Winston Hall: The Running Man
Winston Hall at 21,
Ramsay, Kim L. Barbados' Most Wanted. Barbados: Kim Ramsey, 2018. pg 64
Winston Hall like many others, grew up a poor black boy in Suriname St Joseph during the 1970s. Like many others he was incredibly intelligent and was denied the chance to foster this intelligence due to a lack of opportunity. Like many others, his education ended after he graduated secondary school. Like many others, he turned to a life of petty crime in order to sustain himself. Like many others he was influenced by the race relations of the island, wherein the white community not only owned a majority of the land, they were privy to wealth, services and opportunity while the majority of the black population still used pit latrines. This is to say Winston Hall was like any man from this time and is far more a product of his incredible circumstances than any villainous intent.
Georgiana Adams in her book Winston Hall: Innocent or Guilty explains that he and his comrades Peter Bradshaw, David Oliver and to an extent Errol Bradshaw, Peter’s brother, fancied themselves a bit as Robin Hood, robbing from the rich and giving to the poor. It is no surprise then that on December 15th 1984 they found themselves robbing the Francia Plantation, home of Cyril and Denise Sisnett. None of these men were murderers, none were particularly violent but they were all nervous. Cyril, who was to be in his bed was downstairs in the kitchen playing with his dog, coincidentally this was the thieves’ route of entry, so he found himself face to face with Peter who shot him, claiming that he reached in his pocket so he thought he had a gun. Winston Hall tried to revive Mr Sisnett by splashing cold water on him to no avail. The men robbed the house, and left. It was not long until they were caught, as the murder of a white person was (and still is) a rarity on the island. They were arrested and beaten, shocked, shot at and threatened until they confessed.
On March 18th, 1985 the group were indicted on 22 charges between the four of them, including the murder of Cyril Sisnett which only Peter Bradshaw committed. Winston was upset at this because he did not kill anyone, and it could be argued that because of the high-profile victim, they were charged unfairly. So, as they were being transported to the prison van from the courthouse once more, the guards left Winston Hall and Errol Bradshaw alone. They ran. They escaped. Though Errol was turned in by his mother with a lawyer fairly quickly, Winston evaded police constantly. Time and time again, the police claimed they were stepping up their search yet he was constantly seen around St Joseph seemingly taunting them (Adams pg 37). Once on August 29th 1985, they cornered him in an abandoned house yet he still escaped through the dragnet of 60 police officers they had created (Boyce, 2014)
Since they could not find Winston, they turned their eyes towards his brother Desmond. It had been seven months and they were getting desperate, the white community was scared, the black population was beginning to regard Winston Hall with some awe. Sergeant Livingstone Burrows and Constables Denis Headley, David Hackett and Lloyd Brancker effectively kidnapped Desmond as no formal arrest was made. They carried him to a canefield during the night and beat him, squeezing his testicles and shooting at his feet so he danced as they claimed that he knew where his brother was and that he was providing him with food. When they were satisfied that he knew nothing they returned him to where they picked him up from. After this incident, his mother pressed charges against the police who were suspended however, nothing would ever come of it as the case never made it to trial as Magistrate Haynes Blackman dismissed it on March 1998 (Boyce 2014)
It was impossible for Desmond to know where his brother was, because his brother wasn’t even in Barbados. Around this time, he had been living in a community called Questelles in St. Vincent under the name Baje. Questelles was a Rastafarian fishing village. He would traverse Kingstown and eventually found himself in the Du-valet mountains on the leeward side of the island. (Adams pg 36)
Winston Hall being escorted by the police after his deportation to Barbados from St Vincent on November 7th 1989
Hall, Rommel. Winston Hall. Photograph. Loop News. August 22, 2017. https://barbados.loopnews.com/content/winston-hall-documentary-pays-homage-legend
He had grown out his locs and accepted this as his religion. Villagers recount him being a quiet man that kept to himself, as he had always been described by his friends. They also recount that he was favoured by the women of the community. Indeed he had found a woman to cook food for him whilst he grew his own ground provisions in his shanty. However, when he was asked about his life in Barbados or when he planned to return, he became evasive, though he spoke often about his family. He made friends with a man called Soco who went on to stay in Suriname St Joseph. Soco was eventually held for illegal immigration and questioned by the police before he was deported. On his return, he told Winston that the police knew where he was. In addition to this, Questelles was constantly monitored and raided by the police because of the drug use both real and perceived (due to the negative perception of Rastafarianism) present in Rastafarian communities (Adams pg 36). He had to leave, so Winston paid a fisherman to transport him to the Pacific Princess a ship heading back to Barbados. As he snuck unto the boat he was caught by the sailors as a stowaway, and when questioned gave the name Vincent Moore and passed himself off as a Vincentian until the police recognized him. After an investigation he was bundled unto a plane and returned to Barbados on November 7th 1989 (Adams pg 45), he had evaded police for almost four and a half years, he was now only 25 years old. (Adams pg 37)
However, his story does not end here, and it will be continued so stay tuned.
Bibliography
Adams, Georgina. Winston Hall Guilty or Innocent?: A True Life Story. Barbados: Georgiana Adams, 2006.
Boyce, Hayden. “From the Archives: Sudden End of the Winston Hall Saga.” NationNews Barbados nationnewscom. Nation Newspaper, December 25, 2019. https://www.nationnews.com/2014/11/08/from-the-archives-sudden-end-of-the-winston-hall-saga/.
Ramsay, Kim L. Barbados' Most Wanted. Barbados: Kim Ramsey, 2018.