Two of the persons convicted for the 1983 slaying of left-leaning Prime Minister, Maurice Bishop and released from prison in recent months are set to get married in December.

Well-placed sources identify the two as Major Christopher Stroude who was released from the Richmond Hill prison earlier this year and the other as non commissioned officer, Cosmos Richardson.

 

Christopher Stroude

Stroude was convicted in 1986 for the murder of Bishop, three Cabinet ministers (Unison Whiteman, Jacqueline Creft and Norris Bain) and several other close associates while Richardson was given a lengthy prison sentence after a jury returned a guilty verdict for the lesser offence of manslaughter.

A source who asked not to be named said that Richardson will be the first to get married on December 2. The ex-soldier who is believed to be living in the Mardi Gras area of St. Paul's is to be followed to the alter 20 days later by Major Stroude who is set to get married just before Christmas Day. It will be the second time that Stroude would be tieing the knot.

His first marriage was to senior civil servant Tessa Copland-Stroude but it ended in divorce after the army officer was jailed for Bishop's killing. According to the source, Major Stroude, a father of two is now set to get married within a matter of weeks to a school teacher at one of the leading girls school in St. George's.He said the teacher "has been Stroude's girl friend for a lot years while he was in prison".

 

Cosmos Richardson

Stroude, a born again Christian and his wife to be, are seen regularly attending the Pentecostal Church on Market Hill. Several of the convicted Bishop killers have seen their marriages end in divorce due to their lengthy stay in prison.

These include Major Leon "Bogo" Cornwall, and trade unionist John "Chalkie" Ventour who are both expected to start new lives when released from prison within the next three years. Major Cornwall is set to become an ordained Minister of Religion with Bethel Church when released from prison.

In 1986, then high court judge Sir Denis Byron sentenced 17 former government and military officials including ex-deputy Prime Minister Bernard Coard, General Hudson Austin, and former Mobilisation Minister, Selwyn Strachan to death by hanging for the brutal murder of Bishop in a bloody palace coup.

The Privy Council in London ruled that the convicts should be brought back for re-sentencing and in July, Justice Francis Belle sentenced the men to specific prison terms which would see all of them out of prison by 2010 for the latest.