Who killed Sir Harry Oakes?

‘The story has all the right ingredients – rich occupants of a West Indian tax haven, corruption, drugs, the Mafia, and a weak character as governor.’ Daily Mail

Murder, wartime intrigue and high society collide in this gripping investigation into one of the twentieth century’s most notorious unsolved crimes.

In 1943, Sir Harry Oakes, the self-made millionaire known as the richest man in the Bahamas, was found brutally murdered in his Nassau mansion. The killing shocked wartime society. Oakes appeared to have no obvious enemies and no clear motive for murder could be found.

In this compelling reconstruction of the case, James Leasor explores the mystery in extraordinary detail, advancing the provocative theory that Oakes’s death may have been linked to events far beyond the Bahamas: the destruction of the liner SS Normandie in New York Harbor in 1942 and even the Allied invasion of Sicily.

Part true crime, part wartime conspiracy, Who Killed Sir Harry Oakes? remains one of the most fascinating and controversial investigations ever written about the case.

In 1989, the book was adapted into the television mini-series Passion and Paradise, starring Armand Assante, Rod Steigerand Mariette Hartley.