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TheGun Alley Tragedy
TheGun Alley Tragedy
Record of the Trial :: of :: COLIN CAMPBELL ROSS Including A Critical Examination of the Crown Case with A Summary of the New Evidence by T. C. BRENNAN, Barrister-at-Law 1922 FRASER & JENKINSON, Printers, 343-5 Queen St., Melbourne GORDON & GOTCH (Australia) Ltd., Publishers...
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PREFACE.
PREFACE.
No trial in Australian history has created such a public sensation as did the trial in Melbourne of Colin Campbell Ross for the murder of the little girl, Alma Tirtschke, on the afternoon of December 30th, 1921. It was presided over by Mr. Justice Schutt and lasted for more than five days. Mr. H. C. G. Macindoe conducted the case for the Crown and Mr. G. A. Maxwell appeared, with Mr. T. C. Brennan as junior, for the defence. For many reasons, it is desirable that the proceedings at the trial sho
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THE APPELLATE COURTS.
THE APPELLATE COURTS.
At the outset it is desirable to correct a wrong impression which, very widely felt, has tended to allay the feeling of uneasiness in the public mind. Ross, as is well known, appealed to the Full Court of Victoria, which dismissed the appeal. Thence he carried his case to the High Court of Australia, which refused, one learned Judge dissenting, to interfere with the decision of the Supreme Court. From this fact it has been assumed that two Appellate Courts, consisting of three Judges and five Ju
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WHY THE JURY MISJUDGED.
WHY THE JURY MISJUDGED.
Not often, indeed, do juries err on the side of convicting an innocent man. But the circumstances of this case were peculiar. Not merely was the ravishing of the child and the strangling of her a crime of a peculiarly detestable nature, but the stripping of the body, and the placing of it on the cold stones of a squalid alley, though it really added nothing to the horror of her death, was an incident well calculated to excite the deepest human sympathy. In addition, it was a crime of which none
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ROSS INTERVIEWED.
ROSS INTERVIEWED.
The detectives first saw Ross on the morning of the 31st. He said that he had seen a child answering to the description of the murdered girl, but in reply to a direct question by Detective Piggott, “Ross, how much do you know?” he replied: “I do not know anything.” On January 5th they again saw Ross at his home, and brought him to the Detective Office, where he was detained for eight hours, and made a statement, which was taken down in writing. To show how consistent Ross was throughout as to hi
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THE TRIAL.
THE TRIAL.
Ross was committed at the Coroner’s inquest on January 26, and came up for trial before Mr. Justice Schutt on February 20. Evidence was given, as indicated above, as to the movements of the girl on the day of her death. Medical evidence, to be dealt with later, was also given and then the Crown called a succession of witnesses, who deposed as to certain extraordinary “facts,” and as to certain admissions or confessions supposed to have been made by Ross....
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THE BLOODY BOTTLE.
THE BLOODY BOTTLE.
The first of these was a man named Francis Lane Upton. Upton had not been called at the inquest. The defence had been served with notice that he would be called on the trial, and a short summary of his evidence was given, according to practice. His evidence is remarkable, not so much for its glaring improbability as for the fact that it was dramatically abandoned by the Crown Prosecutor in his closing address to the jury with the contemptuous intimation that he would not ask the jury to “swing a
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OLIVE MADDOX’S EVIDENCE.
OLIVE MADDOX’S EVIDENCE.
Olive May Maddox was the next witness. She was living at the time of the inquest at Cambridge Street, Collingwood, and when asked, “Have you any other means of livelihood but prostitution?” she answered: “No, not exactly.” She said she knew Ross well, and she used to visit his premises every day up to the time of the shooting affray. (That was in the previous November, and up to that time Ivy Matthews had been employed there.) Since the shooting affray she had only visited the cafe “once, someti
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THE MATTHEWS CONFESSION.
THE MATTHEWS CONFESSION.
Ivy Matthews was the next witness. She “didn’t quite know” what to say her occupation was, as just at present she was out of employment, but she had been a barmaid. She had been employed by the accused from the 23rd of December, 1920, up to some time in November, 1921. She left the day following Ross’s acquittal on the shooting charge. She described minutely the interior of the wine saloon as it was in her time, and on being shown two blankets, said that one of them—a greeny-blue military blanke
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HARDING’S STORY.
HARDING’S STORY.
Deferring comment upon these matters for the moment, we will proceed with the evidence of the next disreputable witness—the odious Sydney John Harding, who now obtains £250 out of the reward and a free pardon for his “services to the State.” Harding at this time was awaiting trial on a charge of shopbreaking, together with another man named Joseph Dunstan. He had a list of convictions at the time so long that he could not remember them all. He was a wife deserter, and was living in adultery with
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DUNSTAN’S CORROBORATION.
DUNSTAN’S CORROBORATION.
Dunstan was then called to corroborate Harding. He was awaiting trial with Harding for housebreaking, and at the Police Court he had pleaded guilty, and had exonerated Harding. It should be recalled here, however, that when the two men came up for trial, and the same course was adopted, the jury declined to accept the story that Harding knew nothing of the charge, and he was found guilty of receiving. Dunstan had twice previously been convicted of larceny, and he was one of the five that were in
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ROSS’S MOVEMENTS.
ROSS’S MOVEMENTS.
We now come to a different class of evidence—the evidence which purported to tell of the movements of Ross on the important dates. The conflict between this evidence and the supposed confessions and the inherent improbability of the evidence itself will be dealt with later. David Alberts, an eccentric-looking individual, who described himself as a vaudeville artist, residing at 47 Little Smith Street, Fitzroy, said that he left home about half-past 6, and between half-past 7 and a quarter to 8 h
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THE SHEEN OF GOLDEN HAIRS.
THE SHEEN OF GOLDEN HAIRS.
Two other pieces of evidence, of still another class, were used against Ross. One was that hairs, which it was claimed were identified as Alma Tirtschke’s, were found on blankets taken from Ross’s house at Footscray on January 12; the other was that pieces of serge, which it was claimed were identified as being part of the child’s dress, were found on January 27 on the Footscray road, thus confirming the supposed confession to Harding. The story of the hair is one of the most remarkable and one
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THE FINDING OF THE SERGE.
THE FINDING OF THE SERGE.
The finding of some pieces of serge on the Footscray Road, on the 26th or 27th day of January, was also relied on strongly by the Crown. Mrs. Violet May Sullivan was on the Footscray Road on January 26, and she saw certain strips of serge on the left-hand side going to Kensington. She didn’t pick them up. On the next day she read, in the alleged confession to Harding, that Ross had said that he had strewn the serge of the girl’s dress on the Footscray Road, and Mrs. Sullivan went back to the roa
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THE MEDICAL EVIDENCE.
THE MEDICAL EVIDENCE.
The last class of evidence, though given first on the trial, was the medical testimony. It showed that there was an abrasion on the left side of the neck which extended across the mid-line, and measured 2½ inches in length by ⁷/₁₆ of an inch in breadth at its widest part. Below this, on the left side of the neck, there was a narrower abrasion, about ⅛ of an inch in width, and not extending across the mid-line. There was another abrasion on the left side of the lower jaw, an inch in length, and a
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DETECTIVE BROPHY’S BLUNDER.
DETECTIVE BROPHY’S BLUNDER.
That was the full case as made by the Crown against Ross, with the exception of an admission said to have been made to Detective Brophy. This admission may be stated and dealt with at once. Brophy said that, on the 16th of January, he took a man named White to the Melbourne Gaol, and confronted him with Ross. White said: “Yes, that is the man.” Brophy then said: “This man has identified you as the man whom he saw in the Arcade speaking to the little girl, Alma.” Ross said: “Oh,” and then, turnin
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WHY CONFESS TO MATTHEWS.
WHY CONFESS TO MATTHEWS.
Let us take first the evidence of Ivy Matthews. Suppose Ross were guilty, why should he have made a confession to this woman? They were at daggers drawn. He had cast her out of his employment with terms of the deepest insult. They had fought bitterly, through their lawyers, almost up to the date of the tragedy. They had not seen one another, much less spoken to one another, between the date she was turned out of his employment and the 31st of December. Yet on the 31st of December, according to t
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CHANGES IN MATTHEWS’S EVIDENCE.
CHANGES IN MATTHEWS’S EVIDENCE.
But it is the changes in Matthews’s evidence, as between the inquest and the trial, that cast the most doubt on it. She makes Colin Ross in his confession, as retailed at the trial, get the girl to come out of the cubicle in the afternoon, and stay in the beaded room for an hour or so, while he talks to Gladys Wain; she makes him bring the girl back to the cubicle when Gladys Wain is gone; she makes him cause the girl’s death there after 6 o’clock, and then carry the dead body back to the beaded
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POWERS OF INVENTIVENESS.
POWERS OF INVENTIVENESS.
Incidentally, during the trial, a remarkable sidelight was thrown on Ivy Matthew’s powers of invention, and her unscrupulousness in exercising them. The Crown Prosecutor cross-examined Mrs. Ross at some length as to a visit she is supposed to have paid to Ivy Matthews on February 6, in order to “beseech” her not to give evidence against her son. The passage is worth transcribing in full. “Have you ever discussed anything with Ivy Matthews?” asked Mr. Macindoe, the Crown Prosecutor. “No,” was the
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OLIVE MADDOX TESTED.
OLIVE MADDOX TESTED.
Olive Maddox’s testimony is also worthy of a few lines of examination. She said that, having seen the girl in the beaded room, two men also being in it, she came out and said to Ross: “That is a young kid to be drinking there.” The room in which the child was alleged to be was only 7ft. by 6ft. 7in. The girl, therefore, must have been within three or four feet of the men. Ivy Matthews, in her evidence at the Morgue, said it was no unusual thing, when respectable women came into the place for a d
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HARDING’S COCK-AND-BULL STORY.
HARDING’S COCK-AND-BULL STORY.
Turning now to the alleged confession to Harding, it will be seen that it will bear analysis no better than Matthews’s. The questions supposed to have been put by Harding bear their own refutation. Take the words near the opening:—“I said: ‘Did you see the girl?’ He said: ‘Yes!’” What would have happened had the conversation reached that interesting stage? All eagerness, Harding would have followed it up by asking what happened. But what does he do? He inquires weakly, like a lady of fashion: “H
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CONFLICTS IN THE CONFESSIONS.
CONFLICTS IN THE CONFESSIONS.
Harding, so he says (and Harding “is an honourable man”) puts the question to him directly: “Could Gladys not see the girl when she went into the wine cafe?” “No,” said Ross, “we had our drink in the parlour.” This again is the exact opposite of what Matthews says he said, for Matthews makes him carry the dead body out of the cubicle into the beaded room (which is part of the parlour) in order that the cubicle may be free for his reception of Gladys Wain. It might be thought that Ross had specia
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A MODEL LODGING-HOUSE KEEPER.
A MODEL LODGING-HOUSE KEEPER.
Ellis’s story may be taken up here and analysed. He, as has been said, is a lodging-house keeper, but the sort of lodging-house he keeps is known by another name among the ribald. He saw Ross, according to his evidence, “a little after 9, before 10, then at 11, and two or three times between that and 10 minutes to 1,” when he retired. Strange to say, he did not see Ross go in with Gladys Wain or come out with her, though the sight of a young couple near his “lodging-house” is just the sort of th
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CONFESSIONS COMPARED.
CONFESSIONS COMPARED.
Then the objection will be raised, as it was raised by no less august a tribunal than the High Court, that even though the two confessions disagree in important details, and conflict hopelessly with the direct evidence of Ellis, they are in agreement in the main fact that they contain the admission that Ross outraged and killed the child, and disposed of the body in the alley, and are in agreement in a number of minor points. It is, however, the points of agreement and of disagreement that sugge
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WAS THERE “INSIDE” KNOWLEDGE?
WAS THERE “INSIDE” KNOWLEDGE?
How, it may be asked, could Ivy Matthews and Harding become possessed of the information the police had? That question is not difficult to answer. It will be shown later that Ivy Matthews was driving around with the police on January 9, assisting them to get evidence in the case, and that she, on her part, was trying to get it manufactured. If that is so (and a sworn declaration to that effect has gone unchallenged) then she was not likely to lack any information that the police thought it might
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AN EXPERT ON HAIR.
AN EXPERT ON HAIR.
Nothing could point more strongly to the guilt of Ross than satisfactory proof that hairs from the head of the murdered girl were found on a blanket in his private room. It becomes necessary, therefore, to examine Mr. Price’s evidence, to see whether it does establish this important fact. It will be seen by a reference to that evidence, that Mr. Price uses very guarded language. He “came to a conclusion” about certain things and he “formed the conclusion” about others, but he at no time definite
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A MISSING LINK.
A MISSING LINK.
There are other features about this hair examination which call for comment. When a man is on trial for his life, he himself, his counsel, and indeed the public generally, are entitled to demand that every link in the chain connecting him with the murder shall be found in its place. It was objected on the appeal that a link was missing in the case of the blankets, since it was not shown where they were during the night preceding their handing over to the analyst. One of the learned judges in the
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THE GIRL’S ATTIRE.
THE GIRL’S ATTIRE.
Another of the facts urged as showing that Ross murdered the girl was the exact description he gave of her clothing on the morning following the girl’s disappearance. On being asked by Piggott how the girl was dressed, he described her dress and her hat with the college band on it, said in answer to a question that she had on a white blouse, and, on being asked “what else?” said: “Well, she had black stockings, and boots or shoes—I think boots.” (In the signed statement the corresponding passage
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THE LIGHT IN THE SALOON.
THE LIGHT IN THE SALOON.
There is one piece of evidence which causes some difficulty in that it suggests that someone was in Ross’s saloon after midnight. It is the evidence of the two Italians who swore that there was a light in the saloon at 10 minutes to 1. There does not appear to be much room for mistake in this evidence, for the Italians said they talked with one another about the unwonted circumstance of the light. There does not appear to be any reason to doubt their honesty, even though they have since shared i
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POINTS THE JURY MISSED.
POINTS THE JURY MISSED.
But even with what they had before them, the mystery still remains how any jury of reasonable men, appreciating the evidence properly, could say that there was no doubt as to Ross’s guilt. Reviewing it as dispassionately as one may, and without comparing it with the evidence for the defence, to be adverted to in a moment, the balance of probability, to say the very least, dips on the side of his innocence. The inherent weakness of the Crown case would remain though not one witness were called fo
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HALLIWELL’S STRANGE STORY.
HALLIWELL’S STRANGE STORY.
Reference has been made more than once to an extraordinary story told by a young man named Percy Halliwell, and as it has gone unchallenged, in circumstances which seemed to call for challenge if it were untrue, it may be given first place in the recital of the fresh facts. Detective Piggott was strong throughout the case in his assertion that Ivy Matthews had never made any statement to the police as to what she could or would say. Literally that was, no doubt, true, but it remains to be seen w
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MADDOX IN THE SALOON.
MADDOX IN THE SALOON.
Another very important thing is now known which was not known on the trial. It concerns Olive Maddox’s visit to the saloon on the afternoon of Friday, December 30, when she is supposed to have seen Alma Tirtschke in the beaded room with a glass before her. (At this time, according to the Harding confession, the little girl was asleep in the cubicle.) Maddox, it will be remembered, said that, when she went into the saloon on that afternoon, at five minutes past 5, there were two girls whom she kn
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OTHER NEW WITNESSES.
OTHER NEW WITNESSES.
There were other persons about the saloon on the Friday afternoon who are equally confident that the little girl was not there. When interrogated by the detectives on the 5th, Ross was asked who was in his wine bar when he came there on December 30, and he mentioned the name of a man named Allen, and a woman whom he did not know, but who, he said, was ordered out of the saloon by Detective Lee. Allen was one of those whom the defence was anxious to call as a new witness. Every effort to locate h
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THE CROWN’S NEW EVIDENCE.
THE CROWN’S NEW EVIDENCE.
When the agitation was on foot for Ross’s reprieve the Attorney-General was reported to have said that he was in possession of evidence which would convict Ross in five minutes. That statement was officially denied, but it was always maintained that the Crown were, after the trial, put in possession of facts which were most damaging against Ross. All that the present writer can say as to that is this, that he was made acquainted with the facts in the possession of the Government, and that those
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ROSS IN THE BOX.
ROSS IN THE BOX.
Ross said that when he got into the saloon at about 2 o’clock on the Friday, he saw there, besides his brother Stanley and others, two men named Albert Allen and Lewis. He did not see Ivy Matthews that afternoon, and had not seen her since a couple of days before his trial for robbery under arms in the November previous. He did see a little girl “answering the description” of Alma Tirtschke. It should be borne in mind, in view of Ross’s dying speech, that that was the furthest he ever went, viz.
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STRONG CORROBORATION.
STRONG CORROBORATION.
Stanley Gordon Ross said that Colin arrived at the saloon about 2 o’clock on Friday, December 30. He remembered Allen being there at the time, sitting in the corner, and Lewis coming in a little after. Ivy Matthews he had not seen that afternoon, and had not spoken to since about eight or ten days before Christmas. No girl answering to the description of Alma Tirtschke was in the saloon that afternoon, or could possibly have been there without him seeing her. His brother was talking at the door
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AN UNBROKEN PHALANX.
AN UNBROKEN PHALANX.
It is needless to set out in detail the evidence called to support the story told by the three foregoing witnesses. Suffice it to say that Tom Ross, Ronald Ross, Gladys Wain, Mrs. Kennedy, Mrs. Kee, Oscar Dawsey, Herbert Studd, James Patterson, F. G. Bradley, Mrs. Tom Ross, Mrs. Linderman, and Miss Alice Ballantyne were all called, and each testified to his or her own portion of the story. There were some persons at Ballantyne’s house on Thursday, January 5, who were not called, for the reason t
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ROSS’S FIRMNESS.
ROSS’S FIRMNESS.
As far as Ross himself is concerned, he not merely stoutly maintained his innocence from the day he was arrested to the day he was hanged, but his conduct and bearing throughout was that of an innocent man. It was not tactful or amiable. It was blustering and bad-tempered, and at times aggressive. But it was, throughout, that of a sullen man, suffering under a sense of wrong. He made a free statement to the police on the day that the body was recovered, admitting that he had seen a girl answerin
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ROSS AND HIS FAMILY.
ROSS AND HIS FAMILY.
Cowards, who have sought to steel their consciences against the effects of Ross’s dying speech, have circulated the story that Ross’s brother begged him, whatever he did, not to make a confession on the scaffold. It is part of the same policy of easing the public conscience as the base and baseless statements about the letters written to Harding before his execution and to Matthews before his trial. The story of the farewell injunction to the brother can be most fittingly described as a dastardl
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IS THE MYSTERY SOLVED?
IS THE MYSTERY SOLVED?
If Ross is innocent, the mystery of the death of Alma Tirtschke remains. It was, however, no part of Ross’s duty to solve it. In this connection it is doubtful whether sufficient attention has been ever paid to the evidence tendered by Joseph Thomas Graham. He is a cab driver by occupation, middle-aged, respectable, intelligent, and thoroughly level-headed. On Friday afternoon, December 30, at about half-past 3, he was in Little Collins Street, nearly opposite the Adam and Eve lodging-house, whe
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APPENDIX.
APPENDIX.
During the progress of the trial numberless letters, anonymous and bearing signatures, were received by Ross’s legal advisers. They were of all classes—helpful criticism, incoherent comment, threatening, laudatory, and censorious. One received on the eve of Ross’s execution, with a covering note asking that it should be handed to him, and saying that it would have been sent direct only the writer had doubts whether the prison regulations would allow Ross to get it, bore on its face some suggesti
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