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CONVICTED PRISONER ON THE RUN

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On this day …….. 20th of December 1942

A convict who escaped from Beechworth goal three years ago was arrested in Sydney on this day in 1942. He was charged with breaking and entering and theft of £1000 worth of property. The man, William McEntee, aged 51, escaped from Beechworth prison by scaling a high wall. An old hand at goal-breaking, Beechworth was McEntee’s third prison escape. He had previously got away from Yatala prison, South Australia, and from Ararat goal. After the second escape he was at liberty for nearly 12 months. Regarded as desperate and declared an habitual criminal nine years ago, McEntee disappeared from Beechworth prison just before the midday muster one day in February, 1940. Stealing a bicycle in a street 150 yards from the gaol, he rode out of the township in his prison clothes, and vanished. After hiding for two days and two nights in the scrub to evade capture by armed warders and police, McEntee got away from the district. Last trace of him until his arrest in Sydney was the discovery on a roadside at Tarrawingee of the bicycle he had stolen.

 

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Stabbing Attempt

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ON THIS DAY…… 20th December 1877

A man named Edward Heyward was charged at the Geelong police court on this day in 1877 with attempting to stab another man named George Shipway, on the 17th of November. The prisoner was remanded to the Geelong Gaol.

 

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DOUBLE MURDER CHARGE

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ON THIS DAY – 20th December 1938

George Green, 38, chimney sweep, of West Heidleberg, was committed for trail on a charge of having murdered Annie Wiseman, 62, and her niece. Phyllis Wiseman, 17, at Glenroy on the 12th of November. Charles Anthony Taylor, Government analyst, gave evidence of having found soot on a bicycle pump handed to him by the police. He said he also examined the Wiseman house and articles of clothing. In a room in the house he found a hair 18 in. long on a carpet. The way the hair was embedded in the carpet indicated that a head had been violently moved from side to side on the carpet. He found human bloodstains in the carpet. On a pyjama coat worn by Phyllis Wiseman there were smears of blood and discoloured marks near the neck suggested that she had been stabbed and pulled by a dirty hand. The same type of mark was found on a pink undergarment. Detective-sergeant Sickerdick gave evidence of a conversation he had with Green before Green was charged. Witness said that when questioned Green denied having been near the Wiseman home on the 12th November. He accounted for certain money he had as money from a winning bet. He admitted that he had slept in the open on the Saturday night, but he could not show witness the place. He said he had been drunk, but had been able to ride his bicycle.

 

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Robbed a Shearer

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ON THIS DAY……19th December 1891

A young man named William Trask was brought up on remand on the charge of assaulting and robbing a shearer, named Robert Stewart, of £6 17s. Trask was remanded to the Geelong Gaol for three months.

 

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The Move of Jindabyne

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On this day …….. 19th of December 1964

Town relocated

The town of Jindabyne in NSW, resulted from the earliest settlements in Australia’s Snowy Mountains. It is thought to have come about after the Pendergast brothers, sons of an ex-convict, arrived in the area possibly as early as the 1820s. Sheep farming, wheat and a flour mill gave the town its first start, and more impetus came with the goldrush of the high country, in 1859-1860. It is believed that as new settlers arrived in the district, the town sprang up around a popular crossing of the Snowy River. A general store and post office was established in 1862, followed by a school in 1882 and a police station in 1883. Rainbow trout were released into the Snowy River in 1884, starting the popular tradition of trout fishing in the area.

The construction of new buildings in Jindabyne was banned by the Australian Government in 1960, when it was announced that the town, together with the nearby town of Adaminaby, would be flooded to create Jindabyne Lake, a dam that would feed the proposed Snowy Mountain Hydro-Electric Scheme. Between 1962 and 1964, Jindabyne and Adaminaby were gradually relocated onto higher ground. On this day the 19th of December 1964, “new Jindabyne” was officially opened by Sir Eric Woodward, the Governor of NSW. The dam was completed in 1967, and thousands of hectares of land flooded.

 

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Remanded on Charge of Camp Murder

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ON THIS DAY – December 18, 1954

HALLS GAP

On this day in 1954, Harry Louie Davids aged 37, of the Country Roads Board camp at Hall’s Gap, was remanded at the City Court till December 28, on a charge of murdering Leo Norman Cannard aged 50, C.R.B. camp cook, at Hall’s Gap.

Police gave no formal evidence, and Davids did not ask for bail.

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EGERTON ALLEGED CHILD MURDER

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ON THIS DAY – December 18, 1902

Margaret Thomas, a domestic servant, aged 22 years, was committed for trial at the Gordon Police Court on a charge of murdering her illegitimate child at Egerton on December 18. Evidence was given by Thomas Stevens as to the finding of the body of a child in an outhouse at the Rose Hotel on the morning of December 19, and Mr. Gowan, M.B., who made the post mortem examination, stated that death was duo to suffocation. The accused reserved her defence, and was committed for trial. Bail was allowed in two sureties of £200 each.

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John Gambil Insane

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ON THIS DAY…… 18th December 1901

The prisoner at Geelong Gaol, John Gambil whose name figures upon the gaol records very frequently for disorderly conduct and breaches of gaol discipline, was brought before the visiting magistrates on this day in 1901. Evidence was given by two doctors that the man was Insane. Gambil was committed to the asylum at Kew.

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NEGRO’S DEATH, MURDER CHARGE

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ON THIS DAY – December 18, 1945

YARRA RIVER

Leo Clinton Cartledge aged 23, of George Street, Fitzroy, labourer, was charged with the murder of Raymond Theodore Combs, aged 20 an American negro seaman. He was remanded until January 9. Combs’ body was found in the Yarra at Studley Park on December 24. Police allege that his skull was smashed by blows from beer bottles in an argument at a house at Fitzroy on December 18, and that he was later taken in a cab to the Yarra, where the body was thrown in. A pathologist’s report indicated that Combs was still alive when he entered the water. Combs deserted from a U.S. merchant ship in Melbourne on December 17. Motive for the crime, police say, was robbery.

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PRISONER ON THE RUN

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On this day …….. 18th of December 1891

PRISONER ON THE RUN

On the 18th of December 1891, a group of 11 prisoners were being transferred Melbourne Gaol to Geelong Gaol by train. While at Spencer street station it was noticed that one of the prisoners had escaped. The alarm was raised and the city police with wardens were dispatched, while the remainder of the prisoners were taken to Geelong.

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MYSTERY OF STOLEN CAR

On this day …….. 18th of December 2011

The owner of a station wagon reported stolen from a shopping centre in the Adelaide Hills on the 18th of December 2011. It was found 17 days later, neatly parked in a nearby garage, when a couple returned from a holiday. Police believe the owner forgot to put the handbrake on, leaving the vehicle free to roll though the car park, across a street and down a driveway, before forcing itself under a roller door and coming to a stop inside, while the door closed it’s self.

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LUNATIC ON THE RUN

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On this day …….. 18th of December 1894

An escaped lunatic from the Ararat Asylum, William Price was recaptured at his parents house in Corop, a small town near Bendigo. The police who were on the lookout for Price, escorted him to the Bendigo Hospital. It is believed that after escaping from the Bendigo Hospital he walked home and appeared quite rational. On the 18th of December 1894 at his parents house, Price violently struck his sister over the head with an iron bar, killing her. On the 23rd of December Mr Smith, J.P held an inquest before a jury of five in relation to Miss Prices death, found that she died from paralysis brought on by shock to the nervous system. The body bore traces of smaller injuries, suggesting the deceased had probably been shoved about by her brother. Price was arrested for the murder of his sister, at the time of the arrest he was so violent that he had to be put in a straight jacket. On the 22nd December Price was sent to the Kew Asylum.

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