I have heard from a little birdie that the accusing person has made other 'accusations' in the past.

There is a 'tension' on the island and I talked about it three years ago on this very board. It goes back to Rockefeller buying the West Indian's land up. There is a lot of entitlement feeling as well as resentment.

I know of white gurls who have been assaulted by islanders who were ignored by the police, basically. I think it is the keystone cop syndrome not ignored by the almost all West Indies police force...THIS TIME.

The facts of the case make it hard to believe that it took place; in broad daylight, in a populated area and other things simply don't add up.

Maybe, but a very volatile meeting and two fires did take place. Just what is going on there? How tense are things?

There's been another fire on STJ

http://www.virginislandsdailynews.com/index.pl/article_home?id=8166085

Cars and businesses being torched? Ugly accusations, volatile meetings. This is really giving me the creeps. Can anybody on the island put this in perspective?

Until the true facts come out, there is not much to say. There is something fishy going on.

RL

Thanks for being so level headed, Ron. There is more here than meets the eye. This is not the norm for STJ. Skinny Legs is one of most island friendly places.

Here's some letters to the editor about the situation:

http://www.virginislandsdailynews.com/index.pl/article_editorial?id=8166104

I am sorry to read about what is going on on STJ. I have been reading about racial issues in the islands. I guess they are true. What a shame that a few bad apples (on both sides of the racial spectrum) spoil the barrel. You have such beautiful islands, and you depend on tourism. Things of this nature can effect people wanting to vacation there. If the tourists stop coming then what will you do? I certainly hope this mess gets straightened out soon. If not I guess I won't be coming back. And that is a shame.

what were the fountain valley murders on st croix in 72 about? what happened??

Autumn, I Googled this, and found this article:

Slaughter in paradise

By DAVID J. KRAJICEK
SPECIAL TO THE DAILY NEWS

Two couples from Miami had just completed a round of golf on the idyllic Caribbean island of St. Croix.
Surely, murder was the last thing on their minds.

Richard and Joan Griffin and Charles and Mattie-Ruth Meisinger took a vacation to the U.S. Virgin Islands just after Labor Day 1972. They were friends from Eastern Airlines, where Griffin and Mattie-Ruth Meisinger worked.

They made a point of playing golf at the Robert Trent Jones-designed course at Fountain Valley, a stylish Rockefeller Resorts getaway on the St. Croix coast.

They finished at about 3 p.m. and were heading to the parking lot when the tranquility was shattered.

Five armed men in fatigues and masks emerged from the vegetation near the golf clubhouse.

They rounded up 15 employees and guests, including the Griffins and Meisingers. When some tried to flee, the robbers chased after them, firing wild shorts. The eight remaining were ordered to kneel in a circle on a patio.

The men rifled the golf course cash register and collected whatever cash the victims had in their pockets.

According to witnesses, the five robbers - all of them black - foisted racial insults on the victims, all but one of them white.

As the eight begged for mercy, the robbers opened fire. Eight fell dead, including the Miami couples, two electricians, a pro shop employee and the head groundskeeper, John Gulliver, a Massachusetts native who had taken the Caribbean job six months earlier.

The robbers got away with $731.

The murders, which became known as the Fountain Valley Massacre, prompted the United States to amass a team of 150 investigators, including two dozen FBI agents. Within a week, all five suspects were in custody.

The ringleader, St. Croix native Ishmael LaBeet, 25, portrayed the murders as a blow for black power on an island where a wealthy white minority suppressed an impoverished black majority.

Police had another story: LaBeet was wanted on St. Croix for stealing. Unable to board a commercial flight off the island, he pulled the golf course robbery to get enough money to buy a boat so he could sail away. His accomplices - Warren Ballentine, 23; Raphael Joseph, 21; Meral Smith, 21, and Beaumont Gereau, 23 - were said to be drawn in to the robbery scheme by LaBeet's promise of a big payday.

The case became a "civil rights circus," according to the Virgin Island Daily News, when crusading defense attorneys William Kunstler and Chauncey Eskridge signed on to represent the Fountain Valley Five.

Kunstler politicized the murders, depicting the men as Robin Hood revolutionaries. But even his fellow murderers apparently saw LaBeet, a Vietnam veteran, as a nut, not a rebel.

"He was insane, and they knew it," defendant Meral Smith's brother would later say.

LaBeet did not help his cause at trial, frequently interrupting proceedings with obscene outbursts.

He stood at the defense table and bellowed, "I killed them all. I don't give a f---. I killed them all."

All five were convicted of murder in August 1973 and sentenced to eight consecutive life sentences. Everyone assumed they would be locked up forever.

But on New Year's Eve 1985, Ishmael LaBeet's name was back in the headlines when he hijacked an American Airlines jet. He was being taken from St. Croix to New York for assignment to a federal penitentiary following a civil court proceeding at home concerning his treatment in prison.

Four armed guards from the Virgin Islands had allowed LaBeet to move about freely during the flight, which carried nearly 200 people. An accomplice apparently planted a gun in a lavatory before the flight departed. LaBeet grabbed the gun during an unescorted bathroom break, disarmed the guards and ordered the jet to land in Havana.

It was the last American authorities saw of Ishmael LaBeet. Some say he is still in Cuba. Others believe he is living in Africa.

The case took another twist nine years later, in December 1994, when the lame duck governor of St. Croix pardoned another of the killers, Raphael Joseph. Gov. Alexander Farrelly said it was a Christmas gift "to give some of our brothers and sisters who have strayed a second opportunity."

The release shocked the kin of his victims, although Joseph had been a model prisoner, earning a college degree in prison and serving as a mentor to other inmates. Joseph said he planned further education at an American university and a career in counseling.

Instead, he returned to St. Croix, where he was found dead at home in 1998 at age 47. The coroner cited heart problems, use of amphetamines and a blood alcohol level of .30, triple a standard gauge of drunkenness. His brother said Joseph was depressed and killed himself.

The other three defendants, all now in their mid-'50s, are still in prison.

But 33 years after the Fountain Valley Massacre, the slayings still hang over the island's tourism industry.

The bottom dropped out of tourism after the murders. The golf resort tried to shake the specter by changing its name, but St. Croix continues to suffer a reputation as dangerous.

A few years ago, travel writers Rick Cropp and Barbara Braidwood rated St. Croix the place where you are "most likely to be robbed or murdered on vacation in North America."

St. Croix learned that crime publicity can chase away fickle travelers and devastate the fragile Caribbean economies that depend on American vacationers.

Tourism took a hit on Tortola, in the British Virgin Islands, with the murder of Lois McMillen, 34, of Connecticut in 2000. And officials on Aruba are bracing for a tourism decline in connection with the case of Natallee Holloway, the Alabama teenager who disappeared in May while on a chaperoned school trip to that island.

Originally published on July 17, 2005

MY GOD, this was an isolated incident 33 YEARS ago. Those responsible were caught and went to jail.

There is plenty wrong with STX but dragging this up again and again is not fair to the island or the people who live here.

Can we please move on?

Linda, in all fairness the question was asked and now answered. Fountain Valley was refered to in some qutes as a refernce in this St. John melee. I call it melee as so far the local police have not given their take on what is really going on. There are dozens of rumors going around, as time passes, they are escalating. Hopefully they will make a statement today.

RL

JohninOrlando, thanks for sharing that article - I had heard of that tragedy, but never knew the details. We discovered the USVI's back in the early 90's beginning with visits to STX - we loved it, several years ago we tried STT - our least favorite only because of what WE look for in an island - then we finally hit on STJ - our absolutely ideal place in the whole world. It was beautiful, easy to get around, and we always felt safe (safe enough to let our teenagers wander Cruz Bay). If anyone asks me where I would want to be I always say STJ. I hope and pray this situation can be dealt with and the island returns to the peaceful place which I (and I know thousands of others) find it to be....because I intend on returning as often as possible, but only to a place where I know tourists are welcomed.

friends...what's the real scoop here...heard more rumblings from local friends..

and this?
http://www.virginislandsdailynews.com/index.pl/article_home?id=8340314

as a family that was hit back in april we finally thought all this had calmed down....
i haven't been on the board in awhile and am sad to hear any of this especially since we are planning our annual december trip

The few visitors posting who have been on STJ during this period appear to have been unaware of anything out of the usual. Editorials make it seem like no one is thinking of anything else. This mention of Oct 1 protests is new to me.

http://www.onepaper.com/stjohnvi/?v=d&i=&s=News:Local&p=1105688151

There are so many rumors going around and people are just saying anything for reaction. This helps to fester the already unstable situation. I fault the police for not making a statement of their findings so far. I am sure a different light will be taken once an official statement comes out.

RL

I don't know why everyone is talking so pittifull about the fires and what's going on... I haven't heard anyone talk about what happened to that FRIENDLY, QUIET, AND LOVING lady that was raped that week. Yes and it happened in BROAD day light. what happened to her sympathy. Does everyone think she raped herself.. Come on you people got to be kidding. Who on earth would crazy glue their mouth shut and then put duck tape over it. How the hell did she tie her feet and then her hands, and managed to throw herself in the water.. You people have to heart whatsoever. You have all this to say about those fires, where were the break in signs...Did the jeep feel the payne Mrs. Esther felt. Hell no. Do you people value the cost of the jeep and that building more than a human life?

Once again more rumor and innuendo. Why not wait for the official statement before talking about this? I wasn't there, so can't argue your points. Were you?

RL

I don't have any answers but a few questions. How did she manage to swim to safety with her lips glued shut and mouth duct taped closed and her hands and feet tied. How deep was the water and how far did she swim to shore? These are serious questions that need to be asked during the investigation.

I'd be interested in seeing if anyone could swim under these conditions.

Best for everyone to take it easy until all the facts are in.