Grisly Gawler - Part III - Death in Custody

Grisly Gawler - Part III: Death in Custody

Life was hard in the late 1800s, and criminals were justly dealt with. Standards were a lot different from what we are used to today with many police station being stone buildings with harsh conditions.

In Gawler, if arrested, you would visit the police cells on Cowan Street. In its day, long before the modern Police Station, we see now, there stood a stone building ( as shown in photos below) which had very simple, and cold stone cells.

Much like now, back in the day there were rules and regulations Police had to follow whilst they had prisoners in custody. Those rules and regulations didn’t take in to account the human factor. If someone really wants something bad enough, they will find a way to do it, and with that, there were quite a few deaths in custody in the Gawler Police station in the late 1800s.

I am going to touch on one briefly in this article.

In 1872, a man by the surname Docherty had been arrested in front of his own home for suspicion of stealing a horse saddle three months earlier. The arrest was made by Sergeant Woodcock at 5am on the 16^th of October 1872.
  The sergeant took the defendant back to the Gawler Police station on Cowan Street and placed him in the cells.

Precautions were taken to make sure the prisoner had no weapons upon his body and he was left alone in the cells, checked upon on a regular basis by the station officers, as was customary.

 Docherty was last seen alive at 9pm Saturday night when his dinner was brought to him by Constable Farrell.

Docherty had been totally sober and of no nuisance to the Police officers, not complaining about his situation nor offering any objection to his treatment.

He was found hanging from his belt the following morning by constable Farrell, who called on Sergeant Woodcock to come and assist in cutting down the man.

  Docherty had climbed up on his night bucket, and slipped his belt loop through the top rails above the doorway, then fastened the belt. He then made a makeshift noose and hung himself.

  Due to the extreme summer heat at the time, it was decided to make an inquest into Docherty's death that same day. His friends and wife were called to the courthouse to offer witness statements as to the mental condition of the man.
  His wife told officers as of late, her husband, who was usually a quiet man who took no alcohol, had become much keen to drink and was often out drinking and doing things in the scrub, but she was not aware of what, as he did not say.

The Police made a report that Mr Docherty's suicide was: 'The deceased, being of weak intellect, committed suicide in a fit of temporary insanity”!

There were many more reported suicides and attempted suicides in the Gawler Police Station, as well as many other police stations around Australia. In the era, for most people, being arrested was a much more serious thing than it is now. People liked to keep good reputations intact, and being arrested, or worse, gaoled, was the kind of thing that could cost not only livelihoods but also social status and Church Status in serious jeopardy. 
Often people once released would move on to new areas to try and wash those old stains from their past.

The link below shows statistics for deaths in custody across Australia in the last few years: http://www.aic.gov.au/publications/current%20series/mr/1-20/20/08_prison.html

The following link shows statistics for crimes over various decades.

http://www.abs.gov.au/ausstats/abs@.nsf/Lookup/4524A092E30E4486CA2569DE00256331

Grisly Gawler - Part II - Fatal Tiger Attack

Grisly Gawler – Part II

FATAL TIGER ATTACK

On the 17th of June 1898, the Bunyip Newspaper in Gawler, South Australia reported a “sensational incident” that occurred at a circus event held in Gawler South, by travelling Circus “Harmston”.

The newspaper reported that on Saturday the 11th of June, the Harmston Circus had put on a great show, but at its closing act “Gomez” ( John Issac) the Tiger trainer, entered the tiger cage to put the Tigers through the finale escapades of the Circus event.

As Gomez finished the act and turned his back on the tiger to leave, it pounced on the South African trainer, and sunk its teeth into his neck just under the back of his head.
 The tiger carried Gomez over the division of the gate, possibly with the intention of pulling its prey to pieces and feasting on his meat.
The crowd, not knowing if this was part of the act or not, reacted slowly to the Tigers mauling, but soon blood was spotted by the crowd, they realised this was not part of the act.
Fear and confusion reigned, and the crows ran for the exits, some jumping over the wall surrounding the seating to make a hastier escape. Whilst this was happening, a group of circus attendants began to beat the tiger with sticks to try and free Gomez, who was still caught within the animal's jaws.

The attendants beat the tiger relentlessly to distract it to drop Gomez. The tiger gave in, dropping its prey on the ground and retreating from its attackers. Gomez, bleeding profusely, stood and walked out the door, but was soon overcome by his extensive injuries, and collapsed. He was immediately taken to Dr Dawes surgery where the good Doctor did all he could to stop the bleeding and ease the man's pain.
On Monday. Gomez had recovered enough to be taken to the Adelaide Hospital, but by Tuesday his condition worsened, and at 5pm on Tuesday the 14th of June 1898 he passed away.



Mr Love, the sole lessee of the show, offered his condolences for Gomez and talked of him being a man of excellent character and kindness.
However, when questioned upon the safety aspect of how the tiger act was run, he lay much of the blame on the head of the young, now dead, tiger trainer.
He stated that Gomez had not taken the necessary precautions which had been put in place by the circus, and had gone into the cage with only a small whip, which only antagonised the tiger. Staff outside had metal forks and a pistol if anything bad occurred, and they had seen to the tiger being beaten away from the trainer.

 Mr Love pointed out one thing, that above all other things took the blame away from himself and the Circus, Gomez had not lit the fire which sat above the gate – in his words “an unprecedented act”. He stated “ the animal was cunning enough to see that it had the advantage. The brute was well used to Isaac's attention, for he had been its regular warder for the past twenty months, and had performed with it as many as nine times a week”



An inquest was opened into the death of John “Gomez” Issacs, and it was noted by Dr Morris of Adelaide Hospital, that he entered the hospital on the Monday in a very fearful state, and also in a severe state of shock.
 His injuries included a two-inch puncture wound on the left side of his neck, with two smaller punctures also on that side. He also had two puncture wounds on the right side of his neck. He had lost all movement in his left arm. The wounds had already become inflamed, which the Doctor stated, was akin to being poisoned and his breathing was considerably affected by the strain.
A post-mortem examination was concluded. It found one of the wounds had penetrated his spine, breaking the vertebrates, and the base of his spine was inflamed as well as the membranes of his spinal cord.

The Tiger:

“Duke” was the tiger's name, an 8-year-old native of Japan, who was sired by “Bromo” and “Kitty”, two tigers that had found a home with the Mikado.
Duke was a twin, his brother remained with the Mikado in Japan and became an attraction at the Royal Gardens at Uno Park Tokyo.
Duke was five years old when he was trained to appear in public, and in his three years as a circus Tiger, he had had five trainers. His first a Mexican, second a Chinaman and his third an Australia. The second and third men were both mauled by two jungle tigers, and were subsequently replaced.
The fourth trainer, a Singapore native, was recently training Duke, when the Tiger attacked and broke his jaw, through a “sever crushing”. Gomez, the fifth trainer, had only just stepped into the job, and believe it or not, the previous trainer from Singapore, was one of the first to rush into the cage to try and save Gomez from Duke!


Duke was not euthanised, he continued on with the Circus...and another trainer...


Researched and written by Allen Tiller ©2014

Grisly Gawler - Part I - Felo-de-se

Grisly Gawler - Part I

Felo-de-se

In 1879, Gawler was dealt a double blow when two very well known gentlemen, Ernest Neville and John Adamson, decided to end their lives in their home on the banks of the North Para River.
Ernest Neville was a well-educated man, he could speak French fluently and was also a very well studied Botanist. His friend, John Adamson was also very well educated and was a very talented musician.

 Before coming to Gawler, the two men had worked at Anlaby Homestead near Kapunda as gardeners. Prior to that, they had lived together in Victoria. 

Neville took a job with the Town of Gawler Corporation. He was later fired for 'incompetence' and was accused of embezzling funds from the Town of Gawler. 


 Neville didn’t take the accusations well and blamed the local Methodist community, who he believed had a particular aversion to him and his friend John. With both men unemployed, their mortgage went unpaid, and a Bailiff was appointed to collect their property.
  From that time forward, it seemed as though the two men had already decided that suicide was their only option, and in studying how to end their lives painlessly, they undertook research in a business-like manner.

Firstly they got hold of a bottle of chloroform, under the pretence of suffering from Neuralgia ( A painful nerve injury). They tested the drug on their much believed Bull-Terrier “Mammy”, who the two men referred to as the third part of their “trinity”; the three of them being inseparable. Mammy passed away from a drug overdose.
John, the next day, took Mammy's puppies into town and distributed them amongst their friends.
The following day, Sunday, Ernest did not appear for breakfast. Usually, they ate breakfast with other gentlemen on Sunday mornings. John accounted for Ernest's absence by telling those present, that Ernest had been up all night and was very tired, and had decided to sleep for most of the morning.

Ernest had, however, been running more experiments, and described some of what he had been up to in a letter to the local medical authority, Doctor Popham, which came to light after their deaths.
In that letter Ernest described taking large amounts of “Laudanum” (also known as Tincture of Opium - it is an alcoholic herbal preparation containing approximately 10% powdered opium), up to an ounce in one sitting – its effects were not very dramatic on him, sending him off to sleep for about an hour.

When Ernest awoke, he opened up a wound in his arm and drew three pints of blood (3.5 pints of blood loss can cause organ failure). Ernest passed out, and when he awoke he removed another pint of blood. That did not conclude his experiments, and he expressed to John that he regretted not owning a pistol.

Ernest nursed himself through to Tuesday night. The two men decided to proceed to the wine cellar below the house. There, they suspended two ropes from the ceiling: “The ropes which the men used were suspended from the ceiling, and were originally used as ring trapezes. They cut off the rings, tied loop-knots, soaped the ropes, then got on a case together and jumped off it, leaving their bodies about eighteen inches apart.”

The Bailiff, who was residing in the house with the men until the monies were paid, heard a dog whimpering at about 3 am, and went outside to see what the noise was about, but could not see anyone. He found the two men the next morning after they didn’t come down for breakfast, and he began to search for them.

Doctor Popham brought forward the letter that had been addressed to him at the Inquiry into the two deaths and stated, that he could not find a reasonable explanation for why John Adamson would kill himself as well as Ernest Neville, other than the extreme regard he felt for his companion, spoken about in his letter.
The suicide was one of passion, two men who loved each other so much, that they could not live a day without each other's company.

As stated at the inquest: “The affair is altogether most mysterious, and one of the most remarkable occurrences that has ever happened in the colony. At an inquest, on Wednesday the Jury returned a verdict of felo-de-se.”

1879 'THE GAWLER TRAGEDY.', Port Adelaide News (SA : 1878 - 1883), 13 September, p. 4., http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article195863028

1879 'No title', The Illustrated Adelaide News (SA : 1875 - 1880), 1 November, p. 12., http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article224815005

1879 'THE TRAGEDY AT GAWLER.', South Australian Register (Adelaide, SA : 1839 - 1900), 4 September, p. 5., http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article43098356

George Massey Allen

George Massey Allen

George Massey Allen was one of the most controversial newspaper editors South Australia has ever had.

In 1860, Allen worked for The Advertiser but decided he wanted more and left to form the first English language newspaper in the Mid-north, The Northern Star at Kapunda. (The only previous newspapers in the Barossa Valley and Mid North had been German-language newspapers).

Allen was a man of principle, but also very outspoken, which often got him in serious trouble with the law.

His newspapers were often very controversial as he preferred to voice his own opinion, without considering the consequences of his actions.
 This eventually led Allen into a liable case in Kapunda, in which he was declared guilty of liable and slander. His newspaper was cancelled after his conviction, which came with a 6-month gaol sentence.

 After serving his gaol sentence, Allen returned to Kapunda to find that his newspaper The Northern Star had been replaced in his absence with The Kapunda Herald. The new newspaper was incredibly popular and far outsold his former local paper.

Instead of going back into the newspaper business, where his opinions would most likely see him Gaoled again, he instead went into the Hotel business, buying a local Kapunda pub, in which he could voice his opinions all he wanted.

Pub life wasn’t what Allen desired though, and eventually, he moved back to Adelaide in 1867 and founded a new newspaper called The Satirist.

The Satirist was in direct competition with another newspaper The Register, and Allen's former employer, The Advertiser.
 The competition did not phase Allen though, and on at least one occasion, his newspaper outsold both his bigger rivals.

Allen had trouble keeping his opinions to himself. His newspaper lampooned local politicians, events and his rival newspapers and because of Allen's unwillingness to reel in his satiric tongue,  he eventually found himself in court again charged with liable. Not having the finances to keep hiring lawyers, and prosecuted again, with a gaol sentence, he eventually had to shut his newspaper down.

The prospectus of the South Australian satirist read:
“The lamentably abject condition of the daily Press of South Australia, its want of political principle, its hypocritical fear and timorousness, has forced upon the proprietors of the Satirist the palpable necessity of launching forth upon the unimpassioned waters of honesty, truth, and fearless independence, a journal whose aim shall be to guide, not truckle to, the public opinion of this colony. ... What, then, is the demand of the hour? To find and to sustain a fearless advocate of the people's rights and requirements, one who will dare to speak and teach the truth ...” (27 July 1867, p. 2)

 Allen was incarcerated for six months by Judge Wearing, his wife and six children, who needed his income to survive, became destitute and relied on the kindness of others.
A parliamentary enquiry ensued, and eventually, a Parliamentary Intervention happened, releasing Allen from Prison.
  Judge Wearing declared he had probably misinterpreted the law somewhat harshly but stated: "the great social advantage which has, I believe, resulted to the public by the cessation of so infamous a print as the Satirist." (South Australian Parliamentary Paper no. 145, 1868/69)

Allen and his wife didn't enter into the media again, instead, they took up another Hotel, The Alexandra Hotel in Rundle Street and lived out the rest of their lives as publicans.

Researched and written by Allen Tiller ©2014

"Don't Move, or You're Dead!" - The Abduction of Monica Schiller

"Don't Move, or you're Dead!"

The Abduction of Monica Schiller

  Cadell Training Centre is a low-level, minimum-security prison located 180 kilometres north of Adelaide. The Training Centre houses low-level criminals who aren't deemed to be a security risk.
It has long been a practice to allow prisoners out from time to time, for a walk, or to do a spot of fishing on the Murray River. The gaol has always installed trust in its prisoners, but that changed on the 13th of September 1970.

Three men, Terrence Haley, Raymond Gunning, and Andrew Brooks had been released from the centre shortly after 2 pm for a walk. The men decided to abscond. They hatched a plan to escape South Australia and drive to Darwin in the Northern Territory. The men walked about 8 miles through paddocks and scrubland and arrived at the farmhouse of the Schiller family home in Murkbo, on the Upper Murray about 3pm.

At the farmhouse was 21-year-old Monica Schiller, her Father (Adolph) "Artie" her mother, Myrtle, Grandmother, Amanda Zeigler (who was in her late 70's and asleep in an outside cottage), and Monica's boyfriend, Graham Smith.

The prisoners took the family hostage and ransacked their farmhouse for anything they could find to aid them on their journey north. They stole money, food, water, guns, ammunition and some of Monica's dresses. Then they isolated the family in separate rooms, tying them on chairs and binding their hands and feet together. Artie struggled, and in his attempts to escape received two hefty blows to the back of his head.

The three men took Monica outside. Her Grandmother, who had been asleep in the cottage, woke and saw what was going on. She tried to help, only to be given some food and water and locked inside the cottage out of the way.
The three escapees fled the scene at about 5pm in the Schiller family car.
Artie managed to escape his ropes just after the men left, untied his family, and then headed 7 miles into town on foot. Artie went to the Post Office where his Sister-in-law worked the telephone exchange and asked her to call the police.


The three prisoners first headed south to Semaphore, where they stole another car, then headed north again up to the Birdsville track. In Adelaide, Detective Sergeant, Bob “Ugger” Giles and some Adelaide journalists charted a flight to head in the direction the kidnappers had gone. As the plane approached the three escapees, they fired shots at it, hoping to bring it down.
The plane landed well ahead of the men, and Detective Giles, with three officers, seven journalists and two government employees drove back along the track hoping to cut the escapees off. While they were driving, the plane had taken off again and was radioing in the position of the car as it neared the police below.

The officers set up a roadblock, and a gunfight ensued. Two of the men fled from the car before it had even stopped. One of the officers emptied his service revolver of bullets and ran toward one of the escapees, shouting “Don't move or you're dead!” All three escapees were arrested and taken back to Adelaide for trial and sentencing.
Monica was alive but severely traumatised after her 26-hour kidnapping ordeal.
Detective Sgt Giles returned to Adelaide a hero.
Advertiser photographer Ray Titus won a Walkley for his work at the scene.

Escapees Terrence Haley, Raymond Gunning and Andrew Brooks lie on the ground after being arrested. Retired Advertiser photographer Ray Titus won a Walkley for his work at the scene. Source: News Limited

Terrence Haley was jailed for 15 years but escaped again in 1972. He later served eight years in NSW before being extradited back to SA to finish his sentence. He was released in 1986.
Andrew Brooks and Raymond Gunning were jailed for 12 and a half and 11 and a half years respectively.

In 1989 Terrence Haley was shot in the back while at home, lying on his lounge. He was later charged with attempted murder over another shooting that same night in Campbelltown. The charges were replaced with manslaughter and then later, dropped.

Detective Sergeant Bob Giles talks to Monica Schiller after she was rescued. Source: News Limited

Monica would go on to marry her boyfriend, Graham Smith. The couple invited Detective Sergeant Giles to their wedding. As recently as 2006, the couple were still living in the house from which she was abducted.

Det Sgt Giles died in 2005.

© 2014 Allen Tiller

Ghosts in the Television

Ghosts in the Television

In our modern age, we take television for granted and with that the special effects that come with it.

In 1949, Australia had yet to see television, we didn't get that big old box in the living room until September 1956 - and that was only after our Government of the era had instigated a Royal Commission to decide how we, the public, should accept our TV broadcast, how many channels Australia should have, and a vast number of other issues the government thought they should control.

Even though television had not yet hit our shores, we still had production houses making movies, and won our first ever academy award in 1942 with the documentary movie "Kokoda Front Line!
 We also had some world-famous movie actors including Oliver Heggie (from Angaston).

On 2 November 1936, the BBC began transmitting the world's first public regular high-definition service from the Victorian Alexandra Palace in North London (this is now considered to be the birthplace of broadcasting).
Meanwhile, in the USA, television made its breakthrough with 1939's Worlds Fair but wasn't generally accepted by the American public until after the Second World War, when mass production of television sets begun. In 1948, Television broadcasting, as we accept it now, really took hold in the USA, and the most popular man on television at the time was Milton Berle

So now we have got some history out of the way, I thought I would share this little newspaper story from 1949 describing how to create a ghost for television. There were no photoshop programs, no home PC editing tricks, no "green screen" or Chroma Key settings, everything had to be done "in camera", generally live to air!

So how did they do it?

A Ghost On Television

When 'Blithe Spirit' was televised by the BBC recently, the problem arose as to how to produce a ghost for the television camera. How they did it is shown in the diagram below.
The actress who played the ghost stood between black curtains. This meant that only her form and no other objects were reflected into the mirror at A. The plate glass (B) picked up the reflection from the mirror. The photographer was then able to photograph through the plate glass, picking up the reflection of the 'ghost' as well as the live actors.

Chronicle (Adelaide, SA: 1895 - 1954), Thursday 24 February 1949, page 44

BATTERED TO DEATH

 BATTERED TO DEATH

  September 3^rd 1924, Mrs Henderson, a neighbour of Mr and Mrs Barrowcliffe of O'Halloran Street, Adelaide, went next door to check on her elderly neighbours, who had always been very friendly with her.
  She was surprised when she walked through the unlocked back door to find her neighbours hadn’t gotten up yet, as it was their usual custom to rise early on a Saturday. She entered the bedroom to make sure the old couple were ok and discovered Mrs Barrowcliffe, who was 77 years old, laying on the floor with her head splintered open.
 On the floor next to her was her 79-year-old husband John Barrowcliff, who had suffered a severe laceration to his throat.
  Mr Barrowcliff was still very much alive and whispered to Mrs Henderson “We had a row yesterday. I did it, and after I hit her she never moved."
Mrs Henderson called for help, and Mr Barrowcliffe was taken to the hospital, where he later died from loss of blood.



Police investigated the murder-suicide and determined that at some time in the previous night, Mr Barrowcliff had struck his wife in the head with a tomahawk, splintering her skull and killing her.
He then took a knife from the kitchen and slit his own throat.

The Barrowcliffs had no immediate family in Adelaide, as they had moved from rural New South Wales and had made few friends.

There was no real motive offered for the killing.