Certain cases have so many factors that line up that the adage of truth is stranger than fiction rings true. Called the “crime of the century”, the murder of Sir Harry Oakes, believed to have been one of the richest people in the British Empire, was one such mystery that would have looked at home between the pages of a detective novel (LeGrand 2010: 92). These events affected actual people though, in the Caribbean location of the Bahamas, as the Second World War was still raging in various locations around the globe.
The lucky millionaire
On 23 December 1874, Harry Oakes was born in Sangerville, Maine, USA. While growing up, he read newspaper articles describing the Klondike gold rush, creating a hunger in him that yearned for a similar adventure with a similar fortuitous discovery of riches. Driven by wanderlust, Harry left home in 1900 on a quest to search for his own fortune: California, Alaska, South Africa, Australia, and Canada would all be part of his ambitious tour over the next seventeen years. Disappointment was his only reward.
