Crime's Strangest Cases by Peter Seddon

Author:Peter Seddon
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781849942881
Publisher: Pavilion Books
Published: 2014-12-02T16:00:00+00:00

MOST UNSAVOURY EVIDENCE

SYDNEY, AUSTRALIA, 1935

Many are the times that members of a packed courtroom have been shocked or revolted by physical evidence put before them, but the general public are invariably spared such grim confrontations. Not so in Sydney in April 1935, though, when evidence of a vile underworld crime came up in a remarkable and particularly repulsive way.

The man who murdered a forty-year-old former boxer, James Smith, knew that an untraceable disposal of the body was paramount if he was to avoid detection. Not for him a clumsy shallow burial, an impromptu bonfire or a well-packed tin trunk deposited at the left-luggage office of a railway station. They were the province of mere amateurs. All had been tried time and again but sooner or later the bodies invariably came to light. All it took was an inquisitive dog out for walkies, a fragment of charred bone or a railway porter with a good nose for curious smells and a sharp eye for telltale seepage. All too soon the game was up.

Smith’s murderer needed to be sure, so the body was first cut up and packed in a weighted tin trunk. True, it was a mistake not to use a trunk quite big enough to house all the bits, but the arm left over was firmly secured by a rope round its wrist and then tied tightly to the outside of the trunk. When the murderer dumped the gruesome cargo from his boat into Sydney Harbour early in April 1935 he was confident that his foul deed had been consigned to the deep for ever. But he bargained without two fishermen landing an unexpected catch just a week later. If you’re expecting the trunk, just hold on a second. That’s far too simple for Crime’s Strangest Cases. What they did get tangled in their lines was a shark, not at all what they were after but a fine-looking specimen all the same. Being good citizens, they handed it over alive and apparently well to the Coogee Beach Aquarium, where it was put in a tank for the delectation of the public. Kids, in particular, were fascinated by the fearsome new arrival.

Although 25 April 1935 was just another day for the aquarium, it was not so for the shark, which was decidedly sluggish and suffering digestive troubles. As many a child knows from bitter experience, what’s gone down must sometimes come up – these things will happen. In front of a band of admiring onlookers the shark was promptly sick.

Not pleasant at the best of times, but this was a particularly stomach-churning sight, for it was the arm that came up in its entirety, complete with a length of rope still attached. The aquarium publicity promised AN EXPERIENCE YOU WILL NEVER FORGET and the punters certainly had one that day.

The police acted quickly. The shark died shortly afterwards but no signs of other body parts were found in its stomach. A search of the shore drew a similar blank but close examination of the regurgitated arm revealed a distinctive tattoo of two boxers.

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