“Where did you and Buck search for Mac and Muff?”
“We searched all over the lagoon. We just started going around the whole lagoon, as close to the land as we could get, looking on the shore to see if there was some sign of them.”
I gestured toward the map. “There are three lagoons on Palmyra: the West, Center, and East lagoons. Is that correct?”
“Yes.”
“Did you search all three lagoons?”
“The first day, we searched the Center Lagoon and the West Lagoon. Access to the East Lagoon was difficult. We didn’t go over there because it wouldn’t have been feasible [because of the causeway] for the dinghy to have floated from the East Lagoon to where we found it.”
“And you found nothing in your search?”
“Right.”
“How long did you search that first day?”
“We searched all day,” she answered. “At some point during the day, after we completed going around the lagoon twice, Buck said that they were nowhere. He wanted to give up. And I said no, that we couldn’t give up.”
Jennifer stopped abruptly and breathed deeply.
“But Buck said he was hungry,” she continued, “and we went back to the Sea Wind and got something to eat.”
“What happened next?”
“We went back out and searched. We went across to Paradise and Home islands because from the way the ripples were in the lagoon, it looked like that would have been where the dinghy could have floated from. We searched all of those two islands on foot.”
“And you found no trace of Mac or Muff on Paradise or Home islands?”
“That’s correct.”
“What did you and Buck do that night, August 31, 1974?”
“We stayed on the Sea Wind. I don’t really remember what we did. I was physically and emotionally exhausted. I’m sure I slept.”
“What did you and Buck do the next day—that would be September 1st?”
“We searched.”
“Where did you search?”
“The same area. That was all there was to search.”
“Where did you and Buck spend this second night?”
“On the Sea Wind.”
They searched the East Lagoon the following morning, she explained, describing it as a “last-ditch” effort.
“So, when you went into the East Lagoon, you were kind of grasping at straws.”
“Yes.”
“What about the following day? Did you search that day?”
“Buck said it was ridiculous, that they were gone. But I went out for a little while by myself. He was right.”
“So, you finally discontinued your search at this point?”
“Yes.” She looked down. Despite Len’s stylish dress code, she had taken us all back to the simpler, confused young woman entangled in a tragedy hundreds of miles from civilization.
“And you did not find the slightest trace of them? Footprints in the sand, or a signal fire, or anything at all?”
“Nothing.”
“At the end of your search, was it your belief, at that point, that Mac and Muff were dead?”
“Yes.” Jennifer’s voice lowered to a barely audible whisper.
I asked what she thought had happened to them, and she said she believed they had had a boating accident and either drowned or were attacked by sharks.
“Jennifer, we have since learned, of course, about the skeletal remains of Muff Graham being found next to the aluminum container—the strong implication being that she was murdered. But I want to ask you what your state of mind was way back then at the time of Mac and Muff’s disappearance. You didn’t find it improbable that the Zodiac had flipped over in the lagoon?”
“No, I found it upside down. It was obvious it had flipped over.”
“What about the fact that, according to several witnesses who testified at this trial, the Zodiac was a very stable craft?”
“I didn’t know any of that then, but I don’t know that it would have made any difference.”
“Why is that?” I asked.
“I had seen Mac taking the Zodiac across the lagoon and the nose would kind of be in the air. And I knew there were obstructions in the lagoon, and I had been with Don Stevens and Bill Larson when the dinghy propeller hit the coral head or something. It made a terrible noise, and had to be repaired.”
“And I take it you didn’t find the possibility of a shark attack improbable?”
“No. There were sharks all over that lagoon and they were everywhere, and aggressive.”
“Did you ever swim in the lagoon?”
“Never. I wouldn’t even wade in that lagoon.”
“Did you ever see anyone else swim in the lagoon?”
“No, I didn’t.”
“Jennifer, going back to the end of your search for Mac and Muff when you concluded that they were dead, did you believe everything that Buck had told you up to that point?”
“Yes, Buck didn’t do or say anything to make me think anything other than Mac and Muff had gone fishing and not come back.”
“Would you characterize yourself as a suspicious person?”
“No. My mother has always told me that I’m too trusting.”
Sunny smiled weakly, but Ted’s eyes were riveted on the jury. Seated next to him, his teenage son nervously gnawed at a fingernail.
I knew the jury, during deliberations, would certainly examine and analyze most probingly the entries for August 30 and 31 and September 1, 2, 3, and 4. After pointing out that Jennifer had already read to the jury that portion of her August 30 diary entry which she wrote before going over to the Sea Wind that day, I now asked her to read aloud the remainder of that entry.
She read: “‘And then tragedy. And overnight, a whole new set of alternatives beset us.’”
“When did you write that part of the entry?”
“It was several days later. In looking at the diary, it looks like it was probably written on September 4th.”
“Would you please read to the jury your August 31st, September 1st, 2nd, and 3rd entries?”
“August 31st says: ‘No sleep all night. Searched all day. Found upturned dinghy. No other signs.’ September 1st: ‘R says he feels no hope of finding anything, but still we search.’ September 2nd says: ‘And search.’ September 3rd says: ‘And then? What to do.’”
“When were these entries of August 31st, September 1st, 2nd, and 3rd made?”
“I think they were all probably made at the same time on September 4th.”
“Why was the last part of the August 30th entry, and the August 31st, September 1st, 2nd, and 3rd entries made on September 4th?”
“Well, I didn’t have my diary. And I was more involved with searching for Mac and Muff than with writing in a book.”
“You say you didn’t have your diary. Was it back at the Iola?”
“Yes.”
“And you and Buck were staying on the Sea Wind during that period.”
“Yes.”
“Why were you staying on the Sea Wind instead of the Iola during that period?”
“If Mac and Muff could make their way back to the Sea Wind, I wanted to be there.”
“Jennifer, your September 1st entry says, ‘R’—referring to Buck—‘says he feels no hope of finding anything.’ The word ‘says’ is in the present tense. Yet, you say you believe you wrote the entry three days later, on September 4th. Is there a reason for that?”
“I don’t know. I guess Buck said it on September 1st, and I was writing it as the September 1st entry, so I put it in the present tense.”
“So, each diary entry then was written from the perspective of what happened that day?”
“I guess so. I guess that’s the reason.”
“Why are your entries for August 31st, September 1st, 2nd, and 3rd so brief, Jennifer?”
Anyone would wonder why she would write fifty-word entries on routine days and spare only a few words for a catastrophe.
“Mac
and Muff’s deaths just affected me too deeply,” she said, clutching her handkerchief. “I couldn’t write about them.”
“Jennifer, your September 4th entry reads: ‘And the decision to depart followed by a great deal of preparation while we all grow fatter and fatter on ham and cheese and pancakes and turkey and chili and all the things we hadn’t had for so long. And the dogs feed on corn beef hash.’ Can you explain this entry to the jury?”
“I really don’t know what I was thinking back then. The words sound very calloused. We had been eating a lot of coconut and fish. I guess after I knew that Mac and Muff were gone, I just didn’t think it was so terrible to eat their food anymore.”
I asked Jennifer what she and Buck decided to do when it appeared clear that Mac and Muff were dead.
“Well, Buck said to me, ‘What do you think we should do?’ I told him we should notify the authorities, but he said we couldn’t do that because he was on the run and he didn’t want to have any contact with any authorities.”
“How did you respond to this?”
“I argued with him. I felt very strongly that we had to report what had happened to Mac and Muff. And he got really mad and yelled that didn’t I see if we contacted the authorities, there would be questions and he’d be held?”
“What further discussion did you and Buck have on what to do?”
“Buck told me that he wanted to sail off in the Sea Wind.”
“How did you respond to this?”
“I told him that we couldn’t. That she wasn’t our boat.”
“Did Buck offer or attempt to offer any justification at all for taking the Sea Wind?”
“Buck said he didn’t think that Mac would want us to leave the Sea Wind on the island unattended to be vandalized.”
Some listeners snickered, but, like all good pretexts, Buck’s had some basis in fact, as I next brought out.
“Did you agree that there was a vandalism problem on Palmyra?”
“Yes, it was obvious. Trucks were riddled with bullet holes and tires were slashed and buildings were ransacked.”
“Did this fact—the possible vandalism and pillaging of the Sea Wind—persuade you that the Sea Wind should not be left unattended on Palmyra?”
“I agreed that Mac would not want the Sea Wind abandoned to looters.”
“So did you have any suggestion to Buck at that point?”
“I told Buck I wanted to take the Sea Wind and the Iola over to Fanning. And then we could get our supplies and come back to Palmyra on the Iola.”
“Leaving the Sea Wind at Fanning?”
“Yes.”
“What did Buck say to this suggestion?”
“He got really upset and said I could do anything I wanted. But he was taking off on the Sea Wind, and I could do one of three things—come with him, stay on Palmyra, or sail off on the Iola by myself.”
“Did you feel that you were capable of sailing the Iola by yourself?”
“No.”
“You didn’t want to try. Is that correct?”
“That’s correct.”
“So Buck gave you three options, is that correct?”
“Yes, but I didn’t really think there was a choice.”
“You decided that you had better go with Buck?”
“Yes.”
“Was the fact that you really had no other option the only reason that you went with him?”
“No. I loved Buck. I wanted to be with him.”
“Did Buck say what he intended to do upon leaving Palmyra?”
“He said he was just going to continue fleeing on the Sea Wind.”
“Did he say how he intended to travel on a boat that was not registered to him?”
“He said he wanted to take the Sea Wind back to Hawaii and reregister her.”
“What did Buck say, if anything, about the danger of going back to the very place where he was wanted by the law?”
“He said Hawaii was the only place he knew of where he could just go in and reregister the Sea Wind on his word alone.”
“Did Buck say what would happen if you and he sailed outside the United States without reregistering the Sea Wind?”
“He said that since the Sea Wind papers were in the Grahams’ name and our passports identified him as Roy Allen and me as Jennifer Jenkins, there would be questions and that he would be held.”
I took a sip of water. As I did, I eyed my least-favorite juror.
The Kansas Rock sat impassively as ever, arms tightly folded against his chest and a slight hint of repugnance on his face, as if beholding a mockery. We apparently hadn’t budged him one single inch.
When I looked back at my legal pad, it was like peering into the face of an old, trusted friend. The questions and answers I felt I needed to help secure a not guilty verdict were scribbled before me in pencil. But this could only be so if the jurors listened and were open-minded. Damn the Rock!
“Did anything happen thereafter, Jennifer, while you were still on Palmyra, which eased your mind somewhat about the entire problem?”
“Yes. I had been reading various papers I had found that Mac had written, and I found a will.”
“Was the will signed or unsigned?”
“It was signed by Mac.”
“Do you recall the date of the will?”
“It was 1960 or 1961, I think.”
“And what did the will say, to the best of your recollection?”
“There was a part in it that said if anything happened to Mac, that he wanted some person, who would be designated in another document, to complete a circumnavigation of the globe and return the Sea Wind back to the mainland of the United States within a period of two years.”
I had the clerk hand Jennifer a copy of the will. After she quickly scanned and identified the document as a copy of the will about which she had just testified, I read the following stipulation to the jury: “That this seven-page document is a true and accurate copy of a last will and testament signed by Malcolm Graham, Jr., on April 26, 1961, and found on the Sea Wind by law enforcement authorities when the Sea Wind was inventoried on October 30, 1974, at the Ala Wai yacht harbor in Honolulu. So stipulated?”
Enoki stood. “Yes,” he said. “I agree to that.”
I asked Jennifer to read aloud the section in question.
“‘In contemplation of a lengthy trip in my ship the Sea Wind,’” she read, “‘and in the event that I am not married at the time of my death, I direct that a person whom I shall so designate by separate document shall have charge and custody of the ship Sea Wind on its round-the-world anticipated cruise to whatsoever port and via whatsoever route the so designated person may wish, with the direction that this so designated person shall dock the Sea Wind in a port within the limits of the United States, excluding the states of Hawaii and Alaska, within a two-year period following my death.’”
“Jennifer, did you think that the trip which brought Mac and Muff to Palmyra was the round-the-world trip referred to in the paragraph of the will you just read to the jury?”
“No. I knew that was a different trip. An earlier trip.”
“At that particular time you found the will, were you searching for something to make you feel better about what you and Buck were doing?”
Enoki came to his feet objecting to my question as leading the witness.
“Well, it’s a little bit leading,” the judge conceded, “but I’ll let her answer.”
“Yes,” Jennifer answered.
“With respect to this other document Mac referred to, you knew that whomever Mac would have designated, it would not have been you and Buck?”
“Yes, of course.”
“So how did this clause or language in Mac’s 1961 will give you any solace or comfort?”
“It gave me a glimpse into Mac’s mind,” Jennifer explained, “and made me think that maybe what Buck wanted to do wouldn’t be that terrible to Mac as long as we were able to get the Sea Wind back to the mainland within that
two-year period. It showed me that, at some point in time, Mac had envisioned the possibility of somebody other than himself sailing the Sea Wind.”
“But you knew that you and Buck would not be the people Mac would designate to do this.”
“But we were the only people there. There was nobody else on the island to get the boat anyplace except us.”
“After you got it back to the mainland, I take it the boat should have been returned to—”
“Kit—Mary Muncey. Mac’s sister and heir. Yes.”
“Did you think Buck had any intention of returning the boat to Mary Muncey?”
“Well, initially, when Buck said he wanted to take the boat, I hadn’t found the will yet. After I found the will, I showed it to Buck and he read it. And I told him that the only way I would feel comfortable doing what he wanted to do was if he promised that we would get the boat back to Mary Muncey within two years.”
“So, you extracted this promise from him?”
“Yes.” The jurors were rapt, studying her expression without revealing their own thoughts at all.
“Prior to your extracting this promise from him, was it your state of mind that he may have intended to keep the Sea Wind for a very long period of time?”
“Yes.”
“And perhaps not return it at all?”
“Yes.”
“So are you telling this jury and Judge King then that you intended to go along with Buck in keeping the Sea Wind for up to two years?”
“For up to two years. I wanted to get the boat back sooner. I told Buck that he didn’t need the boat, that we could just take the boat back to the mainland. But he didn’t want to do that right away.”
“So two years was the outer limit you would go along with it?”
“Yes.”
“Did he indicate to you that he would separate himself from the Sea Wind just before it was turned in?”
“Yes. And then I would contact Mary Muncey and the authorities and he would be safe.”
“Let me ask you this, Jennifer. Did you think the language of that will gave you any legal right whatsoever to take possession of that boat?”
“No,” she said, lowering her voice. “I knew it gave us no legal right.”
“You also knew, did you not, that what you were doing was wrong?”