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.

Kate Cocks: Pt IV: The Crusade Against Psychic Exploitation.

Kate Cocks: Pt IV: The Crusade Against Psychic Exploitation.

 1917, the Great War was devouring people and resources. South Australian women were scared for their sons, brothers and husbands fighting for the war effort. Women were doing anything they could to try and find out how their loved ones were doing on the war front, and whether they were alive, wounded, or dead.

Women were turning to psychics in droves in the hope of divining some knowledge about their loved ones, and unfortunately a lot of “rogue” psychics began to spring up around the State, ready to look deep into their crystal balls, and part distraught women from their money, with fanciful tales divined for dollars.

 So bad was the trend, that one fortune-teller told an anxious mother, worried about her son, that he would be hung if she, the fortune-teller, did not intervene. To stop it happening, the mother would have to pay money to the psychic to prevent the tragedy!

Disgusted by this turn of events, Kate Cocks and her Women’s Police Department went on a crusade to stop the onslaught of “Occult Houses” that had started opening around Adelaide. Cocks had the law behind her, as The Police Act of 1916, Section 67, clearly laid out the law against Fortune Tellers (you can learn more about the laws at a previous post here: http://hauntedadelaide.blogspot.com/2017/10/trading-in-sorrow-criminal-clairvoyants.html )

Cocks said of the trend:
“Current events largely determine the exploitation of simple-hearted people by callous adventurers.' observed Miss Cocks. 'As an example, I quote the flood of fortune-telling that swept over the country in wartime. 'It was a cruel thing, apart from its ridiculous aspect. Women opened 'occult' apartments. and undertook to read the future for varying amounts of payment, according to the financial position of their clients. These were mostly women of the nervy type who were living at high pressure on account of having loved ones at the war. 'It was a frightful thing to exploit such anxiety, and we did not pause in our ruthless cleaning of those crystal-gazers until they were no more.” (The Advertiser, October 1936)

 Cocks crusade against psychics really took off in 1917, when she was involved in a number of stings bringing down fake psychics around Adelaide. The 25^th case in the succession of cases against fraudulent psychics was a young Adelaide man who had put an advertisement in the local newspapers, asking for anyone wanting fortunes told, to send him penny stamps through the mail to a Sydney address.
 The scammer had set up his rouse at the Adelaide Post Office so that any mail addressed to “Hubert, Box 440” in Sydney, leaving from Adelaide, be held for a few days so he could pick it up.
 On receiving a letter, he replied asking for money for more psychic insights.  What he wasn’t counting on was the ingenuity of Cocks, who caught the rogue psychic out. He ended up with 3 months gaol, and 25 pound fine for his efforts and was recorded as a “rogue or vagabond” in his court records.

A little over a decade later, in 1929, Cocks was still pursuing psychics under Section 67. At the Royal Adelaide Show, she had set up a sting and had her fortune read by a number of palm readers, and crystal ball psychics.
5 psychics were arrested and charged under Section 67, being; Frances Alexander, George Mereno, Mary Stanley, Julia Stanley and Alick Alexander. All pleaded guilty but in ignorance of the law. Each psychic was fined 10 Shillings for their crime and 10 shillings court costs. ($77 AUD total costs each in today’s money).

Today the Police Act 1916, Section 67 is no longer used, instead, we have a newer law meant to stop fake psychics. The law is now known as The South Australian Police Act, Section 40 Part 8, and is enforceable (even though I am not aware of anyone who has been arrested under the act, even though I am aware of several fraudulent psychics!)

Section 40 Part 8 of the South Australian Police Act (https://www.legislation.sa.gov.au/LZ/C/A/SUMMARY%20OFFENCES%20ACT%201953/CURRENT/1953.55.UN.PDF)

40—Acting as a spiritualist, medium etc with intent to defraud A person who, with intent to defraud, purports to act as a spiritualist or medium, or to exercise powers of telepathy or clairvoyance or other similar powers is guilty of an offence.

Maximum penalty: $10 000 or imprisonment for 2 years.

You can also report fake psychics to scam watch!
https://www.scamwatch.gov.au/types-of-scams/buying-or-selling/psychic-clairvoyant

NEXT WEEK: Kate Cocks: Pt V(a): The Stolen Generation

Researched and written by Allen Tiller © 2018

Bibliography on the final post

Trading in Sorrow – Criminal Clairvoyants

Trading in Sorrow – Criminal Clairvoyants 

In a move they didn’t see coming a number of self-proclaimed psychics, clairvoyants, palm readers and other meta-physicists were rounded up by South Australia police, and charged with “Trading in sorrow”

The year was 1917, and Australia was well and truly entrenched in the Great War (WWI). Australian women, often with husbands or sons fighting overseas, were anxious about the fate of their loved ones, and were particularly susceptible to psychic’s who traded upon that vulnerability.
Psychics, claiming to possess the occult powers that could tell their clients the where abouts, or upcoming movements of their loved ones, was a regular occurrence. The newspapers at the time stated that women of the era were “interested in the war, such haphazard guesses (by psychics) were apt to be singularly appropriate.”

 The meaning of this statement is quite clear. The authorities of the time were worried that these self-proclaimed psychics were keeping up to date with war news via the newspapers, and when a client came asking about their significant loved one at war, the psychic would make an educated guess as to where the loved one might be; thus the client would believe the psychic was really getting these messages from spirit, and would return to spend more money…and on the cycle goes.

 The first psychic to face the courts was Madam Fitzsimmons, who was accused of working her charms on a lady named Maude Wilcher.
This psychic had claimed that Maude’s husband was alive and well, and she would see him very soon. She claimed the husband was in Egypt, not France, and fighting among the Turks. She also claimed the couple would have, that another baby.

 Prosecutor Shierlaw laid the information through section 67 of the Police Act 1916. The Act proclaimed that rogues and vagabonds are liable to imprisonment with hard labour, for a period not exceeding three months, such people as pretended to tell fortunes, practice palmistry etc, in order to deceive the public.

 This act was handed down to South Australian War from our English ancestry. It came directly from the English Vagrant Act of 1824 (George IV), which put in place protections against fortune tellers.
In basic terms, the act made it illegal to practice in connection to a craft, means or device beyond physical dexterity, to employ some invisible agency to deceive and impose upon others. Fortune telling could only be sold as an amusement, not as a truthful piece of information.

As it turned out, Maude Wilcher’s husband had already departed, she was a widow, and her visit was part of a small sting operation by the Women’s Police Department. Fitzsimmons was found guilty and fined 10 pounds. (About $1000 in today’s money).

Other psychics found guilty in the trial included Madame Amalia, madam Phyllis, Madam Rosa, Mrs Vear, Madam Mora, Charabella Fisher, Mrs Hamilton, Mrs Glennie and Mrs Loftus – all of whom were find 9 pounds.

 The following psychics all pleaded not guilty, and went to further trial: Madam Luna, Professor Mernox, Madam Illah, Mrs Kennedy, Mrs Barr, Madam Zillah, Miss Melrose, Madam Thelma, and Mrs Duguett. (At this point I do not know the outcomes of their trials, perhaps that will be another blog.

In South Australia, the current laws still take into account fraudulent psychics claims. 

Section 40 Part 8 of the South Australian Police Act (https://www.legislation.sa.gov.au/LZ/C/A/SUMMARY%20OFFENCES%20ACT%201953/CURRENT/1953.55.UN.PDF)

40—Acting as a spiritualist, medium etc with intent to defraud A person who, with intent to defraud, purports to act as a spiritualist or medium, or to exercise powers of telepathy or clairvoyance or other similar powers, is guilty of an offence.

Maximum penalty: $10 000 or imprisonment for 2 years.

Researched and written by Allen Tiller ©2017

https://www.facebook.com/TheHauntsOfAdelaide/

1917 'CLAIRVOYANTS IN COURT.', The Register (Adelaide, SA : 1901 - 1929), 23 June, p. 10. , viewed 18 Sep 2017, http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article59147540

1917 'FORTUNE TELLING AND CRYSTAL GAZING', Daily Herald (Adelaide, SA : 1910 - 1924), 23 June, p. 6. , viewed 18 Sep 2017, http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article105413057