Book Review: this book is available at the Brodie Street Library
Murdered Midas: A Millionaire, His Gold Mine, and a Strange Death on an Island Paradise by Charlotte Gray | Sep 24 2019 HarperCollins Publishers Ltd. 319 pages
Both Kirkland Lake and the Bahamas have been in the news in 2019. Kirkland Lake for the celebration of its 100th anniversary and the Bahamas due to Hurricane Dorian that caused catastrophic damage to the island and its residents. However historically, the most famous event involving both communities was the murder of Sir Harry Oakes. Indeed, it was the crime of the last century.
The mystery surrounding the death of the mining tycoon has attracted numerous writers. “A gold mine. A millionaire. An island paradise. An unsolved murder. A missing fortune” ... British Royalty, Nazi connections. The list of intrigues goes on. A story often written but now as only Charlotte Gray can tell it. Her formidable curiosity, research and story telling have resulted in a balanced consideration of the tragedy and the life of Sir Harry....
In the book overview by HarperCollins: “on an island paradise in 1943, Sir Harry Oakes, gold mining tycoon, philanthropist and richest man in the Empire, was murdered. The news of his death surged across the English-speaking world, from London, the Imperial centre, to the remote Canadian mining town of Kirkland Lake, in the Northern Ontario bush.
The layers of mystery deepened as the involvement of Oakes' son-in-law, Count Alfred de Marigny, came quickly to be questioned, as did the odd machinations of the Governor of the Bahamas, the former King Edward VIII. Despite a sensational trial, no murderer was ever convicted. Rumours were unrelenting about Oakes' missing fortune, and fascination with the Oakes story has persisted for decades.
Award-winning biographer and popular historian Charlotte Gray explores, for the first time, the life of the m
an behind the scandal, a man who was both reviled and admired - from his early, hardscrabble days of mining exploration, to his explosion of wealth, to his grandiose gestures of philanthropy. Gray brings fresh eyes to the bungled investigation and shocking trial in the remote colonial island streets, proposing an overlooked suspect in this long co
ld case. Murdered Midas is the story of the man behind the newspaper headlines, who, despite his wealth and position, was never able to have justice.”
Some of the golden historical tidbits include: in 1576, Martin Frobisher while looking for the Northwest Passage sent a ship load of rocks back to England. It turned out to be iron pyrites or fools gold. In 1686, the Chevalier de Troyes leading a military expedition to James Bay, sent rocks from Lake Temiskaming back to Quebec City, where they went unnoticed. By the late 1880's the Wright silver-lead mine had been established on the site. In 1883, while the CPR was being constructed, nickel was discovered in Sudbury. However it wasn't until the Temiskaming and Northern Railway began pushing north, the silver and then gold mining camps began. The Cobalt rush in 1903, Larder Lake in 1906, followed by Porcupine in 1909 and Kirkland Lake, east of Swastika where in 1911, the year an impoverished American prospector, Harry Oakes stakes his first claims.
Most writers, including Charlotte Gray deal with Harrys abrasive character and mercurial temperament as the psychology of a lonely prospector gone bushed. Another explanation might be the exposure to dry mineral dust. Although he didn't work underground until driving his first shaft, Oakes put in long hours over many years chiseling for surface samples, hand steeling to get further down and eventually machine drilling to get the Toburn and Lake Shore Mines going. Miners often display early symptoms of dementia and this might have also affected the later Sir Harry. Certainly he had difficulties relating to women but he did get along well with the shrewd, tough minded Rosa Brown.
Rosa was a Jewish Hungarian emigre who ran a boarding house, bakery and laundry. She enrobed herself in all all that was British Royalty including the Union Jack and walked, followed by her pack of loyal dogs. Another character was the British socialite Unity Valkyrie Mitford. A rabid anti-Semite and the daughter of Baron David Freeman-Mitford Redesdale who had a mining claim between Swastika and Kirkland Lake where he spent many summers and Unity would visit. Unity had a relationship with Adolf Hitler and was rumoured to be the mother of his love child. There was speculation that NAZI swastika was symbolized after a good luck cross charm that she would wear.
The greater story of the women of Kirkland Lake has largely gone untold. High enlistment rates of miners during two world wars and the death and maiming underground along with the indiscriminate firing of men placed a huge burden on the women, some sexually exploited when they begged support for their families. The outrage culminated in the bitter miners strike of 1941-42 where two thousands women, supported the miners by marching in the dead cold of winter for union recognition, the right to collectively bargain and better working conditions. Jennifer Wynn Weber in her dramatic play published as a book in 2019 about the “Kirkland Lake gals” who helped organize and supported the strike. With Glowing hearts is the story of how ordinary women worked together to change the world (and did).
One story not in this book is about Harrys order to his men. Coming off shift from underground they were lined up and humiliated by having to pee in buckets. Harry Oakes had installed a copper roof on the “Chateau”, the giant log building that is now the Kirkland Lake Museum of Northern History. To turn the copper green, the acidic miners' urine was poured over the copper. Remember, this was at a time when work horse stables were nearby.
While Grey is balanced in her treatment of the character of Sir Harry Oakes, to fully understand the broader enmity of the miners towards the mine operators, a good reference is a book entitled, Remember Kirkland Lake, The Gold Miners Strike of 1941-42 by Laurel Seton McDowell,1983. Unsafe working conditions, especially underground where there was considerable death and injury, low pay, insecure tenure and rising living costs needed addressing. The average miner in the camp was forced to live “too close to the line” and was frequently in default of unpaid bills resulting in court actions for debt. Dissatisfaction was rampant. “On the evening of 18th November, 1941, the night shift in eight of the mines failed to report for work....the (Toronto) Star reported that 3850 of 4300 workers had struck”.
Unable to find a smoking gun pointing to who killed Sir Harry, suspicion returns to those who had a motive. His son-in-law Alfred de Marigny was tried and found not guilty. Harold Christie, the real estate agent who transformed the shabby colony into a mecca for the super rich had the most to lose if Oakes abandoned the Bahamas. Also, Sir Harry had a lot of enemies from the past who might have made him a final visit of retribution. Unfortunately, the botched investigation and the careless destruction of the crime scene ruined the chances of finding the real culprit. While Charlotte Gray has left no leaf upturned who knows what a future writer might uncover. Likely, the last word on the murder of Sir Harry Oakes is yet to come.
The author, in the spirit of a true detective, follows the money. “There was a complicated web of connections between the Duke of Windsor, Wenner-Grenn (A Swedish-German financier), Christie (Bahamian real estate promoter), and Oakes, plus General Camacho, (brother of the President of Mexico) would lead to speculation about illicit transfers of currency and gold designed to put them beyond reach of the British Government.” What happened to Oakes fortune, a considerable amount had disappeared. Did it go into a bank set up in Mexico? Did it continue to finance the NAZI network after the war?
If Charlotte Gray visits Kirkland Lake again she will be surprised to see a new head-frame by the highway on the west side of town. She was a little premature in predicting the demise of the community. At the 100th Anniversary parade young families lined the Government Road. New “shacks” (homes) have been built and some of the miners are beginning to stay in town rather than the long travel from larger communities. Like Harry Oakes going against conventional wisdom mining out under the lake, Kirkland Lake Gold is mining to the south of the town (south complex). The company has large proven reserves and is acquiring new properties. It has gone from being a junior to mid sized mining company with production nearing 1,000,000 ounces yearly, between their Canadian and Australian mines. The old gold town ain't dead yet.
Gray is scrupulous in her research and has included precise end notes and references to newspaper articles, not as footnotes at the bottom of the book pages but separately on her website (Charlottetown Gray)
The book is a great read and of appeal to an international audience.
The reviewer, Paul Filteau is a native of Kirkland Lake who now lives in Thunder Bay, Ontario. He writes on history and current issues relating to Northern Ontario. He was a regular contributor to the unfortunately defunct, High grader Magazine. He authored 2019 articles on Sir Harry Oakes, as well as, Children of the Slimes, for the 100th Centennial Edition, Celebrating Kirkland Lake, As Good As Gold
Paul Filteau
536 Black Bay Road
Thunder Bay, On
P7A 1P8
Ph: 807-683-3126
