The Shooting Death of E. Beckmann

 On Sunday 29 December 1850, E. Beckmann (sometimes published as Breckmond in local newspapers) was passing a house on the Gawler Plains, between Smiths Creek and Salisbury (in what would be Elizabeth today). As he passed one of the only houses on the plains, a hostile ferocious dog set upon him.
 Beckmann went for his gun. Instead of shooting the dog, he attempted to keep it away by swinging the butt of the gun at it. Beckmann was holding the gun by the barrel end, he swung the gun meaning to slam it down onto the dog, smashing it into the ground. As the gun hit the ground it fired, sending its contents directly into Beckmann’s abdomen, shredding his insides.^[1]

 

The gunshot alerted nearby workers who found Beckmann. He lasted just half an hour before he died from the severity of his injuries.

 The following day he was taken to Smith’s Hotel (now the Smithfield Hotel) for an inquest. Mr Bromley acted as chairperson, with members of the public acting as jury. It was discovered that Beckmann had on his person £1 5.s in money, a pocketbook, and a watch, so robbery was ruled out. After a short deliberation, Beckmann’s death was ruled ‘accidental’.^[2] His remains were taken to Gawler where he was buried in the Gawler Cemetery (now Pioneer Park).^[3]

 There remains a mystery as to who Mr Beckmann was, with nothing found on his body to identify next of kin.

© Allen Tiller 2022

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[1] 'Local News.', South Australian, (3 Jan 1851), p. 2., http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article71685742.

[2] 'The German Constituencies in South Australia.', South Australian Register, (2 Jan 1851), p. 2.,  http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article38442071

[3] Pioneer Park – Gawler Old Cemetery Name List, Gawler History Team, https://drive.google.com/file/d/1-BRCBQFhkf0PR6W9FosfFmaJDAn3PpBm/view.

 Port Elliot UFO Sighting 1995

 

 In 1995, Karen Lee of Port Elliot reported a UFO near her house. Her children called out to her because they were scared after seeing an object in the sky at about 7:10pm on Tuesday, 29 August.
 Ms Lee ran from the kitchen to view the object, which she described as “big, round and red.”
 It hovered close to the family home, then sped away at great speed towards the ocean. Lee’s next-door neighbour, Ross Tuckwell, also witnessed the UFO at about 7:30pm. Tuckwell was in his yard having a smoke when he saw what he described as a ‘huge floodlight’ that hovered over his Sorrento Parade home at Victor Harbor.[1]

Len and Louisa Quick also witnessed orange lights. They spotted four orange lights the night before, floating in a triangular formation. They watched the UFOs when suddenly one floated down from the sky. Len kept his spotlight on the object and watched it descend into the harbour, and very close to where they were positioned. It did not take them long to realise the UFO was an orange garbage bag!

 Only a few days later, Victor Harbour police launched an investigation into the local UFO phenomenon after a large orange garbage bag was found partially deflated. Someone had turned garbage bags into sky lanterns. The fuel for the ‘UFOs’ was believed to be a firelighter suspended inside the bag with a light wire.[2]

 The police did not find it funny, stating, "For sure it's dangerous, It's a really silly act. For one, it's stirred up all this UFO talk, but more importantly, if one of these devices landed in a field or something, they could create a bushfire. Because of the danger, we would recommend that people not try to undertake any similar activity."[3]

UFO mystery solved.

© 2022 Allen Tiller

[1] 'UFO sighted', Times, (1 September 1995), p. 1., http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article196384194

[2] 'UFOs all hot air', Times, (29 September 1995), p. 3., http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article196383187

[3] 'Police warn of danger', Times, (29 September 1995), p. 3., http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article196383189.

 The Haunting of the Exchange Hotel - Gawler

The Exchange Hotel was first licensed in 1868. On Saturday the 17th of May 1893, this hotel made national news after the suicide of R.F. Rankin. He had been wrongly prosecuted in Moonta for defrauding a chemist of 10 pounds.
 Rankin came to Gawler intending to stay the weekend. Rankin had some bad habits, he was an intravenous cocaine and morphine user.[1]  On Saturday evening, Mrs Lucas, the wife of the publican heard some painful groans coming from Rankins room, she alerted her husband, who tried, but could not open the door. They called their ostler, who climbed a ladder and broke into the room, opening the door. There on the bed was Rankin, lying dead among syringes and tubes of cocaine. Doctor Dawes was called to examine Rankin…but it didn’t take long for him to realise it wasn’t an overdose, but a case of poisoning.
  Found lying under the bed was a small bottle of prussic acid, which is also known as a solution of cyanide. It was used in fumigation and in mining, and the smallest amount can cause death instantly.[2]  Rankin had consumed about 15mls of the liquid. A jury concluded that most likely, Rankin was delirious from the amount of cocaine and morphine he had consumed, and possibly drank the bottle of cyanide without realising what he was doing. His death was listed as an ‘accidental suicide’.[3] 

 It is claimed a female houseguest died upstairs and she is to blame for several of the ghostly goings-on inside the hotel. Scott Fraser, a former publican of the Exchange Hotel has previously stated in the media that lights will randomly turn on throughout the various levels of the hotel. Even more unsettling is the strong smell of death that permeates the rooms of the hotel with no known source.
  Fraser had exterminators in twice, thinking a possum had died in the ceiling. After inspection, no source for the smell could be found, in fact, the smell seemed to move from room to room, and could sometimes be smelled in one corner of a room, and not another, as though an invisible wall was holding the smell in containment. The smell was bad enough that on some occasions people would choke, gag or vomit from it.

 This hotel is also claimed to be haunted by the spirit of a little girl. It is not known whom she might be, but she is often seen sitting on a bed in an upstairs room!

 

Researched and written for the Gawler History Team presentation ‘Ghostly Gawler’ by Allen Tiller © 2021

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[1] 'Coroners' Inquests.', South Australian Register, (30 May 1893), p. 3., http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article48521216

[2] ‘Hydrocyanic Acid Formula’, Soft Schools.com, (2019), http://www.softschools.com/formulas/chemistry/hydrocyanic_acid_uses_properties_structure_formula/228/

[3] 'Coroner’s Inquests.', Evening Journal, (30 May 1893), p. 3., http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article197868964

 The Haunting of Euke House

Euke House was built on land subdivided from Mahoney’s Paddock and another allegedly haunted house, Yenda, in Gawler.

The land was bought at auction by the farrier, William Wilson Smith in 1874. In 1875, Smith sold the land to the auctioneer who had sold it to him, Mr John Wilkinson.
Wilkinson is assumed to have built the house between 1875 and 1879. Wilkinson sold the property to Joseph Wilcox junior and William Roe Lewis in June 1879, it was sold again two months later to John Frederick May who was in a business partnership with his brother Alfred at iconic Gawler business the May Brothers. May leased the house to Edward Luca who bought the property in May 1894.

 The property changed hands many more times, before becoming the home and medical surgery of Dr Gemmel Wilson Tassie in the 1960s until 1971 – and it is during this period that the alleged haunting began.

A cleaner in the home in the 1980s noticed that after she made the bed, the mattress would compress as if someone had just sat down. She noted sweet fragrances, in one bedroom, and every now and then, things would move around, she would walk in, place her cleaning items on a table, and a few seconds later, they would be on the other side of the room on a dresser. She never saw the spirits of the house, but claimed she felt that one room was haunted by a former doctor, another a former patient and that another spirit was a 'youngish' girl…could the girl be Gracie or Anna from Yenda?

 This information was drawn from my talk for the Gawler History Team in 2021. You can watch the entire presentation via the video link below:

© 2022 Allen Tiller

 A Haunting at the Royal Adelaide Hospital

The foundations for the Royal Adelaide Hospital (now Lot 14) on North Terrace were laid in 1840, but it took until 1855 for the construction of permanent buildings to begin. These new buildings took a year to complete and contained a surgery, dispensary, nurse’s dining room, chapel, and a surgeon’s quarters.  A two-story building was also constructed which featured inside it, padded cells and bedrooms.

A ghost story from the RAH comes directly from a nurse who was wrapping up a long night shift. The nurse was nearing the end of his shift and was running through the checklist of things to get done before the next shift started. He was tending to a patient who had just been pronounced deceased by the attendant doctor. The nurse washed the deceased man, completed the associated paperwork, then headed into the nurse’s station to await shift change.
  While sitting at the station waiting for the shift to change over, he felt like he was being watched, then noticed a dramatic drop in the temperature of the room. He looked towards the doorway, and saw, standing there, the deceased patient he had just washed. The man was fully dressed, with a big smile on his face, and was waving, as if to say “Goodbye” to the nurse.
  The nurse blinked his eyes in disbelief, and the man was gone... The nurse got up from his seat, ran across the hall into the room where the dead man’s body lay... and there he was, still laid out, still under his blanket, still deceased...

  The RAH also has a story about a ‘Grey Nurse’ the story is the same as it is in most hospitals worldwide. No one really knows who she is, but the Grey Nurse does her duties in death, much like she did in life, delivering comfort to the dying. Could it be that these “Grey Nurses” are Angels from God, sent to comfort the dying? 

© Allen Tiller 2022
(paranormal experiences are directly from the source)

 Ghost Plane at Hawker

 

DH-82A Tiger Moth - photo courtesy of Temora Aviation Museum

Mounted Constable L.F. Butcher of Hawker received several enquiries on Friday 26 August 1948 regarding a low flying Tiger Moth biplane that was seen at 8:15am, then disappeared!

 Railway workers witnessed the plane flying low near the township when it suddenly disappeared into a hillside. Afraid there had been a crash, they alerted the local authorities.

Enquiries to the Civil Aviation Department found that all planes from as far away as Broken Hill, Whyalla and Albany were checked, and none matched the plane, nor its flight path. M.C. Butcher enquired with locals in the area, and no one had seen, nor heard the aircraft flying in the vicinity of Hawker.^[1]

M.C. Butcher stated in the newspapers "It's a complete mystery."

 The authorities would not believe a ghost plane could ever fly in our skies, so launched an investigation. It was widely rumoured that either a Tiger Moth or Puss Moth had been seen illegally flying somewhere near Beltana, South Australia. However, Mr A.V. Lauchland, an officer in charge of the Parafield Airport stated that there was no way the unregistered pilot could buy aviation fuel without a current registration. The Civil Aviation Department investigated through the Disposals Commission on the sales of light planes in the state.^[2]

 238 km's south of Hawker, at Clare, Meggitt’s Ltd. was using a Tiger Moth to crop dust with DDT, in fields around the Clare region. The same planes were being used in Queensland and New South Wales for the same purpose.^[3]
 So perhaps, one of the Tiger Moths had made its way to Hawker as well?

 It was never determined if the Tiger Moth seen at Hawker was a ghost plane or an illegal pilot. However, a similar style of plane was once flown over the skies of Kapunda by my Great uncle. Long after his death, and the plane being sold and removed from the area, a phantom Tiger Moth has been seen silently flying over the township from time to time…

 

Researched and Written by Allen Tiller © 2022

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[1] '"Ghost" plane in north', News, (27 Aug 1948), p. 1., http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article129908639.

[2] 'Is 'phantom' plane unregistered?', News, (28 Aug 1948), p. 1., http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article129899109.

[3] 'Linseed Dusting in Clare District by Aeroplane', Northern Argus, (18 Nov 1948), p. 7., http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article97816206.

 The Burton Incident

 

 In 1927, the township of Burton was described by many as a hamlet on the road to Virginia from Salisbury. At the time, it had few houses, and a small school run by Miss Violet Handley.^[1]
 

 On Friday 2 December 1927, Harry Bruce McDowell of Alberton, arrived at the Burton school early in the morning in a taxi. He found Miss Handley and entered the schoolroom, where they had a short conversation. He then left the room. Fearing the situation would escalate further, Handley dismissed the class, except for one strong lad. McDowell came back into the room and pushed Handley into a corner where he hit her repeatedly. He then pulled a revolver from his pocket and screamed at her, “I’ll shoot you and your mother as well!”^[2]

 Handley pleaded to McDowell to be sensible and promised him she would meet him that evening to discuss matters. She gradually got up, and still talking to McDowell, led him outside to the taxi he had arrived in. She pleaded with the driver for assistance, as it looked as though McDowell was not going to leave. The taxi driver convinced McDowell to leave, and they left again for Adelaide.

 Miss Handley, fearing that McDowell would return that day, posted some of her male students outside the school to keep watch for McDowell. Just after midday, he returned, asking the taxi driver to park further from the school.
 One of the students alerted Miss Handley. Another student ran to a nearby farm to get help. Miss Handley ran from the school and locked herself in a room of the nearby Methodist Church.

 Farmers, Mr White, and Mr Barcroft rode to the school on their horses, there they found McDowell outside the room Handley had locked herself in. He had in his hand a loaded revolver. Barcroft, disarmed McDowell, taking his revolver.
 The police were notified, and Mounted-Constable T.H. Northridge of Salisbury arrived. He took the loaded revolver and a packet of bullets found in McDowell’s coat. He then charged him for threatening to shoot Miss Handley.^[3]

The case came before the Salisbury courts, where it was alleged that Miss Handley and Mr McDowell were long term friends. It was alleged Miss Handley’s mother had influenced her daughter to end the friendship, and therefore McDowell had become enraged.
 Harry Bruce McDowell was charged with ‘unlawfully and maliciously threatening to shoot Violet Amelia Handley, schoolteacher, at Burton.’^[4]

 The case was to be presented before Magistrates W.H. Neal and J. McGlashan. The prosecution read the charges, and as soon as they had finished, Miss Handley spoke; stating she had no intention of proceeding with the serious charges presented to the court, on that she withdrew, substituting instead, with a less serious charge of common assault.

 She then presented that the accused had arrived at the school and grabbed her, then tried to kiss her. She had resisted.
McDowell in his evidence offered that he was extremely drunk at the time, and had no intention of harming Miss Handley.

 The Bench inflicted a fine of £3, and costs, £8 7/6 in all.^[5]

Mr McGlashan, the presiding justice, said the case was the most unsatisfactory that he had ever had to deal with.

Researched and written by Allen Tiller © 2022

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[1] 'Threatened To Shoot.', The Kadina and Wallaroo Times, (3 Dec 1927), p. 2., http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article110144809.

[2] "I'll Shoot You and Your Mother."', The Advertiser, (3 Dec 1927), p. 18., http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article47436245.

[3] "I'll Shoot You and Your Mother."', Chronicle, (10 Dec 1927), p. 68., http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article90090424.

[4] 'Alleged Threat.', The Advertiser, (5 December 1927), p. 17., http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article47436690.

[5] 'SCHOOL SENSATION.', The Register, (5 Dec 1927), p. 9. http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article54934981.