Book - Dead in the Water

[RichardS]

Passing through the Channel Tunnel shop a few days ago I picked up a book called "Dead In The Water" about Penny Farmer's search for justice for her brother, Chris Farmer, and his long-time girlfriend, Peta Frampton, who were murdered in 1978 by a yachtsman, Duane Boston, who took them on as crew on his yacht in Belize before torturing and killing them before dumping their bodies into the Caribbean, tied to heavy engine machine parts.

It's an horrendously tragic story and I'm only halfway through the book but, as a yachtsman, it has a special interest. My early questions like "Where did he suddenly get these heavy engine parts from" are revealed in letters from Peta to her parents and you begin to see the way that Boston's twisted psychopathic mind was working from the very start of the voyage.

It's certainly not easy reading and one has to draw the conclusion that the almost perfect way to murder someone is to invite them aboard a yacht as crew and then do them in. I must say that if either of my Sons said that they were going to be crewing on a long journey off-shore on a stranger's boat I would advise caution. :ambivalence:

Richard

 

[Frogmogman]

It's certainly not easy reading and one has to draw the conclusion that the almost perfect way to murder someone is to invite them aboard a yacht as crew and then do them in. I must say that if either of my Sons said that they were going to be crewing on a long journey off-shore on a stranger's boat I would advise caution. :ambivalence:

Richard

It's worth keeping a sense of proportion here. Very many people have done this without being murdered by a psycho. I agree that caution is important, but it's more likely that the real risks concern an incompetent skipper and/or an unseaworthy boat.

Having said that, it sounds an interesting read. I'll give it a go.

Thanks for the heads up.

 

[capnsensible]

Some years ago we were on our yacht in Tenerife getting ready for our first transat on our liveaboard yacht. My wife and I had been joined by D, an old friend of mine from submarining days. A friend of his sister had asked about joining us and although none of us knew her, I thought a 4th hand would be great, so we invited J to join us.

Whilst sat at the airport, D pointed out that J was a brave woman, joining a boat full of the unknown.

I happened to remark that yeah, OK , but what if she turns out to be the Mad Axewoman From Yorkshire?

We are all in touch to this day, 18 years on and J always signs her emails as MAWFY, the name stuck.

Lovely lady, by the way!!

 

[RichardS]

It's worth keeping a sense of proportion here. Very many people have done this without being murdered by a psycho. I agree that caution is important, but it's more likely that the real risks concern an incompetent skipper and/or an unseaworthy boat.

Having said that, it sounds an interesting read. I'll give it a go.

Thanks for the heads up.

Yes, that's true ..... and there must have been hundreds more crew killed by incompetent skippering than by cold-blooded murder. But there's something terribly chilling about a skipper who takes on crew with evil intent in mind knowing that he will probably get away with it.

Richard

 

[RupertW]

Yes, that's true ..... and there must have been hundreds more crew killed by incompetent skippering than by cold-blooded murder. But there's something terribly chilling about a skipper who takes on crew with evil intent in mind knowing that he will probably get away with it.

Richard

Sailing is such a safe sport (possibly because every moment feels risky so you take less chances) that I wonder whether the stats actually are that you are more likely to die of malice than incompetence.

 

[capnsensible]

The old Ships Captain Medical course used to have a lesson on how to deal with death at sea. Was an interesting hour. :nonchalance:

 

[Zing]

The film Dead Calm is a similar theme. For added poignancy play at sea with a new, unknown crew. Mwah, ha ha.

 

[RichardS]

I've now got to the part where, almost 40 years later, the eye-witnesses to the murders finally give their accounts of what actually happened.

I had to read it several times to try and absorb the enormity of it.

If you've seen films like "Dead Calm" and "Adrift" and thought the plots were far fetched, I'm telling you that if a film was ever made of the true story of the cold-blooded slayings of Chris and Peta, you would say "The plots in "Dead Calm" and "Adrift" were far-fetched but the plot in "Dead in the Water" is ludicrous in comparison".

The trouble is that these were young people just out of Uni with no real experience of how terrible other prople can be. When I put myself back into my mind-set at that age, I would have fallen into Boston's same sick trap as I would simply not have thought that another human being could so easily hide a truly evil personality behind a cloak of respectability.

Of course, now I'm much older, I'm fully aware of how people like Harold Shipman or Fred West etc operate .... but, even now, whether I would have the conviction to kill before I was killed is a really difficult question. Basically, Chris only got the once chance to save them and if he didn't take it then he and Peta were the ones who were going to die.

The problem is that the dice are so heavily loaded in favour of the psychopath. Whereas you or I would hesitate in case we've misread the situation and are about to kill a relatively "innocent" man, the psychopath has no such dilemma to deal with as "innocence" or "guilt" are not concepts which trouble his mind.

Truly shocking. :ambivalence:

Richard

 

[DownWest]

Danish bloke is in clink in Portugal after 'losing' his wife overboard. Unfortunately for him, she was dredged up by some fisherman, wrapped in anchor chain.
So it does happen, but that Dead in the Water story is aweful. In effect, he did get away with it, as he died on remand.

 

[Heckler]

Passing through the Channel Tunnel shop a few days ago I picked up a book called "Dead In The Water" about Penny Farmer's search for justice for her brother, Chris Farmer, and his long-time girlfriend, Peta Frampton, who were murdered in 1978 by a yachtsman, Duane Boston, who took them on as crew on his yacht in Belize before torturing and killing them before dumping their bodies into the Caribbean, tied to heavy engine machine parts.

It's an horrendously tragic story and I'm only halfway through the book but, as a yachtsman, it has a special interest. My early questions like "Where did he suddenly get these heavy engine parts from" are revealed in letters from Peta to her parents and you begin to see the way that Boston's twisted psychopathic mind was working from the very start of the voyage.

It's certainly not easy reading and one has to draw the conclusion that the almost perfect way to murder someone is to invite them aboard a yacht as crew and then do them in. I must say that if either of my Sons said that they were going to be crewing on a long journey off-shore on a stranger's boat I would advise caution. :ambivalence:

Richard

Just bought it on Kindle, will enjoy. Interesting berthing in La Linea, around about Octoberish the hitch hikers would start stalking the pontoons, lift to Canaries etc. Two young lads wandered up and down for days, a pretty young Israeli girl got a berth on the first day! Makes you wonder about the motives of some of the skippers!

 

[DownWest]

Just bought it on Kindle, will enjoy. Interesting berthing in La Linea, around about Octoberish the hitch hikers would start stalking the pontoons, lift to Canaries etc. Two young lads wandered up and down for days, a pretty young Israeli girl got a berth on the first day! Makes you wonder about the motives of some of the skippers!

Bit off thread, but a girl scammed her way around the Algarve a few years ago. Finally left to Gib with a bloke, using his daughter's passport. We were alway puzzled as to why she was so good at it, but very low key. Bit later, I was told that Mossad were looking for her and not with nice intent.
We def lived in 'interesting times' back then!

 

[laika]

Isn’t the reverse just as true though (yachters in danger from their hitchhikers)? This thread reminded me of the “disappearance “ of Sean Terry and I realised that I had no idea what the outcome was. I still don’t. The Seychelles authorities apparently dropped charges against the crew, Stefan Pokorny because the incident happened in international waters. The South African authorities were going to see what they could do but I don’t see any mention of a further prosecution. Scary.

 

[Heckler]

Isn’t the reverse just as true though (yachters in danger from their hitchhikers)? This thread reminded me of the “disappearance “ of Sean Terry and I realised that I had no idea what the outcome was. I still don’t. The Seychelles authorities apparently dropped charges against the crew, Stefan Pokorny because the incident happened in international waters. The South African authorities were going to see what they could do but I don’t see any mention of a further prosecution. Scary.

Sametime a young Oz male pitched up, got talking, he was a bull shitter, talked his way in to Gib, then had to talk out, sofa surfing he said, wanted out to Canaries. I didnt like him, there was something there,couldnt put my fingure on it, but I wouldnt have liked to share a boat with him!

 

[DownWest]

Sametime a young Oz male pitched up, got talking, he was a bull shitter, talked his way in to Gib, then had to talk out, sofa surfing he said, wanted out to Canaries. I didnt like him, there was something there,couldnt put my fingure on it, but I wouldnt have liked to share a boat with him!

Stu, met several people that thought they were 'owed' their passage from yachties. Their mindset troubled me. Why would people owe them a trip? Possibly because the yacht owner was considered wealthy so should help out those who who were less well off? Or just they were trying it on.

 

[RichardS]

Just to update this story, the investigation into Chris and Peta's murder on board the yacht is now the subject of a 9 part documentary on Radio 5.

The first 4 parts are already available for download with the remaining 5 parts being released over the next 5 Mondays.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p071k0jv/episodes/downloads

I'm downloading it to listen to on our next cruise. :ambivalence:

Richard

 

[Heckler]

Just to update this story, the investigation into Chris and Peta's murder on board the yacht is now the subject of a 9 part documentary on Radio 5.

The first 4 parts are already available for download with the remaining 5 parts being released over the next 5 Mondays.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p071k0jv/episodes/downloads

I'm downloading it to listen to on our next cruise. :ambivalence:

Richard

I bought the kindle version and “enjoyed” it. Interesting that this thread is still here! About the same time this was posted I posted a similar thread about another book and it was promptly moved to the book review section! Almost as if someone was trying to provoke me! Here http://www.ybw.com/forums/showthread.php?502726-Mudbound-by-Hillary-Jordan funny oldworld innit?

 

[RichardS]

I bought the kindle version and “enjoyed” it. Interesting that this thread is still here! About the same time this was posted I posted a similar thread about another book and it was promptly moved to the book review section! Almost as if someone was trying to provoke me! Here http://www.ybw.com/forums/showthread.php?502726-Mudbound-by-Hillary-Jordan funny oldworld innit?

Perhaps it because this story is a sailing story and a salutary tale for sailors? I don't know but then I didn't even know that there was a book review section.

We've had a lot of threads over the years in here about sailing films and I can't see the difference between books and films so maybe it is the subject matter that counts?

Richard