And the Sea Will Tell (64 page)

“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?”

“Yes, I knew the right thing to do was to contact the authorities to tell them what happened to Mac and Muff, and if we were going to take the boat at all, to take it directly back to the mainland of the United States and get in touch with Mary Muncey.”

“In leaving Palmyra on the
Sea Wind
, which is a boat that did not belong to you and Buck, did you think that you were stealing the
Sea Wind?
”

“No. I never planned to steal the
Sea Wind
and I never intended to keep her.”

“You can’t speak for Buck, but as far as you were concerned, you had no intent to steal that boat?”

“That’s correct.”

Now we moved on to the topic of the other sailboat at Palmyra, the
Iola
, about whose fate Jennifer had lied over the years:

“Buck had told me it was impossible to tow the
Iola
, so I thought we would just leave her tied up at the dolphins. But he said we couldn’t do that because she would continue to take on water and ultimately she would sink and become a navigational hazard in the lagoon.”

“So what did you and Buck do with respect to the
Iola?
”

“Buck towed the
Iola
out of the lagoon with the
Sea Wind
. Puffer and I were on her. Then Buck came over and got Puffer and me and took us over to the
Sea Wind
. And he went back to the
Iola
and opened up all her through-hull fittings and just headed her off into the ocean.”

“In what direction was the
Iola
headed at that point?”

“South by southeast.”

“And you assume that the
Iola
sank in the ocean?”

“Yes.”

“Did you observe it sink in the ocean?”

“No.”

“Jennifer, at a previous proceeding in 1975 for the theft of the
Sea Wind
, you testified that in towing the
Iola
out of the channel, the
Iola
went aground in the channel and that you could not get it free. So you and Buck left it in the channel. You are aware you so testified?”

“Yes.”

“That testimony, I take it, was not the truth. Is that correct?”

“That’s correct.”

“How did you come up with this story?”

“Buck told me that if anybody ever asked what happened to the
Iola
, I shouldn’t say that we sunk her because that would sound very bad. It would sound as though we had stolen the
Sea Wind
.”

“Did you think there was any merit in what Buck was telling you?”

“I didn’t feel we were stealing the
Sea Wind
. I guess it did sound like it had merit because I did it.”

“When you were interrogated by FBI Agent Shishido on October 29, 1974, did you tell him this same untruthful story?”

“Yes, I did.”

“At this earlier proceeding, Jennifer, back in 1975, you took an oath to tell the truth, did you not?”

“Yes, I did.”

“And with respect to your not testifying truthfully on this point, you violated your oath. Is that correct?”

“Yes.”

“Why did you do this?”

“I was advised that if I didn’t testify consistently during that proceeding, that it would go badly for me.”

“You say ‘testify consistently.’ Consistent with what you had told FBI Agent Shishido?”

“Yes.”

I had debated whether Jennifer should testify
who
it was who had so advised her. She had told me it was one of her two lawyers (the other had “gone along” with the idea). I realized that most probably the prosecutors would contact him. If he denied so counseling her, they might very well call him as a witness and it would become a big, contested issue we could lose. Even a victory wouldn’t be much comfort, since Jennifer
had
committed perjury. I finally decided that Jennifer should testify on direct merely to what she was advised. If, of course, she was asked on cross-examination by whom she was advised, she’d have to identify the lawyer.

“Going back for a moment, you testified that Buck, on the
Sea Wind
, towed you and Puffer on the
Iola
out of the channel. Once out of the channel, were any photographs taken by either you or Buck?”

“Yes, I took some photographs of Buck on the
Iola
.”

These were the very photographs, of course, about which Jennifer had lied at her theft trial.

“You testified earlier that you discontinued your search for Mac and Muff on September 3, 1974. Yet, you never left Palmyra until September 11th. What did you and Buck do during this period?”

“We loaded all the things from the
Iola
onto the
Sea Wind
and we gathered all the things that were on shore from Mac’s workshop and brought them back on the
Sea Wind
, and we just generally made her shipshape, stowed everything away, and made her ready to go.”

Jennifer’s diary suddenly, and strangely, terminated on September 10. I asked her why.

“The next day, the
Iola
was sunk. And the diary was the log of the
Iola
.”

I asked Jennifer if anything unusual had happened to her and Buck on their way back to Hawaii. She began her longest answer since taking the stand. I leaned slightly against the podium, listening to her narrate in detail the swordfish incident. I knew it in my sleep.

“Jennifer, where was the name
Sea Wind
located on the sailboat?”

“It was on the stern,” she answered, “and I think it was in another place on the side somewhere.”

“Did either you or Buck remove the name
Sea Wind
from the boat at Palmyra?”

“Yes, Buck did.”

While they were at Pokai Bay, she said, Buck invited Larry Seibert to visit.

“When Seibert visited you, he asked you and Buck how you had come into possession of the boat, is that correct?”

“Yes.”

“Did Buck respond to this question in your presence?”

“Yes.”

“And he said that he, Buck, had won the boat in a chess game with a multimillionaire?”

“Yes.”

“What, if anything, did you say or do at this point?”

“I just cringed.”

“And Seibert at some time thereafter asked you if what Buck told him was the truth?”

“Yes.”

“What did you tell Seibert?”

“I told him no, it wasn’t the truth.”

“Any time, Mr. Bugliosi,” the judge interrupted.

I glanced at the wall clock above the jury box, surprised to see it was almost noon. The morning had flown by for me, and I could easily have forged on. But Jennifer definitely looked as if she needed time out.

“This would be a good time, your honor.”

“We’ll break for lunch, then.”

As people in the gallery stood, stretched, and began filing out of the courtroom, Jennifer went over to her brother to say something.

While talking to Len, I noticed Sunny Jenkins standing alone, a worried frown on her vulnerable, friendly face. I could imagine what kind of hell she was enduring. I went over to try to soften her ordeal.

“She’s doing fine,” I said.

“You think so, Vince?” Her voice cracked.

“Yes. Len agrees. He just said she’s doing great. Go have lunch and relax a little, Mrs. Jenkins.”

I didn’t take my own advice. In the empty courtroom, I remained at the defense table, going over the pages of questions I would be asking Jennifer that afternoon. (Throughout the trial, I made use of the noon recess, bringing my lunch so I could work in the courtroom or the law library of the U.S. Attorney’s Office, or eating and working in the cafeteria downstairs.)

The bailiff, after making sure I was aware of my fate, locked the courtroom doors and himself went to lunch.

Jennifer was holding up emotionally and covering the details I wanted her to—of that much I was certain. But there was no way to know whether or not the jury was believing a single word she was saying.

T
HAT AFTERNOON
, 1:45
P.M.

“J
ENNIFER, DID
you have any conversation with anyone at Pokai Bay concerning repairing the damage to the hull of the
Sea Wind
caused by the swordfish?” I asked.

“Yes. With Lorraine Wollen, one of the witnesses at this trial.”

“And what did she tell you?”

“She recommended Tuna Packers in Honolulu as the best place—the least expensive place to haul out and repair the damage.”

“You heard Mrs. Wollen testify that when you invited her aboard the
Sea Wind
for coffee at Pokai Bay you told her that the previous owners of the
Sea Wind
got tired of maintaining it, so they sold it to you and Buck?”

“Yes.”

“Did you in fact tell her this?”

“Yes.”

“Do you recall the circumstances surrounding your telling her this?”

Jennifer responded eagerly. “Yes. She had wanted to come on board and see the boat, because it’s such a unique-looking boat. And so I invited her on board. While she was there, she saw the pictures of Mac and Muff on the wall, and she asked: ‘Who are these people?’ I told her that they were the previous owners. She wanted to know why they had gotten rid of the boat. I told her that…they had just gotten tired of maintaining it.”

“Was there a reason that you didn’t tell her the truth?”

“I couldn’t tell her the truth. If I told her the whole story…she would have asked me if I had reported it. I mean, Buck was sitting right there. And I just…I couldn’t tell her the truth.”

“Is Mrs. Wollen the only person you ever told this story to?”

“Yes.”

“Was there any reason why you kept Mac’s and Muff’s pictures on the wall of the
Sea Wind
?”

“Yes. I never wanted to change anything about the boat. I wanted to keep it just the way they had it.”

Jennifer testified that after repairing the hole in the hull, they scraped the barnacles off the bottom, sanded the hull and covered it with bottom paint (a special type of protective paint), and then repainted the rest of the boat’s exterior above the waterline.

I now wrestled with this ostensibly incriminating act of repainting the
Sea Wind
. I asked if repainting the boat was normal boat maintenance. Jennifer answered yes, that whenever you “haul out a boat,” as they had done, one normally repaints the boat, since “one does not haul a boat out frequently.”

“Were you in favor of repainting the boat?”

“Well, as long as we were hauled out, I didn’t see anything wrong with painting the topside of the boat. But Buck wanted to change the color of the boat, and I was against this.”

“Why were you against changing the color?”

“I didn’t want to change it from the way Mac and Muff had it.”

Topside, the
Sea Wind
had been white with blue stripes. Jennifer said they repainted the white areas white, but painted lavender over the blue.

“Was it your intent when you repainted the
Sea Wind
to disguise its identity?”

“No. I didn’t feel that any color that boat was painted would alter it, or disguise it. It was a very unique boat. Mac had customized the cabin, and it had an old-style rigging on it called ‘dead-eye’ rigging. It was just a totally unique boat.”

“Did you feel that anyone who saw that boat, who had seen it previously, would recognize it immediately?”

“Yes.”

“Irrespective of what color you painted it?”

“That’s correct.”

“Did Buck, while you were in Hawaii, in fact reregister the
Sea Wind
?”

“Yes, he did.”

“Did he have any discussion with you about whose name should be listed on the registration as the owners of the boat?”

“Yes.”

“What did he say?”

“He was filling out the papers, and indicated that there was a place there for—I don’t know whether it was Mr. and Mrs., or whatever. He wanted to fill in my name on it. And I told him absolutely not.”

“Why did you say that?”

“I felt it was wrong. I certainly didn’t want my name on it.”

“And you, in fact, did not put your name on that registration document. Is that correct?”

“That’s correct.”

“Jennifer, you testified earlier that on Palmyra you realized that the right thing to do would have been for
you and Buck
to notify the authorities of what had happened, but that Buck wouldn’t allow this because of his fugitive status. But now that you were back in Hawaii from Palmyra, is there any reason why you didn’t notify the authorities
on your own
about what happened on Palmyra?”

“I couldn’t do that without placing Buck in danger of being apprehended.”

“In other words, you felt that if you did this without Buck’s knowledge, when the authorities came to the
Sea Wind
the questions that would inevitably follow would lead to his identity?”

“Yes.”

“Did you and Buck have any specific plans as to where you were going to go once you left Hawaii?”

“We…we didn’t have…really long-range plans. We knew we had to leave Oahu as soon as possible, because that’s where his arrest warrant would have been issued from. And we thought perhaps we would go over to the Big Island just to figure out where we were going to go from there.”