Chapter 24: The End Of The Trail

1971: Cyrill Connolly had written in his notes -- "The end of the trail." It was notes of his interview in 1971 with Juanita Carberry, June's stepdaughter, who was 15 years old at the time of the murder, and very, very close to Broughton, one of the few people who actually listened to Juanita.

"It wasn't quite the end of the trail, as it turned out. But he had come remarkably close to it, and it was only Juanita's evidence that had kept him [Cyril Connollly] a few steps away." -- James Fox, page 279 or a 299-page book.

Amazingly, Juanita reached out to Connolly for the interview.

The murder took place in 1941. In 1971, thirty years later. Juanita had been 15 years old; she would have been 45 years old in 1971when she met Connolly.

She was exactly the same age as our own granddaughter Arianna in 2021 when I am writing this. It is interesting to imagine "an Arianna" at this age watching the trial of her life, back in 1941. It will help me understand the credibility of Juanita, a 45-year-old remember details of something that happened thirty years earlier, of which she would know only some of the details.

Connolly's notes of his visit with Juanita Carberry:

JC late. Small, close cropped, medium colouring, nice quiet voice. Works as a steward on tankers. Knows many languages, fluent Swahili etc. Lunched at Le Français, drinks milk, orders in French. Impressions: great integrity, sensibility, observation etc.

Then Fox begins his narrative.



Skipping through ten pages ....

... page, 288, just a short paragraph from the end of the book ... and then the last paragraph:

"He [Broughton] never denied his guilt to Diana. He simply told Juanita at a moment of severe emotional stress that it was he who had shot Erroll and she mustn't be frightened.

"The story of Broughton's last days in Africa is indeed a tragic one. Perhaps in the end Africa was to blame. Once Kenya had given Broughton some of his happiest days. In the future it was to provide Diana with her fullest days. She had been accepted. He had paid it one visit too many."

That ends the book.

What we don't know is how he could have possibly done it.

The safari he went on shortly before the trail began shows that he was athletically / physically capable of getting out of the house, grabbing a car, driving quickly to catch Erroll, cut him off, get out and shoot him, and then drive quickly back to home in Karen, during that missing hour.

The problem: how could he do it without anyone knowing or hearing him leave?

Chapter 23: Lady Delamere

Diana, Lady Delamere.

James Fox, the author first met, Diana, Lady Delamere, at her London apartment, late May, 1981.

Great introduction how the author was able to find her and then meet her. Wow.

He rang the bell, to room 83, "There came to the door, that afternoon, one of the most striking women I have ever seen, wearing an immaculately cut Eton-blue peignoir with blue ribbon bindings along the edges, and with long gold chains strung from her neck. She was younger-looking than I expected, her face longer and leaner than it had been, the ice-blue eyes as penetrating as ever. Any trace of travel fatigue had disappeared ..."

In the drawing room of the rented suite, Diana's daughter, Snoo, was sitting in the armchair. Several photographs of Tom Delamere were already in place in the bookshelves [she had just arrived in London from Nairobi that day].

James Fox and Diana agreed to meet alone one week later.

That meeting took place, p. 267.

"I'm going to dirty Ascot." "Dirty" meant "not formal attire.

She did not say a thing about events in 1941 then and never did.

"I didn't do it, if that's what you think." -- wow. Amazing, she said that.

Diana said, "I think Jock probably did do it. He was slightly mad at the time. I went down to South African to get Morris to defend him and he told me that from Jock's reactions he thought he had the first signs of a serious brain disorder. Jock never admitted to me that he had done it, but he never denied it either."

Several pages of her feelings about Broughton after the murder.

Then she has very, very fine words for Colvile, page 272.

Diana left Colvile for Tom Delamere.

Diana and Tom built a special suite at Soysambu, so that Colvile could liver there when he wanted their company. She was Little White Bear, Tom the Little Brown Bear, and Colvile was Pooh Bear or "Pooey."

She buried Tom Delamere in the little walled cemetery she built on Colvile's farm at Ndabibi (the Masai word for "place of clover"), alongside Colvile and her only child, who had lived for ten days. She has had fig trees planted and water piped tothe cemetery for theflowers, and a dog buried at the foot of each grave. She has reserved her own space between the graves and has written all the inscriptions: for the child, "So short a life"; for Colvile, "If you want a memorial, look around you," and for Delamere, "So great a man."

Four months later, in September of that year, soon before her return to Nairobi, they met again (Fox and Diana).

Diana told James Fox a couple of "illuminating points."

First, she made two denials:
Broughton and June did not come to the Claremont Road House later on the night of the murder; and,
Broughton's attempted blackmail of her had nothing to do with the jewels, although she would not say what the subject of the blackmail was.

I asked her about her trip to Nyeri, immediately after the murder. I [James Fox] said he was surprised that she had been out of the house when Broughton arrived from Nairobi. She couldn't remember why she and June were out, but she remembered the police arriving the previous night. She was distraught, and in bed, but she came down to meet them. "They asked me, "what do you think happened?" and I answered automatically, "He was a very fast driver and I think he must have crashed and been killed."

Diana thought Broughton caught up with Erroll at the end of the driveway, asked to go with him..... this is very close to the "truth."

Then this from Diana: "Jack Soames. It was very funny really that I shot better than Jock. He wasn't a good shot but it's not difficult if you're sitting in the seat beside someone."

Wow.

The pearls, the jewel box. Page 276.

She agreed that she and June had joined forces to defend Broughton ...

James Fox said Broughton was guilty, and his performance in the witness box was remarkable. Diana agreed: "He was very proud of his performance, she said, and then she told me that the remark to Harragin as he walked out of the courtroom had been simply, 'I'm a good actor.'" Morris, she said, had thought Broughton guilty.

Diana felt Broughton became unbalanced after the trial. He may have killed one of Erroll's Dachsunds after the trial...the final break with Broughton began when Colvile came across an unposted letter that Broughton had written to Vera, saying that he wanted to come back to her, but couldn't remarry her 'for tax reason,' Colvile had copied it, mailed the original to Vera, and kept a copy.

The last time she saw Broughton was in a lawyer's office in Nairobi, and it was then that she accused him of murder.

She says the rumor that she and Joss had a fight on the night of the murder was far from the truth. She regrets never having had a fight with Joss during their relationship. She felt a fight with one's love of one's life is critical.

Small talk and that was the end of the interview.

Chapter 22: Abdullah And The Afghan Princess

Wow, wow, wow: James Fox wrote a key line, top of page 256 --
"Of one fact there could be no doubt, at least -- that if the murderer were Broughton or anyone else in the house, he or she took a lift with Erroll on the outward journey."

"What I saw put a great emphasis on Broughton's ability to cover that distance at the speed required to meet June Carberry's alibi. (Diana was overheard to say at the trail by Harfriagn's secretary, "He's not nearly such an old crock as he's making out.")"

James Fox takes a flight in small private plane, pilot David Allen, married to Petal, daughter of Sir Derek Erskine.

Then this: James Fox learned this fact, p. 257 --
A neighbor of Broughton's had a horse called Pantaloon.

Although Broughton had his own stable of horses, Pantaloon was a particularly fine-looking animal, always flattering to the rider, and on the morning before the murder Broughton, who had often told Erskine that he would like to buy the horse, asked to borrow the horse until the following Sunday. That day Broughton was alone in Nairobi, waiting for the result of the inquest. Diana and June Carberry had gone to Nyeri. Erskine described the Sunday afternoon when Broughton returned the horse, around 4:00 p.m. He (Broughton? Erskine?) was one of the few people who knew the real cause of Erroll's death.

Then this, from old man Erskine, on tape:
Jock Broughton rode up to our stables looking extremely weary on a very tired and weary looking Pantaloon. I was very shocked to see this. Jock more or less tumbled off Pantaloon and staggered into our house. We asked him if he would like a cup of tea and he said, "No, I've been for a very long ride which started at half-past nine this morning. I've had nothing to eat and I would like some gin" My wife brought him a bottle of gin and a tumbler and he drank off a tumbler just as if it had been water.

Then he said to Erskine: "Have you heard anything about Joss?"

Erskine: "Well, nothing except that he is dead."

"But what on earth happened?" said Jock. "Could it have been a heart attack?"

Erskine: "... yes, it could have been a heart attack..."

Jock: "... but what would have caused a heart attack ..."

Erskine: "That is quite easy to answer. It was caused by a bullet through the back of his neck."

Erskine: I watched Jock very carefully as I used those words, and from that moment on there were no doubts in my mind as to who had murdered Joss Erroll.

What makes this so remarkable:

The day before, before the murder had been announced, Broughton said to Kenneth Coates, a junior police officer: "I am public suspect number one now." Again, no one supposedly knew that a murder had been committed. But Jock said he was a prime suspect in Joss' death.

Two years later, two years after the murder, Arthur Orchardson, found a rusty gun in murram pit. Orchardson and old man Erskine agreed to bury the gun where it could never be found again.  -- page 258.

Stop here for now, page 260.

Chapter 21: White Royalty

Chapter 20: Blackmail

Chapter 19: A Good Racing Man

Chapter 18: Pearls And Oysters