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By Erasmus Williams – Covering the Assassination of Prime Minister Maurice Bishop of Grenada

Rediscovered original reports on the 1983 assassination of Grenada’s Maurice Bishop reveal a gripping, first-hand chronicle of revolution, tragedy, and truth in the Caribbean.

Historic Report (October 1983)

By Erasmus Williams – Covering the Assassination of Prime Minister Maurice Bishop of Grenada

Page 1

Grenada’s Prime Minister, the Hon. Maurice Bishop, has been killed.

The news of the Prime Minister’s death shook the British Virgin Islands and the Caribbean last evening.

Eight persons were also killed with the Grenadian leader.
They are:

Foreign Minister Unison Whiteman

Former Education Minister Jacqueline Creft

Former Minister of Housing Norris Bain

President of the Bank and General Workers Union, Vincent Noel

President of the Agricultural and General Workers Union, Fitzroy Bain

In a broadcast by General Hudson Austin, Radio Free Grenada last evening said that after the Maurice Bishop supporters released Bishop, the soldiers were instructed not to fire on the crowd, but to fire above people’s heads.

The statement said Austin maintained soldiers were sent to establish control at Fort Rupert when Bishop fired on the soldiers, killing two of them.
The soldiers, he said, fired back.

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Page 2

Reaction to the developments in Grenada has been swift.

Barbados Prime Minister Tom Adams described the new rulers in Grenada as disgusting murderers and barbarians.

Adams said he would not be sitting down with them in Caribbean meetings.

An outraged Tom Adams said he was absolutely horrified at what he termed these brutal and vicious murders.

Adams described it as “the most vicious act to disgrace the West Indies since the days of slavery.”
The Barbadian leader said he had his differences with Bishop, but that they were political differences which were fought out in the political, not personal, arena.

Two of the region’s leading political figures — Jamaica’s Opposition Leader Michael Manley and Barbados’ Opposition Leader Errol Barrow — were among the first to react to the death of the Prime Minister.

Mr. Manley said the brutal killing of Maurice Bishop and many of his Cabinet and Trade Union colleagues by the Grenadian army represented “a betrayal of the hopes of the ordinary people of our region.”

Page 3

The former Jamaican leader said history would pass a terrible judgment on those who were responsible for his murder.

The former Barbados Prime Minister, Errol Barrow, called for the new regime in St. George’s to be ostracized from the Caribbean and given no shelter within its shores.

In a strongly worded statement, Party Leader Errol Barrow said the Democratic Labour Party wished to express its deep shock over the callous and brutal murder of Maurice Bishop, his colleagues, and other Grenadian leaders and citizens — and demanded that those responsible for the vicious crime against the people of Grenada should not go unpunished.

Dominica’s Prime Minister Mary Eugenia Charles said there would be no room for Grenada in the Caribbean community unless democracy was restored.

Analysis & Historical Context

These original handwritten notes by journalist Erasmus Williams — hastily composed in October 1983 as the tragic news unfolded — capture not only the regional outrage but also the moral and political tremors that shook the Caribbean.

The language reflects the immediacy of breaking news before the digital age — written under emotional, historic pressure with only radio transmissions like Radio Free Grenada, BBC, and Radio Antilles providing fragmented updates.

Williams’ work is an invaluable primary record of how Caribbean journalism responded to the darkest day in Grenada’s post-independence history — documenting not only the death of Maurice Bishop but also the unified condemnation by Caribbean leaders who viewed the act as an assault on democracy, decency, and Caribbean solidarity.

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