BERMUDA: Terror on Pleasure Island

The tiny (20 sq. mi.) pleasure island made no secret of its fear. Police reinforcements patrolled the roads day and night. At sundown women bolted their doors, refused to leave without male escort. Even in daylight many housewives joined in groups for protection; others armed themselves with pistols, ammonia guns, bottles of acid and carving knives. Bermuda had good reason to be scared. In the last seven months, three women have been murdered by a particularly vicious sex maniac; a fourth barely escaped. And the killer was still at large.

One evening last March, Mrs. Gertrude Robinson, 71, was attacked and murdered in Warwick parish. Four weeks later, a second victim, Mrs. Dorothy Pearce, 53, was found badly battered in her cottage. In July, Spinster Rosaleen Kenny, 53, was attacked while she slept but her screams frightened the killer away. Finally, fortnight ago, a third victim was found, mutilated by sharks, floating in the surf off Southland beach. She was a pretty, brown-haired office secretary named Dorothy Rawlinson, 29, who had arrived from London in May and liked to sunbathe alone. In the soft pink sand, the cops found a copy of Vicki Baum’s thriller, Mortgage on Life, a pair of blood-spattered shorts and a bathing suit.

Bermuda’s Criminal Investigation Department was at a total loss. Some people talked of a “moon-mad” killer, since all four attacks took place shortly before new moon. In desperation, Colonial Secretary John W. Sykes rushed a call to the FBI asking for help. Under U.S. laws the FBI could not help without evidence that a U.S. citizen was involved. Sykes turned to Britain’s famed Scotland Yard, which sent two of its top men last week.

If the Yard experts were doing any better than the local police, they were keeping mum. Said Detective Superintendent Richard Lewis bravely: “We are putting the jigsaw puzzle together.” Bermuda locked its doors and waited in fear for the next new moon on October 31.