Widow Calls on Glenn Jackson’s Killers to Repent

Susan Jackson, widow of slain journalist Glenn Jackson, is confident that the person or persons who killed her husband will be caught. But she has already forgiven them.

“I pray that who did such hideous act would ask Jesus Christ to forgive them and receive him as Lord and Saviour of their life,” Susan said last Wednesday afternoon. {{more}} She was delivering the eulogy at the Kingstown Methodist Church where thousands of persons had gathered to pay their final respects to the departed journalist and broadcaster.

“I would not want the wrath of God to come upon such person or persons,” Susan declared.

She expressed optimism that the crime would be solved: “Because my heavenly father will not leave me undone.”

Susan held up admirably throughout the ordeal, a fact noted by Prime Minister Dr. Ralph Gonsalves when he addressed the gathering.

Susan, mother of Glenn’s two sons, Glendon and Ian, expressed the view that “justice will come,” and she was emphatic that it would be “no scapegoat justice.”

Susan acknowledged that persons at the funeral service were “angry, hurt and bitter.” But her prayer was that just like her husband “all of us here will seek for such a spirit of forgiveness.”

She is hopeful that something good will come out of her husband’s death.

She noted that he had friends across the political spectrum and she used the occasion to call for “spiritual revival in our nation.”

She pleaded with the society to “put out iniquity and put righteousness and peace in our bosoms.”

Susan praised her late husband’s virtues as a family man, not only at home, but also to the extended family.

As far as Susan was concerned, Glenn was a “passionate” radio announcer.

He was creative, Susan pointed out, and sought to do things differently.

“He would wake me up at odd hours in the night, excited about new ideas,” she disclosed.

If Susan had had her way, politics would have been the last area in which her husband became involved.

“Politics was one of the last things I would have thought that Glenn would have gotten involved in,” she said.

“He was so indoctrinated in his mission that sometimes, his sense of reasoning became clouded,” Susan outlined.

She admitted that her husband had “short comings.”

Glenn Jackson was the eternal optimist and declared that “Nobody is going to keep me down,” according to Susan. He shrugged off any scandals which might have been thrown at him, in the spirit of forgiveness with which he seemed imbued.

The funeral service, one of the largest in living memory, was attended by thousands. The doors of the Kingstown Methodist Church had to be controlled by members of the Special Services Unit (SSU) of the Police Force. Those who could not be accommodated in the church were seated in the next door church hall or overflowed onto the street.

In his touching tribute, Prime Minister, Dr. Ralph Gonsalves said that there was “no broadcast journalist, perhaps no journalist at all, in the history of St. Vincent and the Grenadines who has had a more positive influence and impact on our people.”

Other tributes were paid by the Hon. Julian Francis, E. Bernard John, Rev. I. Michael Llewellyn (read by David Robin), Leroy Creese and the staff of the Prime Minister’s Office.

The homily was delivered by Superintendent Minister of the Methodist Church, Rev. Victor Job. Lessons were read by Glenn’s mother and step-father, Yvonne and Vini Robin.

Jackson’s body was found in his vehicle Monday March 6 around 1:55 p.m. He had left home the previous Sunday evening.

He served as Press Secretary and Personal Aide to the Prime Minister from March 28, 2001.

He died from a single bullet to the chest. Up to last Wednesday, no one was charged for what has been termed an “assassination.”

However, intense investigations were ongoing by the local Police supported by members of the Scotland Yard and forensic and ballistic experts from the Caribbean.

Glenn Jackson’s death has been a cause of concern locally, with widespread outpouring of grief about the perpetration of such a crime. He was laid to rest at the Kingstown Cemetery.