C. Roy ReynoldsON FEBRUARY 2, 1935 Jamaicans were greeted by a screaming headline in their Gleaner: Bound! Gagged! And their Hearts Cut to Ribbons! What would become famous as the Roubal and Diaz case had burst upon the consciousness of the nation.
It was a time when The Gleaner still carried extensive sub-headlines to most of its significant stories and it went on to state: "City Shocked By Discovery of Double Murder Yesterday. Two Cubans reported to be wealthy Butchered in Untenanted House in South Camp Road on Monday Last."
The story coverage commenced: "It was like a scene torn from one of Dr. Fu Manchu's blood-curdling pictures in its awful gruesomeness, its stark horror - ... the most terrible in the recorded history of Kingston; a crime which set the police department working at high pressure all day yesterday in an effort to unearth its blood-lust-mad perpetrators, for there must have been more than one of them..."
Describing the gruesome discovery The Gleaner said the dead bodies of two Cubans had been discovered the previous day "swollen three times their normal size, hands bound behind them, mouths gagged and an aggregate of 20 knife wounds on their bosoms..." Early in the investigation the police theorised that while robbery might have been the most plausible motive it was also considered that it could have been political or the outcome of a vendetta. The report then went on to describe the venue of the murder. It said, "16 South Camp Road was a medium-sized dwelling house. Up to the previous Saturday it had been rented by a Mrs. Aarons. The following day in response to a "for rent" sign displayed in the front yard, a man contacted the owner Mr. Abraham Dolphy, the owner who lived next door, giving his name as "Johnson" and his address as Victoria Avenue. The transaction completed "Johnson" and at least one accomplice moved in and almost immediately the slaughter was under way.
And from later accounts, noisy enough to attract attention from the beginning. For example, a Mrs. Bird who occupied the home on the south side told the newspaper that she heard sounds like somebody being strangled and from the weakness of the sound she thought it was a woman. She had been alarmed enough to call the police and request that a detective be sent to investigate, but only a constable turned up.
Another witness told The Gleaner what transpired when the constable came calling. Linval Stern said that when constable Samuels of the Brown's Town station arrived on the scene he informed the two men on the verandah that he understood that there was trouble. The reply was that they were only cleaning up the house, having just moved in, and they had been "romping a little."
The next day, Tuesday, January 28 all was quiet at the premises. Landlord Dolphy wondered why the furniture he was told would be moved in had not arrived, and why Mrs. "Johnson" who was supposed to have arrived from New York was nowhere to be seen. He consulted the passenger lists of arriving ships but could find no mention of a Mrs. Johnson.
Dolphy took his suspicions to the police, who were alleged to have told him that this was election day and they would send someone around the next day. By Thursday things had started to smell. Mrs. Bird abandoned the use of her kitchen because of the terrible smell," and became so alarmed that she asked a Mr. G.A.E. Smith to see that a detective come and investigate. An officer was sent round but was told by Mrs. Dolphy that he had to contact her husband at his store to get permission to inspect the premises which it seems the officer neglected to pursue.
Meanwhile, Mr. Dolphy seemed to have been more concerned than his wife was aware of, and had convassed the Victoria Avenue community in a vain search for any trace or knowledge of "Mr. Johnson." Yet not wanting to disturb his tenants he was only reluctantly persuaded on Friday, February 1 to go in. According to the reports he first attempted to gain entrance by breaking a lock at the back of the premises but he and his workers had to abandon this approach as they were driven off by the intensity of the odour.
As a flock of john crows which had taken residence in a nearby mango tree watched, Mr. Dolphy and his workers used a crowbar to break down the front door. The Gleaner reported that as the door gave way "a heavy draft of foul air shot out and almost overpowered the little company of legitimate housebreakers." Even so, it said, they were unprepared for the gruesome sight that they would discover.
And this is how The Gleaner described what greeted them: "Over the edge of a porcelain bath hung the dead body of a man. His feet were hanging clear of the ground. Two hands swollen to three times their normal size as every other part of the body was were tied securely by a thin cord behind the man's back. Of fingers there was little sign, and on examination it was found that the man's eyes were hanging from their sockets.
C. Roy Reynolds is a freelance journalist.
