Murder on the Bluebelle

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Hello, Hi, welcome to ten
Minute Murder Brief and binge Able True Crime.

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I'm Joe the host. Thank you
for joining this episode today. Over

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the weekend, I was asked what
would I do with this podcast if there

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were no more murder stories to talk
about? And I'll tell you how it

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responded to that. First of all, I'd be ecstatic. No more murder

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stories means no more murder, so
that would make me happy. So the

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podcast would probably transition to something like, I don't know, I could take

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up crocheng. We could talk about
crocheng. I don't know how to do

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that, but we could figure it
out together, right, Or I know

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zero things about soccer. In the
city that I live in just got a

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soccer team club what do you call
it? I guess it's a club team.

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I don't know, but they we
got one, and I want to

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go to some games. But I
know nothing about what's happening. So it

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could be a podcast talking about my
journey to figuring out how soccer works.

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I don't know, but the point
is it's not going to happen. Unfortunately.

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Even if you believe in the Bible, which I'm not about to preach

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at you so don't tune away.
But if you believe in the Bible,

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there was Adam, and then Eve
came from Adam, and then they had

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two kids. They had Kine and
Abel, and Kane killed Abel. So

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at one time you had four people
on the planet total, and one of

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them killed another one. So in
the beginning of people times, you had

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murder. And even if you don't
believe in the Bible, you know that

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even before the written history, people
were killing each other. So unfortunately,

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the podcast is going to stick around
because murder almost seems inevitable and it sounds

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depressing to say, but it is
the reality. So so if you've got

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more thought provoking questions to ask me, Joe at ten minute murder dot com.

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That's my email address, and that's
also, by the way, the

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best way to send me a story
idea that you'd like to be talked about

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on this podcast. Joe at ten
minute murder dot com. And if this

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is your first time listening to ten
Minute Murder, please subscribe now so that

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you can catch up on all the
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new ones. Connect with me on
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about here on the podcast, and
if you like this episode, please leave

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feedback is very much appreciated. You
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for all things related to ten Minute
Murder. Now to today's story. It

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was the thirteenth of November nineteen sixty
one when a crew member aboard an oil

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tanker noticed that dinghy floating nearby.
A man stood on it, waving his

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arms in the air, screaming for
help. I have a dead baby on

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board, he yelled. The crew
of the tanker could see the small corpse

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of a red headed child laying aboard
the dinghy. As the oil tanker approached,

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the man told them that his name
was Julian Harvey. Julian told the

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crew that he was a skipper for
a vessel named the Bluebell until it sank

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the previous evening. The mainmast had
snapped, skewing the hull of the ship

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and separating Julian from the ship's other
passengers, including his own wife, who

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was working as a cook. Before
Julian was able to do anything more,

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the ship had suddenly burst into flames. Julian managed to escape the burning wreckage

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by climbing aboard the Bluebells dinghy.
The dead child that he had with him,

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Renee Duperult, had floated past him
during the escape. He grabbed the

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child and tried to resuscitate her,
but his attempts had not worked. He

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kept her with him overnight, unable
to bring himself to leave a small child's

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body at sea. After some initial
questioning about the incident and the fates of

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the other passengers, Julian was given
permission to travel back to his home base

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in Miami, where the local coastguard
would carry out further questioning. He told

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his story again, the fallen mast
due to bad weather, the puncture in

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the hole, and the fire,
which he believed was due to a rupture

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in the gas tank. With no
other survivors to question, the coastguard had

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no choice but to believe him,
although one aspect of the story raised all

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of their eyebrows. The dinghy that
Julian had boarded had been incredibly well stocked

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with survival supplies. On the seventeenth
of November, Julian Harvey received the piece

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of impossible news. A survivor from
the Bluebell had been found. The survivor

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and eleven year old girl named Terry
Joe Dupert. She had managed to cling

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to a cork dinghy to keep herself
afloat. Despite spending an estimated eighty two

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hours exposed to the elements in the
open ocean without food or drinking water,

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Terry Joe became the ship's only survivor. The young girl had been spotted by

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a Greek freighter dressed only in a
thin cotton shirt and corduroy pants. Despite

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her weak state, Terry Joe waved
out to the ship for help as sharks

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circled around her tiny vessel. Once
the freighter's crew lifted Terry Joe on board,

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they tried to hydrate her with water
and juice while wiping the salt off

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of her body. Terry Joe's condition
had quickly deteriorated as she became unresponsive,

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but after being airlifted to a hospital, she began to recover. Against the

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odds, she regained her strength and
became able to speak about her ordeal.

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During one of Julian's interrogations, he
was given the good news there had been

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a miracle and Terry Joe had been
rescued alive. Minutes later, Julian told

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the interrogator that he wasn't feeling well
and wanted to be excused for the rest

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of the day. He made his
way to a nearby motel, giving them

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a fake name and paying cash.
After writing a two page long note,

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he its suicide by self inflicting wounds
to his ankles, thighs, and neck.

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It seemed as if the number of
cuts he made to his body acted

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as kind of an insurance policy.
Under no circumstances did Julian Harvey want to

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survive his suicide attempt. He already
knew what Terry Joe was going to say.

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Julian's body was found only hours later. The suicide notes surprisingly did not

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give any insight as to why he
had decided to take his own life.

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It only stated quote, I got
too tired and nervous. I couldn't stand

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it any longer and asked that his
remains be buried at sea. With Julian

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dead and Terry Joe able to give
her version of events, investigators were finally

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able to hear the real story of
what happened that night aboard the Bluebell.

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At the age of forty, Arthur
Duperault had finally saved the money to take

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his family on the adventure of a
lifetime, a week long cruise on a

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chartered yacht traveling from Florida to the
Behind. It was a much needed escape

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from the brutal winters that Arthur and
his family faced back home in Wisconsin,

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and in November of nineteen sixty one, they were finally able to set sail

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for a fee of five hundred and
fifteen dollars. The Duparolt family had been

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able to charter a sixty foot catch
vessel named the Bluebell, and an additional

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fee of one hundred dollars per day
to the man that would be the Bluebell

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skipper on the voyage, an experienced
reputable local yachtsmen named Julian Harvey. The

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Bluebell left port in the Florida Keys
on November eighth, nineteen sixty one.

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The Duparolt family relaxed on board and
visited a range of tourist destinations to snorkel,

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sightsea and go shopping for souvenirs.
They finally made their port of call

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on November twelfth, before beginning the
journey back to their starting point in Florida.

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That night. The ship's inhabitants had
an Italian chicken dish with salad for

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dinner. For almost everybody on board, it would be their last meal.

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Leaving the rest of the family relaxing
on deck, Terry Joe retired to her

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below deck sleeping cabin at nine pm. Shortly afterwards, Terry Joe woke to

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the sounds of yelling and thumping.
She crept above deck to investigate and saw

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the dead bodies of her mother and
brother slumps in the Bluebell's main cabin.

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Still sleepy, Terry Joe couldn't process
what was happening and walked further onto the

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ship's deck, where she saw Julian
Harvey holding a bucket. He saw her

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and violently shoved Terry Joe back below
deck. She did as she was told,

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and minutes later, a mixture of
water and oil began flowing down onto

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her cabin's floor. Shortly afterwards,
Julian walked into the cabin holding a rifle.

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He made eye contact with a terrified
Terry Joe and then left. Terry

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Joe worked up the courage to creep
back out of her cabin, where she

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saw that Julian had released the Bluebell's
dinghy, which was floating to the side

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of the ship. He asked her
to hold the rope that tethered the dinghy

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in place, but she lost her
grip and the rope slid out into the

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sea. Panicked, Julian jumped overboard
to swim out to the dinghy, leaving

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Terry Joe behind. She was now
the sole living person on board a sinking

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ship. Despite her young age and
the terror she was experiencing, Terry Joe

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was a determined, resourceful kid.
As the Bluebell began to sing faster,

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she untied afloat from the deck and
threw it overboard and swam towards it.

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The float was tiny, the only
way Terry Joe could fit on it was

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by sitting completely upright. She managed
to sit in the same position while sleep

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deprived and starving until her rescue more
than three days later. No part of

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Terry Joe's story supported Julian's version of
events. Over and over, she insisted

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that the Bluebell's mast had never broken
and there had never been any kind of

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fire on board. Authorities gently informed
Terry Joe of their findings. They had

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recovered her sister Renee's body, as
well as Julian Harvey, but the other

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members of her family were all lost
at sea. With a combination of Terry

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Joe's testimony and Julian's immediate guilty suicide, it was clear to investigators that foul

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play had caused the deaths of those
on board the Bluebell. Investigation into Julian

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found that despite his good reputation as
a yachtsman, he had always struggled to

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hold down a job and had financial
problems throughout his life. He had a

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history of collecting large insurance settlements from
the sinking of boats, and one of

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his previous wives had died when Julian
drove his car off of a bridge,

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leaving her in the water to drown
while he made his way to safety.

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With this story in mind, an
inquiry into Julian's actions proposed one main theory

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his motivation had actually been to collect
on his wife's double indemnity life insurance policy

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for a supposed accidental death. If
his plan had gone successfully, she might

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have been the only victim. Possibly
a member of the Duparult family had caught

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Julian in the act, forcing him
to kill the rest to the family as

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potential witnesses. Five decades after escaping
the Bluebell Terry. Joe gave an interview

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where she stated why she believed Julian
spared her life. She didn't think that

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it was mercy at all. Matter
of factly, she said, quote,

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I think he probably thought I would
go down with the ship, and if

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she had, Julian Harvey would have
lived his life as a freeman.