Confronting Murderous Men, page 15
The constable called for help and saw people watching from their windows, but none assisted him. He tried to remount his motorcycle but collapsed again. He was taken to a private residence and then to Newcastle Hospital, where one bullet was removed from his body, but a second was not disturbed as was considered to be dangerously close to his spine. His surgeon later testified that the other bullet had passed through Mabbutt’s lung and left kidney.
Miller and his accomplices were responsible for several property breaking offences and the theft of the car for which they were arrested. Thomas Aubrey Towers, 21 years old, and William Malcolm Christian, 24, were also charged with shooting Mabbutt to avoid lawful apprehension. The pistol used to shoot the constable had been stolen in a burglary of the Wickham Council Chambers in January.
Constable Mabbutt was able to attend Newcastle Police Court on 28 May, though he was still convalescing and walking with the aid of a stick. The three men were committed for trial and the charge of shooting to avoid arrest was upgraded to shooting with intent to murder Constable Mabbutt.
By early October 1931, Miller stood his trial for shooting Mabbutt, the charge again being altered to shooting to avoid lawful apprehension. The other two men were not proceeded with on that matter, but all three had been sentenced earlier for the breaking offences and stealing the car. The facts were not disputed, though the defence rested on intent and accident. Justice Halse Rogers made the observation to the jury that if they considered the shooting to be an accident, they would have to think whether it was likely the revolver would go off three times. After a half-hour retirement the jury returned a verdict of guilty. Before sentencing the judge asked if Miller had a criminal history. He was told of matters dating from 1925 for theft and for possession of an unlicensed pistol. By now he was already serving a combined sentence of 18 months for the breaking and car theft offences.
The judge, in sentencing said, ‘So far as you are concerned, you are lucky you are not charged with murder. Anyone who shoots point blank at another person has no possibility of telling whether he will commit murder or not. The seriousness of the charge is not to be judged by the result. The offence is just the same. The Act provides a penalty of life imprisonment and the least sentence I can feel justified in imposing is 10 years penal servitude.’
James Norman Miller. NSWSA NRS-10958-13-[1/3266
Thomas Aubrey Towers. NSWSA NRS-2328-1-[14/3084]-2284
Constable Mabbutt was commended by Magistrate Mr Stevenson for his pluck and courage in upholding the highest traditions of the police force. Mabbutt took 12 months to recover and continued his duty in May 1932. His actions appear not to have been recognised by his commissioner.
1931
Constable James Wray Ulrick
Vaucluse, NSW
Constable James Wray Ulrick
On 28 July 1931, Constable James Wray Ulrick, a constable since January 1920, who worked from the Vaucluse police station not 5 kilometres from Bondi Junction, was called to a suspected housebreaking. He attended with Constable Harrison and a sergeant who remained at the house while they searched nearby. He saw two men walking furtively in Hopetoun Avenue. Ulrick dismounted from his motorcycle outfit and confronted the men. Not satisfied with their presence in the area, he placed both men into the sidecar of his machine, mounted it and had driven a short distance when one of them, Kenneth Farlow, rose and grabbed him by the throat.
The cycle crashed into a ditch and Farlow called to his accomplice, Robert Chrystal, ‘Stick the boot into the bastard.’ Chrystal kicked the constable several times before Farlow ordered, ‘Get the bastard’s gun and shoot him.’ Farlow grappled with Ulrick as Chrystal took his pistol from its holster, held it near Ulrick’s left chest and pulled the trigger. The gun clicked but didn’t fire. Chrystal pulled the recoil back on the pistol, releasing a bullet into firing position. Just as he fired again Ulrick had broken his grip, but felt a pain to his chest and staggered back about 4 metres. He faced the men and Chrystal stepped forward and fired two more shots, one of which grazed Ulrick’s arm. As the stricken constable fell, Farlow and Chrystal mounted the motorcycle and attempted to drive it away, but crashed into a tree about 50 metres on. The men forced young Edwin Cosmo de Satge who was standing near a car owned by a friend whose 6-year-old daughter was sitting inside, to drive them and the girl’s mother to Surry Hills at gunpoint. One alighted at Hyde Park and the other at Marrickville.
Constable Harrison, on hearing the shots, ran to Hopetoun Avenue and saw Ulrick holding his side. He said, ‘They have got me, and got my revolver too.’ A resident saw Ulrick wandering the footpath with blood pouring from his mouth. He said he had been wounded and asked for a doctor. Flummoxed, the man went for assistance, but a passing oil truck driver, with greater presence of mind, stopped and took him to hospital.
Ulrick underwent surgery and a bullet was recovered from his body. He remained in a poor condition as the search continued for his assailants.
On 8 August, Kenneth Aubrey Farlow was found by police sitting with a woman on a bench in Hyde Park, Sydney, and he was arrested at gunpoint. He said, ‘I knew I was gone when I saw you all get out of the car. You just got me in time. I was going away on Monday.’
At the Darlinghurst police station, Detective Wells told Farlow of the allegation against him and he replied, ‘It is no good denying it. I held the constable, but I did not shoot him. I told my mate to take the revolver. I thought he would only knock him out and we would be able to get away.’ Farlow claimed not to know Chrystal’s name, but he had been arrested days earlier at Marrickville. Both men were identified by Ulrick and de Satge.
On 30 September, both men stood trial before Mr Justice Stephens, charged with the attempted murder of Constable Ulrick. They were found guilty and sentenced to death.
In late April 1932, Cabinet decided to commute the death sentences to penal servitude for life. Constable Ulrick recovered from his injuries and returned to duty.
Robert Henry Chrystal. NSWSA RNCG-617-1-[17/1501]-26042
Kenneth Aubrey Farlow. NSWSA NRS-2397-2-[14/3120]-1780
1931
Constable First Class Harold Douglas Kenny
and Constable Douglas Smith
Waratah, NSW
On 11 October 1931, constables Kenny, Smith and Barnett attended the shop of Loftus Arthur Johns at 6 Station Street, Waratah, a Newcastle suburb, to execute a search warrant to look for evidence of illegal betting. As the search began, Johns shot Constable Smith in the face with a .22 calibre single shot rifle. Smith clapped his hands to his face and ran from the premises, scrambled over a fence and collapsed on a neighbour’s verandah 50 metres away.
Hearing the shot, Kenny looked into the room and was also shot in the face, the bullet fracturing his jaw and lodging in the back of his head. He ran from the premises and met Barnett, who attempted to drive off for help. Johns fired a shot into the police car thinking Kenny was inside.
Kenny and Smith were taken to Newcastle Hospital and were both admitted in a serious condition.
Johns was arrested and charged. He was eventually convicted of shooting Smith with intent to murder him. The jury expressed a desire for mercy to be shown to the prisoner. Johns was sentenced to death. In January 1932, his sentence was commuted to ten years penal servitude. 8
1931
Plainclothes Constable
Charles Alexander Derham
Melbourne, Victoria
Shortly before 9 pm on 20 November 1931, Plainclothes Constable Charles Derham went to G J Coles’ store and waited at the Flinders Street exit for the manager and two other staff to make up monies to be taken to a bank nearby. He was to escort them as part of a longstanding arrangement between the store and local police. As the three staff left the store, Derham followed two paces behind and felt someone touch his hand, which was holding a pistol in his overcoat pocket. He drew his arm away from a man, who twisted his hand towards Derham’s head. Derham saw two more men with pistols standing near a Coles vehicle. A shot was fired and Derham fell to the roadway, shot in the head. More shots were fired and one of them was aimed at the stricken constable. One of the men said, ‘Leave him alone, he’s only a copper.’ More shots were fired as a number of men backed off, entered a car and drove off. Derham was attended by a constable who drove him to hospital, where a bullet was removed from his brain. The damage caused partial sight loss from one eye – an impairment he would carry for life. And live he did, although he was not given much hope of survival soon after surgery.
Constable Charles Derham
Known criminals were arrested in the early hours of the following morning and seven men were charged with shooting Constable Derham, with intent to murder him, and robbery under arms, the proceeds of which were a bullion bag containing £980, which was the money to be banked.
After protracted hearings, James Adams, alias Lancaster, 30 years of age, Hugh Martin, 29, and Harold Williams, 27, were found guilty of shooting Derham with intent to cause him grievous bodily harm, and robbery in company.
On the morning of 11 April 1932, at the Court of Criminal Appeal before Mr Justice Mann, Mr Justice Macfarlan (the trial judge) and Mr Justice Wasley, appeals made by Williams and Adams, which were supported by Martin trying to take the whole blame for the crimes, were unanimously quashed. That afternoon, the trial judge sentenced each to 20 years imprisonment with hard labour for wounding Constable Derham and each an additional penalty of 15 stokes of the cat-o’-nine-tails. They were sentenced to 10 years hard labour for robbery, the term to be served concurrently with the first.
It took several months for Constable Derham to recover sufficiently to return to restricted light duties.
CHAPTER 13
1931
Constable Trevlyn Cuthbert Nowland
Bendemeer, New South Wales
Trevlyn Cuthbert Nowland
The year 1931 had not finished meting out its worst to constables. The death of Constable Trevlyn Nowland at a village in the New England region still begs answers. Bendemeer and its life source, the Macdonald River, played a major part in the mystery that surrounds his death to this day.
Trevlyn Cuthbert Nowland was born at Quirindi on the north-west slopes of New South Wales, on 10 April 1901, into a family with strong links to early colonial settlement on the land of the Gamilaroi people. His parents were Charles Henry Nowland and Mary Ann Australia Bridge. Though he travelled to Sydney to join the police force at 21 years of age, Trevlyn Nowland was destined to return to the bush, his idea of perfection.
He was sworn as a probationary constable on 25 August 1922 and soon found himself back in familiar territory, though a bit further inland than he may have anticipated. He was a mounted constable stationed at Goodooga, near the Queensland border and north-west of Lightning Ridge. His next move was to Lightning Ridge, marginally closer to home, as was Walgett, which was to follow. Come-by-Chance in the Pilliga, south-east of Walgett, was his next placement before his transfer to more familiar territory in the idyllic village of Bendemeer, which was announced in December 1930.
Trevlyn and Florence May Brown married at Armidale in 1925, and their son Lionell was born at Walgett in 1927 but did not survive. Despite their sadness and worry they were happily married.
Constable Nowland settled into his new posting seamlessly. He was popular and respected in the small settlement and the wider farming areas. He owned a car and furniture and had no liabilities. He had £16 in the bank and his life was insured for £500.
In the time he had been attached to Bendemeer he had received 40 or 50 anonymous letters about people in the town, a problem not unknown to policing. His wife had seen a couple of these letters and he had spoken to others about them. He said that he proposed sending them to the commissioner of police, but it is not known if he did so, or what the action might have achieved. He was not worried about the letters, however, and had not entered them into the correspondence book at the station, probably because he considered them the work of a crank and therefore exhibits rather than correspondence needing a reply, which was not possible in any event.
About 8 pm on Sunday 4 October 1931, Constable Nowland was working in the police station while his wife and her brother, Herbert Brown, sat in the attached residence. They could hear Nowland speaking to someone in the station but did not hear what was said. His wife heard the door of the office shut and her husband came into the room. She asked, ‘Who was that you were speaking to at the door?’ He replied, ‘He is a swagman camped down by the bridge. There is a man running up and down with a bottle of wine. They are all frightened of him down there, and he wants me to go down. I will only be a few minutes.’ He kissed his wife goodnight and was away about half an hour. When he returned, she asked, ‘Did you find that man?’ He replied, ‘No, I took Ossie Whorlow to the bridge, and we could not find any man. I think he is imagining things.’
When he left to go to the bridge he’d called in to the Bendemeer Hotel and spoken with Oswin ‘Ossie’ Whorlow and asked if a tall man had come to the hotel to buy wine. Whorlow, the adult son of the licensee, had not served anyone with wine. He accompanied Nowland towards the bridge, which was not far from the hotel. Whorlow had taken a torch, but they saw nobody. There was no sign of a disturbance.
About 7.45 pm the following night, Constable Nowland sat with his wife and brother-in-law and discussed making a reservation at the picture theatre in Tamworth for the following Wednesday, two days hence. Nowland went to the office to make the phone call and Mrs Nowland heard the front door slam, but heard no voices. As he returned, she said, ‘I didn’t hear you ring up to book the seats.’ He replied, ‘I haven’t rung up yet. Just as I walked in someone knocked on the door and it was the chap who was here last night. He wants me to go to the bridge again. That madman is there again and he wants to know if he can sleep in the cell as he is frightened of the madman.’ He was told he could not stay in the cell. Nowland wore his uniform and donned a greatcoat. He carried his service pistol and handcuffs, but took a baton as he was uneasy about the man.
Mrs Nowland suggested her brother could go with her husband, but he replied that he could stay with her as he would be alright. He left, but a few minutes later returned with Mrs Whorlow and her daughter-in-law. He said goodnight and indicated he would be back in a few minutes.
The Whorlow’s left after 10.30 pm and Mrs Nowland suggested she and her brother should go out and look for her husband. Her brother told her he would be alright and would be home soon. He went to bed and she lay down to wait. About 20 minutes later she again asked her brother to help her look for her husband. They went out and knocked on the hotel door, but did not receive an answer. As they walked towards the bridge they saw nobody, but roused other people, who joined in the search without result. Mrs Nowland stayed with her neighbour, Mrs Ross, for the rest of the night.
When her husband had not returned his wife became anxious. She knew that if he expected to be delayed he would have returned to the station to tell her. After not hearing from him for six hours she alerted the police at Tamworth and a search operation was mounted. A broad canvass of the town failed to find anyone who had seen the constable that night. No-one had heard a disturbance at the bridge. It was decided that the river needed to be dragged. The operation began near the bridge, conducted from the shore as no boat was available.
Aboriginal tracker William Dennison of Tamworth was called and found signs of disturbed grass, vines and foliage at the bank of the river leading to the water, almost opposite the police station. He found a heel mark near the water’s edge, but no return mark. The man who made that mark went into the river and did not come out at the spot. He looked for marks from the police station to the bank, but could not find any. He dived repeatedly in search of the constable’s body. A raft was hastily constructed with kegs from the hotel and planks to form a platform. Grappling irons were used near where the signs of entry were seen. Soon, Constable Nowland’s body was secured and taken from the water. He was fully dressed, apart from his cap, and was wearing his service pistol and handcuffs. Signs of blood were seen around his nose. He was found in shallow water no more than 1.2 metres deep.
No-one was seen near the bridge or river and the complainant, whose identity was unknown, did not come forward. It was obvious Constable Nowland had been lured from the station, not once but twice, for a sinister purpose. That much was already clear and should have remained so, had the circumstances not become tainted when too much information became public knowledge, either from the doctor who conducted the postmortem examination of the constable’s body, or the police themselves.
The Armidale Express and New England General Advertiser, 9 perhaps because it was closer to the unfolding events, hit the mark with its coverage headed, ‘Where is the Man Who Called at Police Station? Inquest Adjourned Pending Post Mortem Examination’.
Reason was prevailing and the headline begged the obvious question. Where was the man? It continued,
Circumstances surrounding the death of Constable Trevlyn Cuthbert Nowland, of Bendemeer, are enshrouded in mystery, and the best brains of the force are now engaged in an effort to find a way through the tangled skein of stories that are floating about the little township.
There was more to come and the taint would be set. The Tamworth Government Medical Officer, Dr Buckley, attended and made a cursory examination of the constable’s body, noting there were no visible injuries. The blood near his nose was mentioned but was not a line pursued, probably because bleeding is not an unusual occurrence from asphyxiation after drowning. Buckley ordered the body be removed to Tamworth for a full postmortem examination.
