Ray William Johnson: True Story Podcast
This Woman Bought an Island And It Killed Her Husband - The Jane Gaskin story
07 Feb 2025
This is the story of Jayne Gaskin and her partner Phil, and how they bought a small island off the coast of Nicaragua
Full Episode
So it's late night and this boat is in the water near the shore. And this family on the boat is being held captive by a bunch of masked goons with pew-pews. And they're scared, really scared. Now the dad, just thinking on his feet, he spots a gas can. And just when the moment is right, bam, he grabs it and he rips the cap off. And he douches one of the goons with gasoline.
And he reaches into his pocket and he pulls out a matchbook and he lights a match. And two of the goons go up in flames. So why is this family being held captive? Well, it all starts with this former Playboy model, Jane. And Jane is now a housewife. She lives in England. But honestly, she's miserable there. So one day she gets online and she comes across this website where you can buy an island.
And on the site, she finds this little private island for sale for only one hundred and seventy thousand pounds or about two hundred thousand US dollars. Now the island, it's small, it's off the coast of Nicaragua, hours away from everything. You have to take like two boats to get there. But whatever, Jane is still like, I want to buy this island. And so she does.
She takes the money her family has in savings and she buys it. And so soon enough, Jane and her romantic partner, Phil, and her three kids, they all move across the world to this new tropical paradise. Now the island itself, like it's cool, but it only has one shack on it. No running water, no electricity, of course. But this family doesn't care.
They are going to rough it because Jane and Phil have come up with this whole plan to turn this place into a scuba diving resort. Sounds great. So bam, they get right to work building their dream. And Phil starts by hiring some local workers to help with construction. And they end up hiring this local dude, Teodoro. Now Teodoro, he's gonna run the construction crew.
He's an ex-guerrilla fighter, he's kind of a badass, and the whole family just loves him. In fact, the family loves him so much that eventually Jane starts smashing with him. Now I assume Phil has no idea this is going on. He's too busy hiring the rest of the crew. Now to make it worse, Teodoro, I guess Jane just isn't enough for him.
Because then he starts smashing with one of the cooks Phil hired. And then somehow Jane learns that Teodoro is smashing with the cook and she gets jealous and fires him. And she also bans him from the island. And Teodoro's pissed. Like he leaves and then he comes back a little later and he's demanding his job back and Jane is like, hell no. It's a whole mess.
And I honestly don't know if Phil is mad about the affair. There's no record of his reaction, but I assume he's mad. But Jane, her problems are just beginning. Because local indigenous people are not happy about the family being on the island. They feel like it should be public land. And then local environmentalists, they get mad too because of all the construction work.
And then one day a bunch of boats approach the island and protesters carrying machetes, they storm the whole place. It is wild. But Jane, she isn't budging. I mean, this is her island. And she is invested, and nothing is going to convince her to leave. Until... One night, the whole family is asleep in the shack. And then suddenly, pew, the generator cuts off.
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