And the Sea Will Tell (76 page)

I pointed out that even Bernard Leonard, the quintessential prosecution witness, told the FBI that the Grahams were friendly with Buck and Jennifer, although, because of their different lifestyles, “not extremely” so.

“In fact, even if we accept the prosecution’s position that the cake-truce incident did take place—and I think they are light-years away from proving that point—what did Shoemaker say? He testified he heard two women in the background having a conversation, ‘
and there was laughter
.’”

I went on to tell the jury that since the prosecution had not presented evidence that the Grahams had ever
communicated
any unfriendly feeling they may have had toward Buck and Jennifer, and in fact were outwardly friendly toward them, “when Buck told Jennifer that Mac had invited them to the
Sea Wind
for a bon voyage dinner, there certainly would be no reason for her to believe that no such invitation was made.”

I added that Jennifer knew that the Grahams had given bon voyage dinners for others, and that furthermore, she and Buck
had
been on the
Sea Wind
before. “There are references in Jennifer’s diary on July 9th, July 28th, August 6th, and August 11th, where either she or Buck, or the two of them, were on the
Sea Wind
.”

I concluded by emphasizing that Jennifer had never vouched for the veracity of the dinner invitation. She simply testified that this was what Buck had told her. “There’s an old line in Elizabethan literature: ‘I cannot tell how the truth may be. I say the tale as ’twas said to me.’”

Of course, everything I had said thus far presupposed that Buck had told Jennifer, as she claimed, that there was a dinner invitation. But had she concocted the whole dinner-invitation story
with
Buck? I argued that there was evidence, in Buck’s own testimony at his
theft
trial, to support the position that he alone had fabricated the dinner-invitation story. (“We don’t have his testimony at his
murder
trial because he did not testify,” I added, wanting the jury to know a negative circumstance that contrasted with Jennifer.)

I began reading Buck Walker’s version of what had happened on August 30. “‘
I
saw Mac early in the morning’—notice he said
I
, not
we—
‘I guess eight or nine o’clock, and we passed the time of day. We smoked a cigarette or something like that.
I
went aboard his boat and we played a game of chess, a couple games of chess, and he said he was going to help tow us out of the lagoon with his dinghy. So, he invited us over for dinner that night. It was sort of a bon voyage thing. Then
I
went back over to our boat, and Jennifer and I continued getting our boat ready for the next day.’”

Walker’s attorney asked Walker if he had seen Mac later that day.

“‘
I
saw him about one or two o’clock in the afternoon. He said that he was going fishing that afternoon, and if he wasn’t back at the appointed hour of six-thirty, to go ahead and board the boat and help ourselves to a drink…and that’s the last time
I
talked to him.’

“Note in Buck Walker’s testimony there’s no reference to Jennifer being present when he had these contacts with Mac Graham on the key date of August 30th. And Jennifer has also testified that on that date she had no contact with the Grahams. Now, I ask you this: if Jennifer had been involved with Buck in the murder of the Grahams, and if they had concocted this dinner-invitation story together, wouldn’t it have been natural for them to have said that they
both
saw the Grahams on the 30th?

“Since they would know that if they were ever investigated, the finger of suspicion would naturally point more strongly to the one who did have contact with the Grahams that day, why would Buck take on this additional suspicion all by himself and completely relieve Jennifer of it? Was Buck trying to prove to Jennifer that chivalry was not dead in America?

“That’s just pure
moonshine
,” I boomed. “If Jennifer had trumped up this phony story with Buck—more importantly, if Jennifer had been involved with Buck in the murders of the Grahams—wouldn’t Buck have said that Jennifer was with him on at least one of the occasions he claims to have seen Mac Graham that day? Wouldn’t he have insisted on having her available to furnish some support for his story about the dinner invitation?

“Instead, he testified that
all
of his contacts with Mac took place when Jennifer wasn’t present. Why did he say this? Because since Jennifer wasn’t involved in this sordid and monstrous deed with him, of necessity, he had to say she wasn’t present.
If he had said she was, when she knew that she wasn’t, he would be revealing his guilt to her
, something he obviously never wanted to do.”

I charged that it couldn’t be more obvious that Buck alone fabricated the entire story about the dinner invitation.

“As we go along, we will see example after example of Buck Walker’s tapestry of lies about the dinner invitation unraveling. Another point in his story that reveals the lie of it all is this: Mac and Muff apparently had ample supplies of frozen meat on the
Sea Wind
, and when they had people for dinner, oftentimes they would serve meat. The Leonards said that. Tom Wolfe said their bon voyage dinner was meat and fish.

“But for Buck and Jennifer, of all people, who had fish literally swimming out of their ears, they were going to serve them
more
fish? Why doesn’t it make sense? Because the story was an obvious fabrication. To convince Jennifer of the Grahams’ dying accidentally
in the lagoon
, Buck Walker had to come up with this story about their going fishing, in the lagoon, for the alleged bon voyage dinner that night.”

I continued my attempted reconstruction of the events (after Buck came by the
Iola
around 9:00
A.M.
) of August 30, 1974: per Jennifer’s testimony, their making trips from Buck’s tent to the
Iola
to bring personal belongings aboard for the trip to Fanning; around 10:30 or 11
A.M.
, their plan for Jennifer to remain aboard the
Iola
to bake, clean, and stow gear for their trip to Fanning and for Buck to take the furniture from his tent to the Refrigerator House and bring the tent back to the
Iola
; Buck’s doing neither (Jennifer’s testimony, plus Wheeler’s testimony that the 1974 search party found the furniture still inside Buck’s tent); et cetera.

“We can infer the real reason why Buck Walker never brought the tent back to the
Iola
that day, or the furniture to the Refrigerator House, can’t we, ladies and gentlemen? He was much too busy on shore and in the lagoon. A grisly, macabre story of terror and cold-blooded murder was taking place on Palmyra that day that would compare favorably with anything seen in a low-budget Hollywood horror film. And Buck Walker had a starring role in it all. He played the part of the human monster.”

I stressed it was worth remembering that Buck had been living ashore in his tent since July 15. “The relevance of this, of course, is obvious. Since Buck was by himself on shore, he had much, much more freedom and latitude to do what he did on August 30 than he would have had if Jennifer had been living on shore with him.”

I was in a weak position on the next issue: Enoki’s argument that if Jennifer weren’t involved in the murders, Buck would never have left the dinghy with her, since she might come ashore at any time. In attempting a convincing rebuttal, I once again pointed to Jennifer’s testimony that after 10:30 or 11:00
A.M.
, it had been both Buck’s and her plan that she
stay aboard
the
Iola
to swab, store, and bake. “Furthermore,
Buck obviously would know Jennifer’s habits
,” I said. “He probably had no reason to believe that Jennifer would take the dinghy to shore.” I added that it only takes a matter of seconds, or a minute, to kill a fellow human being, so even if Jennifer did come ashore, Buck knew it would be highly unlikely she’d catch him in the act. (I didn’t add, of course, that if Jennifer had seen anything else—the corpses, or Buck in the process of doing anything with them—it would have been just as bad for Buck.)

I returned to the chronology of that day—from Buck’s coming by the
Iola
in the early afternoon and again around 4
P.M.
, and Jennifer’s hearing the Zodiac in the lagoon around 4:30
P.M.
(“We can reasonably infer that the operator of that dinghy was Buck Walker, and the cargo was death—the bodies of Mac and Muff Graham”), to Buck’s and Jennifer’s arriving at the
Sea Wind
around 6:30
P.M.

“There are two things at this point that continue to give the lie to Buck’s story,” I argued. “Number one, I asked Jennifer if the masthead light of the
Sea Wind
was on when she and Buck arrived for dinner, and she said no.

“Tom Wolfe testified it got dark on Palmyra between 6:00 and 7:00
P.M.
, and Jennifer also said this. Since we know that Palmyra, at night, was very dark, and since, according to Buck’s story, Mac realized he and Muff might get back after 6:30
P.M.
, and therefore perhaps after dark, not only would common sense dictate he would have left the masthead light on as a beacon for him and Muff, but Wolfe testified that on the one occasion he was with Mac in which Mac thought he might return to the
Sea Wind
after dark, he did leave the masthead light on. So this is further circumstantial evidence that Buck’s story was a total fabrication.”

The second point I made concerned the apricot brandy. I told the jury it was obvious that Buck Walker had put Jennifer’s drink of choice out on the table. To believe otherwise would be to accept the extreme coincidence that the Grahams, who had no way of knowing the unpopular liqueur was one of Jennifer’s favorite drinks,
just happened
to set out apricot brandy. Unless, of course, the jury entertained the third possibility—that Jennifer fabricated this story about the apricot brandy to subtly place suspicion on Buck. But if that were so, I reasoned with the jury, “wouldn’t she have made sure I knew that apricot brandy was one of her favorite drinks and that the Grahams had no way of knowing this? Wouldn’t she have told me this? But she didn’t. And she couldn’t have assumed I was going to ask her.

“Ladies and gentlemen of the jury, Buck Walker’s tale about being invited to the
Sea Wind
for a bon voyage dinner is riddled with holes and implausibilities because it’s obvious there never was any such invitation.

“In my attempt to delineate for you, by way of commonsense inferences, the events that took place on the island of Palmyra on August 30, 1974, one reality emerges, and it’s compatible with all the other evidence in this case. Namely, that
Buck Walker murdered the Grahams all by himself, and Jennifer Jenkins had absolutely nothing to do with the murders
.

“I believe that only one person alive today knows all of the facts concerning what happened to the Grahams. His name is Buck Walker, and he’s been as quiet as a statue. I guess if I were he, my lips would be permanently zippered, too.

“I spoke earlier of the horror and terror that took place on Palmyra on the day of August 30, 1974. Before I continue on with the chronology of events, the question that presents itself at this point is this: If Jennifer is telling a truthful story, why didn’t she hear any of this? For instance, if a gun was used, the sound of the gun being fired?
^*

“Well, to begin with, before we even get into the issue of sounds, although it appears that Buck disposed of the bodies in the lagoon after 4:30
P.M.
on August 30th, we don’t know
what time of day
the actual murders took place. We also don’t even know
where
on Palmyra these murders took place.

“I’ve thought of several scenarios, but I won’t even bother relating them to you since they’re just bald, naked speculation on my part. I might add that the prosecution doesn’t know any more than we do as to when and where on Palmyra the murders took place.

“However, I think it’s reasonable to assume that Walker would have murdered Mac Graham while Mac was separated from Muff. It’s clearly more risky to confront two people when they’re together than one at a time. And we know it would not have been difficult for Buck Walker to confront Mac and Muff separately, since there was testimony at this trial that Mac would be by himself often, such as at his workshop, or exploring the island. In other words, Buck would not have needed Jennifer to distract Muff while he murdered Mac.

“More importantly, on the issue of hearing sounds, we don’t know for sure
how
Walker murdered the Grahams. However, I believe the circumstantial evidence is that Buck Walker did not use his gun. And that’s very, very important.”

I summarized that evidence. “Dr. Uberlaker testified that the hole above the left ear in the skull of Muff Graham ‘appears to have been made by erosion, not by trauma or projectile.’” Although Dr. Stephens, the medical examiner, testified he could not rule out the possibility the hole was caused by a bullet, I pointed out that he had not reached any conclusion on this issue. “One fact that indicated it was not caused by a gunshot, however, is that Dr. Stephens was unable to find any trace of lead around the hole. So there’s no substantive evidence of a gun being used.”