The Jolly Roger Social Club ─ A True Story of a Killer in Paradise

The true story of a series of bold killings which took place in a shadowy American ex-pat community in Panama--a tale of greed, political history, and murder

In the remote Bocas del Toro, Panama, William Dathan Holbert, aka "Wild Bill," is awaiting trial for the murder of five fellow American ex-patriots. Holbert's first victims were the Brown family, who lived on a remote island in the area's Darklands. There, Holbert turned their home into the "Jolly Roger Social Club," using drink- and drug-fueled parties to get to know other ex-pats. The club's tagline was: "Over 90% of our members survive." Those odds were not in his victims' favor.

But this is not just a book about what Holbert did and the complex financial and real estate motives behind the killings; it is about why Bocas del Toro turned out to be his perfect hunting ground, and why the community tolerated-even accepted-him for a time. Told through the fascinating history of the country of Panama, a paradise with sinister ties to the political and economic interests of the United States, journalist Nick Foster brings this uniquely bizarre place to life; shedding light on a community where many live under assumed names, desperate to leave their old lives behind-and sometimes people just disappear.

Nick Foster was born in Liverpool, UK in 1966, and educated at University College London. He worked for several years as an EU diplomat and a stringer working out of Caracas, Venezuela, filing news stories and research to the UK's broadsheets. He now writes for the Financial Times, the International New York Times and theDaily Telegraph, and is also a linguist at the European Commission in Brussels. He is married with two young sons and currently resides in Belgium.