At the age of seventy-five, after a lifetime spent on the run, Silas Duane Boston’s luck eventually ran out. On 1 December 2016, he was arrested and charged with the murders of Chris and Peta. Some 14 months after I had first tracked down Boston and his two sons, Russell and Vince, on Facebook, his loathsome past had finally caught up with him.
In the absence of finding Chris and Peta alive, it was the best news that we could have possibly hoped to receive. Not once in all the 39 years since their deaths did we ever believe we would hear those words: ‘Silas Duane Boston is in custody’. It was better late than never.
Even his arrest wasn’t straightforward. We had been told that since reopening the case, he was under surveillance at his nursing home in Eureka. Boston had housing and medical rights as a military veteran because he had served in the United States Coast Guard for a short period of time in his teens before being kicked out for falsifying his documents. Because this was a Federal case, it was the responsibility of the FBI and not the police to arrest him. As planned weeks in advance, the two burly arresting FBI Special Agents, David Sesma and Marcus Knutson, arrived unannounced at the Seaview Rehabilitation & Wellness Center, but when they asked for Silas Duane Boston, they were told he had checked out! Just three days before, he had moved to the Paradise Ridge Post Acute Facility, 1633 Cypress Lane in Paradise. Some 200 miles from Eureka, Paradise is located in the Sierra Nevada foothills above the Northeastern Sacramento Valley. Had he been tipped off about an imminent arrest? Was this his last swansong? We will never know.
After a 12-hour round trip, David Sesma and Marcus Knutson arrived in Paradise and were told by staff at the facility that he was staying in bed 18B. Armed with the double murder warrant, they approached Boston, who because of arthritis was in a wheelchair in the hospital lobby, having a cigarette. He was wearing diapers and Sesma said: ‘he appeared not to be in great physical shape but he had all his mental faculties’.
Was he surprised? If he was, he didn’t show it but even he must have wondered how on earth he could be arrested for a crime he committed almost 40 years go. The interview with Detective Amy Crosby in February of that year had flagged up to him that the police were once more on his trail and this time closing in on him. Knowing his status was ‘hot’, Russell believes that his father had started to grow his grey hair and beard to disguise himself in readiness to flee to Mexico again, but his health never improved enough.
The Special Agents advised Boston that he was under arrest for the disappearance of Christopher Farmer and Peta Frampton in 1978. He made little or no comment when they placed handcuffs on him. Complaining that he couldn’t hear what they were saying, they took him to collect his hearing aids from his bedroom. From the staff, they obtained a copy of the medication he was required to take.
When he walked he wobbled and he had to be lifted into the FBI’s transport vehicle to take him to the Chico Resident Agency of the FBI in Chico. Here, he was interviewed, videoed, and given a sandwich. He was shown pictures of Chris and Peta but denied knowing them. Questioned further, he then changed his story to say that he did recall meeting them in Belize and that they had been passengers on the Justin B. The FBI officers employed various methods of interrogation including playing to his ego but Boston did not waver from his standpoint of innocence. They said that the families wanted closure but he lacked all remorse. On hearing that his sons had given witness statements against him, he was said to be livid, and particularly with Russell. The interview lasted two hours and Boston then requested an attorney.
He was then transported to the Sacramento County Main Jail where as a high-risk prisoner he was fully shackled. Sesma noted that when they were booking him into the jail, he had a ‘ton of medical conditions’.
It was Sesma who wrote the affidavit for the arrest of Boston. Working for the FBI for 18 years, his extensive experience extends from criminal matters involving violent gangs, drugs, the sex trafficking of children, international kidnappings to homicides and complex financial crimes. He has been consulted on many cold case homicides and violent crimes. Boston was in expert hands.
Shortly before the arrest, my family and Peta’s family were asked if we wished to seek the death penalty but advised that were we to do so, it could greatly protract proceedings. Personally, I would like nothing more than to have seen him wiped from this earth. What possible good can come from keeping such a sick deviant alive? But Nigel and I felt the ultimate decision should be Mum’s: she chose to opt for a life sentence. At the age of ninety-two, having waited almost 40 years to see Boston arrested, she naturally wanted justice to be served as quickly as possible. That aside, her decision was no surprise to us, knowing that she has never believed in an ‘eye for an eye’ philosophy. Mum felt that in seeking the death penalty she would be stooping to Boston’s level of the gutter. She was content that if convicted (and with such compelling evidence, he surely would be), he would spend the remainder of his life in jail and that would present greater suffering, contemplation and recognition of his evil than being sentenced to death could ever do.
On 2 December 2016, Boston appeared in front of U.S. Magistrate Kendall Newman in a federal courtroom in Sacramento. Brought into the courtroom in a wheelchair, he had a flowing white beard and long grey hair past his shoulders and was dressed in a rumpled orange jail smock.
‘Can you hear me all right, sir?’ U.S. Magistrate Kendall Newman said, and prepared to read out the murder charges that in America carry life imprisonment or the federal death penalty. Boston nodded.
His federal public defender, Douglas Beevers, asked: ‘Boston is in frail health. Can he be spared from being shackled when being moved inside Sacramento County Jail or brought to court?’
Magistrate Newman replied: ‘The shackles will be used, as is the norm with any dangerous inmate, and looking at the charges in this case, I find that fully appropriate.’
Boston was charged on two counts of premeditated maritime murders of Chris and Peta and remanded in custody. As he had demonstrated so many times in the past, he was a major flight risk and, coupled with the severity of the charges, he was denied bail and taken back to his cell.
In contrast to British law, the American judicial system allows the affidavit, drawn up by the FBI for Boston’s arrest, to be made available to the public. Released the day after his arrest, the 27 pages detailed some, but not all, of the painstakingly gathered evidence. Much of its supporting evidence originated from the documents that had lain in Mum’s bureau for 37 years plus the damning eyewitness statements of Boston’s sons. It served to highlight the difference in the American and British judicial systems because such a detailed document would never have been released in Great Britain for fear of prejudicing any future trial.
With California eight hours behind, I received a phone call from GMP’s Martin Bottomley early the following day to say that it had been published. Despite it being a Saturday morning, he wanted to alert us to the potentially distressing content of the document which was now available for all to view on the internet. He also prepared us for the fact that it contained a never before seen picture of Chris with Vince and Russell, taken on the Justin B. Russell had emailed the photograph of Chris on the boat to Amy Crosby in January 2016 after he had given his statement and this photo became a vital piece of legal evidence for the prosecution team, because it was visual proof that Chris had been on board the Justin B. Martin told us that the picture had already been splashed on the front page of the Northern Californian newspaper, The Sacramento Bee, which over the course of the following week, was swiftly replicated by a plethora of British and international publications.
Naturally, we had never seen the photograph, which had been in Russell’s possession. You can therefore understand the effect on my mother, Nigel and I when we saw this picture for the first time. It is most likely the last photograph taken of Chris before he was killed. Sometimes, a picture really is worth a thousand words.
Chris looks happy and how we would like to remember him. The boys look angelic, relaxed and well cared for… in fact completely at odds with how I would have imagined them to be. With Russell proudly showing off his catch of the day, it all seems so normal and relaxed. I can only imagine how events on the boat must have taken a very sudden turn for the worse.
On that cold winter’s Saturday morning, huddled around the open log fire, our two dogs dozing at our feet, I read the affidavit out to Mum whose eyesight is failing. The cosy surroundings of our Oxfordshire home, could not have provided a greater contrast to the scene of horrific events in the Caribbean some 38 years previous. A stranger happening upon us might have thought I was reading a chapter from some horror story.
The affidavit included details of some of Boston’s other crimes and also referenced a Bryan Logsdon – a good friend of Russell’s from High School days in Bishop. Logsdon had spent a year travelling with Boston in Mexico in the early 1990s.
Russell was later to explain to me how this had come about: ‘Bryan had fought as an army ranger in the first Gulf War and in the invasion of Panama. He was between jobs and Dad invited him to go down to Mexico and hang out in Baja. When Bryan accepted, I pulled him aside and warned him not to go. I told him Dad had killed people in the past, but Bryan, who had just fought in two wars, said he wasn’t scared of him. I warned him to watch if my dad’s mood shifted because he would become devious and uncontrollably violent.’
Whilst in Mexico, Boston bragged to Logsdon that he had killed Chris and Peta and described in graphic detail the sadistic enjoyment he’d derived from murdering them. He said he found it ‘funny’ when he threw Peta overboard. The plastic bag that he had placed over her head and tied around her neck burst and you could hear her screaming through the bubbles that came up whilst she was drowning. Boston told the story with relish and was laughing because he had got away with it. He said the lesson he had learnt from killing them was that you should always: ‘Gut someone when you are going to throw them in the water because otherwise they are going to bloat and float to the surface.’
Russell says: ‘When Bryan returned from Mexico, he was shocked and for the first time, I think he fully appreciated just how evil my father was. He knew Vince and I had been going to the authorities for years and were told repeatedly there was nothing they could do in regard to my mother, nor Chris and Peta, so he knew he had no chance of convincing the authorities when they had continued to ignore two eyewitnesses to a double murder. We both knew that his testimony would be dismissed as hearsay.
‘Bryan started to tell me about what Dad had told him about killing Chris and Peta, and my mom, but I stopped him and said, “I know, I warned you before you went to Mexico about him and what he’d done.” I should have let him finish but I didn’t want to hear it. It was literally only after reading the affidavit, detailing Bryan’s police statement, that I learnt that that night when Dad took the German/Scandinavian couple (whom he called the ‘Vikings’) ashore in Dangriga, in the storm, that he had in fact killed them, two weeks after killing Chris and Peta. I had never even suspected him. As far as Vince and I were concerned, he had taken them ashore and that was the end of it. Bryan was going to tell me about this couple but I had stopped him because I didn’t want to hear it.
‘When Bryan returned from Mexico, he said to me, “I’ve killed people in two wars because my government told me it was my job, and none of those people I killed deserved it as much as your father does. If they can’t stop him, I will. I’ll take him out into the desert and plant him.” At the time, I was shocked. I told Bryan that if he killed my father it would make him a murderer, putting him in the same category as my dad, and that vigilantism has no place in a civilised, modern society. I felt it wasn’t Bryan’s job to take my father out of circulation, and I explained to him it was the job of our government and law enforcement.
‘After reading the affidavit and hearing for the first time that he had killed the second couple, combined with the callousness in Dad’s recollections of killing my mom and Chris and Peta, I now understand why Bryan felt so strongly that Dad should die. I didn’t at the time, and still don’t believe in vigilantism, but I do understand the frustration of knowing a killer is unstoppable and free to harm more people while the authorities turn a blind eye.’
Stunned, I finished reading the affidavit to Mum. Reading and re-reading the affidavit and its summary in subsequent newspaper reports over the following days only served to further underline Boston’s evil.
8 December 2016 was a nerve-racking day for us, spent as it was waiting to hear from GMP, who were relaying news to us from the Sacramento courtroom. With the time difference, we knew news would only come later that evening but it didn’t stop our anticipation. I was cooking supper for the family when I received a call from Martin saying that Boston had been indicted and a status hearing was set for 10 January 2017. That evening, we raised a glass to Chris and Peta and the hope for a successful conviction.
15 December 2016 found us back in the Northwest with Greater Manchester Police for a video conference call with key members of the Californian prosecution team, the FBI and Sacramento Police Department, who were assembled in a meeting room in the Robert T. Matsui Courthouse in Sacramento. Prosecutor Matt Segal told us that Russell Boston had handed over to the Grand Jury as evidence in October 2016 two cassettes of pre-recorded albums – Santana’s Welcome and Pink Floyd’s Animals – that he had found in his dad’s briefcase. The legal team wanted to use these as exhibits at the trial to provide further evidence that Chris and Peta were passengers on the boat. I was asked to find the original vinyl albums, which Chris had recorded them from before leaving the UK for Australia. Searching through boxes and boxes in my loft that weekend, I fortunately found the two albums. Rather run the risk of them being lost or broken in the post, I took them up to Manchester and handed them over to the police in person.
Conscious that all the main participants of the case were elderly and time was of the essence, Matt urged us to send letters to the American judge requesting an early trial date.
My mother’s letter was read out to the judge in the status hearing on 10 January 2017: ‘I am writing to ask if you will please consider setting a date as soon as possible. My husband and I were very involved in the search for them and we did all we could to establish how, why and who killed them. It was a matter of great sadness that my husband, Charles, died three years ago, never knowing the truth surrounding their deaths and that their murderer was never brought to justice.
‘I am, myself, now almost 92 years old and Silas Duane Boston is 75. Taking all this into account, there may be little time left for justice to be seen to be done.
‘The brutal manner in which my son’s life was taken has left an enduring and very painful gap in my family’s life, which no amount of time will heal but I will derive a sense of closure from knowing that his killer has been apprehended and appropriately sentenced.
‘Aside from the trial, I have always believed that Boston’s sons held the key to unlocking the crime. I would dearly like to speak to Russell and Vince Boston about my son and what happened on the boat and I understand from the British police that one of them has expressed the same desire to speak to me. Naturally, that cannot happen before any trial for fear of prejudicing the witnesses.’
I too wrote a supporting letter: ‘Chris was a much-loved brother who died in the most tragic of circumstances; I am aware the autopsy report shows he suffered brutal injuries and was killed in a most heartless and shocking manner. We have spent 38 long years not knowing why he died. It is a question that has plagued my family all this time…
‘It is a fact that much of the evidence that was sought back in 1978 (e.g. the Belize Harbour Master’s report; the discovery that their bodies had been buried unidentified) was gathered by my parents. They were both heavily involved in the case and without their diligence and efforts it is unlikely that a prosecution would be possible today.
‘My mother will be 92 in February 2017. She is very sound of mind and in reasonably good health, but naturally she is frail. At that age, every day is a bonus. She has said that making the journey from our home in Oxfordshire, England, where she lives with my family and I, to travel over 5,200 miles to Sacramento is the very last thing she can do for Chris. The 12-hour plane journey from the UK to California, plus over six hours driving and waiting/check-in time will naturally be a very long one for my mother, but she has said she would rather die in America and know that she has done her best for her son than not go at all. I am sure you will understand when I say it would be the ultimate tragedy, were my mother to die before the trial. It is largely for my mother that I want to see the perpetrator of this crime punished. As his mother, the greatest loss was hers.
‘A less important factor, but still one that I would be grateful if you will please take into consideration: I believe the weather in spring in Sacramento will be much more clement for her advancing years than in the height of summer.
‘Furthermore, the man accused of these murders, if he is found guilty, will have evaded punishment for this crime for almost four decades. He is himself 75. The earlier he stands trial and a verdict is delivered, the sooner we will truly know what happened over 38 years ago; if found guilty, the more promptly the accused faces justice and receives the appropriate sanction from the Court, the better for all…
‘Lastly, and perhaps most significantly, we have waived our right to seek the death penalty in order that this case may be expedited in the hope that this is within my mother’s lifetime.
‘If, after taking all of these factors into consideration, you are able to set an early trial date, then please rest assured that my mother and I are ready to get on a plane at 24-hour notice.’
Matt Segal requested that the judge set a trial date within six months saying: ‘Christopher Farmer’s survivors want to see a trial badly enough that they are willing to travel to Sacramento at risk to the elder Mrs Farmer’s health. Given her advanced age, justice delayed may be justice permanently denied.’
In reply, Attorney Lexi Negin, one of Boston’s federal public defenders, said that the defence required extensive time to prepare the case and complained that Boston, who had health issues, was suffering in Sacramento County Jail ‘and is not getting the care he was getting in the nursing home. Our position is that we will be ready for trial someday.’
‘That’s incredibly unhelpful,’ answered Judge Mendez.
Pressed for a date on when the defence would be ready, Negin suggested the autumn of 2018.
‘That’s not going to work,’ Mendez replied.
Whilst declining to rule on the prosecution’s motion, the judge suggested he would most likely set a trial date for autumn 2017. ‘I think both sides can anticipate this trial will take place this year,’ he said.
The next court appearance was set for one month later on 14 February 2017.
To try to bring the trial forward, Matt Segal asked if Mum and I and David Sacks, the detective in charge of the case in 1978, would make the journey to Sacramento to give evidence at a pre-trial hearing. This was partially to help secure an early trial date but also to get the evidence in the bag in case any of the witnesses died or were unable to travel when it came to trial. Naturally, we said yes.
We were offered the option of the prosecuting and defence teams coming to the UK and setting up a mini courtroom in Greater Manchester Police’s Nexus House with a video link to the courtroom in Sacramento, where Boston would be present. However, we were told that it would have greater impact if we were to make the journey to America and give evidence. For Mum, there was only one choice: she was going to America.
After talking to Martin Bottomley for over an hour one evening, I apologised that he was having to work so late on the case and he said: ‘No problem, this isn’t work, this is a passion.’ The dedication of everyone involved in helping us secure a conviction, never ceased to amaze us.
When Boston was arrested, the story immediately broke in the media. Watching it spread online was like watching the concentric circles rippling out from skimming a stone in a pond. Large swathes of the American and British press and television channels covered the story, as well as, more surprisingly, countries such as France, Canada and China. We hadn’t expected so much international interest outside of America and Great Britain.
Within 24 hours of Boston being indicted, we had a newspaper reporter on our doorstep. Well-dressed and in his forties, he explained, almost apologetically, that he was from a well-known British tabloid newspaper and he was interested in getting our comments about the case. We had been advised by the police and lawyers not to give interviews so we declined to comment. He then asked if we would be interested if money were involved. After some persuasion, he left.
Greater Manchester Police released a statement on our behalf: ‘GMP’s Cold Case Review Unit have been working with the families of Christopher Farmer and Peta Frampton for over a year since relatives asked us to reinvestigate these tragic events. Since that time, we have worked closely with Interpol, Sacramento Police Department, the FBI and the U.S. District Attorney’s office. This inter-agency cooperation has led to the two murder indictments being issued by the U.S Grand Jury. The families of both Chris and Peta now await the outcome of a trial and would ask for privacy in the meantime.’
But it didn’t stop the British national newspapers, such as the Daily Mail and The Times, covering the story extensively, updating it each time there was a court status hearing. (See, for instance: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-4034422/Yachtsman-boasted-murdering-British-couple-Caribbeanson-told-friend-beating-stabbing-drowning-funny.html; https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/yacht-murderer-betrayed-by-his-children-dhp2wdds0.) One touching and unforeseen consequence of the press coverage was that several of Chris’s friends, from Manchester Grammar School and Birmingham Medical School, read the press coverage, and went to some considerable effort in tracking us down and getting in touch. One of them even called round at my parents’ old house in Cheshire to speak to neighbours to find out where my mother had moved to since Dad died, and another of his friends rang the GMP Cold Case Review Unit to get our contact details. It was heartening to know that Chris hadn’t been forgotten – he would have been amazed and humbled.