The Fountain Valley massacre was a

mass shooting A mass shooting is a violent crime in which one or more attackers use a firearm to Gun violence, kill or injure multiple individuals in rapid succession. There is no widely accepted specific definition, and different organizations tracking su ...

that occurred on the afternoon of 6 September 1972 at the Fountain Valley Golf Course in

St. Croix, U.S. Virgin Islands Saint Croix ( ; ; ; ; Danish language, Danish and ; ) is an island in the Caribbean Sea, and a county and constituent Districts and sub-districts of the United States Virgin Islands, district of the United States Virgin Islands (USVI), an Unin ...

. The incident left eight resort employees and tourists dead. Another eight were either shot at or wounded.

Massacre

The perpetrators were five Virgin Islanders, Ishmael LaBeet, Beaumont Gereau, Meral Smith, Warren Ballentine, and Raphael Joseph. Authorities initially believed the five had committed the execution-style shootings in the course of a robbery gone bad, but later developments suggested that the killing was planned by at least one of the perpetrators. Joseph and Ballentine testified at trial that they had expected only to commit a robbery but that things got out of hand because LaBeet was adamant that they also make "a political statement"; LaBeet told them "he was angry about foreigners coming in to take our money and leaving us with nothing." According to Joseph, during the robbery LaBeet suddenly began shooting people, while yelling epithets like "I hate you white motherfuckers!"

Trial and convictions

All five defendants were convicted after a jury trial in the

District Court of the Virgin Islands The District Court of the Virgin Islands (in case citations, D.V.I.) is a United States territorial court with jurisdiction over federal and diversity actions in the United States Virgin Islands, a United States territory and more specifically ...

, a federal territorial court, on multiple charges of murder, assault, and robbery under Virgin Islands law. Each was sentenced to eight consecutive life terms. Led by

civil rights Civil and political rights are a class of rights that protect individuals' political freedom, freedom from infringement by governments, social organizations, and private individuals. They ensure one's entitlement to participate in the civil and ...

activist lawyers

William Kunstler William Moses Kunstler (July 7, 1919 – September 4, 1995) was an American attorney and civil rights activist, known for defending the Chicago Seven. Kunstler was an active member of the National Lawyers Guild, a board member of the American Ci ...

and

Chauncey Eskridge Chauncey Eskridge (November 11, 1917 – January 18, 1988) was an American attorney and judge. He provided legal counseling for activist Martin Luther King Jr., one of the leaders of the civil rights movement. He served on the legal team of worl ...

, the defense at trial argued in part that the accused were politically motivated victims of systematic race-based civil rights deprivation; all the defendants were

Afro-Caribbean Afro-Caribbean or African Caribbean people are Caribbean people who trace their full or partial ancestry to Sub-Saharan Africa. The majority of the modern Afro-Caribbean people descend from the Indigenous peoples of Africa, Africans (primarily fr ...

, while seven of the eight victims were white. The convictions were affirmed in 1974 by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit, which subsequently also upheld the denial of motions for a new trial. LaBeet has since denied any involvement in the 1972 shooting.

Aftermath

The public's perception of a racial motivation for the killings and fear of further violence led to a steep decline in tourism to St. Croix, from which the island's tourism industry only recovered decades later. American musician Sherman Kelly has claimed he was assaulted by some of the same perpetrators three years before the Fountain Valley shooting. While recovering from the assault, Kelly wrote the song "

Dancing in the Moonlight "Dancing in the Moonlight" is a song written by Sherman Kelly, originally recorded in 1970 by Kelly's band Boffalongo, and then a hit single by King Harvest in 1972, reaching no. 5 in Canada and no. 13 on the ''Billboard'' Hot 100. In 2000, a ...

" to imagine "an alternate reality, the dream of a peaceful and joyful celebration of life." The song, released in 1970, later became a hit for

King Harvest King Harvest was a 1970s French-American rock band who was formed initially in Ithaca, New York, U.S., but broke up and reformed in Paris where they began recording their first songs. They are known for their 1972 hit single " Dancing in the ...

and again for

Toploader Toploader are an English Rock music, rock band from Eastbourne, East Sussex, formed in 1997, with over two million album sales and several top-20 hits both home and abroad. Their debut album, ''Onka's Big Moka'', sold over one million units a ...

. On 31 December 1984, LaBeet (then calling himself Ismail Muslim Ali) hijacked American Airlines Flight 626 while in federal custody on a transfer to a new place of detention, using a handgun stashed in a lavatory. He forced the pilot to land the plane in

Havana, Cuba Havana (; ) is the capital and largest city of Cuba. The heart of La Habana Province, Havana is the country's main port and commercial center.aircraft hijacking Aircraft hijacking (also known as airplane hijacking, skyjacking, plane hijacking, plane jacking, air robbery, air piracy, or aircraft piracy, with the last term used within the special aircraft jurisdiction of the United States) is the Crime, ...

. He was sentenced to 10 years in prison, of which he served seven years. With the thawing of Cuban–American relations in 2015, LaBeet was confirmed to be living at large in Cuba. He was the subject of the 2016 documentary film ''

The Skyjacker's Tale ''The Skyjacker's Tale'' is a Canadian documentary film, directed by Jamie Kastner and released in 2016. The film centres on Ishmael Muslim Ali (formerly Ishmael LaBeet), who was convicted of murder in the Fountain Valley massacre of 1972 and im ...

''. Joseph was released from prison on December 22, 1994, after being pardoned by the governor of the U.S. Virgin Islands. However, he died of a drug overdose four years later. The other three served 29 years in federal prison before being returned to Virgin Islands custody and then retransferred to private prisons in the U.S. As of 2022, they remained incarcerated at the Citrus County Detention Facility, north of

Tampa, Florida Tampa ( ) is a city on the Gulf Coast of the United States, Gulf Coast of the U.S. state of Florida. Tampa's borders include the north shore of Tampa Bay and the east shore of Old Tampa Bay. Tampa is the largest city in the Tampa Bay area and t ...

References

{{Reflist, refs= {{cite news, last1=Day, first1=Jim, title=30 YEARS AFTER MASSACRE, LABEET'S FATE UNKNOWN, url=http://stcroixsource.com/content/news/local-news/2002/09/05/30-years-after-massacre-labeets-fate-unknown, accessdate=26 November 2014, work=St. Croix Source, date=6 September 2002, location=St. Croix, United States Virgin Islands {{cite news, last1=Greaux, Jr., first1=Jean P., title=FOUNTAIN VALLEY PUT V.I. IN UNWANTED SPOTLIGHT, url=http://stcroixsource.com/content/news/local-news/2002/09/05/fountain-valley-put-vi-unwanted-spotlight-1, accessdate=26 November 2014, work=St. Croix Source, date=6 September 2002, location=St, Croix, United States Virgin Islands {{cite news, last1=Kerr, first1=Peter, title=NEW YORK-BOUND FLIGHT HIJACKED TO CUBA BY CONVICTED MURDERER, url=https://www.nytimes.com/1985/01/01/us/new-york-bound-flight-hijacked-to-cuba-by-convicted-murderer.html, accessdate=26 November 2014, work=

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''NYT'') is an American daily newspaper based in New York City. ''The New York Times'' covers domestic, national, and international news, and publishes opinion pieces, investigative reports, and reviews. As one of ...

, date=1 January 1985, location=New York, New York {{cite book , last1=Joseph , first1=Michael A. , title=Fountain Valley 1972 , date=2014 , publisher=Strategic Book Publishing & Rights , isbn = 9781628579840 Attacks on tourists 1972 murders in the United States 1972 in the United States Virgin Islands African and Black nationalism in the United States Crimes in the United States Virgin Islands Events in the United States Virgin Islands Attacks on sports venues Mass murder in insular areas of the United States Mass murder in the United States in the 1970s Massacres in 1972 Racially motivated violence against white Americans Saint Croix, U.S. Virgin Islands September 1972 in North America Massacres in the United States Robberies in the United States