The Murchison Murders were a series of three murders, committed by an itinerant stockman known as "Snowy" Rowles (born John Thomas Smith),[1][2] near the rabbit-proof fence in Western Australia during the early 1930s. Rowles used the murder method that had been suggested by author Arthur Upfield in his then unpublished book The Sands of Windee, in which he described a foolproof way to dispose of a body and thus commit the perfect murder.
Rowles was born in 1905 in North Perth, Western Australia. His original name was John Thomas Smith. Prior to the murders, Rowles served three months in jail for theft.[3]
Upfield's search for a plot
Upfield had already written three novels,[4] 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; there being no 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 along with that of a large animal, sift any metal fragments out of the ashes, dissolve them in acid, pound any remaining bone fragments into dust, then discard the remains into the wind. But Upfield had a problem, as he believed the method was too efficient and would leave his character Bony (a fictional detective) with 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. One day Ritchie met Rowles, whom Upfield also 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 an inspector of the fence, and a 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 said that Rowles knew of the murder method before this date, but the meeting and discussion were later used as evidence in court to prove that Rowles was aware of the method.[5]
Ryan, Lloyd, and Carron disappear
In December 1929, Rowles was in the company of two men, James Ryan and George Lloyd. On 8 December 1929, Rowles, Ryan and Lloyd departed from Camel Station. Several days later, Ritchie arrived at Camel Station. He said he had met a prospector named James Yates. Yates had told Ritchie that he had seen Rowles driving a car; Rowles told Yates that Ryan and Lloyd were walking through the scrub, though Yates did not see them himself.
On Christmas Eve, 1929, Upfield was with a colleague in the small town of Youanmi when he met Rowles, who told him that Ryan had decided to stay in Mount Magnet and had lent him his truck. Rowles later told another person he had purchased Ryan's truck for £80.
A New Zealander named Louis Carron had arrived in the Murchison area in 1929, having come from Perth with a friend. He'd found a job at Wydgee Station. In May 1930, Carron left his work and was seen with Rowles.[6]
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.
Investigation and trial
Carron had kept regular correspondence with his friends, and thus his disappearance was noticed. The area at the time had a large transient population. For a man to appear or disappear from the area was in no way otherwise remarkable.
It was not until police detectives started investigating Carron's disappearance that they learned that Lloyd and Ryan were also missing. Like Carron, they had last been seen in Rowles' company.
Upfield's attempts to find a plot for his novel The Sands of Windee were well known. The detectives soon learned about the method he proposed to hide a murder. They found the remains of Carron's body at the 183-mile (295km) hut on the rabbit-proof fence. Among other items found was a wedding ring that would later be positively linked to Carron by both a New Zealand jeweller and Carron's wife.
Detective-Sergeant Manning was sent to arrest Rowles, and immediately recognised him as John Thomas Smith, a burglary convict who had escaped in 1928 from the local lock-up in Dalwallinu. Rowles was sent back to prison, giving Manning more time to investigate. While awaiting trial, Rowles attempted to commit suicide.[6]
Rowles was tried only for the murder of Carron. Following the murders of Ryan and Lloyd, Rowles is believed to have strictly followed Upfield's fictional method for the disposal of evidence, leaving a total lack of physical evidence that could be used in a court. In the case of Carron, he had omitted one step – destroying all metal remains with acid. Several items which belonged to Carron were found and identified as his.
Carron had assumed a new name, and was previously known as Leslie George Brown.[6] His wife, Mrs. Brown, had attended a jeweller in Auckland to have a wedding ring recut. The jeweller's assistant had accidentally used a 9-carat solder to rejoin the ends of the 18 carat ring. Normally he would have rectified this error but had been too busy to do so. The result was a distinctive mark on the ring from the different-coloured solder, which made the ring unique and identifiable as Carron's. (Upfield used the "mended ring" device in a later novel The New Shoe.)
Evidence was provided to the court regarding Carron's items, Rowles's behaviour, his knowledge of the fictional murder method, and the various lies that Rowles had told about his movements.
There seemed to be no doubt that Rowles had committed three murders. On 19 March 1932, after two hours of deliberation, the jury found him guilty of the wilful murder of Louis Carron.[5] Asked if he had anything to say, Rowles said "Only this. I have been found guilty of a crime that has never been committed."[7] He was sentenced to death.
His attempts to appeal his conviction were rejected. Rowles was hanged at Fremantle Prison on 13 June 1932.[8]
In media
Upfield's novel The Sands of Windee (1931) featured the method for hiding a murder. He later wrote a book about the events related to Rowles' actions, including his being charged and convicted of murder, in his novel The Murchison Murders.
In 1993, author Terry Walker wrote Murder on the Rabbit-Proof Fence, documenting the case.
Earl Derr Biggers was an American novelist and playwright. His novels featuring the fictional Chinese American detective Charlie Chan were adapted into popular films made in the United States and China.
Strong Poison is a 1930 mystery novel by Dorothy L. Sayers, her fifth featuring Lord Peter Wimsey and the first in which Harriet Vane appears.
The Nine Tailors is a 1934 mystery novel by the British writer Dorothy L. Sayers, her ninth featuring Lord Peter Wimsey. The story is set in the Lincolnshire Fens, and revolves around a group of bell-ringers at the local parish church. The book has been described as Sayers' finest literary achievement, although not all critics were convinced by the mode of death, nor by the amount of technical campanology detail included.
European rabbits were first introduced to Australia in the 18th century with the First Fleet, and later became widespread, because of Thomas Austin. Such wild rabbit populations are a serious mammalian pest and invasive species in Australia causing millions of dollars' worth of damage to crops. Their spread may have been enhanced through the emergence of strong crossbreeds.
Rabbit-Proof Fence is a 2002 Australian epic drama film directed and produced by Phillip Noyce. It was based on the 1996 book Follow the Rabbit-Proof Fence by Doris Pilkington Garimara, an Aboriginal Australian author. It is loosely based on the author's mother Molly Craig, aunt Daisy Kadibil, and cousin Gracie, who escaped from the Moore River Native Settlement, north of Perth, Western Australia, to return to their Aboriginal families. They had been removed from their families and placed there in 1931.
Captain Arthur J. M. Hastings, OBE, is a fictional character created by Agatha Christie as the companion-chronicler and best friend of the Belgian detective, Hercule Poirot. He is first introduced in Christie's 1920 novel The Mysterious Affair at Styles and appears as a character in seven other Poirot novels, including the final one Curtain: Poirot's Last Case (1975), along with a play and many short stories. He is also the narrator of several of them.
Who Censored Roger Rabbit? is a fantasy mystery novel written by Gary K. Wolf in 1981. It was later adapted by Disney and Amblin Entertainment into the critically acclaimed 1988 film Who Framed Roger Rabbit.
Freeman Wills Crofts FRSA was an Irish engineer and mystery author, remembered best for the character of Inspector Joseph French.
Selwyn Jepson was an English mystery and detective author and screenwriter. He was the son of the fiction writer Edgar Jepson (1863–1938) and Frieda Holmes, daughter of the musician Henry Holmes. His sister Margaret (1907–2003) was also a novelist and the mother of the author Fay Weldon.
The State Barrier Fence of Western Australia, formerly known as the 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 areas.
Arthur William Upfield was an English-Australian writer, best known for his works of detective fiction featuring Detective Inspector Napoleon "Bony" Bonaparte of the Queensland Police Force, a mixed-race Indigenous Australian. His books were the basis for a 1970s Australian television series entitled Boney, as well as a 1990 telemovie and a 1992 spin-off TV series.
John Farrell MacDonald was an American character actor and director. He played supporting roles and occasional leads. He appeared in over 325 films over a four-decade career from 1911 to 1951, and directed forty-four silent films from 1912 to 1917.
Detective Inspector Napoleon "Bony" Bonaparte is a fictional character created by Australian novelist Arthur Upfield (1890–1964). Bony is a biracial Aboriginal Australian detective with a reputation for solving difficult cases by finding subtle clues. Upfield introduced the character in his 1929 novel The Barrakee Mystery. He published a total of 29 novels, through 1966, featuring this character.
Ripley Under Ground is a 2005 German-British-French crime thriller film directed by Roger Spottiswoode and based on the 1970 second novel in Patricia Highsmith's Tom Ripley series. It stars Barry Pepper as Ripley and features Willem Dafoe, Alan Cumming, and Tom Wilkinson in supporting roles.
Boney is an Australian television series produced by Fauna Productions during 1971 and 1972, featuring James Laurenson in the title role of Detective Inspector Napoleon Bonaparte. Two series, each of thirteen episodes, were filmed.
Youanmi is an abandoned town in the Murchison region of Western Australia.
The Mystery of the 13th Guest is a 1943 American crime/mystery film directed by William Beaudine and released by Monogram Pictures. It is based on Armitage Trail's 1929 novel The 13th Guest and is an updated version of the 1932 film The Thirteenth Guest. The film stars Helen Parrish as a young woman who returns to her grandfather's house 13 years after his death to read his will according to his wishes.
The Sands of Windee (1931) is a novel by Australian writer Arthur Upfield. It was the fourth of the author's novels and the second to feature his recurring character Detective Inspector Napoleon 'Bony' Bonaparte. It was originally published in the UK by Hutchinson in 1931, and subsequently serialised in The Herald in Melbourne in 42 daily instalments between 23 January and 11 March 1932.
Mr. Jelly's Business (1937) is a novel by Australian writer Arthur Upfield. It was the fourth to feature his recurring character Detective Inspector Napoleon 'Bony' Bonaparte. It was originally published in Australia by Angus & Robertson in 1937, after being serialised in the Daily News between December 1932 and January 1933.
Walker, Terry (1993). Murder on the Rabbit Proof Fence: The Strange Case of Arthur Upfield and Snowy Rowles. Western Australia: Hesperian Press. ISBN0-85905-189-7.
Upfield, Arthur (1934). Bernard Cronin (ed.). The Murchison Murders. Sydney, New South Wales: Midget Masterpiece Publishing.
Upfield, Arthur (1931). The Sands of Windee (First publisheded.). London: Hutchinson.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply. Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.
