Jolly Roger Social Club

In the remote Bocas del Toro, Panama, William Dathan Holbert – known as ‘Wild Bill’ – is currently awaiting trial for the murder of five fellow American expats.

Wild Bill’s first victims were the Brown family, who lived on a remote island in the area’s Darklands. There, Holbert turned their home into drinking den called the ‘Jolly Roger Social Club’, using booze and drug fuelled parties to get to know the ex-pat community. The club’s tagline was ‘Over 90% of our members survive’. With so many in Panama living under assumed names or desperate to leave their old lives behind, people really do sometimes just disappear, and Holbert used that to his advantage…
Nick Foster has unique access to the story having interviewed Holbert in prison as well as thoroughly researching his life and motivations. The Jolly Roger Social Club is an eye-opening read, revealing Holbert to be an apathetic, selfish character willing to kill to live in a lifestyle he had become accustomed to. Foster also weaves through the story of Panama–a gateway country which is in itself a paradox, a seeming paradise with a sinister underbelly.

In indepartatul Bocas del Toro, Panama, William Dathan Holbert - cunoscut sub numele de "Wild Bill" - asteapta in prezent procesul pentru uciderea a cinci colegi expatriti americani. Primele victime ale lui Wild Bill au fost familia Brown, care locuia pe o insula indepartata din Darklands.