Page 8 - eMuse Vol.9 No.08

by Athony Hammill

Unsolved murders

Gatton is a bustling town
and the administrative cen- When Evil Came to Gatton
tre for the Lockyer Valley at
the foot of the Toowoomba Victims of the Gatton murders:
Range, and is home to the (Left tor right) Ellen Murphy, aged 18 years,
Gatton Agricultural College. It Michicael Murphy, aged 29 years, and
boasts a lake and parks, one ment with Mr Clarke, a butcher Norah Murphy, aged 27 yeras
just outside of Gatton. He re-
of which includes a monument
to truckies. Its cultural centre sides in a room adjoining the Ellen and Norah, drive to Gat- The community rallies round,
stables near the main house,
comprises a restaurant, art and his duties include carting ton that night in a sulky to at- and over a thousand people at-
gallery, library and busy res- tend a dance. The dance has tend the funeral.
taurant. But as a quiet farming meat to Gatton. He is a loner, been cancelled, the hall locked, Inspector Frederick Charles
and in time Mrs Clarke becomes
community of colonial Queens- and the trio begin the journey Urquhart, late of the Native
land in 1898 it was the scene of fearful of him and his threaten- home. They do not arrive, and Mounted Police (and a bush
ing manner. At night he walks
Australia’s most brutal officially up the hill past the Moran pad- next day a search begins. Their balladist), heads an investiga-
unsolved murder case. bodies are located in a clump of
dock sliprails, smoking. When trees at the far end of Moran’s tion team which includes Detec-
The story begins on 10 De- hailed he fails to respond. paddock on the reverse slope tives Head and Toomey. After a
cember 1898 near Oxley, a sub- On Boxing Night Day does of the hill from Clarke’s. They couple of days Day is raided, in-
urb on the western outskirts have been taken through the terviewed, and strip-searched,
of Brisbane. A teenager, Alfred not attend the fireworks display sliprails, and a good distance but apart from a single scratch,
at Clarke’s, and claims he stayed
Hill, is murdered, shot behind through the timber. Their horse is clean, and remains composed
the right ear with a .38 revolver in his room. Yet witnesses later has been shot in the forehead and cooperative throughout.
claim to have seen him on the
in a paddock, and his pony shot road, one boy saying to his with a .38 revolver, the trio Mr Clarke and Bob King had
in the forehead. The body had bound and bludgeoned with a seen fresh splattered blood
been carefully laid out, and no mother, “That is Clarke’s man”. heavy piece of wood, Michael on Day’s blue jumper (he had
One spoke to the man and clear-
motive is found. The suspect shot behind the right ear, the two) on 27 December, and told
is a swagman wearing a felt ly saw he had a moustache. He women sexually assaulted and him not to wash it, which he
was wearing a felt hat.
hat pulled well down over his the bodies carefully laid out. promptly did. This was not im-
eyes, and carrying a revolver. On Boxing Day members of Norah had been strangled with mediately reported to police.
On 16 December a powerfully- the Murphy family of Tent Hill a leather strap. The initial au- Day buys a razor, no doubt to
built young man calling himself attend the races at Mt Sylvia, topsy takes place at a Gatton shave off his moustache. Day is
Thomas Day takes up employ- and three siblings, Michael, cleared as a suspect due to lack
hotel, recently destroyed by of evidence, and Urquhart’s
fire. The gun was never found.

Inspector Frederick Charles Richard Burgess, an early
The murder scene Urquhart suspect

8 eMuse August 2020