Virgin Island Five

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Virgin Island Five (aka Fountain Valley Five)

• note: the neutrality of this page has been contested. See the discussion page."

"Virgin Island Five" are a group of activists accused of murdering eight people in the U.S. Virgin Islands. The murders took place during a turbulent period of rebellion on the Islands. During the 1970's, as with much of the world, a movement to resist colonial rule began to grow in the U.S. occupied Virgin Islands.

From 1971 to 1973, there was a small scale Mau Mau rebellion taking place on the islands. This activity was downplayed by the media, for fear it would damage the tourist industry, which the island's survival depends on.

Then on September 6th, 1972, eight American tourists were gunned down at the Rockefeller-owned golf course on the island of St.Croix. Quickly the colonial authorities picked up over one hundred blacks for interrogations, and the U.S. colonial troops carried out a series of repressive acts of violence against the black community. The F.B.I. and the United States Army troops led a 300-man invasion force into the islands and used strong armed tactics to conduct house to house searches of the low income areas.

The island was put under virtual martial law, and eventually five men who Ismail Ali, Warren (Aziz) Ballantine, Meral (Malik) Smith, Raphael (Kwesi) Joseph, and Hanif Shabazz Bey were apprehended and then charged with the attack. All the men were known supporters of the Virgin Island independence movement.

The five were charged after being subjected to vicious torture, in order to extract confessions. They were beaten, hung from their feet and necks from trees, subject to electric shocks with "cattle prods", had plastic bags tied over their heads and had water forced up their noses by the "defenders of the law." The judge (Warren Young) overlooking the case prior to being placed on the federal bench worked as Rockefeller's private attorney and and even handled legal matters for the Fountain Valley Golf Course.

Eventually, the five went to trial in what became known as the "Fountain Valley" murder trial. The trial contained many discrepancies and contradictory decisions which has called the legality and fairness of the trial into question. The practices supporters of the Virgin Island Five object to are the following: A look at the incredible conduct of the trial will tell anyone why:

• The court refused to excuse juror member Laura Torres, former wife of detective Jorge Torres, one of the arresting officers.
• Nine jurors testified that during the deliberations they were threatened with F.B.I. investigations on themselves and members of their families, and also threats of prosecution.
• The jury deliberated for nine days, and told the judge that they were "hopelessly deadlocked", yet he still refused to dismiss them and call a mistrial which worked to compel a guilty verdict.
• Four jurors, including the jury foreman, signed statements that they had been forced into a guilty verdict by the judge, police, and F.B.I.. One juror who's daughter was charged with bank robbery several years before, was told that those charges could be brought up again if she did not find the accused guilty.
• The court refused to throw out the "fake confessions", even after it was proven that they were obtained through torture.
• Even the Assistant District Attorney Joel Sacks and several police officers testified and admitted that they knew the dependents had been tortured, and that the "confessions" extracted had been obtained by such methods.

On August 13, 1973, each of the five men convicted and sentenced to eight(8) consecutive life terms. Today, Warren (Aziz) Ballantine, Meral (Malik) Smith, and Hanif Shabazz Bey are all confined in federal prisons. Ismail Ali was liberated to Cuba via an airplane hijacking in 1984. Raphael (Kwesi) Joseph was granted a pardon by the V.I. governor in 1992. Six years later Kwesi was mysteriously found dead of poison-laced drug overdose, after it was said that he was about to reveal evidence that would have exonerated at least one or more defendant.

As a Virgin Islands native, I read with interest your account of this case and must say I found it rather disturbing. First off the Virgin Islands were not under "colonial" rule at the time this atrocity was committed. The Virgin Islands has elected its own legislature since 1954 with full legislative powers and its own governor since 1970. Therefore in 1972 with a government leadership made up of predominantly black native Virgin Islanders, it can hardly be called colonial rule.

The reality of the case is this. Five armed men in fatigues and masks entered the golf clubhouse of Fountain Valley.

They rounded up 15 employees and guests and ordered them to kneel in a circle on a patio.

The men stole cash from the golf course cash register and collected cash the victims had in their pockets. All total they got away with $731.

According to witnesses, the five robbers shouted racial insults on the victims, all but one of them white.

As the captives begged for mercy, the robbers opened fire killing eight people.

The ringleader, St. Croix native Ishmael LaBeet (now known as Ishmael Ali), portrayed the murders as a revolutionary act for black power on an island where supposedly the wealthy white minority suppressed an impoverished black majority.

The fact is LaBeet was wanted on St. Croix for stealing. Unable to use a commercial flight to flee the island, he robbed the golf course to get enough money to buy a boat for his escape. His accomplices were taken in to the robbery scheme by LaBeet's promise of a big payday.

The depiction of the robbers being revolutionaries was made up by the defense team to detract from the true purpose of the crime. But even LaBeet’s accomplices saw his as a nut. Labeet was a Vietnam vet and was known to use drugs.

During his trial Labeet would make obscene outbursts. At one time he stood at the defense table and bellowed, "I killed them all. I don't give a f---. I killed them all."

Your make references to the Assistant District Attorney and police officers testifying that confessions were obtained through torture and that jurors testified to being threatened by law enforcement. The Virgin Islands may be a small place, but its justice system is as sophisticated as any found on the mainland. If any of these allegations were true, they would have been immediate grounds for an appeal to be granted. Furthermore because the territory is so small, there is no way an incident as you described, were it true, would have stayed out of the public eye.

Because my view is so diametrically opposed to your own, in all likelihood, this post might be deleted. But as a native Virgin Islander, I could not allow your view of this matter to go unchallenged.

This page is part of the Prison Abolition Guide.