The Empty Grave of Comrade Bishop
Grenada’s revolutionary leader, Maurice Bishop, was executed in a coup in 1983. Seven other people, members of his cabinet and friends, were killed alongside him. The whereabouts of their remains are unknown. Now, in a series two years in the making, The Washington Post’s Martine Powers discovers new information about the 40-year-old mystery, including the role the U.S. played in shaping the fate of this Caribbean nation.
Episodes
Grenada’s Black revolutionary leader, Maurice Bishop, was executed in a coup in 1983, along with seven others. The whereabouts of their remains are unknown. Now, The Washington Post’s Martine Powers uncovers new answers about how the U.S. fits into this 40-year-old Caribbean mystery.
“The Empty Grave of Comrade Bishop” is ...
Every 19th of October, Grenadians mark a somber anniversary: the 1983 execution of the country’s former prime minister and revolutionary leader, Maurice Bishop, and others who died alongside him. The people of this Caribbean nation still have no closure 40 years later. The remains of Bishop and his supporters were never returned to their family members and are missin...
Maurice Bishop was a charismatic leader who captured the imagination of many Grenadians. But the revolution he helped spark began to buckle under pressure within his own party. Martine Powers tries to understand the life of Bishop and what propelled him into the position of prime minister, the promise of the beginning of the revolution and the events that led to his brutal death. That history reve...
Annie Bain saw something 40 years ago that she’s been contemplating since: her husband’s ring, which was brought to her in the weeks after he died — and which she believes is proof that there are people who know what happened to his remains and those of the seven others killed with him on Oct. 19, 1983.
This clue and Annie’s other recollections br...
Professor Robert Jordan was among the few people still on the campus of St. George’s University in November of 1983, in the days after the U.S. invasion of Grenada. One day a strange request came in: The U.S. military wanted to use his anatomy lab at the university for a forensic exam.
Martine Powers visits what is left of the old lab and hears the prof...
Why would the U.S. government have an interest in hiding the remains of an assassinated revolutionary leader? In this episode of “The Empty Grave of Comrade Bishop,” Martine Powers puts this question to Americans who served in Grenada after the invasion 40 years ago, including alumni of the U.S. State Department and a former CIA analyst.
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When Martine Powers began looking into the mystery of the missing remains of Maurice Bishop, his cabinet members and supporters, one of the most noted explorations of the case turned out to be done by a group of high school boys in Grenada more than two decades ago. She was able to locate some of the now-adult investigators and the old principal of the school to lear...
What does the United States owe to Grenada about the mystery of the missing remains of Maurice Bishop, his cabinet members and supporters? In the final installment of the series for now, Martine Powers takes on that question as she assesses the conclusions of the team’s current reporting. She speaks with a member of the U.S. House of Representatives who has made anot...
Earlier this year, the U.S. Army launched an internal review of records related to the recovery of remains in Grenada in 1983, and efforts to locate Maurice Bishop’s body.
“This is the first serious effort by the Pentagon in decades to address the role the United States played in the disappea...
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