KINGSTON, Jamaica – A renowned American botanist was under arrest in Jamaica Monday for allegedly plotting to have his chauffeur to kill his wife.
George Proctor, 86, is charged with conspiring to murder his 66-year-old wife, police said in a statement Sunday.
Proctor, who taught at the University of the West Indies, is originally from Boston but has lived in Jamaica for 57 years.
He was arrested Thursday at the Norman Manley International Airport in the capital of Kingston as he was about to board a plane to the United States, police said.
Police allege that Proctor paid his driver, Glenford Flemmington, $90,000 to kill his wife, whose name was not disclosed, sometime between April 20 and April 27.
Flemmington also was arrested. The two men were scheduled to appear at a bail hearing on Monday.
Some two dozen plants have been named for Proctor, including species from Jamaica, Nicaragua, Puerto Rico, and St. Lucia, according to the Web site of the U.S. National Herbarium of the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, D.C.
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