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Murder on the Bluebelle · 10 Minute Murder | Bingeable True Crime Stories

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Hello, Hi, welcome to ten Minute Murder Brief and binge Able True Crime.
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I'm Joe the host. Thank you for joining this episode today. Over
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the weekend, I was asked what would I do with this podcast if there
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were no more murder stories to talk about? And I'll tell you how it
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responded to that. First of all, I'd be ecstatic. No more murder
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stories means no more murder, so that would make me happy. So the
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podcast would probably transition to something like, I don't know, I could take
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up crocheng. We could talk about crocheng. I don't know how to do
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that, but we could figure it out together, right, Or I know
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zero things about soccer. In the city that I live in just got a
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soccer team club what do you call it? I guess it's a club team.
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I don't know, but they we got one, and I want to
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go to some games. But I know nothing about what's happening. So it
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could be a podcast talking about my journey to figuring out how soccer works.
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I don't know, but the point is it's not going to happen. Unfortunately.
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Even if you believe in the Bible, which I'm not about to preach
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at you so don't tune away. But if you believe in the Bible,
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there was Adam, and then Eve came from Adam, and then they had
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two kids. They had Kine and Abel, and Kane killed Abel. So
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at one time you had four people on the planet total, and one of
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them killed another one. So in the beginning of people times, you had
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murder. And even if you don't believe in the Bible, you know that
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even before the written history, people were killing each other. So unfortunately,
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the podcast is going to stick around because murder almost seems inevitable and it sounds
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depressing to say, but it is the reality. So so if you've got
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more thought provoking questions to ask me, Joe at ten minute murder dot com.
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That's my email address, and that's also, by the way, the
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best way to send me a story idea that you'd like to be talked about
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on this podcast. Joe at ten minute murder dot com. And if this
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is your first time listening to ten Minute Murder, please subscribe now so that
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you can catch up on all the back episodes and never miss any of the
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new ones. Connect with me on social media see the visuals that we're talking
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about here on the podcast, and if you like this episode, please leave
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a rating and review on Apple or in place that that's possible. Your positive
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feedback is very much appreciated. You can go to ten minute Murder dot com
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for all things related to ten Minute Murder. Now to today's story. It
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was the thirteenth of November nineteen sixty one when a crew member aboard an oil
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tanker noticed that dinghy floating nearby. A man stood on it, waving his
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arms in the air, screaming for help. I have a dead baby on
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board, he yelled. The crew of the tanker could see the small corpse
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of a red headed child laying aboard the dinghy. As the oil tanker approached,
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the man told them that his name was Julian Harvey. Julian told the
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crew that he was a skipper for a vessel named the Bluebell until it sank
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the previous evening. The mainmast had snapped, skewing the hull of the ship
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and separating Julian from the ship's other passengers, including his own wife, who
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was working as a cook. Before Julian was able to do anything more,
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the ship had suddenly burst into flames. Julian managed to escape the burning wreckage
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by climbing aboard the Bluebells dinghy. The dead child that he had with him,
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Renee Duperult, had floated past him during the escape. He grabbed the
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child and tried to resuscitate her, but his attempts had not worked. He
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kept her with him overnight, unable to bring himself to leave a small child's
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body at sea. After some initial questioning about the incident and the fates of
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the other passengers, Julian was given permission to travel back to his home base
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in Miami, where the local coastguard would carry out further questioning. He told
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his story again, the fallen mast due to bad weather, the puncture in
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the hole, and the fire, which he believed was due to a rupture
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in the gas tank. With no other survivors to question, the coastguard had
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no choice but to believe him, although one aspect of the story raised all
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of their eyebrows. The dinghy that Julian had boarded had been incredibly well stocked
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with survival supplies. On the seventeenth of November, Julian Harvey received the piece
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of impossible news. A survivor from the Bluebell had been found. The survivor
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and eleven year old girl named Terry Joe Dupert. She had managed to cling
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to a cork dinghy to keep herself afloat. Despite spending an estimated eighty two
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hours exposed to the elements in the open ocean without food or drinking water,
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Terry Joe became the ship's only survivor. The young girl had been spotted by
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a Greek freighter dressed only in a thin cotton shirt and corduroy pants. Despite
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her weak state, Terry Joe waved out to the ship for help as sharks
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circled around her tiny vessel. Once the freighter's crew lifted Terry Joe on board,
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they tried to hydrate her with water and juice while wiping the salt off
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of her body. Terry Joe's condition had quickly deteriorated as she became unresponsive,
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but after being airlifted to a hospital, she began to recover. Against the
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odds, she regained her strength and became able to speak about her ordeal.
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During one of Julian's interrogations, he was given the good news there had been
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a miracle and Terry Joe had been rescued alive. Minutes later, Julian told
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the interrogator that he wasn't feeling well and wanted to be excused for the rest
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of the day. He made his way to a nearby motel, giving them
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a fake name and paying cash. After writing a two page long note,
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he its suicide by self inflicting wounds to his ankles, thighs, and neck.
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It seemed as if the number of cuts he made to his body acted
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as kind of an insurance policy. Under no circumstances did Julian Harvey want to
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survive his suicide attempt. He already knew what Terry Joe was going to say.
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Julian's body was found only hours later. The suicide notes surprisingly did not
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give any insight as to why he had decided to take his own life.
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It only stated quote, I got too tired and nervous. I couldn't stand
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it any longer and asked that his remains be buried at sea. With Julian
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dead and Terry Joe able to give her version of events, investigators were finally
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able to hear the real story of what happened that night aboard the Bluebell.
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At the age of forty, Arthur Duperault had finally saved the money to take
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his family on the adventure of a lifetime, a week long cruise on a
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chartered yacht traveling from Florida to the Behind. It was a much needed escape
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from the brutal winters that Arthur and his family faced back home in Wisconsin,
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and in November of nineteen sixty one, they were finally able to set sail
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for a fee of five hundred and fifteen dollars. The Duparolt family had been
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able to charter a sixty foot catch vessel named the Bluebell, and an additional
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fee of one hundred dollars per day to the man that would be the Bluebell
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skipper on the voyage, an experienced reputable local yachtsmen named Julian Harvey. The
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Bluebell left port in the Florida Keys on November eighth, nineteen sixty one.
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The Duparolt family relaxed on board and visited a range of tourist destinations to snorkel,
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sightsea and go shopping for souvenirs. They finally made their port of call
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on November twelfth, before beginning the journey back to their starting point in Florida.
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That night. The ship's inhabitants had an Italian chicken dish with salad for
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dinner. For almost everybody on board, it would be their last meal.
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Leaving the rest of the family relaxing on deck, Terry Joe retired to her
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below deck sleeping cabin at nine pm. Shortly afterwards, Terry Joe woke to
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the sounds of yelling and thumping. She crept above deck to investigate and saw
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the dead bodies of her mother and brother slumps in the Bluebell's main cabin.
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Still sleepy, Terry Joe couldn't process what was happening and walked further onto the
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ship's deck, where she saw Julian Harvey holding a bucket. He saw her
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and violently shoved Terry Joe back below deck. She did as she was told,
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and minutes later, a mixture of water and oil began flowing down onto
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her cabin's floor. Shortly afterwards, Julian walked into the cabin holding a rifle.
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He made eye contact with a terrified Terry Joe and then left. Terry
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Joe worked up the courage to creep back out of her cabin, where she
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saw that Julian had released the Bluebell's dinghy, which was floating to the side
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of the ship. He asked her to hold the rope that tethered the dinghy
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in place, but she lost her grip and the rope slid out into the
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sea. Panicked, Julian jumped overboard to swim out to the dinghy, leaving
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Terry Joe behind. She was now the sole living person on board a sinking
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ship. Despite her young age and the terror she was experiencing, Terry Joe
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was a determined, resourceful kid. As the Bluebell began to sing faster,
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she untied afloat from the deck and threw it overboard and swam towards it.
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The float was tiny, the only way Terry Joe could fit on it was
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by sitting completely upright. She managed to sit in the same position while sleep
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deprived and starving until her rescue more than three days later. No part of
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Terry Joe's story supported Julian's version of events. Over and over, she insisted
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that the Bluebell's mast had never broken and there had never been any kind of
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fire on board. Authorities gently informed Terry Joe of their findings. They had
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recovered her sister Renee's body, as well as Julian Harvey, but the other
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members of her family were all lost at sea. With a combination of Terry
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Joe's testimony and Julian's immediate guilty suicide, it was clear to investigators that foul
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play had caused the deaths of those on board the Bluebell. Investigation into Julian
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found that despite his good reputation as a yachtsman, he had always struggled to
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hold down a job and had financial problems throughout his life. He had a
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history of collecting large insurance settlements from the sinking of boats, and one of
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his previous wives had died when Julian drove his car off of a bridge,
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leaving her in the water to drown while he made his way to safety.
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With this story in mind, an inquiry into Julian's actions proposed one main theory
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his motivation had actually been to collect on his wife's double indemnity life insurance policy
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for a supposed accidental death. If his plan had gone successfully, she might
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have been the only victim. Possibly a member of the Duparult family had caught
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Julian in the act, forcing him to kill the rest to the family as
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potential witnesses. Five decades after escaping the Bluebell Terry. Joe gave an interview
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where she stated why she believed Julian spared her life. She didn't think that
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it was mercy at all. Matter of factly, she said, quote,
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I think he probably thought I would go down with the ship, and if
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she had, Julian Harvey would have lived his life as a freeman.