Clement Beckford, a Jamaican who spent 11 additional years in prison in the Bahamas after a 14-year sentence. - FILE
ACCORDING TO information The Jamaica Gleaner was able to piece together, and by Clement Beckford's own admission, which he made in October this year, he was born on July 10, 1952 in the quiet district of Pen River, Hanover.
His mother was a teacher at an all-age school in the district and she moved to Cauldwell, another district in Hanover, after getting married to someone who was not Beckford's father. His aunt, his mother's sister, told The Gleaner that her sister left Beckford with his grandmother when she relocated. As a young boy, he went to live with his mother, but she said her nephew had trouble fitting in with the new family unit which his mother had begun to establish.
"He did not get along with his stepfather, so she (Beckford's mother) sent him back to live with his grandmother, here in Kendal," his aunt explained. She hesitatingly recalled that Beckford might have been a teenager at the time.
FAMILY HISTORY
As Beckford matured from a teenager into a young man in his early 20s, it was his extended family of his grandmother, his aunt and her husband who parented him. His cousins, many of whom were within his age group, became surrogate brothers and sisters for him, while his half brothers and sisters grew up in another district, a short distance away, living separate lives. He became very close to one male cousin who was closest to his age and they bonded like brothers.
Beckford's biological father lived in the district, and they would see each other, sometimes on a daily basis, but it is not known what kind of relationship they shared. It was his aunt's husband who was a father figure for him. His uncle-in-law was an electrician and he taught the young man whom he took under his wings everything he knew about the trade, equipping him for the job that he would eventually land with a power company in the Bahamas.
After graduating from the Kendal All-Age School in Hanover, he received formal training as an electrician at the Frome Industrial School in Westmoreland.
Armed with knowledge and eager for adventure, the district in which he was raised became two small to hold his ambitions. The Bahamas lured him, and shortly after arriving on the island in the early '70s, he was recruited by Freeport Power and Light Company. He was 20 years old.
He held that job for at least six years, until one night in May 1979, a series of events that has since been documented in police records, courtrooms and by the media changed his life forever.
Tomorrow: Mapping murder
