The Death of Eliza Evershed: Stories from Gladstone Gaol – part I

The Death of Eliza Evershed

Stories from Gladstone Gaol – part I

On Saturday, 16 September 1882, Eliza Evershed, a prisoner within the walls of Gladstone Gaol in South Australia's Mid North, passed away... her last words: "Goodbye"...

By all accounts, Eliza Evershed had lived a hard life. Her husband, Alfred Batchelor Evershed, had once owned the Maid of Auckland Hotel in Edwardstown, which she eventually ran herself after his death.

No one was quite sure of her age. At the time of her death, she was listed as 65 years old, but doctors proclaimed that she had either lived a very hard life or was at least 80 years old when she died.

Eliza was often in court, on both sides of the law. Sometimes her hotel would be robbed; at other times, she herself would rob people. In fact, she had been incarcerated in Adelaide Gaol on a seven-year sentence for larceny about 12 months earlier. Still, she had been transferred to the lower-security Gladstone Gaol as her health was failing rapidly.

Eliza's character was on full display in 1872 when she appeared in court with her friend, Catherine Mott. Catherine had been charged with stealing a set of scales worth two pounds from shopkeeper Robert Crocker.

Crocker had allowed Catherine into his shop on Grenfell Street to work, but when he returned the following day, the scales were gone.

Catherine requested that Eliza be present, as she was a tenant at the Maid of Auckland Hotel. Eliza took the stand as a witness and declared:

"I am Eliza Evershed, the old woman of the Maid of Auckland. I am a widow, and I am perfectly willing to 'have' Inspector Bee."

The courtroom erupted into laughter, and poor Inspector Bee blushed, embarrassed by the grotesque old woman's antics.

The court ruled that the old woman exhibited "decided traces of real or assumed insanity" and that "no satisfactory evidence could be got from her."

Eliza spent her final days in prison, but she was, in fact, a free woman, having had her sentence remitted on 11 September. However, as she was so unwell, the warden considered it unsafe to move her.

Before her death, Eliza spoke of the kindness she had received from the female warder, Mrs Pollit.

Honorah Dunn, a fellow prisoner, said Eliza had been ailing for some time. Honorah had spent a great deal of time with the old lady, both day and night, over the previous fortnight, helping her with anything she needed. Eliza had everything she required and never complained about the treatment she received. She passed away quietly within the walls of Gladstone Gaol.

© Allen Tiller 2014

The Maria Massacre - 25 July 1840

The Maria Massacre - 25 July 1840

  Maria, a 136-ton sailing ship left Port Adelaide headed towards Hobart, Tasmania on the 20th of June 1840, when it was blown off course and floundered at Cape Jaffa on a reef. (near Kingston SE, South Australia)
Maria's passengers and crew consisted of the following 25 people:

Captain William Smith and his Wife.

Samuel Denham and Mrs Denham and their five children (Thomas, Andrew, Walter, Fanny and Anna).

Mrs York (sister of Mr. Denham), who had recently been widowed and her infant.

James Strutt who had been hired as Mrs Denham's servant.

George Young Green and Mrs Green.

Thomas Daniel and Mrs Daniel.

Mr. Murray

The ship's mate and crew:

John Tegg

John Griffiths

John Deggan

James Biggins

John Cowley

Thomas Rea,

George Leigh

James Parsons.

  When the Maria hit the reef, the passengers and crew made their way ashore with the goal of making their way, by foot to Encounter Bay to seek help aide for the now-abandoned ship.
  The party came across local indigenous people and asked them to lead the party to safety. Along the way, a path heading inland was discovered, and it is believed the party split in two at this point, with the Captain making his way inland, and some of the crew and passengers choosing to follow the shoreline back to Encounter Bay.

Somewhere along the shoreline, some of the travelling party decided they would prefer to re-join the Captain, and left the walking party to find the Captains inland party. Now there were three groups of settlers trying to make their way back to Encounter Bay.
Not one of the passengers or crew members of the Maria, was ever seen alive again.

Eventually, someone happened upon two bodies, both of which had weddings rings used to identify who they were.
Soon rumours began to emerge of an alleged massacre by Aboriginal people of the passengers and crew of the Maria.

 More bodies were discovered in different areas in close proximity to the Maria wreckage. Also, the Maria's logbook and some of the passenger and crews clothing were found amongst local indigenous people.
As the rumours grew into a crescendo of upset with settlers in the colony, Governor Gawler, South Australia's second Governor, ordered Major Thomas O'Halloran to head south and investigate the situation, and to uphold the law in the region.

  O'Halloran left Goolwa with the mounted troop on the 22nd of August 1840, headed toward cape Jaffa, whilst a small boat set sail to search the coastline.
 On 23 August, the force ran into a number of Aborigines and rounded up 13 men, 2 boys and 50 women and children. They shackled the men and set the others free, though they voluntarily remained nearby their men.
  Two of the terrified Aboriginal men tried to escape their capture by swimming out to sea but were shot and wounded by O'Halloran's men. A man named Roach, who had two years prior been arrested in the area by O'Halloran, led the mounted troop to a wurley where blood-stained clothing, passengers belongings, and the Maria's logbook had been stored.
  O'Halloran followed Governors Gawler's instructions to the letter, and at 3pm on the 25th of August, hung the two men who had tried to escape earlier.
Governor Gawler's instructions to O'Halloran were very clear:

"...when to your conviction you have identified any number, not exceeding three, of the actual murderers...you will there explain to the blacks the nature of your conduct ...and you will deliberately and formally cause sentence of death to be executed by shooting or hanging"

  The hangings caused quite the stir in Adelaide, and in London. The press had a field day with accusations of murder, corruption and miscarriages of Justice. “The Aborigines Protection Society” argued that South Australian law could not be used in this case as the Aboriginal's of the area had not pledged allegiance to the Crown.

The case was brought into the public eye on the 10^th of April 1841 when Mr Richard Penny was guided by members of the Tonkinya peoples to the grave of a white man who had died at sea. It was thought the body would be that of Captain Collet Barker, who was speared to death in the region in April 1831. However, Penny would find four of the five bodies still unaccounted for from the Maria wreck.

The bodies were in a bad state, and it was clear that they had been beaten to death. The Tonkinya people then went on to tell Penny how the killings had happened.

Major O'Halloran's expedition to the
Coorong, August 1840

It seemed the Sailors and passengers had promised blankets and other goods for safe passage back to Encounter Bay, they had promised to return with the goods. The Aboriginal mob was unhappy with this arrangement and wanted something now that they could use. The sailing party refused, and a fight broke out, of which the white men lost.

Maria's hull was never found, it is thought she broke up on the reef. However, her cannon was found and would later become a garden ornament at Victor Harbor's Adare Castle, fired every New Years Eve as a family tradition!

The Rhynie Tragedy: Part two

The Rhynie Tragedy Part two

Last week we looked into some of the circumstances that led to the tragic deaths of the Lee family, after Father and husband Alexander Lee killed his Wife and Children. This week we take another look at the case, delving into how he perpetrated his crime, and his eventual hanging in Adelaide Gaol.

  Thursday morning, July 15^th, 1920, convicted murderer, Alexander Newland Lee was taken from his cell on the eastern side of Adelaide Gaol. It was 6:30 in the morning, in less than two hours, Mr Lee, condemned for the murder of his wife and children, would be dead, hung from the gallows inside Adelaide Gaol.

  Weeks earlier, Lee had hurt his hand shearing sheep in a freak accident, and had been receiving treatment at Nuriootpa Hospital. Due to not being able to take on his usual employee, he accepted a job droving cattle. While employed on the cattle run, it is believed Lee purchased a quantity of strychnine & in compliance with regulations, signed his name in the Poison Book.

  Lee was said to have been seen skulking around the small town of Rhynie, the night of his families death. Having returned only a couple of days earlier from the cattle droving job he'd picked up.

 In his testimony to the Police, Lee stated that he had returned home from the cattle run to find his family writhing in agony on their beds. He jumped onto his bicycle and rode 300 meters to awaken the mounted constable and a doctor in the Rhynie Hotel. 

  Lee rode back to his home, and was just in time to see one his little boys drawing his last breath, He then witnessed the death of his daughter, writhing in total agony as the strychnine poison engulfed her body and stopped her heart.

On Easter Sunday, Detectives Nation and Goldsworthy of Adelaide, arrived in Rhynie to conduct a full investigation of the deaths of the Lee family. They concluded that Alexander was the culprit and arrested him on suspicion of murder. 

  Alexander Lee offered one of the weakest explanations for the death of his family, stating that he thought the family had died after drinking milk tainted with mouse poison. The mouse poison in his explanation, had fallen from a high shelf into the milk container, and the family, who were in the custom of having a glass of milk before sleep, all drank from the same bottle.

The inquest and trial did not take long and it was found that Alexander Newland Leewas guilty of the crime of murder.

  Lee, in his final hours, ate a hearty breakfast, and was comforted spiritually by Rev. W.H. Hanton, before being led to the gallows. Even in his final hours he would not make a confession to the crimes, and the details of what happened died with him at 8 am that morning, on the noose.

Murial and Alexander’s two surviving children, the twin girls were fostered by a local family in Rhynie, where they were raised lovingly. They took on their foster parents surnames and lived locally for many years.

Upon burial of Muriel and her children, Murial Lee's parents buried their daughter and grandchildren under her maiden name, in protest of their murder by Lee.

The Rhynie Tragedy: Part One

The Rhynie Tragedy Part One

On April 1st, 1920, tragedy struck the small country town of Rhynie, a little hamlet not far from Riverton in the States Mid-North. The bodies of Mrs Muriel Lee and three of her five children, aged three, five and six years old respectively, were found dead, lying in their beds in their country home, murdered by husband and father, Alexander Lee.

The Argus (Melbourne, Vic.  1848 - 1957), Monday 5 April 1920, page 6

  Alexander had come home a couple of days prior, after being away for a lengthy time shearing sheep at homesteads around the State.
 He had returned home drunk one night and accused his wife of a number of petty things, but had wound himself up, and accused her of having a series of “fancy” men in the house in his absence.

  The night before the murder, Charles Glen, Mrs Lee's brother had visited the house. Alexander was laying on the sofa, smoking a pipe. Glen went to leave saying “I will get away now, as I want to get a pint of beer before 6”, after which Lee said, “A Pint would do me good.”
  Mrs Lee said to her brother “Don't talk to me about beer, I had enough of it last night. He came home drunk and accused me of all sorts of things, and he said I had men in the house when he was away."

  Lee then called his daughter, Amelia into the room and stated "I will keep you and little Alice, and I hope to God the rest of the ------- are dead by the morning." Lee then looked at his wife and said, “You must have riled me to say a thing like that!"

  This was not the first time Alexander Lee had been harsh to his wife. The married couple also had twins babies which at the time of the murders were in a hospital in Adelaide, as they had been unwell with influenza.
 Emily Mellery, a young nurse looking after the young twins, who was later called upon as a witness, reported she had been staying with the Lee family. One evening, Mr Lee arrived home in a bad state of intoxication and began to call his wife all manner of names and curses.

  After a while Lee began to make accusations about the fatherhood of his twins, "I am not responsible for your condition." Lee said, to which his wife answered, "Don't say that to me, Alex You know I don't do that." 

 

Advocate (Burnie, Tas.  1890 - 1954),
 Wednesday 9 June 1920, page 3

  Lee, who had two bottles of brandy and a bottle of wine with him from which he was drinking heavily, then forced his wife to drink several glasses of brandy. After each drink she was sick.
  The following afternoon Mrs Lee was removed to the Riverton Maternity Hospital, and was away from home for about three weeks. On the day she reached home, the twins began to cry, and Lee remarked to his wife, "Chuck the little ----- outside they don't belong to me."   Mrs Lee replied, "Oh, Alex don't say that to me. God put them into the world for something, and we must look after them." Alex replied, "I Wasn't Home, I wasn't home when the twins arrived, I was away shearing. I think your memory has failed you considerably."

There was much speculation that Alexander Lee thought his brother, Leonard, may have been the father of the twin. This, he speculated because, on a day in March, Leonard had been standing at the front gate of the family home when Alexander had returned from work. Alexander said unto him “Hello you F$#@er!” and then had continued to berate his wife inside the home saying “why don't you keep your fancy man in here?”

  Alexander Lee obviously had trust issues and a drinking problem, but also had murder on his mind – next week on The Haunts of Adelaide, we take a closer look at the murders, trial and hanging of Alexander Lee


© 2014 Allen Tiller

The Haunting of the Fountain Inn Hotel

The Haunting of the Fountain Inn Hotel

  The Fountain Inn, at Yilki (Encounter Bay area), was built in 1847. One of the first Inn's in South Australia and it still stands today. Now known as “Yelki By The Sea”, a Bed and Breakfast near Encounter Bay.



  One of South Australia’s earliest hauntings (Alongside Graham's Castle in Prospect and Younghusband Mansion in Adelaide City), The Fountain Inn is thought to be one of South Australia's earliest built Hotels, being established in around 1847.

  The original building was constructed of weather-board and a thatched roof, and was the only pub for miles around in the area, which led to it being very popular, as there really was no other place to drink and socialise with other settlers, sailors and locals.

  Whalers in the southern ocean would drink inside its walls, and many wild brawls would occur out of liquor fuelled jealousy and anger. More than one man was dragged from the hotel in the early years, bleeding profusely from wounds sustained in the brawls.
  It wasn't long until other hotels began to spring up in the region. Newer buildings with more room and better facilities. The Fountain Inn Hotel fell to the wayside and became a summer residence let to tenants.
However, no tenants would stay in the house long.

  In the dead of the night, when all was quiet, except the sounds of the waves breaking upon the shore, the old Inn would stir and creak, and something unexplained would come to the fore. Inexplicable noises, like human feet dragging heavily across soft sand towards the lonely Inn. Yet, when one would go to investigate, nothing would be there, except the grassy reeds swaying in the wind.
  Rumours sprung up in nearby towns, about the weird goings-on in the Inn. It was to become local lore that a whaler, who had been beaten in a fight in the hotel, then dragged down to the beach where he died, was now coming back to the Inn on a nightly basis to seek his revenge.
  The haunting rumours spread like wildfire, and soon no-one in the region was brave enough to spend a night in the haunted Inn, except for a young farmer named Mr Smith, who was staying in the Inn with his wife, well aware of the evil reputation of the building.

  Mr Smith was called into town one night and did not want to leave his wife home alone, but she insisted she would be fine and for her husband to go.
  After her husband left, the young wife retired to her room to sew by the light of her flicker oil lamp. The lamp threw strange shadows upon the walls, and outside the wind moaned. She tried to put the thought of ghosts out of her mind and waited for her husbands return.
 At about 2am, the wind had died down, and she listened as the waves broke upon the shore. Suddenly, from outside her window came the sound of a soft dragging rustle, as if a heavy body was being dragged through the sand. It grew louder, closer – soon she could take it no more, and with her lamp, she flung open the outside door and glanced around in the lamp and moonlight only to find the beach deserted.
  She could still hear the dragging noises, only a few meters from where she stood, but whatever was making them was not visible to the eye. In a state of panic, she returned to the Inn, double bolted the door, returned to her room, and waited for her husband with the lamp turned fully on.

  The next day Mr Smith returned, and he found his wife barricaded in the bedroom. After she told him of her frightening encounter with the spirit, they packed up and sought accommodation elsewhere, but not before telling the local newspapers what had happened!!!


© Allen Tiller 2014

(Note: could the dragging sound be a seal? )