PHOTO/
Mahadeo Jerrybandham
He never saw it coming, but writer did
KONK LIFE SPECIAL WRITER
Mahadeo Jerrybandham was a regular fixture over the years on Duval Street in Key West where he gave palm readings.
He was the inspiration for my story, “A Lucky Man,” written several years ago, about a ruthless businessman who comes to Key West for sport fishing and has his palm read by an unnamed psychic. Later in the story, the businessman shoots and kills the palm reader for reasons I won’t disclose; you’ll have to read the story.
“A Lucky Man” was first published in the anthology“Murder in Key West,”edited by Shirrel Rhoades of Absolutely Amazing eBooks in 2013. It subsequently appeared in my new noir story collection,“Phone Call from Hell and Other Tales of the Damned”from New Pulp Press (now a part of Amazing eBooks).
How weird is it that in real life, Jerrybandham returned to his home in Trinidad for a vacation and was shot dead by an unknown assailant? Too weird, but true.
Headlined the Trinidad newspaper recently: “Famed Hindu Palm Reader Mahadeo Jerrybandhan Shot and Killed in Apparent Robbery.”
The report continues:“Jerrybandhan, 74, a resident of Key West, Florida, was shot once in the head in a bedroom of his son’s home, where he was on vacation.
“His daughter-in-law Sharlene Mootoo said she last saw Jerrybandhan around 10 p.m. in the yard with his two nephews preparing for Pitri Paksh [an auspicious period in the Hindu religious calendar].
“She said both Jerrybandhan’s nephews went on errands and he returned to the house. Mootoo said she heard a loud noise but it was not unusual for gunshots to ring out in the area. “’When we looked we saw someone running out of the front gate. We went to the front bedroom and saw him [Jerrybandhan] lying in the bathroom of the front bedroom. He had one gunshot wound to his head. Just out of the blue this happened. We are still in shock. He was a man who exercised, did yoga and ate healthy all the time. I believe he knew his attackers and in a panic they shot and killed him because he would have been able to identify them. But justice will come from God.’
“Police suspect Jerrybandhan was the victim of a botched robbery. Family members said it is believed that the killer hid in an overgrown lot across the road from Jerrybandhan, whose wife died several years ago.
“He was well known in Key West for his palm reading.
“The murder toll for 2014 to date now stands at 292. For the same period last year, there were 270 murders.”
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Marketing a cheesy story by capitalizing on someone’s murder…let’s lower the crass commercialism bar a little lower into the mud.
This is such a sad story of a man who simply wanted a simpler life on a tiny but interesting island doing what he loved to do, and then being killed in his family’s home while on holiday from work. Life too often mimics fiction, and in this case, it is sad that it has done just that and possibly, as happens so often in today’s volatile world, by mistaken identity.