Macksad Murder

Macksad Murder

Adelaide municipal golf links, a serene location, low rolling hills, trees and flower beds, but in May 1933, the links became home to a homicide crime scene when the body of 38-year-old unemployed fitter, Richard Joseph Supple, was found on the grounds.

Supple had been shot three times and badly beaten around his head with a large blunt object.
Mr Supple's death remained one of Adelaide’s great mysteries at the time. Police searched relentlessly for clues and evidence. There were gaps in the whereabouts of Supple on the day of his death from 3:30pm on Wednesday the 16th of May onwards.


The absence of facts in their enquiries baffled them, how can a man disappear so thoroughly, surely someone must have seen this moderately well-known man about Adelaide.

Detectives Corell, McGrath and Strangways, and a plain-clothed Constable, Sharoe, covered large areas of ground in their enquiries after the finding of Mr Supples body on a Thursday morning, they visited all his known hangouts, his home, his family and his friends, and eventually, some luck came there way when a car with blood on the running boards was found.
The blood was sampled and taken away to pathology for testing.

What was thought to be bullet holes in Mr Supple's body were found to be holes caused by a garden rake. An argument between Supple, his wife, and neighbour, Salem Macksad had broken out. Macksad had used the rake to assault Supple.

An inspection of Macksads Gilbert Street shop revealed pools of blood on his floor. Macksad was taken into custody. Police revealed they had a motive for the murder, but would not lay charges until the blood test result confirmed their suspicions.
Salem Macksad was charged with the first-degree murder of Richard Joseph Supple.


It was revealed that Mrs Supple had an affair with Macksad, her neighbour. They would stop under the trees on Memorial Drive to engage in their carnal desires, and sometimes in the botanic park; but always after she finished her shift working on North Terrace at around 6:30pm – her husband had no knowledge of the affair.

Richard had come home one night and found his wife in the kitchen of Macksad, which angered him greatly. That night he fought with his wife and struck her, giving her a black eye, and from that time on, knowing his wife was cheating on him, he began to drink heavily and make a nuisance of himself upon her.

It would seem during a heated exchange with Macksad one evening, Macksad grabbed a three-pronged hoe-rake and struck Supple in the head, causing three bullet-like puncture wounds, which the police would later think were bullet holes.

Mr Macksad who had a shop right next door to the Supple family home on Gilbert Street, and Mrs Supple were in the trists of a secret affair that Richard had stumbled upon it... and within a couple of weeks, he was dead.

Salem Macksad was duly sentenced to twelve years of hard labour in Adelaide Gaol

© 2013 Allen Tiller

www.eidolonparanormal.com.au