The Murchison Murders
Encyclopedia
Rabbit-proof fence
The State Barrier Fence of Western Australia, formerly known as the No. 1 Rabbit-proof Fence, the State Vermin Fence and the Emu Fence, is a pest-exclusion fence constructed between 1901 and 1907 to keep rabbits and other agricultural pests, from the east, out of Western Australian pastoral...
in Western Australia
Western Australia
Western Australia is a state of Australia, occupying the entire western third of the Australian continent. It is bounded by the Indian Ocean to the north and west, the Great Australian Bight and Indian Ocean to the south, the Northern Territory to the north-east and South Australia to the south-east...
during the early 1930s. The case was particularly infamous because Rowles used the murder method that had been suggested by author Arthur Upfield
Arthur Upfield
Arthur William Upfield was an Australian writer, best known for his works of detective fiction featuring Detective Inspector Napoleon Bonaparte of the Queensland Police Force, a half-caste Aborigine....
in his then unpublished book The Sands of Windee, in which he described a way to dispose of a body and thus commit the perfect murder
Perfect murder (fiction)
The perfect murder is a murder which benefits the murderer, but also has no negative consequences for him or her; usually, this simply means that the murderer is never caught...
.
Upfield searches for a plot
Arthur Upfield had already written three novels, but was working as a fence boundary rider on the Rabbit Proof Fence in Western Australia. He had decided to write another detective novel, but with a plot difference of there not being any body for the detective to find. Unfortunately he could not think of a way to dispose of a body.He mentioned this difficulty to a colleague, George Ritchie. Ritchie devised a disposal method: burn the victim's body, filter any bone fragments out of the ashes, dissolve them in acid, pound any remaining solids into dust, then discard the remains into the wind. But Upfield then had a problem: the method was a bit too efficient, leaving the fictional detective of Upfield's book no way to detect or prove the murder. Upfield challenged Ritchie to find a flaw in the method and offered him £1 if he could. Ritchie, however, was unable to do so.
The plot of the novel hinged on this point and Ritchie one day met Snowy Rowles, whom Upfield and Ritchie both knew. Ritchie mentioned the problem to him. All of Upfield's friends and colleagues were soon aware of Upfield's difficulties with his plot.
On 5 October 1929, Upfield, Ritchie, Rowles, the son of the Inspector of the fence, and the north boundary rider for the fence, were all present at the Camel Station homestead when the murder method for Upfield's book was again discussed. Upfield himself was clear that Rowles knew of the murder method before this date, but the meeting and discussion was later used as evidence in court to prove that Rowles was aware of the method.
James Ryan and George Lloyd disappear
In December 1929, Rowles was in the company of two men named James Ryan and George Lloyd. On 8 December 1929, Rowles, Ryan and Lloyd departed from Camel Station. Several days later, George Ritchie arrived at Camel Station and told Upfield that he'd met a prospector named James Yates. Yates mentioned to Ritchie that Rowles, Ryan and Lloyd had passed by. Rowles had been driving a car and had told Yates that Ryan and Lloyd were walking through scrub, gathering timber. Neither Yates, Ritchie nor Upfield saw anything odd in this behaviour; but Yates, significantly, had only seen Rowles. Rowles had told him that Ryan and Lloyd were walking through the scrub but Yates did not see them himself. Lloyd and Ryan were not seen again.On Christmas Eve, 1929, Upfield was with a colleague in the small town of Youanmi
Youanmi, Western Australia
Youanmi is the name of an abandoned town in the Murchison Region of Western Australia.The town was gazetted in 1910 but abandoned in 1942, after the local gold mine was closed.-History:...
when he met Rowles. Rowles told Upfield that Ryan had decided to stay in Mount Magnet
Mount Magnet, Western Australia
Mount Magnet is an old Western Australian gold rush town. The name was chosen during exploration of the region due to an isolated hill 5 km north west of the town current townsite. This hill has an extremely high iron content and affected the compasses of explorers...
, and had lent Rowles his truck. Rowles told another person that he'd purchased Ryan's truck for £80.
Louis Carron disappears
A man named Louis Carron had arrived in the Murchison area in 1929, having come from PerthPerth, Western Australia
Perth is the capital and largest city of the Australian state of Western Australia and the fourth most populous city in Australia. The Perth metropolitan area has an estimated population of almost 1,700,000....
with a friend. Carron, a New Zealander
New Zealand
New Zealand is an island country in the south-western Pacific Ocean comprising two main landmasses and numerous smaller islands. The country is situated some east of Australia across the Tasman Sea, and roughly south of the Pacific island nations of New Caledonia, Fiji, and Tonga...
, had found a job at Wydgee Station. In May 1930, Carron left his employment in the company of Snowy Rowles.
Rowles cashed Carron's pay cheque at the town of Paynesville, east of Mount Magnet. Carron's friend sent a reply-paid telegram to Rowles at Youanmi asking for information about Carron, but Rowles did not reply.
Investigations begin
Carron had kept regular correspondence with his friends and it was for this reason that his disappearance was noticed. The area at the time had a large transient population, and for a man to appear or disappear from the area was in no way remarkable. Indeed, it was not until police detectives started investigating Carron's disappearance that it was noticed that Lloyd and Ryan were also missing, and had also last been seen in Rowles' company.The attempts by Upfield to find a plot for his novel The Sands of Windee were well known, and detectives were soon aware of the murder method outlined. They found the remains of Carron's body at the 183 miles (294.5 km) hut on the rabbit-proof fence. Among other items found were a wedding ring that would later be positively linked to Carron by a New Zealand jeweller and his wife.
Arrest, trial and execution
A police officer, Detective-Sergeant Manning, was sent to arrest Rowles. When doing so, he immediately recognised Rowles as a man named John Thomas Smith, wanted after escaping from DalwallinuDalwallinu, Western Australia
Dalwallinu is a town in the Wheatbelt region of Western Australia, located 248 km from Perth via the Great Northern Highway. Agriculture and supporting industries are the town's primary economic activities. The town is also the first town on The Wildflower Way, a world-famous Western...
in 1928 after having been jailed for burglary. Manning was able to send Rowles back to prison and thus had more time to complete his investigations.
Either from a lack of evidence or from convention at the time, Rowles was only tried for the murder of Louis Carron. Like Rowles, Carron had assumed a new name, previously having been known as Leslie George Brown. His wife, Mrs. Brown, had attended a jeweller in Auckland
Auckland
The Auckland metropolitan area , in the North Island of New Zealand, is the largest and most populous urban area in the country with residents, percent of the country's population. Auckland also has the largest Polynesian population of any city in the world...
to have a wedding ring
Wedding ring
A wedding ring or wedding band is a metal ring indicating the wearer is married. Depending on the local culture, it is worn on the base of the right or the left ring finger. The custom of wearing such a ring has spread widely beyond its origin in Europe...
recut. The jeweller's assistant had accidentally used a 9 carat solder
Solder
Solder is a fusible metal alloy used to join together metal workpieces and having a melting point below that of the workpiece.Soft solder is what is most often thought of when solder or soldering are mentioned and it typically has a melting range of . It is commonly used in electronics and...
to rejoin the ends of the 18 carat ring. The jeweller would normally have fixed this mistake but had been too busy to do so. The result was a distinctive mark on the ring from a different-coloured solder, which made the ring unique and identified it as Carron's. (Upfield used the 'mended ring' device later in The New Shoe.)
Evidence was given about Rowles' behaviour and his knowledge of the fictional murder method. Evidence was also presented to the court about various lies that Rowles had told about his movements. There was little doubt that Rowles had committed three murders and the jury returned a guilty verdict in only two hours. Rowles was hanged
Hanging
Hanging is the lethal suspension of a person by a ligature. The Oxford English Dictionary states that hanging in this sense is "specifically to put to death by suspension by the neck", though it formerly also referred to crucifixion and death by impalement in which the body would remain...
for murder on 13 June 1931.
Further reading
Besides his novel The Sands of Windee, Upfield wrote a piece about the real-life case entitled The Murchison Murders.In 1993, author Terry Walker wrote a book Murder on the Rabbit-Proof Fence documenting the strange case.
Telemovie: 3 Acts of Murder
In 2009 the Australian Broadcasting CorporationAustralian Broadcasting Corporation
The Australian Broadcasting Corporation, commonly referred to as "the ABC" , is Australia's national public broadcaster...
produced a telemovie based on the Murchison Murders, starring Robert Menzies
Robert Menzies (actor)
Robert Menzies, an Australian television actor, has starred in productions such as 3 Acts of Murder, Three Dollars and Monash and The Anzac Legend....
as Upfield and Luke Ford as Snowy. 3 Acts of Murder was directed by the acclaimed filmmaker Rowan Woods
Rowan Woods
Rowan Woods is an Australian film and television director, actor and screenwriter. Woods directed The Boys in 1998 and won an AFI award for best direction. His next film, Little Fish was released in September 2005 in Australia, starring Cate Blanchett...
, and screened on the ABC on 14 June 2009 at 8.30pm.