Who Killed Oswald?: Kingston The City Of Inspiration
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From the first moments of our Downtown walking tour round Water Lane – where Marie seemed to know every street artist and café owner – we were able to get the sense of place that we had come for.
It’s November 2024. It’s my first full day in Kingston, Jamaica. I’ve never been here before and I need to get my bearings, find out a few dos and don’ts (of which there are plenty!) and make plans for my project – which we’ll come to in a minute.
I’m here with my wife. We’ve arranged a guided tour for our first day. What we don’t know is how lucky we’ve been. We’ve landed on our feet. We step into the hotel car park where we meet Marie and Donovan. From that very first moment, we just know we’re in the safest hands possible.
So – why are we here and what’s the project?
I’m a writer and I’m putting the finishing touches to my latest book, entitled Who Killed Oswald Grey? It tells the true story of the last Black man hanged in the UK in my home city of Birmingham, UK, in 1962.
Oswald’s father, Felix, had left Bog Walk for Britain in 1955: in 1960, Oswald went to join him. The eldest of seven siblings, he’d already done a stint in reform school for petty theft. Felix hoped that getting him to Birmingham would give him a fresh start. He was to be gravely disappointed.
Within weeks, Oswald – who always called himself Roy – had drifted into bad company, falling under the influence of small-time crook, Harris Carniff, who used the street name Mover.
In a bungled robbery in a small newsagent’s shop in June 1962, the proprietor, Thomas Bates, was killed by a single pistol shot. Three days later, Oswald was arrested for the crime. Less than six months later, he had been hanged in Winson Green prison – the last person to suffer that fate there before capital punishment was abolished in the UK in 1965.
His trial lasted less than a week: his appeal against the death sentence, less than an hour. The last-ditch appeal for clemency was dismissed almost immediately. He was deemed disposable.
Did Oswald shoot Thomas Bates? Evidence against him was purely circumstantial: there was no definitive proof that he was in possession of the gun at the time of the crime. Witnesses for the prosecution were Mover himself – who had his own back to protect – and another known police informer. The evidence was flimsy at best – certainly not enough to hang a man.
In all my research in Birmingham, I found very few people who had any reliable memory of the event. There certainly wasn’t any huge outcry or campaign at the time. I did manage to locate some people, visit some places and hear some stories. But I was left with something I really wanted to feel as much as I wanted to know………
….where had Oswald and his father come from? What was the life they led? And was there anybody there who knew anything more? In short, I wanted to know more about Jamaica and more about Kingston.
And that’s where Marie and Onestop Cultural Tours Jamaica came in!
From the first moments of our Downtown walking tour round Water Lane – where Marie seemed to know every street artist and café owner – we were able to get the sense of place that we had come for.
In the National Gallery and Institute of Jamaica, we were introduced to staff almost as if we were celebrity guests! As we moved from place to place, Marie phoned one contact after another to try to put me in touch with helpful people.
And, yes, of course we did the tourist stuff too. Bob Marley’s house, naturally; Emancipation Park, the sights and statues and – one of our highlights – fish soup and festivals at Gloria’s in Port Royal! All arranged meticulously by Marie.
Unlike many tourists, we spent all our time in and around Kingston: we were there for a purpose, so beaches would have to wait. It’s no exaggeration to say that during our time there, Marie and Onestop got us to places and people that we could never have done on our own.
You want to find out what we discovered? You’d like to know more of Oswald’s story? Well…..the book’s available in all formats from all major online sellers and bookshops. And when you open it up, you’ll see Marie’s name there as one of the people that made it happen.
And here’s one thing I definitely have learnt: you really don’t need to look any further than One Stop tours for your guide in Kingston.
Who Killed Oswald Grey? is available on Amazon
You can find Jon Berry’s work at www.jonberrywriter.co.uk