Grisly Gawler - Part I - Felo-de-se

Grisly Gawler - Part I

Felo-de-se

In 1879, Gawler was dealt a double blow when two very well known gentlemen, Ernest Neville and John Adamson, decided to end their lives in their home on the banks of the North Para River.
Ernest Neville was a well-educated man, he could speak French fluently and was also a very well studied Botanist. His friend, John Adamson was also very well educated and was a very talented musician.

 Before coming to Gawler, the two men had worked at Anlaby Homestead near Kapunda as gardeners. Prior to that, they had lived together in Victoria. 

Neville took a job with the Town of Gawler Corporation. He was later fired for 'incompetence' and was accused of embezzling funds from the Town of Gawler. 


 Neville didn’t take the accusations well and blamed the local Methodist community, who he believed had a particular aversion to him and his friend John. With both men unemployed, their mortgage went unpaid, and a Bailiff was appointed to collect their property.
  From that time forward, it seemed as though the two men had already decided that suicide was their only option, and in studying how to end their lives painlessly, they undertook research in a business-like manner.

Firstly they got hold of a bottle of chloroform, under the pretence of suffering from Neuralgia ( A painful nerve injury). They tested the drug on their much believed Bull-Terrier “Mammy”, who the two men referred to as the third part of their “trinity”; the three of them being inseparable. Mammy passed away from a drug overdose.
John, the next day, took Mammy's puppies into town and distributed them amongst their friends.
The following day, Sunday, Ernest did not appear for breakfast. Usually, they ate breakfast with other gentlemen on Sunday mornings. John accounted for Ernest's absence by telling those present, that Ernest had been up all night and was very tired, and had decided to sleep for most of the morning.

Ernest had, however, been running more experiments, and described some of what he had been up to in a letter to the local medical authority, Doctor Popham, which came to light after their deaths.
In that letter Ernest described taking large amounts of “Laudanum” (also known as Tincture of Opium - it is an alcoholic herbal preparation containing approximately 10% powdered opium), up to an ounce in one sitting – its effects were not very dramatic on him, sending him off to sleep for about an hour.

When Ernest awoke, he opened up a wound in his arm and drew three pints of blood (3.5 pints of blood loss can cause organ failure). Ernest passed out, and when he awoke he removed another pint of blood. That did not conclude his experiments, and he expressed to John that he regretted not owning a pistol.

Ernest nursed himself through to Tuesday night. The two men decided to proceed to the wine cellar below the house. There, they suspended two ropes from the ceiling: “The ropes which the men used were suspended from the ceiling, and were originally used as ring trapezes. They cut off the rings, tied loop-knots, soaped the ropes, then got on a case together and jumped off it, leaving their bodies about eighteen inches apart.”

The Bailiff, who was residing in the house with the men until the monies were paid, heard a dog whimpering at about 3 am, and went outside to see what the noise was about, but could not see anyone. He found the two men the next morning after they didn’t come down for breakfast, and he began to search for them.

Doctor Popham brought forward the letter that had been addressed to him at the Inquiry into the two deaths and stated, that he could not find a reasonable explanation for why John Adamson would kill himself as well as Ernest Neville, other than the extreme regard he felt for his companion, spoken about in his letter.
The suicide was one of passion, two men who loved each other so much, that they could not live a day without each other's company.

As stated at the inquest: “The affair is altogether most mysterious, and one of the most remarkable occurrences that has ever happened in the colony. At an inquest, on Wednesday the Jury returned a verdict of felo-de-se.”

1879 'THE GAWLER TRAGEDY.', Port Adelaide News (SA : 1878 - 1883), 13 September, p. 4., http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article195863028

1879 'No title', The Illustrated Adelaide News (SA : 1875 - 1880), 1 November, p. 12., http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article224815005

1879 'THE TRAGEDY AT GAWLER.', South Australian Register (Adelaide, SA : 1839 - 1900), 4 September, p. 5., http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article43098356

George Massey Allen

George Massey Allen

George Massey Allen was one of the most controversial newspaper editors South Australia has ever had.

In 1860, Allen worked for The Advertiser but decided he wanted more and left to form the first English language newspaper in the Mid-north, The Northern Star at Kapunda. (The only previous newspapers in the Barossa Valley and Mid North had been German-language newspapers).

Allen was a man of principle, but also very outspoken, which often got him in serious trouble with the law.

His newspapers were often very controversial as he preferred to voice his own opinion, without considering the consequences of his actions.
 This eventually led Allen into a liable case in Kapunda, in which he was declared guilty of liable and slander. His newspaper was cancelled after his conviction, which came with a 6-month gaol sentence.

 After serving his gaol sentence, Allen returned to Kapunda to find that his newspaper The Northern Star had been replaced in his absence with The Kapunda Herald. The new newspaper was incredibly popular and far outsold his former local paper.

Instead of going back into the newspaper business, where his opinions would most likely see him Gaoled again, he instead went into the Hotel business, buying a local Kapunda pub, in which he could voice his opinions all he wanted.

Pub life wasn’t what Allen desired though, and eventually, he moved back to Adelaide in 1867 and founded a new newspaper called The Satirist.

The Satirist was in direct competition with another newspaper The Register, and Allen's former employer, The Advertiser.
 The competition did not phase Allen though, and on at least one occasion, his newspaper outsold both his bigger rivals.

Allen had trouble keeping his opinions to himself. His newspaper lampooned local politicians, events and his rival newspapers and because of Allen's unwillingness to reel in his satiric tongue,  he eventually found himself in court again charged with liable. Not having the finances to keep hiring lawyers, and prosecuted again, with a gaol sentence, he eventually had to shut his newspaper down.

The prospectus of the South Australian satirist read:
“The lamentably abject condition of the daily Press of South Australia, its want of political principle, its hypocritical fear and timorousness, has forced upon the proprietors of the Satirist the palpable necessity of launching forth upon the unimpassioned waters of honesty, truth, and fearless independence, a journal whose aim shall be to guide, not truckle to, the public opinion of this colony. ... What, then, is the demand of the hour? To find and to sustain a fearless advocate of the people's rights and requirements, one who will dare to speak and teach the truth ...” (27 July 1867, p. 2)

 Allen was incarcerated for six months by Judge Wearing, his wife and six children, who needed his income to survive, became destitute and relied on the kindness of others.
A parliamentary enquiry ensued, and eventually, a Parliamentary Intervention happened, releasing Allen from Prison.
  Judge Wearing declared he had probably misinterpreted the law somewhat harshly but stated: "the great social advantage which has, I believe, resulted to the public by the cessation of so infamous a print as the Satirist." (South Australian Parliamentary Paper no. 145, 1868/69)

Allen and his wife didn't enter into the media again, instead, they took up another Hotel, The Alexandra Hotel in Rundle Street and lived out the rest of their lives as publicans.

Researched and written by Allen Tiller ©2014

"Don't Move, or You're Dead!" - The Abduction of Monica Schiller

"Don't Move, or you're Dead!"

The Abduction of Monica Schiller

  Cadell Training Centre is a low-level, minimum-security prison located 180 kilometres north of Adelaide. The Training Centre houses low-level criminals who aren't deemed to be a security risk.
It has long been a practice to allow prisoners out from time to time, for a walk, or to do a spot of fishing on the Murray River. The gaol has always installed trust in its prisoners, but that changed on the 13th of September 1970.

Three men, Terrence Haley, Raymond Gunning, and Andrew Brooks had been released from the centre shortly after 2 pm for a walk. The men decided to abscond. They hatched a plan to escape South Australia and drive to Darwin in the Northern Territory. The men walked about 8 miles through paddocks and scrubland and arrived at the farmhouse of the Schiller family home in Murkbo, on the Upper Murray about 3pm.

At the farmhouse was 21-year-old Monica Schiller, her Father (Adolph) "Artie" her mother, Myrtle, Grandmother, Amanda Zeigler (who was in her late 70's and asleep in an outside cottage), and Monica's boyfriend, Graham Smith.

The prisoners took the family hostage and ransacked their farmhouse for anything they could find to aid them on their journey north. They stole money, food, water, guns, ammunition and some of Monica's dresses. Then they isolated the family in separate rooms, tying them on chairs and binding their hands and feet together. Artie struggled, and in his attempts to escape received two hefty blows to the back of his head.

The three men took Monica outside. Her Grandmother, who had been asleep in the cottage, woke and saw what was going on. She tried to help, only to be given some food and water and locked inside the cottage out of the way.
The three escapees fled the scene at about 5pm in the Schiller family car.
Artie managed to escape his ropes just after the men left, untied his family, and then headed 7 miles into town on foot. Artie went to the Post Office where his Sister-in-law worked the telephone exchange and asked her to call the police.


The three prisoners first headed south to Semaphore, where they stole another car, then headed north again up to the Birdsville track. In Adelaide, Detective Sergeant, Bob “Ugger” Giles and some Adelaide journalists charted a flight to head in the direction the kidnappers had gone. As the plane approached the three escapees, they fired shots at it, hoping to bring it down.
The plane landed well ahead of the men, and Detective Giles, with three officers, seven journalists and two government employees drove back along the track hoping to cut the escapees off. While they were driving, the plane had taken off again and was radioing in the position of the car as it neared the police below.

The officers set up a roadblock, and a gunfight ensued. Two of the men fled from the car before it had even stopped. One of the officers emptied his service revolver of bullets and ran toward one of the escapees, shouting “Don't move or you're dead!” All three escapees were arrested and taken back to Adelaide for trial and sentencing.
Monica was alive but severely traumatised after her 26-hour kidnapping ordeal.
Detective Sgt Giles returned to Adelaide a hero.
Advertiser photographer Ray Titus won a Walkley for his work at the scene.

Escapees Terrence Haley, Raymond Gunning and Andrew Brooks lie on the ground after being arrested. Retired Advertiser photographer Ray Titus won a Walkley for his work at the scene. Source: News Limited

Terrence Haley was jailed for 15 years but escaped again in 1972. He later served eight years in NSW before being extradited back to SA to finish his sentence. He was released in 1986.
Andrew Brooks and Raymond Gunning were jailed for 12 and a half and 11 and a half years respectively.

In 1989 Terrence Haley was shot in the back while at home, lying on his lounge. He was later charged with attempted murder over another shooting that same night in Campbelltown. The charges were replaced with manslaughter and then later, dropped.

Detective Sergeant Bob Giles talks to Monica Schiller after she was rescued. Source: News Limited

Monica would go on to marry her boyfriend, Graham Smith. The couple invited Detective Sergeant Giles to their wedding. As recently as 2006, the couple were still living in the house from which she was abducted.

Det Sgt Giles died in 2005.

© 2014 Allen Tiller

Ghosts in the Television

Ghosts in the Television

In our modern age, we take television for granted and with that the special effects that come with it.

In 1949, Australia had yet to see television, we didn't get that big old box in the living room until September 1956 - and that was only after our Government of the era had instigated a Royal Commission to decide how we, the public, should accept our TV broadcast, how many channels Australia should have, and a vast number of other issues the government thought they should control.

Even though television had not yet hit our shores, we still had production houses making movies, and won our first ever academy award in 1942 with the documentary movie "Kokoda Front Line!
 We also had some world-famous movie actors including Oliver Heggie (from Angaston).

On 2 November 1936, the BBC began transmitting the world's first public regular high-definition service from the Victorian Alexandra Palace in North London (this is now considered to be the birthplace of broadcasting).
Meanwhile, in the USA, television made its breakthrough with 1939's Worlds Fair but wasn't generally accepted by the American public until after the Second World War, when mass production of television sets begun. In 1948, Television broadcasting, as we accept it now, really took hold in the USA, and the most popular man on television at the time was Milton Berle

So now we have got some history out of the way, I thought I would share this little newspaper story from 1949 describing how to create a ghost for television. There were no photoshop programs, no home PC editing tricks, no "green screen" or Chroma Key settings, everything had to be done "in camera", generally live to air!

So how did they do it?

A Ghost On Television

When 'Blithe Spirit' was televised by the BBC recently, the problem arose as to how to produce a ghost for the television camera. How they did it is shown in the diagram below.
The actress who played the ghost stood between black curtains. This meant that only her form and no other objects were reflected into the mirror at A. The plate glass (B) picked up the reflection from the mirror. The photographer was then able to photograph through the plate glass, picking up the reflection of the 'ghost' as well as the live actors.

Chronicle (Adelaide, SA: 1895 - 1954), Thursday 24 February 1949, page 44

BATTERED TO DEATH

 BATTERED TO DEATH

  September 3^rd 1924, Mrs Henderson, a neighbour of Mr and Mrs Barrowcliffe of O'Halloran Street, Adelaide, went next door to check on her elderly neighbours, who had always been very friendly with her.
  She was surprised when she walked through the unlocked back door to find her neighbours hadn’t gotten up yet, as it was their usual custom to rise early on a Saturday. She entered the bedroom to make sure the old couple were ok and discovered Mrs Barrowcliffe, who was 77 years old, laying on the floor with her head splintered open.
 On the floor next to her was her 79-year-old husband John Barrowcliff, who had suffered a severe laceration to his throat.
  Mr Barrowcliff was still very much alive and whispered to Mrs Henderson “We had a row yesterday. I did it, and after I hit her she never moved."
Mrs Henderson called for help, and Mr Barrowcliffe was taken to the hospital, where he later died from loss of blood.



Police investigated the murder-suicide and determined that at some time in the previous night, Mr Barrowcliff had struck his wife in the head with a tomahawk, splintering her skull and killing her.
He then took a knife from the kitchen and slit his own throat.

The Barrowcliffs had no immediate family in Adelaide, as they had moved from rural New South Wales and had made few friends.

There was no real motive offered for the killing.