Sandilands Murder Part III: “If I Had a Gun, I’d Shoot You, Then Myself!”

Sandilands Murder Part III: 

“If I Had a Gun, I’d Shoot You, Then Myself!”

Herbert Cyril Curnow, known to friends as Cyril, had previously made threats to Eleanor Bockmann. He had said to her, “If I had a knife, I would cut your throat, then my own.” On another occasion, he had said to the girl, "If I had a gun, I would shoot you, then myself!”.

On Thursday the 7th of September, Curnow waited on the Ardrossan road about three miles down from Sandilands. He knew Bockmann had to come this way to go to her sewing lessons. Curnow set up a barbed wire across the road, hoping to catch Bockmann in it. He went up onto a nearby hill, and waited for her, hoping to shoot her when she rode into the barbed wire.
He waited until nightfall, but Bockmann never rose through, so he returned to the Bockmann family home in Sandilands.

On Friday the 8th of September, Curnow, after kicking a football with Lawrence Bockmann, waited for Lawrence and his dad to go out into the paddocks and spread manure. He watched the two men go out and knowing Mrs Bockmann was not home, took advantage of the fact, and went and got the family's gun. He cleaned the gun, loaded it, and put it near the kitchen door.
He went back into the bedroom and read. He went outside for a drink and noticed the gun was gone. He told Eleanor Bockmann that her father said he could have the gun, and asked her to get it. She got the gun, and he returned to the bedroom, gathered his belongings, and then returned to the dining room where the girls were mending socks.

He checked the gun was loaded, raised the rifle, and aimed for Eleanor's temple, fired the gun. The girls screamed, with Eleanor falling to the floor, and the other two girls running away in fear.

Curnow ran outside. He ran for two miles into the scrub, with the intention of giving himself up to Mr Rowe a nearby farmer. As he was running, a motor car came along, so Curnow threw the gun into a paddock and hitched a lift to Maitland.

When in Maitland, Curnow went to the local police station and handed himself in.

Sandilands Murder Part IV: Conviction and Release

Researched and written by Allen Tiller © 2019

References in the final post.