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Savagery!
Retired banker stabbed, set ablaze
Everard Owen, Observer correspondent
Wednesday, February 04, 2009
Grange Hill, Portland- Retired banker 61-year-old Herbert Salicram had just sat down with his granddaughter to watch the 7:00 pm television news Monday when two masked criminals forced their way into his house and subjected him to a most savage death.
Neighbours said they were told that the men, armed with knives, attacked Salicram when he opened his front door to investigate the source of a liquid substance he had seen flowing under the door from outside.
The criminals demanded money, got it, then told Salicram, a farmer, that they wanted "the long gun", neighbours said.
When they were told that Salicram had no gun, they started stabbing him all over his body, the Observer was told.
Isoline Salicram, widow of slain farmer and former bank manager, Herbert Salicram, is a picture of grief as she reflects on the brutal murder of her husband at their home (shown here) in Grange Hill, Portland Monday night. (Photos: Everard Owen)
Apparently not satisfied that they had inflicted enough harm on Salicram, who once held a management position at the Bank of Nova Scotia head office in downtown Kingston, one of the robbers went upstairs the farmer's house, got a bed sheet and threw it over Salicram. They then ordered his frightened granddaughter to get them kerosene oil, tied her hands after she handed it to them, then poured the kerosene on the injured man and the sheet and set it ablaze.
Shocked at the gruesome act, Salicram's granddaughter freed herself, fled and alerted neighbours who rushed to the house, but got there after the killers had escaped. The neighbours put the fire out but were unable to save Salicram.
Yesterday, Salicram's wife of 32 years, Isoline, was a picture of grief as she stood outside their house.
"I was on my way home when I heard," she told the Observer. "It has affected me badly. They tied up our granddaughter's hands and threw kerosene oil on her."
Mrs Salicram and neighbours described Salicram as a good man who was always willing to give a helping hand to people in need.
"I live here from [I was] a child and I know that man and he troubled nobody at all," said one woman who gave her name only as Mary. "Mi belly cut mi and pain mi fi know seh dem kill him like dat."
The neighbours said Salicram was born and grew up in Grange Hill and had returned home to farm after retiring from the bank.
Salicram's brother-in-law, Lloyd Lindsay, described him as a disciplinarian. "He was very excellent, but some people might not have liked him because of how strict he was," said Lindsay.
"I would like them to get the two men who did this and discipline them," he added.
Yesterday, the police said they found Salicram's partially burnt body lying on its back in the passage between the dining hall and the living room of his four-bedroom house.
The cops said they had no suspects in the murder, Portland's third since the start of the year.
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Retired banker stabbed, set ablaze
Everard Owen, Observer correspondent
Wednesday, February 04, 2009
Grange Hill, Portland- Retired banker 61-year-old Herbert Salicram had just sat down with his granddaughter to watch the 7:00 pm television news Monday when two masked criminals forced their way into his house and subjected him to a most savage death.
Neighbours said they were told that the men, armed with knives, attacked Salicram when he opened his front door to investigate the source of a liquid substance he had seen flowing under the door from outside.
The criminals demanded money, got it, then told Salicram, a farmer, that they wanted "the long gun", neighbours said.
When they were told that Salicram had no gun, they started stabbing him all over his body, the Observer was told.
Isoline Salicram, widow of slain farmer and former bank manager, Herbert Salicram, is a picture of grief as she reflects on the brutal murder of her husband at their home (shown here) in Grange Hill, Portland Monday night. (Photos: Everard Owen) Apparently not satisfied that they had inflicted enough harm on Salicram, who once held a management position at the Bank of Nova Scotia head office in downtown Kingston, one of the robbers went upstairs the farmer's house, got a bed sheet and threw it over Salicram. They then ordered his frightened granddaughter to get them kerosene oil, tied her hands after she handed it to them, then poured the kerosene on the injured man and the sheet and set it ablaze.
Shocked at the gruesome act, Salicram's granddaughter freed herself, fled and alerted neighbours who rushed to the house, but got there after the killers had escaped. The neighbours put the fire out but were unable to save Salicram.
Yesterday, Salicram's wife of 32 years, Isoline, was a picture of grief as she stood outside their house.
"I was on my way home when I heard," she told the Observer. "It has affected me badly. They tied up our granddaughter's hands and threw kerosene oil on her."
Mrs Salicram and neighbours described Salicram as a good man who was always willing to give a helping hand to people in need.
"I live here from [I was] a child and I know that man and he troubled nobody at all," said one woman who gave her name only as Mary. "Mi belly cut mi and pain mi fi know seh dem kill him like dat."
The neighbours said Salicram was born and grew up in Grange Hill and had returned home to farm after retiring from the bank.
Salicram's brother-in-law, Lloyd Lindsay, described him as a disciplinarian. "He was very excellent, but some people might not have liked him because of how strict he was," said Lindsay.
"I would like them to get the two men who did this and discipline them," he added.
Yesterday, the police said they found Salicram's partially burnt body lying on its back in the passage between the dining hall and the living room of his four-bedroom house.
The cops said they had no suspects in the murder, Portland's third since the start of the year.
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