'Getting to know fugitive Buck changed my life forever'

FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 8: Meeting the man who was later hanged for the murder of the Governor changed Lance Furbert’s life forever.

And the execution of Erskine ‘Buck’ Burrows many years on prompted the musician to turn his back on political rallies and anti-establishment demonstrations and put his trust in God.

He still vividly recalls that first encounter. “I was playing at the Hamilton Princess at the time – it was September 1973 – and I would usually get home late in the evening.

“I was living on my own in Sunnyside Park in a studio apartment. I came home one night and this guy was just sitting in my apartment.

“He told me his name was Buck Burrows and said he needed a place to stay because the police were looking for him.

“I guess he had been pointed in my direction because I had friends who were politically active at that time.

“He had a huge wad of cash in his hand and told me plans were being made to get him off the island. He said he just needed somewhere to stay.”

Mr Furbert declined the cash but agreed to let Burrows sleep on his couch.

He said: “He told me that he was wanted for the Governor’s murder. He was adamant he did not kill anyone but admitted he had been at Government House. I just told him I did not want to know anything about it.

“I told him to put his money away and said he could stay a couple of days until he got off the island."

Burrows ended up staying  nearly four weeks at Mr Furbert’s tiny Southampton apartment and the pair would often while away the hours talking about the state of the island.

Mr Furbert told the Bermuda Sun: “Buck saw himself as something of a Robin Hood. He had lived a totally different life to anything I had experienced. He struck me as a real victim of the system.

“He was in and out of jail and had developed a love for Dolly Parton’s music from his time inside.

“Once it was dark he would head out on his motorbike, with his sawn off double barreled shot gun and I would not see him until the next day. He would show up with wads of cash but I never asked any questions.

“Then one day he left and did not come back. And I never heard from him again until the day before he was hanged.”

Mr Furbert was off island in the US when the police finally tracked Burrows down in 1976.

Burrows confessed to murdering the Governor and his aid-de-camp, Captain Hugh Sayers on March 10, 1973.

He was also convicted of murdering the Police Commissioner George Duckett and sentenced to death.

Mr Furbert returned to Bermuda around the same time to protest about the death penalties handed to Burrows and Larry Tacklyn.

Tacklyn had been cleared of murdering the Governor and his aide-de-camp. But he was sentenced to death for killing Victor Rego and Mark Doe at Shopping Centre supermarket in April 1973. 

Both Burrows and Tacklyn were hanged on December 2, 1977.

Mr Furbert said: “It was inevitable Buck was going to get caught, it was just a matter of when. He had become institutionalized and could not leave Bermuda.

“When I came back to Bermuda I could sense the island had changed. Bermuda was really in turmoil at that time. The whole island was like a powder keg. The day before the hangings I was involved in this anti-capital punishment demonstration in Victoria Park and this guy came up to me.

“I had never seen him before and I never saw him again, but he told me he had a message from Buck. He said I did not need to worry about Buck because he had been saved.

“But I needed to think about my own salvation. There he was going to be hanged and he was concerned about my salvation.

“People had lost their lives and it was not just protests and demonstrations any more.

“It made me look at things totally differently.

“It was life changing for me. I was faced with the decision of whether it was worth killing people to accomplish the political aims. And in my view Buck being saved in prison led to me becoming a Christian.

“People thought I had gone nuts at first but it changed the way my life was going and I was saved too.”