A series of gruesome acts overshadowed the Easter celebrations of 1962. Bearded men reportedly went on a rampage and killed several residents with no clear motive. Montego Bay and its environs had chaotic and frightening scenes forcing the prime minister and security officials to make their way to the second city.

Published Saturday, April 13, 1962

Two cultists held on murder charge 

A GANG of Ras Tafarians launched a Holy Thursday rampage that left eight men killed – four hacked to death and four shot – in the Coral Gardens area of Rose Hall estate, ten miles from Montego Bay.

Two of the dead were policemen.  The others included three of six bearded men who attacked a gas station with spears, machetes, daggers, and fire in the hours before dawn on Thursday.

By mid-afternoon, a combined police-military operation had the situation under control after the Prime Minister, the Hon. Sir Alexander Bustamante, flew to Montego Bay along with two Ministers of Government and the top command of the police and Defence Force.

Before then, fear and tension rippled through the northcoast resort area from 4:25 a.m. to noon. In that period, the following people died:

Assistant Superintendent Berile L. Scott, second in charge of the Montego Bay Division

Detective Corporal Clifford Melbourne of the Montego Bay Constabulary

Mr Kenneth Marsh, salesman of 4 Avesbury Avenue, St. Andrew

Mr Edward Fowler, property headman on the Rose Hall estate

Mr Albert Causwell, assistant manager of an in-bond shop in Montego Bay

Three Ras Tafarians: Mr Lloyd (Felix) Waldronm Mr Rudolf Franklin, and Mr Noel Bowen.

SERIOUSLY INJURED

Four persons were seriously injured: Inspector J. Fisher, Constable Joseph Manhertz, Constable E.W. Campbell - all attached to the Montego Bay Police - and Mr. Hubert Stewart, overseer on the Tryall Farm of the Rose Hall estate.

Two Ras Tafarians have been arrested and charged with murder.  They are Leabert Jarrett, 35, of Salt Spring; and Kingsley Headley, 24, of Flower Hill.

By dawn yesterday, the police and the military had launched a combined operation throughout the parish of St James, resulting in the arrest of scores of Ras Tafarians on various charges under the Dangerous Drugs Law, the Unlawful Possession of Property Law, and the Vagrancy Law.

At 4:25 on Thursday morning, the gang of six bearded men attacked Mr Ken Douglas’ gas station at Coral Gardens, where a lone attendant, Mr George Plummer, had just served a passing motorist.

After forcing him to flee, they sprayed the building with gasoline from the pumps and set the building afire.  Minor explosions echoed through the area, but some 6,700 gallons of gasoline in four tanks at the station, in addition to 70-odd 100-1b. cylinders of propane gas, were unaffected.

Two cars parked behind the station were splashed with gasoline and also set ablaze.

Mr Douglas later said that an explosion of the tanks could have spread destruction over a radius of miles.

The gang of six then advanced on the nearby Edgewater Inn motel, where Mr Plummer had fled.

WARNING SHOUT

There Mr Rhone Bowen, the watchman, at a warning shout from Mr Plummer, aroused Mr and Mrs Roy Cussons, owners of the motel.  While the Cussons’ phoned the police, the gang came on to the premises just as Mr. Marsh, a guest, came out, presumably to investigate.

The Cussons said yesterday that they watched from their room as the gang attacked Mr Marsh, who ran shouting towards the dining shed.  They left him lying and yelling as they slashed at screens and lights on the building.  They then returned and hacked Mr Marsh to death on the dining room floor.

The watchman fled as they began to chase him, but he escaped by hiding behind a tree.  The gang went on through the shrubbery behind the motel.

By then the Montego Bay Fire Brigade had responded to a call at 4:53 from the home of Dr Carol DeLisser, who lives in the area.

The blaze at the gas station was brought under control shortly after 5 o’clock and Fire Superintendent Sydney Burke joined the police squad, which rushed up from Montego Bay, under Inspector Fisher.

OVERHANGING CLIFF

Five vehicles, including Superintendent Burke’s and two others owned by civilians, started into the hills after the Ras Tafari gang.  Among the civilians was Mr Causewell, who had been on his way to Kingston but stopped to help in the chase.

They drove up into rolling terrain along rough roads up to White Gut Road, which local legend says is the road once used by Annie Palmer of White Witch fame.

At a point, some two miles from the ruins of the Rose Hall Great House the party of police and civilians ran into the Rasta gang.

The bearded men attacked from an overhanging cliff, and in the fight that followed, two of them were shot to death.  It was here that Corporal Melbourne and Mr Causwell were cut down.

Fire Chief Burke said afterwards that he saw Mr Causwell bent over the barbed wire fence along the road as a bearded man chopped at him.  Earlier, Corporal Melbourne, a police photographer, had taken pictures of the body of Mr Marsh and the burnt gas station and then joined the convoy of vehicles.

It appeared yesterday that the death of the four on White Gut Road followed the second killing – that of the headman Mr Fowler - about a mile from his home on the Tryall farm.

According to villagers in the area, Mr Fowler had gone out early to tie his goats.  Apparently, the gang met him on their way from the motel attack.  He was later found chopped to death, the rope for his goats thrown on to his body.

In the same general area, the gang attacked the home of Mr Stewart, the overseer, after they had grabbed some milk from a yard boy and demanded that Mr Mavis Watson, an employee of the home, scald the milk for them.

Break into house

The gang broke into the house, ransacked a room and escaped after Mr Stewart fired several shots.  He was chopped on the arm, and sent to the Montego Bay hospital .  The hospital reported last night that Inspector Fisher and Constable Manbertz were responsive

The fourth, Constable Campbell, was flown over to Kingston for emergency surgery at the University Hospital.

The attacks on both Mr Fowler and Mr Stewart give support to one of two theories as to the motive for the baseless rampage.  One is that they were taking revenge on the two because of disputes over squatter rights on the land in the area.  The other is that they were under the influence of ganja.  The police have ruled out robbery as a motive.

The latter theory is supported by what the gas station attendant said yesterday about his encounter with the gang.  When he saw their beards, he tried in vain to escape through the back.  Then he quickly began to repeat “Love man, Ras Tafari, Haile Selassie”.

They asked him if he belonged to their group, and when he said he truly believed, they gave him a “stick of weed” to draw on, Mr Planner said. He inhaled and they said freeman, "free leave this place”.  The gang, he said, appeared to be “high on the weed”.

The killing of Asst. Supt Scott took place later in the morning after a second party went into the hills with reinforcements from Montego Bay.

Mr Scott died at a place called Cassava Piece, and his body was brought down to the edge of the Half Moon Hotel gold course along with the body of the third Rasta, who died at Flower Hill.

Riding in a PWD jeep, the Asst. Superintendent was shot through the chest, the bullet passing through the bottom frame of the windshield.

The bullet apparently came from one of the police revolvers wrenched from the first police party routed at White Gut Road.

According to Mr Plummer, two of the gang had guns when they attacked the station.

But the police indicated yesterday at a press conference presided over by Commissioner of Police Noel Crosswell at the Montego Bay station that they got at least three revolvers from the first police party.

Mr Crosswell categorically denied “rumours going the rounds in Montego Bay that  the police were unarmed.” It was also indicated at the conference that robbery was not the motive for the Rasta attack. 

By noon on Thursday, the killings had ended and excited Montego Bay citizens crowded the police station and the hospital.

Half an hour earlier, the Prime Minister, along with the Hon. Roy McNeill, Minister of Home Affairs; the Hon. Dr Herbert Eldemire, Minister of Health and Member of Parliament for the constituency; Brigadier Paul Crook, Chief of Staff, Jamaica Defence Force; the Commissioner of Police; Senior Supt. Vincent Bunting; and Supt. George Mullen arrived in Montego Bay by PAA jet.

On the plane also were top CID men and a strong detachment of policemen drawn from the newly formed Striking Force.

At about four o’clock in the afternoon, nine motor units of the Defence Force, including two armoured cars, rolled into Montego Bay.

An hour later, groups with fixed bayonets marched single file through the town.  Later, they joined the police reinforcements in the hills.

Other detachments of police had been brought in from Trelawny, Westmoreland, and Hanover to join the search for the two remaining beards. According to the police, the original six were reduced by one before the killings. Three had been killed by the police.

The search continued as the Prime Minister held conferences with the police and the military.

Two private planes joined in the search.  A morning flight circled the hills, with Mr Don. Crichton at the controls of a Cesna owned by Mr Bob Henry.  Another plane, owned by Mr L.L. McGhie, made a similar flight in the afternoon.

The fliers took rifles, small arms, and binoculars with them and maintained communication with the police through the tower at the Montego Bay airport.

In the afternoon, Sir Alexander issued a statement in which he said the situation was under control.

By then the roundup of herds had begun.  As sack  of captives was brought to the police station, the crowds that gathered outside for into the night rushed forward, jeering.

The police maintained roving patrols in the town and suburbs through the night.

In his statement at yesterday’s press conference, Mr Crosswell said the public "co-operated wholeheartedly” and were being “most helpful”.

The Prime Minister, Lady Bustamante, Mr. McNeill, Brigadier Crook,and Supt. Mullen returned to the city yesterday.  The Commissioner of Police has remained behind.

Yesterday, the roundup of Rastas continued, and the town, caught between Good Friday worship and sudden turbulence, had not yet returned to normal.

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