Sandilands Murder: Part IV: Conviction and Release

Sandilands Murder: Part IV: Conviction and Release

Herbert Cyril Curnow - after his arrest

Mounted Constable West of the Maitland Police Station first saw Curnow at 5:30pm when he entered the police station to hand himself in.
Constable West asked Curnow if had “shot a girl named Eleanor Louise Bockmann at Sandilands this afternoon? “, Curnow replied “Yes, how is she? Is she dead?”

The constable then proceeded to tell Curnow that she was dead and asked him what he shot her with. Curnow replied that it was with a 12-gauge shotgun. The gun was now in Mr Rowe's wheat paddock.

The constable searched Curnow and found in his pocket a spent 12-gauge shotgun shell and a photo of Eleanor Bockmann. He asked Curnow if it was the shell with which he shot Bockmann, and Curnow replied “yes”.

Constable West charged Curnow with murder.

Mounted Constable Ewens, stationed at Ardrossan received a message at 4:15 pm on Friday, September 8th, requesting him to go to the Sandilands home of the Bockmann family posthaste.

When the constable arrived at the family home he found Dr Alpers sitting in a bedroom with the deceased. Dr Alpers described her wounds to him before the constable then made an inspection of the house.
He found in a bedroom a box containing 12 gauge shotgun cartridges. In the dining room, near the window was a large pool of blood. The constable followed a trail of blood from the dining room, through the kitchen and enclosed verandah, then outside for nine yards, stopping just near the rainwater tank.
The wall and chairs in the dining room were covered in small holes consistent with shotgun pellet spray.


The Constable travelled over to Rowe's farm and located the gun in a paddock. M.C. West and M.C. Ewens both travelled to the paddock the following day and recovered a number of unspent shotgun shells.

When appearing in court, Curnow seemed indifferent to what was going on around him. He was wearing football boots and a football Guernsey under a jacket and refused to speak. Members of the Bockmann family offered their evidence.
Curnow was formally committed for trial at the close of the Coronial Enquiry. The following morning Curnow was officially charged with Wilful Murder.

The trial proceeded in Adelaide. It did not take long for the jury to find Curnow guilty of murder. He was sentenced to hang, with the date chosen to be two days after Christmas in 1922. Curnow's lawyer appealed for mercy, due to his young age, but it fell on deaf ears.

Within days, supporters for Curnow pleaded for mercy for the 18-year-old. A Parliamentary enquiry proceeded, and after their investigation, Curnow's sentence was reduced to life in Yatala Prison with hard labour.

But, Curnow's story doesn’t end there. In 1935, after many petitions to the Government on his behalf, prison officials decided to release Curnow. He was released from Yatala Stockade in February 1935 and sent to live in Melbourne with his family.
After that, the trail left by Curnow becomes harder to follow…reports are inconsistent, with some saying he died that year, others say he may have changed his name and lived out his life in Victoria.


Researched and written by Allen Tiller © 2019

References:
1922 'DEATH SENTENCE COMMUTED', Barrier Miner (Broken Hill, NSW: 1888 - 1954), 23 December, p. 2. (SPORTING EDITION), viewed 04 Jan 2019, http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article45592974

1922 'DEATH SENTENCE COMMUTED', Kalgoorlie Miner (WA: 1895 - 1950), 23 December, p. 4. , viewed 04 Jan 2019, http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article93227794

1922 'DEATH SENTENCE.', The Brisbane Courier (Qld. : 1864 - 1933), 30 November, p. 8. , viewed 04 Jan 2019, http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article20586995

1922 'MAITLAND TRAGEDY.', The Register (Adelaide, SA: 1901 - 1929), 12 September, p. 9. , viewed 04 Jan 2019, http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article64133604

1922 'THE MAITLAND MURDER.', The Advertiser (Adelaide, SA: 1889 - 1931), 30 November, p. 8. , viewed 04 Jan 2019, http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article49131151

1922 'YOUTH GUILTY OF MURDER.', The Argus (Melbourne, Vic. : 1848 - 1957), 30 November, p. 9. , viewed 04 Jan 2019, http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article1858876

1935 'Little Danger From Released Murderers', The Mail (Adelaide, SA: 1912 - 1954), 16 March, p. 2. , viewed 04 Jan 2019, http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article58858507

South Australia Police Gazette Indexes, 1862-1947. Ridgehaven, South Australia: Gould Genealogy and History, 2009.

South Australia Police Gazette Indexes, 1862-1947. Ridgehaven, South Australia: Gould Genealogy and History, 2009. AU5103-1922 SA Police Gazette 1922

South Australia Police Gazette Indexes, 1862-1947. Ridgehaven, South Australia: Gould Genealogy and History, 2009. AU5103-1935 SA Police Gazette 1935

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.

Sandilands Murder Part II: Wilful Murder

Sandilands Murder Part II: Wilful Murder

Thirteen-year-old Gladys Bockmann was the first witness in the trial against Herbert Cyril Curnow for the murder of Eleanor Louise Bockmann. Gladys stated to the court, that on Friday the 8th of September the family sat down to lunch together, with Curnow present as he had been staying with the family during the local football finals, as he was on the same team as her brother Lawrence.

 After lunch, Curnow and Lawrence had gone outside to kick a football. He came back inside around twenty minutes later, and laid on the bed in her brother's room and read a book. At about 2:30pm, Curnow went outside to get a drink of water. He had come back inside with a gun.

Gladys claimed that Eleanor said to them “let’s go up into the bedroom, he might shoot us!”. Gladys and Eleanor got up and went into their bedroom.
 Curnow went outside again, and as he did Alvera called out to her cousins that he had left the house. Eleanor went out to the veranda took the gun, came back inside and hid the gun in the house.
Curnow returned not long after and asked where the gun had gone. Gladys told Curnow she didn’t know where the gun was and called out to Eleanor to get it. Eleanor took the gun outside once again.
 The girls gathered once again in the dining room, thinking that Curnow had gone down to the horse stables.

Gladys then stated that she was sitting in the dining room with her sister Eleanor, and cousin Alvera darning socks.

Shortly after, Curnow returned, went into the boy's room for a few minutes, and then came into the dining room. He had his hat and coat on and the gun in his hand. The girls, sitting around the sewing machine, watched in shock as, without a word, Curnow levelled the gun at them.
Alvera called out “Auntie!” and Curnow turned the gun toward Gladys, next he turned it toward Eleanor.

 Eleanor said “Don’t shoot me, Cyril!”, without saying a word, he pulled the trigger and then ran outside.

Eleanor fell to the ground, she had been shot through the left side of her neck. Her head fell forward, and then her hands came up and grabbed her neck. She ran outside.

Gladys ran outside to find her father and brother in a nearby paddock and screamed at them that Lorna (Eleanor) had been shot. They all jumped on their horse and cart and rushed back to the house.
 Eleanor, now laying near the water tank of the house, died in her father's arms…

The back view of a house at Sandilands near Maitland, Yorke Peninsula, where 17-year-old Eleanor Louise Bockmann was murdered on 8 September 1922 by Herbert Cyril Curnow. The Observer newspaper reported "The home of the Bockmann's. The girl ran from the house and fell close to the galvanised-iron tank where she died in the arms of her father." SLSA: [PRG 280/1/32/167]

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

Researched and written by Allen Tiller © 2019

References in the final post.

Sandilands Murder Part II: Wilful Murder

Sandilands Murder Part II: Wilful Murder

Thirteen-year-old Gladys Bockmann was the first witness in the trial against Herbert Cyril Curnow for the murder of Eleanor Louise Bockmann. Gladys stated to the court, that on Friday the 8th of September the family sat down to lunch together, with Curnow present as he had been staying with the family during the local football finals, as he was on the same team as her brother Lawrence.

 After lunch, Curnow and Lawrence had gone outside to kick a football. He came back inside around twenty minutes later, and laid on the bed in her brother's room and read a book. At about 2:30pm, Curnow went outside to get a drink of water. He had come back inside with a gun.

Gladys claimed that Eleanor said to them “let’s go up into the bedroom, he might shoot us!”. Gladys and Eleanor got up and went into their bedroom.
 Curnow went outside again, and as he did Alvera called out to her cousins that he had left the house. Eleanor went out to the veranda took the gun, came back inside and hid the gun in the house.
Curnow returned not long after and asked where the gun had gone. Gladys told Curnow she didn’t know where the gun was and called out to Eleanor to get it. Eleanor took the gun outside once again.
 The girls gathered once again in the dining room, thinking that Curnow had gone down to the horse stables.

Gladys then stated that she was sitting in the dining room with her sister Eleanor, and cousin Alvera darning socks.

Shortly after, Curnow returned, went into the boy's room for a few minutes, and then came into the dining room. He had his hat and coat on and the gun in his hand. The girls, sitting around the sewing machine, watched in shock as, without a word, Curnow levelled the gun at them.
Alvera called out “Auntie!” and Curnow turned the gun toward Gladys, next he turned it toward Eleanor.

 Eleanor said “Don’t shoot me, Cyril!”, without saying a word, he pulled the trigger and then ran outside.

Eleanor fell to the ground, she had been shot through the left side of her neck. Her head fell forward, and then her hands came up and grabbed her neck. She ran outside.

Gladys ran outside to find her father and brother in a nearby paddock and screamed at them that Lorna (Eleanor) had been shot. They all jumped on their horse and cart and rushed back to the house.
 Eleanor, now laying near the water tank of the house, died in her father's arms…

The back view of a house at Sandilands near Maitland, Yorke Peninsula, where 17-year-old Eleanor Louise Bockmann was murdered on 8 September 1922 by Herbert Cyril Curnow. The Observer newspaper reported "The home of the Bockmann's. The girl ran from the house and fell close to the galvanised-iron tank where she died in the arms of her father." SLSA: [PRG 280/1/32/167]

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

Researched and written by Allen Tiller © 2019

References in the final post.

Sandilands Murder: Part I: Herbert Curnow and Eleanor Bockmann

Sandilands Murder: Part I:

 Herbert Curnow and Eleanor Bockmann

At 18 years old Herbert Cyril Curnow was a troubled young man from Moonta, South Australia. His father had been prone to explosive outbursts of anger that led to physical violence in the home. At the age of fourteen, Herbert had gone out on his own and found a job. He also played football in a local team. His other interest was reading about bushrangers and robberies, he studied these stories, and often imagined himself as a bushranger.

He had met the Bockmann’s only a few months previously through playing football and had started visiting the house to practice with the Bockmann brothers. While practising, he met 17-year-old Eleanor Bockmann. Within the coming weeks, the two became friendly, with Curnow accompanying Bockmann to Sunday School, Church and local dances.
Curnow fell hard for Bockmann, but she didn’t feel the same for him. Two months into their relationship they had begun to argue after Curnow saw Bockmann becoming friendly with other

Artist's impression of 18 year old
Herbert Cyril Curnow

young men.
Curnow saw Bockmann walking along a local street with a drunk young man. The young man had his arm around Bockmann, which enraged Curnow. He confronted Bockmann, and she replied, “If you don’t like it, you can lump it!”
The family went to church on September 3rd, with Curnow joining them. After church, Curnow and Bockmann had another argument. Bockmann broke off their relationship then and there, leaving Curnow devastated.
Bockmann then began to ignore Curnow at every opportunity. Curnow, on the other hand, could not stop thinking about her and found himself unable to sleep.

In the first week of September 1922, during local football finals, Curnow arranged to stay with the Bockmann family at Sandilands, near Maitland on the Yorke Peninsula. He shared the bedroom of the Bockmann brothers for the week and ate dinner with the family, including Eleanor.

His love for Eleanor had not subsided and only intensified by sharing the same house as her. On Friday the 8th of September, he ate lunch with the family and waited for Eleanor’s father to head back out to work, then he took his opportunity.
He took her father's shotgun, entered the room, and shot her in the neck. Curnow then ran into the scrub, but eventually gave himself up to the police.

Next Week: Sandilands Murder Part II: Wilful Murder

Researched and written by Allen Tiller © 2019

References in the final post.

Sandilands Murder: Part I: Herbert Curnow and Eleanor Bockmann

Sandilands Murder: Part I:

 Herbert Curnow and Eleanor Bockmann

At 18 years old Herbert Cyril Curnow was a troubled young man from Moonta, South Australia. His father had been prone to explosive outbursts of anger that led to physical violence in the home. At the age of fourteen, Herbert had gone out on his own and found a job. He also played football in a local team. His other interest was reading about bushrangers and robberies, he studied these stories, and often imagined himself as a bushranger.

He had met the Bockmann’s only a few months previously through playing football and had started visiting the house to practice with the Bockmann brothers. While practising, he met 17-year-old Eleanor Bockmann. Within the coming weeks, the two became friendly, with Curnow accompanying Bockmann to Sunday School, Church and local dances.
Curnow fell hard for Bockmann, but she didn’t feel the same for him. Two months into their relationship they had begun to argue after Curnow saw Bockmann becoming friendly with other

Artist's impression of 18 year old
Herbert Cyril Curnow

young men.
Curnow saw Bockmann walking along a local street with a drunk young man. The young man had his arm around Bockmann, which enraged Curnow. He confronted Bockmann, and she replied, “If you don’t like it, you can lump it!”
The family went to church on September 3rd, with Curnow joining them. After church, Curnow and Bockmann had another argument. Bockmann broke off their relationship then and there, leaving Curnow devastated.
Bockmann then began to ignore Curnow at every opportunity. Curnow, on the other hand, could not stop thinking about her and found himself unable to sleep.

In the first week of September 1922, during local football finals, Curnow arranged to stay with the Bockmann family at Sandilands, near Maitland on the Yorke Peninsula. He shared the bedroom of the Bockmann brothers for the week and ate dinner with the family, including Eleanor.

His love for Eleanor had not subsided and only intensified by sharing the same house as her. On Friday the 8th of September, he ate lunch with the family and waited for Eleanor’s father to head back out to work, then he took his opportunity.
He took her father's shotgun, entered the room, and shot her in the neck. Curnow then ran into the scrub, but eventually gave himself up to the police.

Next Week: Sandilands Murder Part II: Wilful Murder

Researched and written by Allen Tiller © 2019

References in the final post.

Lost Hotels: Crabb’s Old Accommodation House

William Crabb - circa 1872

Lost Hotels: Crabb’s Old Accommodation House

Blanchetown in the 1850s was a Murray River Port that was nothing much more than a few tents and a couple of small cottages. In 1841, The Protector of Aborigines, Edward John Eyre established the first European settlement on the Murray River 6 kilometres south at a place called ‘Moorundie’. Moorundie was the name of the local indigenous people.
Eyre’s site was subject to flooding, so another site further up the Murray was chosen to be surveyed for a township. In 1855, Governor Sir Richard Graves McDonnell named the new river port “Blanchetown” after his wife Lady Blanche McDonnell.

The first families in the region were the Brand family and Crabb family.

One of the first pastoral leases in the area was held by the Crabb family. The Crabb’s had emigrated to South Australia from Plymouth, Devon England on The Java. They arrived in Port Adelaide in 1840. They moved around South Australia to places like Angaston, Truro and North Rhyne, (now Keyneton) before settling in Blanchetown in the late 1850s.
The Crabb’s took to catching and taming wild horses in the area on Craig’s Plains below Accommodation Hill.

 Being close to the Blanchetown port allowed the Crabb's to export their goods and profit from their land. The Crabb’s also ran sheep, cattle and their own horses, with their boys growing up to be well-known boundary riders and stockmen in the region.
William and his wife Mary Anne (nee Chinner) had nine children. In time, those children married and the family grew. There were 18 members of the Crabb family living in Blanchetown in the 1870s, which made up a significant portion of the population of the then tiny town.

Crabb Reservoir - located halfway between Crabb's Old Accommodation House
and the Annadale Halfway House on the Sturt Highway.

Blanchetown became a centre of activity, as a port, and as a crossing point of the river of the road to Sydney NSW. Wool and other commodities would come down the river via paddle steamer, then get loaded onto bullock drays to head further south to Adelaide.

The 1865 drought killed much of the Crabb’s cattle stock and their property had to be sold. William Crabb instead built the first hotel in the area, known locally as Crabb’s Halfway House, and later as Crabb’s Old Accommodation House, which was located on the track from Truro to Blanchetown (now the Sturt Highway). His hotel was first licenced in 1865 and almost closed a year later when Crabb was late with his application to the Magistrates board.
He appeared in person to plead his case and stated that; “I did not send in my application in time because I had made up my mind to leave the house, but was afterwards induced to apply for a renewal of the licence in consideration of the accommodation the house afforded the public. I have kept it eight years and have sunk a considerable amount of money there.”
His license was renewed by the board.

William Crabb ran his hotel until 1873 when he decided to shut up shop and sell off all the internal furnishings. He then invested in the nearby station Roonka Roonka, and Hampton station. This investment proved profitable for the Crabb’s, with William beginning trade in wool-buying and wool-scouring, which was earning him over 1000 pounds a year.


In 1881, Crabb’s Halfway-House is mentioned in many local newspapers as the nearest point to a

Newspaper advertisement for the sale of goods from Crabb's Hotel

cliff fall of the banks of the Murray River. On the bend of the river nearby, A 250 feet section of the cliff face had come away from the ground around it via an explosion. Warnings were put in newspapers for steamboat Captains to avoid the fallen debris, and to avoid the large section of the cliff still dangling, ready to fall.
William and Mary had rushed from their home upon hearing the explosion and watched a 1.5 metres (5 foot) high tsunami travel across the Murray River and submerge a small island in their view. After inspecting the cliff, they discovered one massive 12-metre-tall (40-foot) tree over 3 metres (12 feet) away from where its roots sat.

The Crabb’s rented out their former hotel for a short time before it fell into the ruins that remain today.

William and Mary Crabb are buried in a little cemetery not far from Blanchetown. In the same cemetery are the final resting places of James Brand, James Rossiter and his wife.

During the 1960s 165 skeletons of indigenous human remains were found in the sand dunes on the Roonka Roonka station property which led to an archaeological dig in the area. The oldest remains have been carbon dates as 8,000 to 7,000 years B.P (B.P. meaning “Before Present” 1950)

Researched and written by Allen Tiller © 2019

References

1866 'BENCH OF MAGISTRATES.', The Adelaide Express (SA: 1863 - 1866), 11 September, p. 5. , viewed 03 Jan 2019, http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article207679872

1874 'COUNTRY CORRESPONDENCE.', South Australian Register (Adelaide, SA : 1839 - 1900), 5 January, p. 7. , viewed 03 Jan 2019, http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article39814195

1881 'COUNTRY NEWS, COUNTRY LETTERS.', Adelaide Observer (SA: 1843 - 1904), 26 November, p. 37. , viewed 03 Jan 2019, http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article160151381

1881 'LANDSLIP ON THE MURRAY.', Adelaide Observer (SA: 1843 - 1904), 12 March, p. 15. , viewed 03 Jan 2019, http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article160142338

1881 'SANDLETON, November 16.', South Australian Register (Adelaide, SA: 1839 - 1900), 22 November, p. 2. (Supplement to the South Australian Register.), viewed 03 Jan 2019, http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article47087005

1884 'ANNA. JUNE 23.', South Australian Register (Adelaide, SA: 1839 - 1900), 26 June, p. 3. , viewed 03 Jan 2019, http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article43661923

1894 'No title', The Laura Standard (SA: 1889 - 1917), 23 November, p. 2. , viewed 03 Jan 2019, http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article191007579

1903 'OBITUARY.', Chronicle (Adelaide, SA: 1895 - 1954), 3 October, p. 35. , viewed 03 Jan 2019, http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article87871091

1939 'Blanchetown in the Seventies', Murray Pioneer and Australian River Record (Renmark, SA: 1913 - 1942), 14 December, p. 12. , viewed 03 Jan 2019, http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article109250178

Leadbeater B (1996) South Australian Shipping & Immigration, Family History SA, retrieved from http://www.familyhistorysa.info/shipping/passengerlists.html

Prokopec, Miroslav & L Pretty, Graeme & Smith, Patricia. (1994). Australian aboriginals: prehistoric South. Variab Evol. 4.