will be well. Love from your wife", and booked her flight home. On arrival in Jamaica on 2 May, she denied any affair with Francis, who she said was a mere casual acquaintance. After an initially tense reunion, it appears that Hylton accepted her word and the pair were, at least temporarily, reconciled. On the day before Lurline's return from New York, Hylton purchased a quantity of revolver cartridges. His explanation was that he kept the gun for security purposes; there had been recent burglaries and other criminal activity in the area of the family home, and he was concerned that his ammunition supplies were running low. Shooting Despite the outward cordiality, Hylton remained suspicious. On 5 May he learned that the Roses' garden helper had taken a letter from Lurline to the local post office. Believing that this was to be posted to Francis in New York, Hylton went to the postmistress and demanded to see the letter, but was told that this was impossible. In the early hours of the following morning he challenged Lurline, implying that he knew she had written to Francis and claiming, falsely, that he would be allowed to read the letter later that day. Any account of what followed immediately after this confrontation is based on Hylton's own testimony. According to him, she admitted the affair with Francis, and then taunted her husband, saying she should have followed her parents' advice that he was not of her class. She continued: "I have found the man I love, you cannot stand in my way. Yes, I have slept with him ... My body belongs to him." At this point, Hylton claimed, Lurline grabbed the revolver that was in the bedroom, and attempted to shoot him, but the gun misfired. A struggle followed during which, he said, he could see only the image of his wife with her lover. "Suddenly I saw blood. Blood all over, and I realised that I had shot my wife." In the shocked aftermath, nobody thought to call for medical assistance. It is unclear whether immediate medical attention could have saved Lurline's life; she was suffering from multiple bullet wounds and died not long after the attack. Hylton himself called the police, who failed to caution him as he gave an incoherent, self-incriminatory account of the night's events before being taken into custody. Trial, verdict, sentence The trial was scheduled