The Tribune

A REFUSAL to exhume the body of a serial killer who was hanged in Nassau led to US Embassy concerns there was a “racially oriented antagonism” toward the United States under Lynden Pindling’s government.

Michaiah Shobek was hanged on October 19, 1976 and buried in a pauper’s grave, the first American sentenced to death in Nassau for 15 years.

A 22-year-old from Milwaukee, Shobek had emigrated to Nassau and on October 18, 1976, was sentenced to hang on conviction in the stabbing death of Irwin Borstein, who was murdered on vacation.

Shobek also confessed to two other murders declaring that his victims were “angels of Lucifer,” dispatched on orders from God.

A confidential US diplomatic cable published by the WikiLeaks website this week reveals US Embassy staff “considered at great length” the implications of the government’s refusal to permit Shobek’s remains to be shipped back to the US.

At 8:48pm on Thursday, October 21, 1976, the Bahamas’ US Ambassador Seymour Weiss wrote to his bosses that then Attorney General Paul Adderley had “categorically stated” it would be illegal to exhume Shobek’s body for the purposes of shipping it.

“Though we cannot of course prove it, we believe that the GCOB (the Bahamas government) acted as it did out of violent reaction to the handling of the Shobek execution by the US press,” he wrote.

“Leaving aside whether or not he (Adderley) was justified in showing anger at what he considered to be unfair press treatment, the manner of his expression suggests something which we in the embassy have had a long standing uneasy feeling about: That below the veneer of friendship and protestations of commonality or at least congruity of interest, is a racially oriented antagonism toward the US.”

Ambassador Weiss says: “In fairness, I must say that we cannot be certain that we are right on this point and it seldom evidences itself in sharp relief.

“Some members of the government, most notably Hanna, have a reputation for being anti-white. Periodically there are, however, other manifestations of this racial antagonism.

“It evidences itself in the local politics where the PLP exploits the fact that opposition party continues to have a white minority membership.

“One of the ‘bright young men’ in the parliament, Franklyn Wilson, is not loathe to make racial slurs on the floor of that body.

“In sum, these limited evidences may be representative of a far broader and deeper hostility by no means necessarily shared by all members of the society down here, but quite possibly prevalent amongst current governmental leaders.

“This is a matter which we will keep a very sharp eye on as it quite obviously could have adverse consequences for other important US interests in the Bahamas.”

Mr Weiss said the government had been “remiss in the extreme” in failing to tell the US Embassy it would be illegal under Bahamian law to exhume the body for the purposes of returning it.

“In fact, there is at least some question as to whether the illegality argument is genuine,” he says.

The US press reported the decision – meaning there was even less chance the government would reverse it, the ambassador believed.

He said: “Short of finding some way to bring very heavy pressure to bear, I doubt that any further representations by the embassy will be productive.

“Moreover, viewed in terms of the longer range and broader range of US interests vis-a-vis the Bahamas, an effort to bring such pressure, even if successful, is quite likely to be counterproductive.

“Conversely, the extent to which the Bahamas will now be seen in a poor light by US citizens (the probability of which was predicted to the government) is a matter with which this government must now live.

“We made a good-faith effort to assist it from making a mistake, not to mention attempting to point out what reasonable concern for humanity would suggest, and our effort was rebuffed.”