James Ross was a man with a temper and a jealous streak that would ultimately lead to his death at the end of a noose in the Geelong Gaol. What his wife Mary suffered in their two short years of marriage was horrendous. Ross’ jealousy led to the deaths of his neighbours wife and his…
Read MoreThe story of Edward Fuller and his sister in law Ellen is one of jealousy, infedility and murder. The events of May 1869 in a small house in Noble Street, Chilwell led to the death of one man and set in play a series of events that led to the entire Fuller family ending up…
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In September 1869, a prisoner boldly escaped the Geelong Gaol by changing clothes in a water closet and walking straight out past the Governor’s office. John McHenry or James Clark as he was originally known grew up in the streets of Shoreditch in London. Before coming to Australia he would see the inside of some…
Read MoreIn this episode we have a look into the life and crimes of one of the more cheekier escapes from the Geelong Gaol. John McHenry or James Clark as he was originally known grew up in the streets of Shoreditch in London. Before coming to Australia he would see the inside of some of…
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In October 1865, Elijah Dixon alias Charles Alfred Dives took an axe and murdered his wife, Elizabeth and their two small daughters, Julia aged 3 and Elizabeth aged 1. This all took place in the small bedroom of their hut at Cherry Tree Flat near Sebastopol, just outside Ballarat. The couple’s two sons, James and…
Read MoreIn October 1863, Elijah Dixon alias Charles Alfred Dives took an axe and murdered his wife and two small daughters just outside Ballarat. The couple’s two sons were left alive. What made a husband and father take this course of action – what is jealousy over his belief his wife was being intimate with other…
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On the afternoon of August 21st, 1918, Norman Violet entered the front door of 28 Cumberland Place where his on again off again paramour Roma Smith lived. She was still laying in bed when he told her to get up. When there was no response, he pulled back the quilt to discover Roma had been…
Read MoreOn August 21st, 1918 in a tenement in a low class area of Carlton, the body of Roma Smith was found brutally murdered with her throat cut so severly it broke one of her vertebrae. To this day, the perpertrator of this murder has not been found. Who was it that left this young woman…
Read MoreIn this episode, we look at the first and only public execution in Geelong. Before the passing of the Act for the Execution of Criminals which took executions behind the Gaol walls, the judicial death of criminals were a public event seen to be a deterrent to those following a similar path. John Gunn and…
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