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Bluebelle (ship)

History
Name: Bluebelle
Port of registry: United States
Fate: Scuttled on November 12, 1961
General characteristics
Type: Ketch
Length: 60-foot (18 m)
Complement: Dr. Arthur Duperrault† (41) Jean Duperrault† (38), Brian Duperrault† (14), Renee Duperrault† (7), Terry Jo Duperrault (sole complement survivor) (11),
Crew: Julian Harvey (sole crew survivor, later, suicide) (44), Mary Dene† (34),

Bluebelle was a 60-foot (18 m) ketch (a sailing craft with two masts) that was the site of five brutal murders on November 12, 1961.

The ship was chartered by optometrist Dr. Arthur Duperrault (41 years of age) of Green Bay, Wisconsin, for a trip from Fort Lauderdale, Florida, to the Bahamas, which departed on November 8, 1961. Accompanying him were his wife Jean (38), and his three children: Brian (14), Terry Jo (11), and Renee (7). The ship was skippered by decorated World War II and Korean War pilot Julian Harvey (44), accompanied by his sixth wife, Mary Dene (34), whom he had married in July.

Late one night on the return voyage, Harvey allegedly killed his wife, Dr. and Mrs. Duperrault, and two of the children, Brian and Renee. Terry Jo, awakened by screams, ascended to the deck where she saw the bodies in the ship's main cabin and a bloody knife near the cockpit, before Harvey ordered her to stay belowdecks. He then scuttled the vessel and prepared to leave in a dinghy.

Terry Jo was able to untie a 2' × 5' (0.6 × 1.5 m) cork float and launch herself onto it just as the ship sank. She drifted for four days without food or water, and was near death when rescued in the Northwest Providence Channel by the Greek freighter Captain Theo. A picture taken of her by a crewman appeared on front pages around the world with stories of the "sea waif".

Harvey had been picked up three days earlier in the dinghy along with Renee's dead body. He told United States Coast Guard investigators that a squall had brought down the Bluebelle's masts, holing the ship's hull, rupturing the auxiliary gas tank, and starting a fire. He claimed he had found Renee floating in the water and tried unsuccessfully to revive her. (An autopsy showed that she had died of drowning.) However, after Harvey was informed of Terry Jo's rescue, he checked into a motel under an assumed name and committed suicide with a razor blade.

It is believed Harvey planned to kill his wife to collect on her $20,000 double indemnity insurance policy but he was observed by Dr. Duperrault, and then had to kill him, his wife, and two of his children, who may have witnessed his murder. It was later found that Harvey had survived a car accident that claimed another of his six wives and her mother, and that his yacht Torbatross and his powerboat Valiant had sunk under suspicious circumstances, yielding large insurance settlements.


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Wikipedia

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