The Sundown Murders: Part II: Execution or Exoneration?

 The Sundown Murders: Part II:

 Execution or Exoneration?

In December 1957, the bodies of Thyra Bowman, her daughter Wendy, and family friend, Thomas Whelan were found at the Sundown Station in South Australia’s outback.

Raymond Bailey had been arrested and charged for the murders, claiming he, “had gone mad”.

The case against Bailey was overseen by Justice Reed. It took a jury 96 minutes to decide that Bailey was guilty. Evidence was not overwhelming against Bailey, but a statement he alleged to have given to police was enough to convict.[1] Police also found gunshot casings at the murder site that matched casings found in Bailey’s car.
Bailey was found guilty and sentenced to hang.

  It was announced in newspapers that Raymond John Bailey would be hanged at the Adelaide Gaol on 17 June 1958.[2] He received a reprieve from hanging for one week after claiming there was a fourth body, he had buried. Bailey claimed he had witnessed a man burying the body of Mrs Bowman, and that he killed the man in self-defence. He also claimed to have buried the knife near where Mrs Bowman's car was found. Police took Bailey back to the Station, but he could not produce evidence of the buried body.

Bailey was hanged at 8am, Tuesday, June 24, 1958, in Her Majesty’s Adelaide Gaol.[3]

 

As an interesting footnote to this case.  Stephen Bishop, an investigative journalist has pushed for an exoneration for Bailey. Bishop believes his confession was coerced under duress, and that Detective Glen Hallahan forced Bailey’s confession. Bishop also claims that evidence was overlooked, or ignored, such as footprints that were too large to be Bailey’s, being found at the murder location.

© 2022 Allen Tiller

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[1] 'Bailey Found Guilty Of Sundown Murder', The Canberra Times, (21 May 1958), p. 8., http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article91250953.
[2] 'Bailey to Hang on Tuesday', The Canberra Times, (21 June 1958), p. 3., http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article136300645.
[3] 'Bailey Hanged For Murder Of Mrs. Bowman', The Canberra Times, (25 June 1958), p. 12., http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article136301002.

The Strange Case of the Headless Calf.

The Strange Case of the Headless Calf.

 In 1875, Mount Gambier resident Mrs Buchan, over three nights, had strange dreams about her daughter Mary, who had mysteriously disappeared.

 

Mary Buchan
Photo: Les Hill Collection - Mount Gambier Library.

Mary Buchan had fallen in love with an older man named William Page. They dated for a while, and it was thought it would not be long until he proposed. Then one day, Mary disappeared. Police investigated, but could not find the girl, nor any motive for her leaving the town unannounced.

 The night after her disappearance, Mary’s mother had a disturbing nightmare. In her dream, she was looking over Hedley Park at Mount Gambier. (Hedley Park was bounded by Sturt Street in the north, Bay Road in the east, and South Terrace in the south, with Cemetery Road to its west.)
 In the dream, Mrs Buchan could see a herd of cows standing in one corner of the field. She watched as a calf left the herd and walked across the field. It stopped about halfway across the field. Mrs Buchan watched the calf, and suddenly it dawned on her, that the calf that had just stopped, but had walked across the field, had no head!
 Mrs Buchan woke up sweating and full of terror.

She told a close friend of the dream, and it was passed off as a nightmare due to the stress of her

Mary Buchan 1870: SLSA: [16747]

missing daughter. The following night, Mrs Buchan had the exact same dream. Again, it was brushed off as a nightmare caused by stress.
 After the third night of having the exact same dream, Mrs Buchan could ignore it no longer. The following morning, she reported it to the police who ignored her claim. Mrs Buchan instead arranged with friends to plough the field. They found in the exact spot Mrs Buchan had seen the headless calf, the remains of her daughter, Mary. The police were called to confirm and investigate.

The spot where Mary Buchan’s lifeless body lay was only 150 metres from a police station and even less from houses. If she had screamed, people most certainly would have heard her. The field had only recently been ploughed, so her shallow grave was not noticeable to the naked eye.

It was eventually revealed that William Page had murdered Mary Buchan by strangulation after she refused his sexual advances. Page was later hung at the Mount Gambier Gaol, which you can read about, and more details about the case, in a previous blog post here:

http://hauntedadelaide.blogspot.com/2013/03/ghosts-of-south-coast-mount-gambier.html

Mary Buchan's grave 1875 SLSA: [16748]

Mary Julia Buchan is buried in Lake Terrace Cemetery, Mount Gambier, section G, plot 203. She was just 19 years old at the time of her murder. May she rest in peace. (her mother Mary Buchan is buried nearby in plot 236.)

Researched and written by Allen Tiller © 2019

Bibliography

'DREAMS OF DEATH', The Mail, (9 November 1929), p. 3.

'THE HEDLEY PARK TRAGEDY.', Border Watch, (7 August 1875), p. 2.

    

Bridgewater Beauty Killing Pt 2: 
The Trial of William Ephraim Peter Haines

William Ephraim Peter Haines, a 25-year-old labourer, followed his beloved Devina Schmidt to a Bridgewater park, in the Adelaide Hills. Here, he murdered her in cold blood. He then shot himself in the head, before trying to save the life of his now, almost dead victim.

 Haines was brought before the South Australian justice system, where he pleaded not guilty to the murder of the popular 18-year-old Devina Nellie Schmidt

Court proceedings began with Mr R. R. Chamberlain appearing for the Crown and Mr. L. M. S. Hogan for the accused.

The first incident to be brought before the court was an encounter between Mr Haines and Miss Schmidt at James Place, Adelaide on October 3^rd. Miss Schmidt was with Mr Clark when Mr Haines approached them. Haines asked Miss Schmidt to accompany him, but she refused. Mr Haines then put his hand in his pocket, and remarked “Well, I will shoot, you know”.
 In the second incident, also on the 3^rd, Mr Haines stopped Miss Schmidt and Mr Clark and said, “I will get you, you #$@#, I will come up for you this afternoon!”

Mr Clark was then questioned by Mr Hogan about his relationship with Miss Schmidt.

Mr. Hogan:  “As far as you were concerned, she was your girlfriend? “

Clark: “Yes. I have known Miss Schmidt for about three years”

Haines had visited Adelaide in April 1927, and on occasion had visited Miss Schmidt’s family home.

Mr. Hogan: “You were very friendly with the mother and father?”

Clark: “Yes.”

Mr. Hogan: “And they were anxious you should be friendly with their daughter?”

Clark: “Yes.”

Mr. Hogan: “And you never heard Haines's name mentioned in the home?”

Clark: “No.”

His Honour: “did you regard yourself as the young lady's sweetheart?”

Clark:  “Yes.”

Mr. Hogan: “From what you heard at the home, what was the parents' attitude towards Haines?”

Clark: “They did not want her to have anything to do with him.”

Mr. Hogan: “The mother was very bitter, I think?”

Clark:  “Yes.”

Mr. Hogan: “And the father something the same?”

Clark: “Yes.”

Mr Hogan: “You did not care whether Haines went to Bridgewater?”

Clark: “Yes.”

His Honour – “Why?

Clark:  “Because I knew he would not be there for any good.”

The next witness was Jack Rickard, who gave evidence of the shooting. While Rickard and Haines were carrying Miss Schmidt’s body to the car, Haines reportedly said “Her people drove me too it. She loved me, but they said I was too old for her, and she would not go against them”

Another witness cross-examined by Mr Hogan, Albert Powell of Thebarton, described seeing Haines shoot the girl, then kneeling beside her body, placing the gun against her temple and firing again, only to hear the gun “click” as it was out of bullets.
Haines then stated to Powell as Mounted Constable Gumley arrived “I am the man you are looking for. I am the man who did it. I shot her with a revolver. I went mad. I was jealous of her. Her people drove me to it. I wish I had ended myself. The poor girl is happy now”.
 A packet of 38 bullets was found in Mr Haines's pocket – six bullet wounds were found in Miss Schmidt’s head

(From “The Register” Newspaper Friday 18 Nov 1927 )
Mounted Constable Walter James Gumley, of Stirling West, deposed having heard the accused say, "I'm the man you are looking for.  I did it." The witness said, "Where is the revolver," and Powell produced it.  The witness then cautioned the accused and asked him if he had shot the girl.  He replied, "Yes, I went mad." Asked why he shot her, he replied, "I was jealous. Her people drove me to it." Subsequently he searched the accused and found the cartridges (produced) corresponding to the shells found in the revolver.

Next Week on The Haunts of Adelaide,”

  Bridgewater Beauty Killing Pt 3: Through The Eyes of a Murderer”:  Haines chilling recount of the murder of Devina Schmidt

Bridgewater Beauty Killing Pt 1:
The Death of Miss Devina Schmidt

 Bridgewater, a small Adelaide Hills town popular for its scenic beauty, and up until 1987, the end of the Adelaide Hills railway line.
 In November 1927, Bridgewater would make national headlines for all the wrong reasons.

  Horace Clarke, who was holidaying in Adelaide from the town of Geranium (near Tailem Bend) had organised a picnic party for himself and a group of friends in Bridgewater, all up the party consisted of 6 young women and 6 young men.
  The group boarded the train at the Adelaide Railway Station. A man, unknown to the rest of the party, approached Devina, she was heard to say to him “You had better not, or I will put the police on to you!” before turning away hastily and joining the rest of the picnic party.
 The group arrived in Bridgewater sometime around 11am and found the town full of people celebrating the warmer weather. Music was in the air with other picnickers bringing their gramophones and singing and dancing.

The small group found their place in the park and began their lunch, afterwards they began to play a game called “Paper chase”, which saw the girls leave the boys. The boys caught up to the girls not more than five minutes later, when the man from the train station, Mr William Haines, stepped out from the bushes and made towards Devina.
 Fear gripped the young ladies and they left Devina with the young men who had been playing paper chase with them and had managed to catch up. Haines asked Devina to take a walk with him, but she refused.
 Haines went into a fit of rage and grabbed Devina by the shoulder, shouting “You won't!” he then pulled out a revolver and told the young men “All of you put your hands up!”
 Some of the young men ran off to the group of girls to move them out of harm’s way. Haines, looking straight at Devina, fired five shots from his revolver, into her head. He calmly walked away and then reloaded his gun. He looked back at the young men, and stated “I have another six here”.
 This gave some of the young men the time to run and find a local police officer.

 The first to attend to Devina was her killer, Haines, who scooped her almost lifeless body up in his arms, he shouted for help, and with assistance got Devina into a motor car to take her to the hospital.

 Mounted Constable Gumley was the first Police Officer on the scene, arriving he found Devina already in a motor car, with Haines holding her. After hearing the story, he detained Haines and found a .22 calibre revolver in his possession. Haines had a bullet wound to his right temple.

Devina Schmidt, the only daughter of Mr and Mrs Walter Schmidt, a Butcher at Brooklyn Park, was dead.
 She had been an active and popular young woman, working at a city insurance office. Haines, who for some time, had been trying to date Devina, had not met the approval of her parents. It was his jealousy that drove him to stalk her that day and take her life.
 

Next Week: Bridgewater Beauty Killing Pt 2: The Trial of William Ephriam Peter Haines

Insidious Frances Knorr

Insidious Frances Knorr

Frances Knorr, formerly known as Minnie Thwaites had a very dark secret she was holding on too. In 1892, Mrs Knorr was wanted by the South Australian police for interviewing about a number of pretty crimes, and something much more serious, but Mrs Knorr had already left Port Adelaide, where she had been renting a house, and moved back to her home city of Melbourne, leaving her husband to serve a term in Adelaide Gaol for selling the families furniture, which they had not yet paid off.

Mrs Knorr was a nondescript woman, height 5ft. 2in, (157.4 cm.) fair complexion, very stout build, light brown hair, very large peculiar-shaped mouth, very talkative, and spoke with a lisp, someone you would probably walk past and not even notice. She had come to Australia from England on board the ship the Abyssinia in 1887, and only a couple of years later married a German man by the name of Rudolph Knorr, a waiter and well known swindler.

 Mrs Knorr, now back in Melbourne with her newborn baby, soon shacked up with Edward Thompson, a fish mongers assistant, and turned to dress making for an income. Thompson soon left Knorr, and she was on her own again, it was at this point she had an idea to make extra money, which would later be her downfall.

 In 1893, Ms Knorr was charged by Victorian Police for a most heinous and serious crime, that had taken place over a number years, through various suburbs of Melbourne, Adelaide and Port Adelaide.
 Mrs Knorr was, what was known in those times, as a “Baby Farmer”.

Mrs Knorr offered a service to destitute Mothers, or Mothers whose babies were born out of wedlock, which in those days was shameful act. The new mothers would pay Mrs Knorr in advance to look after their babies, she would provide food and shelter.
Often the mothers would want to see the baby when they came to pay their accounts, but Mrs Knorr always had a timely excuse as to why the mother could not see her child. Then one day, the mother would come to pay their account, and Mrs Knorr and the baby would be long gone.
 Mrs Knorr was an opportunist of pure evil. The babies would come to her, and often she would sell them off to childless couples or God knows whom else. If there was no buyer, the child would be strangled and buried in the back yard of the rental property. Before suspicion was aroused, Mrs Knorr would move on to the next rental property, and not be seen again.

The death mask of Frances Knorr

In the year 2000, a man who was renovating a house in Queenstown, Port Adelaide, discovered under his floor boards, the remains of three young children, wrapped in cloth.
 Police Forensics were called, and their investigation found the children were all very young, just months old. They had all been killed, and had been purposely placed in their resting place. They were also found to have been dead for a significantly long amount of time.
Interestingly, this house is only street away from one that records show, Ms Knorr rented herself.

 Mrs Knorr moved around between Sydney, Melbourne and Adelaide, and within those cities frequently moved house. When her husband Rudi was released they returned to Sydney. In the following weeks, the bodies of three infants were discovered in the house Mrs Knorr had previously occupied in Brunswick, Victoria.
 Mrs Knorr was arrested in Sydney, and allowed to have her own baby, as she was very much pregnant at the time, giving birth on September 4^th 1893. She was sent back to Melbourne for trial after the birth.

She denied any knowledge of wrong doing until convicted and facing the death penalty, it was then she confessed to her crimes with the following statement and warning for others

“Placed as I am now within a few hours of my death, I express a strong desire that this statement be made public, with the hope that my fall will not only be a warning to others, but also act as a deterrent to those who are perhaps carrying on the same practice. “

 Mrs Frances Knorr was sentenced to death by hanging in Melbourne’s Pentridge Gaol, the act of which took place on the 15^th of January 1894.
 On her way to the gallows, Mrs Knorr sang the hymn “Abide with me” her last words were “'The Lord is with me, I do not fear what man can do unto me, for I have peace, perfect peace'

-Allen Tiller

www.AllenTiller.com.au