"Wanted Dread or Alive" The Alibi
On Episode 2 of "Wanted: Dread or Alive" The narrative surrounding the murder of reggae icon Peter Tosh is revealed, focusing on the Supreme Court's ruling regarding the appeal of Dennis "Leppo" Lobban, the only individual convicted in this notorious crime. This case is emblematic of the broader societal issues in Jamaica, where power dynamics intertwine with music, politics, and street justice, revealing a landscape where the official accounts often mask deeper truths. Host Henry K highlights Lobban's perplexing defense during his trial, which raised questions about his motives and mental state, suggesting a deliberate misdirection rather than a genuine attempt to establish innocence. Further, the episode probes into the eerie circumstances of the night Tosh was killed, drawing attention to the inconsistencies in witness testimonies and the chilling implications of a robbery that may have been a façade for a targeted assassination. As we navigate this turbulent history, we are setting the stage for a deeper exploration of the events that transpired on that fateful night.
Produced by Henry K in association with Voice Boxx Studios Kingston, Jamaica
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Transcript
Inside the Supreme Court building, a colonial relic with its imposing concrete columns and rows of mahogany benches, three justices dressed in their British style robes, another remnant of colonial pageantry, sat in judgment of a case that was more than just a legal proceeding.
Speaker A:This was power protecting power.
Speaker A:As we read through the pages of the Jamaica Supreme Court decision denying the appeal of Dennis Lepo Loban, the only individual convicted in the murder of reggae star Peter Tosh, each paragraph feels carefully designed to maintain order in a case where chaos lurked right beneath the surface.
Speaker A:Besides, sometimes in Jamaica's complex web of music, politics and street justice, the official version of events is just the first layer of a story that resonates in that liminal space between shadows and light, between truth and legends, urban legends.
Speaker B:Where there's smoke, there's fire.
Speaker C:Entertainer and reggae star Bob Marley, Rita Marley, and the manager of the Whalers, Don Taylor, are now patients in the University Hospital after receiving gunshot wounds during a shooting incident which took place at Marley's home at 56 Hope Road tonight.
Speaker A:How long shall they kill our prophets while we stand aside and look?
Speaker C:The passing of another Jamaican superstar.
Speaker C:Reggae dynamo Peter Tosh, one of the original winners, had passed away by the.
Speaker A:Gun, by the glory to John Let him be praised because his righteousness govern the world.
Speaker A: ,: Speaker A:In the ruling, Justice Byron Carey describes the defense presented by the applicant, Dennis Loban.
Speaker A:The justice writes, the defense was an alibi.
Speaker A:Leppo, unusually in this jurisdiction, gave evidence on oath and called a witness in support.
Speaker A:Leppo acknowledged that he knew both witnesses, on whose eyewitness account the prosecution relied on Michael Robinson and Marlene Brown, and asserted that both were actuated by feelings of ill will towards him.
Speaker A:Him.
Speaker A:In the case of Marlene Brown, he related a discussion between himself, Peter Tosh and the witness in which she referred to him as a fucking liar and a news carrier.
Speaker A:For Peter Tosh, it seemed that Marlene's brother, while driving Peter Tosh's car, had been involved in a motor vehicle accident, and Leppo had brought this to the attention of Peter Tosh.
Speaker A:He also explained in the course of his evidence that although the relationship between himself and Marlene had cooled, he nevertheless continued to visit and eat what she prepared.
Speaker A:With regard to the other witness, Michael Robinson.
Speaker A:Leppo related that during his last visit to Tash's before the incident, he had been given $1,000 by his benefactor Peter Tosh, who also had given Michael Robinson an amount of $500.
Speaker A:Robinson was less than happy with his offering and intimated that he was entitled to more.
Speaker A:But Tosh said that he was not in the funds at the time and suggested to Robinson that he should contact him later.
Speaker A:Peter Tosh further informed Robinson that the applicant, who is also called Leppo, was his brethren.
Speaker A:Apparently, all this made Robinson quite unhappy because on the following day, when Leppo met Robinson and greeted him, he received no response back.
Speaker A:So there it is.
Speaker A:Contrary to all Supreme Court norms and against every principle of criminal defense, Denis Leppo Loban chooses to testify under oath directly to the justices, with an alibi that reads more like deliberate misdirection than a genuine defense.
Speaker A:His testimony unfolds like an episode of Law and Kingston Edition not detailed in this document.
Speaker A:Loban testified he was nowhere near Plymouth Avenue the night of the killings.
Speaker A:He was at a grocery shop in Jonestown at 3 Crooks street until about 10pm drinking with friends and the shop owner, where he heard about Tasha's murder on the news the same time as everyone else.
Speaker A:Leppo goes on to accuse Marlene Brown of framing him for the triple murder out of malice and retribution for him snitching on her brother, who damaged Peter's car in a collision.
Speaker A:And while he admits their relationship had cooled, Loban testified that he would still visit Marlene and Tosh and would, quote, eat what she prepared, end of quote.
Speaker A:So just imagine that Leppo, accused of executing one of reggae's most powerful voices, stands before Jamaica's highest court appealing for his life.
Speaker A:And he's up on the stand talking about Marlene Brown's meal prep, then launches into a convoluted tale about a rift between himself and fellow Tosh acolyte Michael Robinson over a $500 snub, which Leppo cites as the reason that Robinson corroborated Marlene Brown's story.
Speaker A:His proof?
Speaker A:A cold shoulder he got from Robinson the day after the incident.
Speaker A:First of all, it's revealing that Justice Carey made the point to write that lo Band's behavior in court was unusual because there was something odd about his testimony, which begs to Did Dennis Leppo Lobann have any emotional or psychological issues?
Speaker A:Remember, this is a career criminal who spent most of his adult life locked away in the deplorable conditions of Jamaica's correctional institutions, only to be mysteriously let out of prison just prior to Peter Tosh's killing.
Speaker A:And if Dennis Loban really wanted to muddy the waters and convince the Supreme Court to overturn his conviction, wouldn't he have let his defense attorney argue the case to the court instead of delivering it himself?
Speaker A:There certainly were other more coherent and plausible arguments to present to the justices other than the alibi that he gave, starting with all the secrecy surrounding the two unknown assailants who accompanied him on the night of the murder and their role in the killing.
Speaker A:Or how about the contradictions between witness statements given to the police and press after the murder and their subsequent testimony in court, which we'll get to.
Speaker A:But for now, the question is, what was Leppo's mental state not only during the trial, but during the commission of the crime?
Speaker A:And is it possible that he didn't want his death sentence overturned?
Speaker A:That whatever dark secret he harbored about that night on Plymouth Avenue, he believed it was safer behind bars on Jamaica's notorious death row than out on the Kingston streets.
Speaker A:Justice Cary then concludes the jury were required then to consider, on the one hand, the identification evidence of the two eyewitnesses, namely that of Marlene Brown and that of Michael Robinson.
Speaker A:On the other hand, they had to take into account the alibi of Leppo and his witness.
Speaker A:The identification evidence was, in our view, more satisfactory.
Speaker A:Marlene Brown and Michael Robinson knew the lighting was adequate, proximity for viewing.
Speaker A:The applicant was close.
Speaker A:We ourselves are satisfied that the learned trial judge gave directions which were adequate, clear and accurate.
Speaker A:The jury, having rejected the alibi, had powerful evidence on which they were entitled to return the verdict.
Speaker A:They did.
Speaker A:The Supreme Court ruled that the trial jury had powerful evidence to return the verdict.
Speaker A: They did back in: Speaker A:And Dennis Lepo Loban was sentenced to death by hanging.
Speaker A: commuted to life in prison in: Speaker A:And Leppo, having served seven years, qualified for the commutation.
Speaker A: But then, in August: Speaker A:The official cause?
Speaker A:Liver failure, common enough for aging inmates in Jamaica's unforgiving penal system.
Speaker A:But like everything else in this case, Leppo's death carried undertones of something deeper and darker.
Speaker A:Those who knew him in his final days spoke of a man that seemed to be carrying a weight far heavier than his mortality.
Speaker A:24 years spanned the Peter Tosh murder from Dennis Loban's death.
Speaker A:One life devoted speaking truth to power, another spent keeping power's secrets.
Speaker A:Who was Dennis Lepolo Ban?
Speaker A:Why was a violent criminal recently released from prison, given free reign in Tasha's yard, allowed within the singer's inner circle, eating the meals prepared by Tasha's wife Marlene?
Speaker A: rpts of an article written in: Speaker A:Not only one of the earliest and most revealing accounts of that night in Barbican, but also helps describe the circumstances that led up to the murder.
Speaker A:Written by Bob Marley biographer Timothy White, a highly respected journalist who eventually was appointed editor of Billboard magazine, the gold standard for music news, White's musician magazine piece titled Days of Dying graphically details Tash's murder from inside the room.
Speaker A:But just as important, his meticulously researched article underscores the reasons that artists like Marley and Tash were never able to escape the Trench Town ghettos and why, for better or worse, they always seem to be surrounded by characters like Leppo.
Speaker A:Before getting to Tash's murder, the author details the tragic events around Carlton and Aston Barrett, the Wailers famed rhythm section Timothy white.
Speaker A: In early February: Speaker A:Rumors in Trentown had it that Rita Marley was approached for ransom money and she had refused.
Speaker A:Mr.
Speaker A:Barrett's decapitated body was eventually found in the brush.
Speaker A:It was also armless and legless.
Speaker A: ,: Speaker A:Carlton Barrett was driving home late night that evening, another car trailing his.
Speaker A:Barrett parked in front of his Kingston home and was ambling across his courtyard to the front door when an assailant slipped up behind him, pressing a pistol to the base of his squarish skull and squeezed off two rounds.
Speaker A:Within days, Jamaican police had arrested his wife, Albertine, and her lover, a taxi driver named Lenroy, and charged them with the slaying.
Speaker A:The days of dying had returned.
Speaker A:After a long period of creative stagnation and business wrangles with his record label, Peter Tosh was busy improving his own reputation, his primary objective being a proposed concert tour to commence at Madison Square Garden in support of his EMI America LP no Nuclear War, which had been issued in July.
Speaker A:However, discussions between the record label and Tosh business partner Joe Borzecki had not resulted in any advance for the concerts.
Speaker A:And with most of his income tied up in numerous legal fights, Peter and Joe decided to try to borrow the necessary cash.
Speaker A: ,: Speaker A:He was also isolated.
Speaker A: concert had been in December: Speaker A:Since then he had kept a low profile, his music seldom heard on jbc, his fellow musicians keeping their distance.
Speaker A:Many disliked Marlene Brown, Peter's woman who had a reputation as a dabbler in Obia.
Speaker A:Tosh had also broken ties with Bunny Wailer, who who he accused of lowering the moral standards of reggae with his dancehall records.
Speaker A:Peter Tosh had also lost a long and ugly court battle for custody of his youngest of eight children by various women.
Speaker A: been burned to the ground in: Speaker A:He was currently residing in an expensive two story bungalow on Plymouth Avenue in Barbican, an upper middle class section of the Kingston suburb of St Andrew.
Speaker A:His retinue of late had dwindled to local craftsman Michael Robinson, bush doctor and occult herbalist Wilton Doc Brown, JBC personality Jeff Frye Dixon, his wife Joy, and drummer percussionist Carlton Santa Davis.
Speaker A:There were other habitues at his home, however.
Speaker A:These were the buzzard, higgler and bad beggarmen, criminal mendicants, types who were the bane of every Jamaican music personality who had escaped but not outdistanced the West Kingston slums.
Speaker A:These bad boys crept into even the nicest uptown precincts, knowing how to strike the balance between general nuisance, sycophant and nagging reminder of an impoverished past.
Speaker A:A smart bad boy on the beg would avoid disrupting suburban life, passing like a phantom through its tidy environs, while never letting the former slum residents off the hook, subtly preserving the notion that the social climbing reggae star and the ghetto sponger were both interlopers.
Speaker A:The maxim that good reggae never quail, quit or leave the ghetto endured among leading Jamaican musicians as both a slice of wisdom and a warning from Bob Marley on down.
Speaker A:No top ranking artists from Shanty Town had ever entirely severed their ties with yardlife, retaining a measure of acquaintance with its ways and carrying an unresolved load of guilt about brethren left lingering in its Awful back lanes.
Speaker A:Moreover, Jamaica's reggae triumphs as crossover music had always been tentative or conditional, its international potency still oddly dependent on root savvy and cutting edge status in downtown sphere.
Speaker A:For better or worse, the ghetto remained the driving force of Jamaican rock.
Speaker A:And nobody ever found a way to keep his rhythms tough without re tapping the source.
Speaker A:Tragically, that source knew how to tap back.
Speaker A:As someone who has spent countless hours in Kingston working with singers and musicians, many who grew up in the slums and ghettos of Jamaica, I've seen firsthand how important keeping ties to the community is for an artist when neighborhood friends remain part of an inner circle.
Speaker A:It's not about refusing to move on, as critics often cite.
Speaker A:It's about understanding that authentic art requires an ongoing dialogue with its roots.
Speaker A:Peter Tosh and Bob Marley wanted to maintain their cultural connection to the neighborhoods that recognized their gift, that forged their talent.
Speaker A:And the reality is these bonds aren't choices, they're lifelines that keep the artists grounded in their truth.
Speaker A:It's the source of their creativity.
Speaker A:If they lose touch with the streets, they lose touch with themselves.
Speaker A:Unfortunately, as Timothy White wrote, sometimes that source taps back.
Speaker A: ,: Speaker A:And just a warning, this part of the article I'm about to read has explicit language and graphic violence.
Speaker A:The morning after Peter Tosh and Marlene Brown had returned to Barbican, they were visited by Dennis Lepo Laban, a higgler and self styled dub poet whose criminal escapades in West Kingston had long paralleled Peter's gains as a performer.
Speaker A:The 32 year old thug, whose smirking screw faced features bore a slight resemblance to the singers, had been hitting on Tosh for cash and kindness since the early 70s.
Speaker A:Over the past two years, Tosh, 42, had given him money to preserve his Koch at 2 Crescent Road in the ghetto and to help feed a child by his woman.
Speaker A: onth jail rap for vagrancy in: Speaker A:In May of 74, he drew some serious time, 15 years for three separate counts of robbery with assault.
Speaker A:Two months later, the Kingston Home Circuit court got around to convicting him for assault with intent to rob, robbery with aggravation, shooting with intent to kill and wounding with intent to kill.
Speaker A:The minimum aggregate sentence for his spree of larceny and attempted murder was 25 years of hard labor.
Speaker A: ,: Speaker A: ,: Speaker A: ,: Speaker A:Leppo approached the front gate, knocking, then hesitating in anticipation of someone calling off Peter's 15 guard dogs.
Speaker A:He had nothing to fear, for all the dogs, but two were tethered, including those who were attack trained.
Speaker A:Tasha's friend Michael Robinson answered the knock.
Speaker A:Robinson was surprised to see it was Leppo, who rarely came after sundown since the group inside Peter, Marlene, Doc and Santor had been expecting Free Eye and Joy Dixon.
Speaker A:Robinson's curiosity at the sight of Leppo turned to anxiety when he saw two other strangers join the higgler as he made his way down the darkened path towards the house's front stoop.
Speaker A:Michael led the trio into the foyer, whereupon the tallest stranger spun around, shutting and locking the door behind the group.
Speaker A:In seconds, Robinson had three pistols trained on his temples and he was hustled up the stairs to the living room as the tall man hissed at him not to make any bumble clot noise.
Speaker B:Don't make any bumble clot noise.
Speaker A:Everybody belly it.
Speaker A:Shouted Loban.
Speaker B:I said bell eat.
Speaker A:No stepping in front of a flickering television in the center of the dimly lit living room as Tash and his friends gaped.
Speaker A:Nobody seated before the glowing TV moved, astonishment etched in cool blue white on their faces.
Speaker A:Get flat, lepo repeated in a hysterical tone.
Speaker A:This is a hold up.
Speaker B:I say.
Speaker B:Everybody get down on the ground, Mr.
Speaker B:Get flat, man.
Speaker A:Tosh, Wilton, Davis and Robinson sank to their knees and obediently stretched out on the cold floor.
Speaker A:Marlene Brown on her haunches besides the chair, refused to fall on her stomach.
Speaker A:Where's the money?
Speaker A:Leppo bellowed to Peter.
Speaker B:Tell me where the money that is.
Speaker B:Where the money that.
Speaker A:But only Marlene answered, explaining there was no money in the house.
Speaker A:She reminded Leppo that his younger brother, who went by the alias of Handsome, had tried to borrow some money earlier in the day and was told to return after the weekend when a Monday morning bank trip would make a loan possible.
Speaker A:Leppo turned to her, rage in his bloodshot eyes, and hollered that it was her obeah that had brought this gunplay to pass spells that stopped Peter from shelling out his customary alms to the bad men.
Speaker A:You're dead for this tonight, he vowed.
Speaker B:Shut up your mouth.
Speaker B:It's you who caused this.
Speaker B:Hey boy, how you let your woman control the money?
Speaker B:Oh, you let your woman control your Money.
Speaker A:The tall gunman was impatient with his exchanges.
Speaker A:He shouted for everyone to stand, divest their pockets and persons of any cash, jewelry, watches and so on.
Speaker A:When he discovered Santa had 200 Jamaican dollars on him, he exploded in fury, wondering what other valuables were being withheld.
Speaker B:You're empty on the pocket.
Speaker B:Make sure you hand over everything.
Speaker A:Tash was approached, the tall man wresting the gold chain from the 6 Foot singer's neck as he raised his gun hand to pistol whip it.
Speaker A:Peter, being skilled in karate, automatically countered the blow.
Speaker A:The tussle caused a nearby electric fan to topple to the floor.
Speaker A:Just then, another knock was heard at the gate.
Speaker A:As Leppo and his other gunmen ordered Tosh to get back down, the tall fellow spat that Tash was dead for that tonight.
Speaker B:Singer, you fiddot.
Speaker B:You hear?
Speaker B:You're dead.
Speaker A:He stepped into the kitchen, taking up a machete kept beside the refrigerator for opening up coconut, and strode back to the sprawled Tosh, barking, he would chop off his head if he didn't disclose where the money was.
Speaker A:Marlene was now exclaiming that it must be Fri and Joy at the door, pleading with the gunman not to answer the knocks to spare them.
Speaker D:Please, I beg you, don't answer.
Speaker D:The door left, Joy and Fri met, then go home.
Speaker A:Outside, the couple had grown quizzical with the lack of response, especially after hearing the fan crash to the floor within, and they pounded on the gate's metal mailbox to draw attention of those inside the bungalow.
Speaker A:The tall stranger appeared to escort them inside, and as soon as the nervous Joy and Fria were across the threshold, the tall gunman ripped the gold chain from Fri's neck and then jabbed a hand into Friye's trouser pocket, pulling out $400 worth of bills.
Speaker A:Leppo began wandering in and out of adjacent room rooms, screaming, where's the money?
Speaker A:Certain Tosh would not have returned from America without some tell me where the money that no.
Speaker B:You think this is a joke?
Speaker A:Peter and Marlene took turns reasoning with Leppo, proposing various possibilities for when the bank opened on Monday.
Speaker D:Monday we saw this thing out.
Speaker D:Please, Leo, please.
Speaker D:Here.
Speaker D:I'm going to give you the money.
Speaker A:Hearing this, the tall machete toting gunman lost all composure, yelping at Leppo.
Speaker A:Do what you come for.
Speaker A:With that, Leppo wheeled around and fired a random shot at Marlene, who was huddled next to Joy.
Speaker A:The bullet zipped across Marlene's scalp, ripping flesh as it sped, and then sliced into Joy's mouth.
Speaker A:Dislocating teeth passing out through the side of her cheek.
Speaker A:Both women went down in shock and horror, feigning death.
Speaker A:Badly agitated, Leppo's wild eyes darted from the woman's blood splattered brows to Peter's bowed head, and he stabbed his pistol into Tasha's forehead and fired twice, the bullets battering the outside of the singer's skull as they entered.
Speaker A:Tosh's body snapped sharply from the force of the shots, then fell limp.
Speaker A:The sight seemed to drive all three gunmen over the brink of composure, and they began firing in unison as they scampered about eight or nine shots crisscrossing the room.
Speaker A:A slug slammed Michael Robinson's thigh as he crawled under a coffee table.
Speaker A:There was a pause, and then more reports rang out.
Speaker A:Doc Brown took a bullet to the head, dying instantly.
Speaker A:Frye received two shots behind his ear.
Speaker A:Another shot was aimed at Michael Robinson, punching through his leather hat and slicing across his paint.
Speaker A:He was lying there, wondering how long it took a man to die, when he felt another bullet burst in his bag.
Speaker A:There was a last spray of chaotic gunfire, six or seven bullets bouncing and skittering in all directions.
Speaker A:Santa flinched as one creased his shoulder.
Speaker A:Joy froze.
Speaker A:Another pierced her right leg.
Speaker A:Then came an awful stillness.
Speaker A:At length it was interrupted at some distance by scuffling feet, the muffled din of a racing VW bus engine and squealing tires.
Speaker C:What a beautiful complexion.
Speaker C:They use Castile beauties.
Speaker A:Yeah, that's heavy, right?
Speaker A:Peter's death sent shockwaves across the world, and it hit me hard.
Speaker A:You see, just six months earlier, I was working in Kingston at Toughgong Records, hired right out of college by Rita Marley for an internship at the label.
Speaker A:And when Tosh was murdered, I was back in Washington, D.C.
Speaker A:working part time at Ross Records, an independent label founded by reggae pioneer Gary Dr.
Speaker A:Dreddhimelfarb.
Speaker A:Reggae music was my life, and before the Internet and news feeds with instant updates, I was relying on expensive phone cards to call friends in Jamaica with any news about the killing or any clues about what really happened.
Speaker A:Then, a couple of days later, the story made the New York Times, and I combed through the article for any insights or details I hadn't heard yet.
Speaker A: ,: Speaker A:Mr.
Speaker A:Tosh was 42 years old, the police said Mr.
Speaker A:Tosh and Wilton Doc Brown a maker of health food, died from their wounds en route to the hospital.
Speaker A:Five others, including Mr.
Speaker A:Tosh's companion, Andrea Marlene Brown, were wounded.
Speaker A:Radio Jamaica said the attack appeared to have been a robbery attempt.
Speaker A:Three armed men arrived on motorcycles at Mr.
Speaker A:Tosh's home in St.
Speaker A:Andrew, a suburb of Kingston, entered the house about 8:30pm Friday and shot the seven people present after they refused to give up their money, the radio station said.
Speaker A:A police Detective said that Mr.
Speaker A:Tosh had just returned from the United States and that the robbers apparently thought he had a large amount of cash with him.
Speaker A:The detective added the assailants had been tentatively identified, but no arrests have been made.
Speaker A:Prime Minister Edward PG Seaga extended his condolences to Mr.
Speaker A:Tasha's family and friends, and former Prime Minister Michael N.
Speaker A:Manley extolled the singer as a man who gave Jamaica and the world an unforgettable library of musical works, which will be played and sung by many generations of people to come.
Speaker A:More than 100 people gather today at the University hospital where the wounded were taken, the story continues.
Speaker A:But I just want to say, when I was learning the art of true crime investigation in college, one of my professors, a former New York City Police detective, Dr.
Speaker A:James Fife, shared a piece of wisdom that has lingered with me all these years.
Speaker A:He said time doesn't just heal wounds, it rewrites memories.
Speaker A:He'd seen countless times working murder cases, how witnesses stories would shift like desert sands, each retelling smoothing away the edges of truth.
Speaker A:There is something haunting about reading a newspaper clipping from right after a murder, knowing that these words were written before the story could be reshaped by careful hands.
Speaker A:If you listen carefully, you'll notice the New York Times quoted Jamaican police and Radio Jamaica reporting that three armed men on motorcycles arrived at Mr.
Speaker A:Tosh's home, consistent with statements made with the witness and survivor, Marlene Brown, Peter's wife, who after being shot said she laid still and silent, made believe she was dead until she heard the assailants ride away on their bikes.
Speaker E:So I wait until I hear, like bike startup.
Speaker E:I turn light, I see Peter in a pool of blood, Fry in a pool of blood, Doc in a pool of blood.
Speaker A: is Musician magazine piece in: Speaker A:Yeah, that's quite a shift from three motorcycles to a Volkswagen bus.
Speaker A:And I don't know how familiar you are with the noise of a vintage VW bus engine, but it kind of sounds like an electric toothbrush as the battery's dying.
Speaker A:And like so many details central to this case, those three motorcycles soon disappear the same way the two unknown assailants faded into the shadows, never to be identified, never to be held accountable for their crimes.
Speaker A:And speaking of these two mysterious gunmen, did anyone else notice something interesting about the description of their behavior, their mannerisms in the Timothy White article?
Speaker A:They certainly didn't appear to be casual criminal lackeys following the queue of Leppo, which the Supreme Court would have wanted us all to believe.
Speaker A:No, not at all.
Speaker A:In fact, the unidentified assailant, who Timothy White describes as only the tall man, has an ominous and foreboding presence during the entire assault and killings.
Speaker A:When he impatiently barks at Leppo to do what you came for, that doesn't sound like a subordinate addressing his gang leader.
Speaker A:That sounded like he was giving an order to Leppo.
Speaker A:An order that the witnesses all recall in chilling detail.
Speaker A:The same order that has convinced each one of those survivors that this robbery was just a charade, a distraction to hide what was a premeditated cold blooded assassination of reggae singer Peter Tosh.
Speaker B:Do you believe robbery was the motive of the shooting?
Speaker E:No.
Speaker E:They just used it as an excuse because they couldn't just, come on, make people feel that they were sent.
Speaker E:I don't care.
Speaker E:I know they were sent because the order that they came in.
Speaker E:Peter, you're there tonight.
Speaker E:May come for kill you.
Speaker E:Them come for kill me.
Speaker E:Them words they may never forget.
Speaker A:When you hear the survivors recollection of that night, it calls into question the entire official narrative of the shooting.
Speaker A:Remember, the Supreme Court said after the initial bullet grazed Marlene's skull, there was a barrage of gunshots and all men must have fired the court giving the impression that this was some kind of random adrenaline fueled free for all gunplay.
Speaker A:Yet when all the smoke clears, Tosh gets two bullets to the forehead, free eye, two shots behind the ear, Wilton, one to the head.
Speaker A:Michael Robinson, Joy Dixon and Marlene Brown all survive shots to the face and skull.
Speaker A:That is one miraculous percentage of accurate kill shots for a crime described as a robbery gone awry.
Speaker A:And while they were all outspoken about why those three gunmen were at Plymouth Avenue that night, there is an eerie silence when it comes to talking about two out of three of those men.
Speaker A:I mean, wouldn't you be careful too, if there was a cold blooded killer known as the tall man on the loose, lurking in the shadows, knowing you could identify him for the murder.
Speaker A:Yeah, I thought so.
Speaker A:Well, on a positive note for policing and crime fighting in Jamaica, turns out Dennis Loban wasn't the only person charged for murder.
Speaker A:In one of the strangest twists to this case, another individual was arrested and stood trial, along with Leppo, for Tasha's killing a man who wasn't one of the shooters.
Speaker A:Yeah.
Speaker A:And you may ask, how is it that we've reached this far in the story, including hearing an entire decision by Jamaica's Supreme Court recounting the murder, naming the victims, the witnesses, the suspects, and yet no mention of one of the most important people in the entire investigation.
Speaker A:The man who connects the blood of Peter Tosh with the Babylon system that wanted him dead.
Speaker A:Stay tuned to meet Steve Russell, the taxi man behind the wheel of that VW bus that transported the gunman to and from the murder scene.
Speaker A:Mr.
Speaker A:Russell claimed he.
Speaker A:He was just a patsy hired to do a favor for a friend that night.
Speaker A:But he may hold the key that unlocks this entire mystery.
Speaker A:We'll find out on our next episode.
Speaker A:The Getaway Driver, produced by Henry K Productions.
