And the Sea Will Tell (68 page)

“Yes, sir.”

“Do you recall telling Tom Wolfe that you were sick and tired of eating coconuts and fish?”

“I could have easily said that.”

“I gather you were eating the food on the
Sea Wind
from the time of August 30th onward?” Enoki asked.

“Yes.”

The next subject on Enoki’s list was the cake-truce incident the jury had heard so much about. “The 28th of August is the date on which the cake-truce incident, as Mr. Bugliosi refers to it, supposedly occurred,” the prosecutor said. “Now, as I understand your testimony, you don’t remember whether you took a cake over to the
Sea Wind
on the 28th?”

“That’s correct.”

“Now, you were running out of food supplies at that time, were you not?”

“Yes.”

“Wouldn’t a gift of food from you have been an important event for you at that time?”

The scenario being advanced by Enoki was obvious: the murders occurred on August 28 after Jennifer and Buck had gone to the
Sea Wind
with a cake, and she did not mention the visit in her diary because the Grahams were murdered that night.

“I brought things over to Mac and Muff periodically, things that I had made for them,” Jennifer said. “Without having it in the diary to refresh my memory, I would not remember it at this point.”

“Well, you did put in the diary for the 28th that you husked coconuts, and charged batteries, and a few other things that you did that day. Correct?”

“Yes.”

“But there is no entry for going to the
Sea Wind
, or taking a cake to anyone that day.”

“Yes. That’s correct.”

“Now, I believe your testimony also was that Mr. Shoemaker relating that Mac Graham had said something about a truce on that day must be incorrect?”

“Yes.”

“Because there was no need for a truce in your view of what was going on?”

“Yes.”

Enoki stared at Jennifer for a few moments. “If you were getting along at that time, was there any reason for you to tell Mr. Wolfe that you weren’t getting along with the Grahams?” he finally asked.

“I don’t believe that I ever indicated to Mr. Wolfe that we weren’t getting along.”

Enoki now began to take Jennifer over the events of August 30. “You said that Mr. Walker first mentioned this dinner invitation at approximately 9:00
A.M.
Is that correct?”

“Yes.”

“Between eleven o’clock and very late in the afternoon—when you were on the
Iola—
you had the
Iola
’s dinghy. Isn’t that correct?”

“I believe that’s correct.”

“Because otherwise you would be on the
Iola
with no way of getting ashore. Correct?”

“Yes.” When Jennifer hedged by adding that it was “possible” that Buck had the dinghy since she “didn’t need it” during the day, Enoki quickly firmed up her original position.

“A few days earlier you had gotten into an argument with Mr. Walker about him taking the dinghy and leaving you stranded on the
Iola
. Correct?” Enoki asked.

“Is that in my diary?”

“If you want to look at it…I believe it’s August 19th.”

“Yes, I see it.”

“It says there: ‘R came by to bake cakes and cookies which once again infuriated me…then sunshine. But I was stranded as he took the dinghy to shore. Slight confrontation, and to our separate corners for the night.’ Correct?”

“Yes.”

“Now…do you recall testifying in your theft trial that
you
had the dinghy on August 30th?”

“I don’t specifically recall, but I generally had the dinghy on the boat. So I could have easily testified to that, yes.”

“So, you
did always
have the dinghy that day, as far as you can remember?”

“As far as I can remember, yes.”

This, of course, was a critical issue I had discussed in detail with Jennifer long before the trial, and she had told me that Buck had the dinghy that day. Her current version, the same as her theft-trial testimony, could be taken to imply that Buck had not worried that she might come ashore without warning.
Enoki could now argue that Buck’s lack of concern showed that she had been involved in the murders
.

Enoki next queried her about hearing the sound of the Zodiac’s engine at some point that afternoon. “I believe you indicated on the chart that the motor sounded to you like it was going away from you, along the shore of Cooper and Strawn islands. Is that correct?”

“Yes, the sound was getting further away.”

“By ‘further away,” you mean further away from where you were on the
Iola
?”

“Yes.”

“So, the sound could equally have been going in a direction from the
Sea Wind
into the middle of the lagoon as well. Is that correct?”

“Yes.”

“Now, after you heard the Zodiac motor, did you actually hear it shut off, or did it just sort of disappear into the background?”

Again, a question worded in a way that, if taken literally, actually accepted Jennifer’s version of events.

“I just…I know that at some point I either ceased to hear it, or ceased to listen to it. One or the other.”

“I gather during all these times that you saw Mr. Walker during that day, you didn’t see any bloodstains on him?”

“No.”

“You didn’t see any scratches, or any indications that he was injured?”

“No.”

“What was he wearing that day? Do you remember?”

“He was wearing a pair of shorts.”

“That was his customary attire?”

“Yes.”

“Was he wet at all during any time of the day?”

“He perspired a lot, so he was always kind of—”

“Well, I mean, wet to the point where it was obvious he had been in the water. Were his shorts wet, or was his hair wet?”

“I don’t…I don’t remember anything like that.”

“Do you recall any peculiar smells about him, such as smoke or gasoline or kerosene?”

“No.”

“You found no bloodstains or signs of a struggle when you went on board the
Sea Wind
that night?”

“No, nothing like that.”

“Nothing unusual?”

“Nothing unusual,” she repeated.

“Was the door to the cabin of the
Sea Wind
already open, or was it not open?”

“It was open, as I recall.”

“Do you remember if there was any sign of someone having broken into that area?”

“No, I didn’t notice anything like that.”

“After awhile on the
Sea Wind
, you went below deck, correct?”

“Yes.”

“And is that where you saw what you thought they had left out for you?”

“Yes.”

“Are you able to recall specifically what was left out for you?”

“There was
a bottle of apricot brandy
and a bottle of vodka, and some cookies…and a couple of other things.”

I had made the right decision about the apricot brandy. I’d now be able to explore the matter on re-direct.

Enoki asked a series of questions about Walker’s “explosive personality” and criminal past. By the fourth or fifth query, Jennifer was teary-eyed and looked downcast.

“You knew that he had a prior conviction for armed robbery?”

“Yes,” she whispered.

Enoki was now ready to spring his big surprise.

If someone had suggested there probably was something important in Jennifer’s personal background that I didn’t know about and could be used against her at this trial, I would have scoffed at the suggestion. But I was wrong.

The prosecutor placed a hand on each edge of the podium, bracing himself for his final fusillade. “You’ve heard testimony from witnesses that you were a nonviolent person?” he said with an intonation that portended danger.

“Yes.”

“Is it also your testimony that you wouldn’t associate with violent people?”

“I would not associate with anybody that was doing any violent acts.”

“Do you consider shooting people to be violent?”

“Yes. Shooting people is violent.”

It was obvious that Enoki had something, and I listened uneasily, fearing the worst.

“Now, in 1975, or 1976, you were residing in the Puako area of the Big Island. Is that correct?”

“Yes.”

“During the time that you lived in Puako in 1975 or 1976, did you come to have a boyfriend named Joe Buffalo?”

“Yes.”

Joe Buffalo? I thought a moment. Yes, that was the “friend” of Jennifer’s who’d told her the FBI had contacted him about her. When she received the letter from Buffalo, Jennifer told me Buffalo had told her he had nothing to tell the authorities about her. Because of this, coupled with the fact that he wasn’t on the list of prosecution witnesses Enoki had furnished us before the trial, I therefore assumed he was no one to worry about. I was correct in assuming Buffalo had nothing incriminating to say about Jennifer, and hence would not be a witness against her. It was what the authorities had to say about Buffalo that was the problem. For some inexcusable reason on my part, I neglected to explore with Jennifer just who Buffalo was (not that my knowing this would have changed anything, but at least I would have been better prepared to handle the issue). And during my first interviews with Jennifer, when I had her account, in chronological order, for all of her movements and activities during her several-year Hawaii period, somehow Jennifer’s brief affair with a man named Joe Buffalo had slipped through the cracks.

Enoki now asked: “
And you became aware while you were going
with Mr. Buffalo that he had shot and killed a man in California. Isn’t that correct?”

“Yes.”

I didn’t quite freeze like a deer in headlights, but I remained expressionless, not wanting the jury to sense my surprise and alarm.

“You also knew that he was wanted by authorities in connection with that shooting incident?”

“No, I didn’t know that then. When…when the authorities came and arrested him, that was the first time I found out that he was…still wanted.”

“You did know that he was trying to keep a low profile in that area?”

“Right. I…I…he had been officially released from prison. And a low profile was something that in retrospect…I know he was keeping. But I didn’t know that he was being looked for, or wanted, or anything like that.”

“You thought that the reason he was trying to keep a low profile was because he was trying to conceal his prison background, is that it?” asked Enoki.

“No. He was just wanting to keep a low profile, just generally. I don’t know.”

“You testified that you were aware that Mr. Buffalo had been released from prison before he came to Puako. Correct?”

“Yes.”

“You were aware that his release was inadvertent, correct? That he was mistakenly released?”

“Not at that point, not until after he was rearrested.”

I knew the prosecution would now argue that the Buffalo affair showed that Jennifer’s relationship with the homicidal Buck Walker was
not
just situational but a way of life with her. One could reasonably conclude that she willingly associated with these birds because of her own feathers. Being involved with not just one but two murderers within a period of only two years seemed far too much for coincidence.
It was a pattern
.

Enoki was gathering his notes, like a news anchor after sign-off. Only he’d ended, not begun, with the day’s top story.

“Thank you,” he said. “Nothing further, your honor.” Enoki proceeded to request, and was granted, a fifteen-minute recess. Because of Joe Buffalo, I needed it more than he did.
^*

After grilling Jennifer about Buffalo during the break, I began my re-direct examination of Jennifer where Enoki had left off.

“With respect to this fellow, Joe Buffalo, when did you live with him in Hawaii?”

“1975, the latter part.”

“Did he tell you that he had killed someone in
self-defense
?”

“Yes.”

“And you believed him?”

“Yes.”

“Did he ever do anything violent while you were with him?”

“No, never.”

“To your knowledge, was he leading a law-abiding life throughout the period of time that you were with him?”

“Yes, he was.”

“What was your attitude about Joe Buffalo’s past?”

“I knew he had a rough background and I thought I could help him. He was generally…he seemed generally interested in putting his past behind him and living within the rules of society.”

“At the time you had this relationship with Mr. Buffalo, you had not yet suspected that the Grahams may have been murdered?”

“Correct.”

Because of the importance of the issue, I wanted to underline this fact in the jury’s mind by repetition: “So, when you were living with Mr. Buffalo, it was your state of mind that Mr. and Mrs. Graham had died an accidental death?”

“Yes.”

“The Buffalo association, then, was long before you began to suspect that maybe the Grahams were murdered.”

“Yes.”

I hoped this had reduced the pattern down to a coincidence in the jury’s eyes, lessening, at least somewhat, their speculation that she had
knowingly
lived with
two killers
. Knowingly, she had been involved with only one person who had taken the life of a fellow human being (in self-defense at that, she believed). And that person was Joe Buffalo, not Buck Walker.

S
INCE
E
NOKI
had tried to impeach Jennifer’s testimony that she and Buck had found both the Zodiac and the gas tank on the beach (using an allegedly
inconsistent
statement she had made to FBI Agent Shishido), I was now entitled, under the rules of evidence, to introduce any statement she’d made
consistent
with her present testimony, but only if made
before
the alleged inconsistent statement. Although her theft-trial testimony was given
after
her statement to Shishido, I nonetheless now asked Jennifer (without provoking the objection Enoki should have made): “At your theft trial, did you testify that you found the Zodiac dinghy overturned
on the beach
about a half mile or so to the west of the
Sea Wind
?”