion with you about whose name should be listed on the registration as the owners of the boat?”

  “Yes.”

  “What did he say?”

  “He was filling out the papers, and indicated that there was a place there for—I don’t know whether it was Mr. and Mrs., or whatever. He wanted to fill in my name on it. And I told him absolutely not.”

  “Why did you say that?”

  “I felt it was wrong. I certainly didn’t want my name on it.”

  “And you, in fact, did not put your name on that registration document. Is that correct?”

  “That’s correct.”

  “Jennifer, you testified earlier that on Palmyra you realized that the right thing to do would have been for you and Buck to notify the authorities of what had happened, but that Buck wouldn’t allow this because of his fugitive status. But now that you were back in Hawaii from Palmyra, is there any reason why you didn’t notify the authorities on your own about what happened on Palmyra?”

  “I couldn’t do that without placing Buck in danger of being apprehended.”

  “In other words, you felt that if you did this without Buck’s knowledge, when the authorities came to the Sea Wind the questions that would inevitably follow would lead to his identity?”

  “Yes.”

  “Did you and Buck have any specific plans as to where you were going to go once you left Hawaii?”

  “We…we didn’t have…really long-range plans. We knew we had to leave Oahu as soon as possible, because that’s where his arrest warrant would have been issued from. And we thought perhaps we would go over to the Big Island just to figure out where we were going to go from there.”

  Jennifer testified that although she couldn’t contact the authorities, it was her intent to contact Mary Muncey just before she and Buck left Hawaii, and inform her of Mac and Muff’s disappearance.

  “Did you know where to get in touch with her?” I asked.

  Jennifer cleared her throat. “Yes. There were papers on board that gave her address.”

  “At the previously referred-to theft proceeding in 1975, did you testify that it was your intention upon leaving Hawaii to take the Sea Wind back to Mary Muncey?”

  “Yes.”

  “I take it that was not the complete truth?”

  “No, it wasn’t the complete truth. I planned to ultimately get the boat back to her. But we weren’t going to be taking it directly from Oahu to her.”

  Asked why she and Buck had pulled into Honolulu’s Ala Wai harbor, where someone might recognize the boat, Jennifer said they needed diesel fuel, which was not available at Tuna Packers.

  She testified that around eight o’clock on the morning of October 29, 1974, she climbed into the Sea Wind’s wooden dinghy and began rowing toward shore to use the rest-room facilities, explaining that one is “not supposed to use a bathroom in a boat when you’re in harbor.”

  “You may continue,” I said when she hesitated.

  “So, I was rowing over to the public bathrooms, which took me in pretty close proximity to Joel Peters’s boat. The previous day I had offered to do Joel’s laundry with ours, and he’d given it to me. Anyway, he was on deck and he told me that the authorities had been there the night before and were looking for the two of us.”

  “What did you do at that point?”

  “I went back and woke Buck up and told him what Joel had said.”

  “At this point, you did not know whether they were looking for Buck Walker on the MDA matter, and you for assisting him in his escape, or for Roy Allen and you for being on a boat that did not belong to you?”

  “That’s correct.”

  “What was the thing that was uppermost in your mind, if you recall?”

  “Buck’s fugitive status on the MDA matter was uppermost in my mind.”

  “After you told Buck what Joel had told you, what’s the next thing that happened?”

  “Buck said that we had to get off the boat right away. So we went and got into the dinghy, and were on our way to shore. And Buck’s dogs were on top, topside, and they were both barking. I told Buck that I wanted to go back to the boat and put them below. And I just then remembered Joel’s laundry. I told him I wanted to get Joel’s laundry back to him.”

  “What did Buck say to that suggestion?”

  “He said that I was crazy. He said he was going to get off at the dock first.”

  After dropping Buck off, Jennifer said she went back to the boat, put the two dogs down in the cabin, grabbed Joel Peter’s laundry, and took it back to him. As she was rowing toward the bathroom, where
she and Buck had agreed to meet, she saw “this big Coast Guard cutter pull into the channel” and come at her “really fast.”

  “What was your state of mind at the point where they were barreling down at high speed directly toward your boat?”

  “I was scared. I rowed really fast.”

  “Was it also your state of mind to get away from them because you felt you had done something wrong?”

  “Yes.”

  “And what did you feel you had done wrong?”

  “Well…I was with Buck, and Buck was on the run. And as far as I knew, me being with Buck made me a criminal, too.”

  Then she added these crucially important words: “What you have to understand is that Buck’s state of mind became my state of mind. Buck was a fugitive on the run, and I was running with him.”

  “So his reality became your reality?”

  “Right.”

  (It must have been on the fourth or fifth time that Jennifer and I were going over why she had said and done so many incriminating things that she uttered these words for the first time: “What you have to realize is that Buck’s reality became my reality. He was a fugitive on the run and I was running with him. That was the state of my consciousness.” Sometimes, a spontaneous remark perfectly distills the essence of a situation. This one went to the very heart of Jennifer’s incriminating actions, and I felt it would help the jury to see how an innocent person who is traveling with, and emotionally bound to, a guilty person may talk and act toward others the same way the guilty person does. I wrote the words down verbatim and told Jennifer I wanted her to use them on the witness stand. Alongside the remark, on her copy of our tentative Q and A, I had jotted a reminder: “Extremely important. Remember verbatim.” She had come close enough.)

  “Is there anything else that you thought you had done wrong that caused you to try to get away from the Coast Guard cutter?” I asked.

  “Yes. I…I knew that…we should have reported what had happened to Mac and Muff to the authorities. And also we were on a boat that wasn’t ours.”

  Jennifer gave details of being found by the Coast Guard officer and Bernard Leonard in the lobby of the Ilikai Marina Hotel.

  “Mr. Leonard testified that while you and he were on the dinghy going back to the Coast Guard cutter you told him you had found the Graham’s dinghy on the beach on Paradise Island. Did you tell him that?”