Exiled aristocrat spent half of life in Texas

by Bartee Hailie

A handsome lady-killer, who lived his last four decades in Texas, was arrested on Jul. 9, 1943 for the murder of his father-in-law, the wealthiest man in the Bahamas. The woman, who gave birth to Alfred de Marigny on an island in the Indian Ocean in 1910, ran off with another man when her child was just three years old. But his father must have been an even worse parent because the son renounced his aristocratic birthright, including the title of count, and took his mother’s surname. Even though he was a shrewd and successful investor, de Marigny made a habit of marrying money. After his first wife, the daughter of a London banker, dumped him for his best friend, he filled the vacancy with a New York heiress. The couple honeymooned in the Bahamas and settled there in the late 1930’s. But this marriage too soon soured, and de Marigny was again free to play the romantic field. If the charming Casanova had gotten along remotely as well with men as the opposite sex, he might never had ended up the defendant in the most sensational murder trial of World War II. But he could not resist speaking his mind and poking fun at the pompous and powerful. King George VI found a way in 1941 to keep his brother out of his hair for the duration of the war. He sent the former Edward VIII, who abdicated in 1936 in order to wed American divorcee Wallis Simpson, to the Bahamas as royal governor. De Marigny and the Duke of Windsor hated each other on first sight. De Marigny did not bother to conceal his contempt for the exiled ex-king and once said in his presence, “I sometimes feel that our prince is nothing more than a pimple on the ass of the British Empire.” The Duke retaliated by publicly scorning him as “an unscrupulous adventurer, a gambler and spendthrift” who preyed on naive young women. In May 1942, Alfred de Marigny up and eloped with Nancy Oakes, first-born and favorite of the colony’s richest resident. The groom was 32, the bride was 18 and her father was fit to be tied. Sir Harry Oakes was an American, who dropped out of medical school to hunt for gold. The wandering prospector struck it so rich in Canada in 1912 that overnight he became one of the wealthiest men on earth. Attracted more by the low tax rate than the tropical climate, the multimillionaire moved to the Bahamas in 1935. In the early hours of Jul. 8, 1943, one or more assailants beat Oakes to death in bed, poured a flammable liquid over his battered body and set it on fire. But a brisk breeze from an open window blew out the blaze before the corpse was reduced to a pile of ashes. Harold Christie, Oakes’ houseguest and best buddy, discovered his dead meal-ticket the next morning. He phoned police and then called the royal governor. The Duke of Windsor contacted the Miami police department and requested two detectives to fly to Nassau and investigate the killing. He, in fact, asked for them by name. One served as his bodyguard on his trips to Florida and the other was a fingerprint expert. The hand-picked sleuths showed no interest in the bloody footprints outside the victim’s bedroom, failed to conduct a search of the grounds and did not bother to track down two night watchmen who had dropped out of sight. Nevertheless, within hours of their arrival, the detectives announced they had their man -- the scandalous son-in-law. The trial began on Oct. 18, 1943 and lasted 22 days. The accused sat in the traditional wooden box and peered at the proceedings through thick bars -- the picture of guilt if there ever was one! All the prosecution had was a smudged impression of the little finger on de Marigny’s right hand allegedly found on a screen next to the bed. But the fingerprint expert admitted he could not prove the evidence actually came from the crime scene, and the second detective testified his partner did not mention the incriminating find for weeks.Harold Christie, whose bedroom was next door to Oakes’, had a hard time convincing jurors and spectators alike he slept through the savage attack and botched bonfire. His story that he never left the estate that night was flatly contradicted by a police captain, who swore he saw him in downtown Nassau around midnight. The jury needed only 75 minutes to acquit de Marigny on a 9-3 vote. However, in a transparent effort to stay in the Duke’s good graces, the dozen unanimously decreed that he should be deported. In spite of the verdict, de Marigny was an outcast throughout the British Empire. Nancy called it quits, and the Canadians kicked him out of the country. In New York he survived by selling blood, walking dogs for elderly socialites and working as a strikebreaker. He met his fourth and final wife in 1952. They settled in Houston, where his profitable stock portfolio provided a life of luxury out of the limelight. Alfred de Marigny died a rich recluse in 1998. He never wavered in his firm belief that the Duke of Windsor tried to frame him for the murder of Sir Harry Oakes, a crime that remains unsolved to this very day. Bartee welcomes your comments and questions at haile@pdq.net or P.O. Box 152, Friendswood, TX 77549 and invites you to visit his web site at barteehaile.com.