Murder of Nell "Alma" Tirtschke

Nell "Alma" Tirtschke named after her mother was born on 14 March 1909 at a remote mining town in West Australia, Australia. She was the oldest child and in 1911 her father Charles Titchke accepted a position with a mining company in Rhodesia and the family moved there. Soon after in 1912, her little sister Viola was born. During Nell's third pregnancy she died and Charles unable to take care of his daughters full time sent them to their grandparents. The whole family helped raise the two girls.
By 1921 Henry, Alma's, and Viola's grandfather died and the grandmother took all parental duties. Alma was described as shy, studious, and well behaved and excelled in her studies. Her grandmother raised the two girls and was a strict disciplinarian and would restrict the girls from social activities with other students this could have been the reason why Alama was shy and didn't make friends readily. Alma was also described as having soft speech and a soft manner.

On the afternoon of 30 December 1921, 12-year-old Alma was sent on an errand by an aunt. She was supposed to get a package of meat from her uncle's butcher shop in Swanston St. Melbourne and deliver it to a customer on Collin's street. It wasn't supposed to take more than 15 minutes and Alma was typically fast with her errands.

When Alma didn't return her family began to worry because they knew she was reliable and responsible. She was reported missing and the family and police searched for the girl through the night. It wasn't until early the next morning that her nude body was found in Gun Alley a laneway off of Little Collins Street. The poor girl had been raped and strangled to death.

She was last seen alive between 2:30 and 3:00 p.m. at the corner of Alfred Place and Little Collin Streets close to where her body had been found. Among the men interviewed about the murder was 29-year-old Collin Ross, a saloon manager, and was seen with a girl matching Alam's description that day outside his saloon.

Collin was known by the police and had recently been acquitted in the shooting and robbery of his customers.  He claimed that he had been tending the bar the whole night and had not killed the girl. He nominated several witnesses who did see him tend the bar that night. Police were convinced it was him, he was arrested on 12 Jan. 1922.

Even though police were convinced of him being the murderer family members of Alma didn't believe it to be him. Collin had, throughout the trial, claimed innocence. The trial then began on 20 Feb. John Harding who was previously found of perjury was in jail with Collin. He testified against Collin and claimed that Collin made a confession to killing the girl.

A detective noticed several strands of blonde hair on a blanket inside of Collin's home. Alma's hair was compared to the blanket's and Charles Price a trained chemist looked at the hairs and claimed they came from the same person. This helped lead to a conviction against Collin. He was sentenced to death on April 24, 1922 by hanging

 In 2008 hairs that were claimed to have come from Alma were tested. It was found that those hairs did not belong to the girl and the man who claimed Collin made a jailhouse confession had been subject to perjury and it's possible he lied about the confession. Collin has been pardoned for Alma's murder. It's unknown who had attacked and killed the young girl.

Collin Campbell Ross

SOURCES:
Murderpedia

Wikipedia

Murder of Chrissie Clare Venn

On Feb. 20, 1921, around 5 p.m. 13-year-old Chrissie Venn left her home on Allison Road in North Motton, Tasmania, Australia. She was going to run some errands and it was only 3 miles away. She didn't return home and this worried her family. A search was had, but she wasn't found till March 1st in a tree stump that was close to Allison rd, which she used to walk into town.

There are two different stories of how she was found and the condition of her body. Her body was either mutilated and left in a hollow tree stump or she was suffocated or stranged with no mutilation. She was half-dressed and seemed to have been sexually assaulted. One source states that twine used for hay bailing was tied around her neck and her mouth was stuffed with pieces of cloth from her dress, and the cloth had a gold pin attached to it.

It's believed that she may have died sometime on Feb 26th.

Former police officer and minor, George William King, was tried for the crime. He had cuts on his hands that made him suspicious. He claimed his hands were cut up due to a log falling on them while searching for Chrissie. The trial started on August 21 of the same year and was done in Hobart. Albert Ogilvie defended him and William was found not guilty.

It's believed that Chrissie haunts the road she was killed on.

SOURCES:
Find a Grave
Daily Herald
Examiner
Revolvy
Wikipedia
Press Reader

Murder of Bertha Schippan

A photograph of the Schippan family, with Matthes (second from left) and Mary (to his right), Bertha is not in the photo.  

The Schippan family was a German immigrant family living in Towitta, South Australia, Australia. They were living in a small German farming community. Among the family was 13-year-old Johanne who went by Bertha and 24/25-year-old Mary.

Their parents Mattes and Johanne left on the day of  Jan. 1, 1902 to travel to Eden Valley that was 20 km away. They left the younger children to be watched by their oldest daughter Mary. By 8 p.m. that night both girls went to bed in the cottage while the boys slept in a galvanized iron room connected to a farm shed.

Around 10 p.m. Mary awoke to something heavy on her chest. She claimed that it was a bearded man that was on top of her. She was able to break free and run to the farm shed her brothers were sleeping in.

She told them of the man and she sent one of the boys to a neighbor for help. Bertha was still in the house with the man. The neighbor the boy ran to declined to help the family so he had to run 1 km to the house of Constable Lambert. When they returned they found Bertha laying in a puddle of her own blood. She didn't get to make it to her 14th birthday that was only 15 days away.

There was no bearded man in the home. There was also no evidence of anyone breaking in to harm the girls. So the police did not believe Mary's story of what had happened that night and two months later she was put on trial.

The evidence against Mary was circumstantial. She pleaded not guilty. Prosecutors brought up the fact that Mary and 21-year-old Gustave Nitschke had been in a secret relationship for the last year. They believed Bertha knew of the relationship and threatened to tell their father. Who was described as a nasty piece of work. They believed it was possible that Gustave could have also helped with the murder, but there was no evidence.

Some believed that their father was the perpetrator of the crime. He was a mean man. He once fired a shotgun at a Nitschke boy leaving the boy to pick pellets out of his leg. But it wasn't possible with the time to travel that far by horse and be where he was that day.

Mary eventually came back to town and was known as the grey lady. She would wear a grey dress and bonnet when walking around town. She would keep her head down and didn't talk to anyone. She would eventually die in 1919 from tuberculosis

It isn't for sure known who the murderer was. Maybe it was a member of the family, but maybe there was an unknown perpetrator. Maybe Mary was able to escape a terrible fate and was left to be called a liar. No one will ever really know what happened in the home that New Years Day.


SOURCES:
Wikipedia
ABC
Find a Grave

The Gatton Tragedy: Murder of the Murphy Siblings

Norah              Michael                Ellen

On the night of December 26, 1898, around 8 p.m. 27-year-old Norah, 18-year-old Ellen, and 29-year-old Michael Murphy left their home at Black Fellow's Creek outside of Gatton, Australia in a two-wheeled cart. Michael was driving his sisters to a dance held at the Gatton Divisional Hall and hoped to arrive by 9.  

The trio didn't know that the dance was to be canceled due to the lack of female attendance. They arrived and realized it had been canceled and headed back home. But they were to never return. 

Their mother had gotten worried and knew something was off. She sent her son-in-law William McNeil into Gatton to see why the siblings didn't return. That morning he found them after following his Sulky's distinctive track marks (due to a wobbly wheel) on the road. He followed them and found their bodies in a horrifying sight.  The police were soon contacted. 

The scene was marked off, but townspeople hearing of the murders came to the scene. It was contaminated by onlookers. The bodies were brought to a local hotel for autopsy. 

At the scene, Ellen and Michael were laying back to back while Norah lay a few yards away on a neatly spread rug. The girls had them hands tied behind their backs with handkerchiefs. Micheal had been both beaten and shot to death. He may have had his hands tied together at one point.The girls had been sexually assaulted and then they were beaten to death. Norah may have also been strangled. Nora had a hames strap tightly wrapped around her neck. Their horse had been shot and killed and 15 shillings were missing from Michaels purse. His purse was in his hand and a breeching strap nearby. 

Some suspected maybe they were killed by family members or they had been killed by a local priest as someone heard a woman screaming "father" that night. But the police believed that it may have been a transient who was in the area who killed the three.

They had two main suspects one was man name Richard Burgess, but he had a solid alibi and the other was a man named Thomas Day. Thomas's hut was near the scene and someone claimed to see him wash the blood from a pullover days later. But there was no clear evidence of who the murderer or murders were. No one was charged with this case and will remain unsolved. 

SOURCES:

Wikipedia
Gatton Murders
Western Mail
Daily News
Huff Post

Murder of Agnes, Maude, Eddie, Dorrie, Hughie, and Winnie Ching

27-year-old George David Silva who was of Cingalese decent was working as a farmhand for Charles Ching at Alligator Creek about 20 miles away from Mackay, Queensland, Australia. On November 16, 1911, Charles was away from the home at the time for supplies and money for George's wages. The three oldest children Florence, Henry and Henrietta were not living in the home at the time.

Maud (17) the daughter of Charles and Agnes (45) rejected George's advances. This angered George and went after the family. He shot Agnes and Maude in the neck with a revolver and a muzzle-loading rifle. He had beaten Hughie (5) and Winnie's (1) skulls in.  He dragged the bodies to the sitting room and placed them by a colored table and a table cloth placed on top of them.

He then took Dolly (8) and Teddy (10) away from the home and was witnessed by Grace Carey a schoolgirl who would walk home with the Ching Children. Once they got a mile and 1/2 he had shot and bashed both of their skulls in.

After the murder, he locked the door and waited for Charles. He told him that the family went to visit a neighbor and George and Charles had made dinner together in the kitchen house.  When his family didn't return Charles went to the neighbor he thought they were at. The neighbor stated they weren't there and to open a window for access to the house. So George and Charles did just that. Inside he found four members of his family dead. Two of the children were still missing.

George went to get the police and was carrying the bloody clothes that he wore during the attack. On the way, he burned the clothes, but they were later found.

George had tried to pass the blame to two neighbors named Dooley Khan and Charles Butler. There was no evidence to support that the two had killed the family. But after fearing a lynch mob would go after him, either way, he confessed to killing the family. He stated that Agnes wouldn't let him marry Maude.

George was found guilty and was executed on June 10, 1912. He was hanged at Boggo Road Gaol in Brisbane. 

SOURCES:

Murderpedia

Murder of Evelyn Mary Maughan

Mug Shot of Fredrick Thompson

On the morning of 8 July 1945, 8-year-old Evelyn Maughan left her home On Goulburn Street Hobart, Tasmania, Australia. She was walking alone was supposed to go to church like she did most Sundays. She never was seen again after this. Her family worried reported the girl missing and searches for the girl was done, but she wasn't found until three months later.

On 5 October by  Edmund Charles Mead at the Queensborough Cemetery Sandy Bay. He was looking for his father's grave when he found Evelyn's body covered with sticks. He automatically went to the nearest public phone box and called the police. Eveleyn's uncle Jack was sent to identify the body, and it was her.


Evelyn had been bound and fully clothed. It wasn't for sure what her cause of death was or if she had been sexually assaulted. Strips of a blanket were found wrapped around the girl, and her hands had been tied, a khaki handkerchief was tightly tied around the girl's neck and is believed to be what killed her.

Mrs. Dorothy Adele Lewis claimed to have been looking out her window on July 8. She said she saw a young man cross Collins-Street with a bath on his shoulder with what looked like a child covered with a blanket inside. A Few minutes later he returned walking in a hurry and it appeared that a wooden toy was in the bath. He was later identified to be Fredrick Thompson.

A few days after Evelyn's body was discovered 31-year-old Fredrick Thompson was arrested and charged with her murder. In his home, they found strips of blanket similar to what tied Evelyn up. Fredrick's wife also suspected him asking him and his friend if they had heard of the missing girl. Another woman saw Fredrick at the cemetery gate that Evelyn was found in.

Fredrick maintained his innocence throughout the trial and never seemed upset during it. It took less than two hours to get a guilty verdict. He was hanged at 6 a.m. on 14 Feb. 1946 and was the last man executed in Tasmania. It's never been revealed what had happened to Evelyn and some suspected that Fredrick didn't kill the girl on his own and had an accomplice.

SOURCES:
Find a Grave (Evelyn Mary Maughan)
Find A Grave (Fredrick Henry Thompson)
ABC
The Mercury
The Age (08 October 1945)
The Age (12 December 1945)
The Age (18 December 1945)

MISSING: Patricia Daphne Brown

At 8:30 a.m. on 4 June 1953, Broun left her home in Mount Lawley suburb of Perth, West Australia, Australia that she shared with her family.  She was heading for work at HC Griffin, ANA House, 22 St. Georges Terrace, Perth. She worked as a shorthand typist there. While at work she got a phone call from an unidentified male around 3 p.m. Towards the end of the call she agreed to meet the man at 6. A coworker overheard her phone call. 

At 4:30 Patricia asked to leave early and it was permitted. She caught a trolley bus to Mount Lawley. At 5 she then was at Simmon's Grocery store at 291 Walcott St. in North Perth and bought a can of Coca Cola. She then left the store and went to Osborne's, a corner store at the intersection of Walcott and Cliveden Streets. She then returned to Simmon's around 5:45 and under her arm, she was carrying a parcel approximately 8"x9"x3" (20cm x 22cm x 8cm) in size. She was last seen around Walcott St. at 6. Possible the man she was supposed to see was in this area. 

A friend stated that Patricia told her she was 2 months pregnant. It's unknown if the man she was talking to on the phone was the baby's father. Her parents weren't aware of this and were quite religious. If she ran away her child would have been born in late 1953 or early 1954.

Patricia is a white female and was 17 at the time. She's 5'5" (165 cm) and has a thin build. She has fair to light brown hair and large blue eyes. She was described as having a fair complexion with a faint chickenpox mark towards the middle of her forehead just above her right eyebrow. She was soft-spoken and inclined to drop the g off the end of relevant words. She may be pregnant.

SOURCES:

West Australia Crime Stoppers

Mirror

Sunday Times