Foreword:  In the course of a report on a different coup attempt on Dominica, the 1981 Duke-Perdue-Don Black-mercenary coup is mentioned.
 

UPI (New York Times) — Published: December 20, 1981

ROSEAU, Dominica, Dec. 19 — A dozen gunmen stormed police headquarters and the main prison today in an unsuccessful coup attempt that left three people dead and nine wounded in this Caribbean island nation.

The former head of the army was arrested after the attacks, which were mounted to seize stockpiled arms at the police station and free a former Prime Minister from prison.

The attacks appeared to be a repetition of an attempt last spring to overthrow the Government by an alliance of Dominican soldiers, American mercenaries and members of the Rastafarian sect.

Prime Minister Mary Eugenia Charles took to the radio after the attack in an appeal for calm.  “We wish to exhort you not to gather in crowds and to take no action which might hinder police in their endeavors to bring this grave situation to an end,” she said.

Fight Way Into Police Station.

The assault force of a dozen men fought its way into the police station but was unable to open the doors of the armory housing the weapons and ammunition of the army, which was disbanded last year by Prime Minister Charles.

Police Commissioner Oliver Phillips was grazed by a bullet and suffered a head wound, the police said.  One policeman defending the building was killed.

The former army commander, Frederick Newton, was arrested at his home after a policeman wounded in the storming of the police station identified him as one of the attackers.

Another former soldier, Ashford Benjamin, was killed later in the day when the police tried to arrest him.  Both Mr. Newton and Mr. Benjamin had been accused by the Government of taking part in the attempted coup last spring but were acquitted by the courts.

A second group of gunmen sped in a car to the Storm Farm Prison, which held former Prime Minister Patrick John and three other officials of his Dominica Labor Party, and attempted to break in but were repulsed, the police said.

Louisiana Episode Is Recalled

Policemen killed one of the attackers and the others fled, the authorities said.  The coup attempt last spring was joined by American mercenaries.  Ten of them were arrested on a Louisiana beach on April 27 as they prepared to sail to Dominica.  Weapons was [sic] seized along with a Confederate flag.

Seven of the men pleaded guilty to charges of attempting to overthrow a foreign government.  All were said to have ties to the Ku Klux Klan or the neo-Nazi movement.

Three others went to trial.  Two of them, Stephen Black and Joe Danny Hawkins of Mississippi, were convicted and a third reputed member of the mercenary force was acquitted.