"Adelaide is a thoroughly modern town, with all the merits and all the defects attaching to novelty. It does not possess the spirit of enterprise to so adventurous a degree as Melbourne, but neither does it approach to the languor of Sydney." - R. Twopeny, 1883

Sunday 27 November 2011

The ghosts of Adelaide Arcade...[part 2]


On Saturday, 27 February 1904, there was a third death at the Adelaide Arcade. Florence Eugena Horton was a 21-year-old married woman with a 3-year-old daughter from a previous relationship. She was strolling down Rundle Street (now Mall) with some friends just past 9 o'clock in the evening when she was shot three times in the back. The shooter was Thomas Horton, her estranged husband, a bootmaker. He was better known as ‘Anglo the Juggler’.

On the night Florence Horton died, she was with two friends, Frances Isabel "Bella" Smith and Nellie Linnett, and they had been walking up and down Rundle Street for about an hour. Tom Horton approached them and tried to coax Florence away from her friends, but she refused. He tried to get Florence to follow him up a side street (Charles Street – opposite the Arcade) to give her a present. She and her friends refused again and headed up Rundle Street towards King William Street. That was when Tom opened fire and Florence was shot three times in the back. He immediately bolted down Charles Street and onto North Terrace. Florence was carried into Mr. Solomon’s tobacconist’s shop in the Arcade, where she “breathed her last”. Her last words, gasped while she was still in Rundle Street, were “My God”. A photograph of Rundle Street with a cross where Florence was shot appeared in The Advertiser on 29 February 1904. She was shot in front of the building to the left to the Arcade, near the fountain.

Florence’s two friends, Nellie Linnett and Bella Smith, were very clear witnesses of Florence’s murder and of Florence and Tom’s volatile marriage. Nellie claimed that Tom would ‘raid’ his wife every night at midnight and that they were separated after only three months. Florence feared for her life and had been threatened by her husband on many occasions. She once hit him after he accused her of being a prostitute and left him after he beat her so badly that she lost consciousness. Florence wrote a letter on 2 February 1904 (less than a month before she was killed) about her abusive husband and accounts of various beatings she received by him. It was kept in the care of Nellie Linnert and The Advertiser published it on 29 February 1904. She wrote it because she feared for her life, and believed she would be killed by Tom Horton:

“[Horton] has threatened me to my face, and my sister, my several friends, who if necessary will gladly appear if anything happens to me. This letter is for the protection of myself and others, who he said he would blame for [my death]. It will be by no other than Mr. Thomas Horton, false name Anglo, the juggler, Chief-street, Brompton, late McLaren-street off Regent Street, Adelaide. This letter will be produced on sudden death. Others will not suffer for him. … He held me down with a knife, but I got away from him. Then he said he would give me an overdose of ether, and go for the police, and swear he found me like it. I hope if anything does happen, and you read this letter, that you won’t bring it in that I am in an unsound mind. Everything I have written is true, and I know what I am doing. I am getting two witnesses to sign this letter as soon as I have written it, and will leave it in the possession of Miss Nellie Linnert, O’Halloran-street off Gilbert-street, Adelaide. Th murdered will be Mr. Thomas Horton, juggler, at present living in McLaren, otherwise Mr. Anglo, off Regent-street, Adelaide. Witnesses – I am, believe me, Mrs. T.F. Horton. In sound mind. 2/2/1904”

A post-mortem examination on Florence’s body took place on 29 February, performed by Dr. A.F. Lynch. Dr. Lynch discovered that Florence would have been unable to “fulfill the active duties of married life”, due to “certain physical conditions”. These “conditions” related to a certain disease and, in Florence’s case, of long-standing. Florence was shot three times, and all shots came from behind. There was a bullet in each of her breasts and another lodged in her spine. Two bullets perforated her right lung and the other went through her heart. Dr. Lynch ascertained that it was the shot through her heart that killed her.

Immediately after the shooting, Tom Horton went into hiding. It was initially believed that he had committed suicide by jumping in the Torrens Lake. However, he was arrested on 29 February 1904 at 3.30pm between Bridgewater and Ambleside [near Balhannah]. His movements between the shooting and his arrest were sketchy but he ended up at his brother-in-law’s house at Queenstown, where the police were notified. He ran away, spent another night at Blackwood and was heading to Bridgewater when he was arrested.

Tom Horton was 24 years old and was married to Julia Chapman (deceased) before marrying Florence Lovell on 5 November 1903. He had three children from his first marriage and Florence had an illegitimate daughter. Horton was reportedly jealous of the father of Florence’s child and believed they were still on ‘affectionate terms’. He and Florence lived together in a house in McLaren Street, Adelaide, but Florence had been with her mother at Rundle Street, Kent Town since separating from her husband and Horton also lived with his mother in Chief Street, Brompton. He was illiterate and had a stutter. He made a living as a bootmaker, although he had been an accomplished juggler (“Anglo the Juggler”) and performed at the Tivoli Theatre in Adelaide. Two of his children from his first marriage were adopted to his stepsister and the other, “a little girl with flaxen hair and laughing blue eyes”, was cared for by his mother.

At the inquest into Florence’s death and the subsequent murder trials, Tom Horton’s family and his own history were placed under great scrutiny. His father had died at the Parkside Lunatic Asylum and his mother had been detained there. Horton suffered heatstroke as a child and had sustained a head injury after falling 13ft from a tree when he was 10 years old. The resident doctor at Parkside (now Glenside), Dr. Cleland, deemed Horton insane and “not able of distinguishing between right and wrong [at the time of the shooting]”. However, three other medical men contradicted Cleland, including the Coroner (Dr. Ramsay Smith), who claimed Horton was malingering.

Thomas Horton was found guilty and sentenced to hang for the murder of Florence Eugena Horton. There was an appeal for life imprisonment, but it was unsuccessful. A special Cabinet meeting on 6 May 1904 sealed his fate – he was to be hanged at the Adelaide Gaol. The last person before Horton to be hanged at Adelaide Gaol was Lollie Kaiser Singh, “an Afghan”. Horton became the first man hanged at the Gaol since Federation, when he met his end on 12 May 1904.

The gaol’s chaplain spent the most time with Horton in his final days and believed him to be “intellectually weak”. He had no knowledge of the Bible (at a time where the Bible was taught in all schools), indicating that he did not attend school as a child. However, Horton spent his last night writing letters to his friends and relatives.

Horton was executed shortly after 9 o’clock in the morning of 12 May 1904. Prior to his execution, Horton was “somewhat pale, but walked with remarkable steadiness to the spot underneath the gallows … He never glanced round and his face was kept turned toward the opposite window, which opened into a sun-bathed world.” He was buried in the gaol’s courtyard, as were all executed men, at 1.30pm on 12 May. His grave was marked with '14 T H' painted on the courtyard wall.

Florence was buried at the West Terrace Cemetery on 1 March 1904 – immediately after the coronial hearing. Although she was shot on Rundle Street and newspaper articles relating to her death referred to the 'Rundle Street Tragedy', she was pronounced dead in Adelaide Arcade. Her child, who was only referred to by her nickname 'Tottie', was cared for by her parents. Her father, Philip Lovell, died in 1907 and her mother, Miriam, died in 1922. 


References:

‘Startling Street Tragedy’, The Register, 29 February 1904, pp. 5-6
‘Murder in Rundle Street’, The Advertiser, 29 February 1904, pp. 5-6
‘The Inquest’, The Advertiser, 1 March 1904, p. 5
‘The Rundle Street Murder: Horton Arrested’, The Advertiser, 1 March 1904, p. 7
‘Horton to be Executed’, The Register, 7 May 1904, p. 6
‘The Rundle Street Tragedy: Execution of Horton’, The Advertiser, 13 May 1904, p. 6

Tuesday 22 November 2011

The ghosts of Adelaide Arcade...[part 1]

Adelaide Arcade in 1886 (and, no, I haven't obtained permission to use this photo...ssshhh)

Adelaide Arcade is a beautiful Victorian shopping arcade with frontages on Rundle Mall and Grenfell Street. It was the first public building in Adelaide to have electric lighting. It opened in December 1885 and, by 1887, had claimed one life. A caretaker, Francis Cluney, died after he fell into a generator. His ghost has long been rumoured to haunt the Arcade at the Grenfell Street end. There have been reports of other ghosts too, and Francis was the first but not the last person to die in the Arcade. Whether of not you believe in ghosts, you have to admit that a building where three people have died (and from accidents and murder) is interesting (or creepy, whatever). The details of the three deaths are extensive, so I will do a separate post for each one. This post is about Sydney Kennedy Byron and 'Madame Kennedy', who are the supposed mother and child who haunt the Arcade. Sydney died on 10 or 11 January 1902, when he was three years old. 

In 1902, Sydney Kennedy Byron lived in the Arcade (the upper level was once apartments for the shopkeepers on the ground floor before being converted into shops in the late 20th century) at shop 11 with his mother, ‘Madame Kennedy’ (her real name was Bridget Lauretta Kennedy Byron), who was a palm reader. Madame and Professor Kennedy advertised as 'intuitive palmists, phrenologists and clairvoyants'. When Sydney was a year old, his parents split up and his father, ‘Professor Kennedy’, took Sydney with him to Tasmania. Mrs. Kennedy used detective to trace her son and recovered him before Christmas 1901 and took him home to Adelaide. During Sydney’s absence, Mrs. Kennedy admitted that she used drugs and alcohol to help her sleep.

On Saturday, 11 January 1902, Mrs. Kennedy’s cleaner, Elizabeth Marshall, arrived at the Arcade at quarter to 7 in the morning to do the cleaning. Mrs. Kennedy’s rooms smelled strongly of gas and Mrs. Marshall found Mrs. Kennedy and Sydney lying on the floor of the dining room. Mrs. Kennedy was roused and gave permission for Mrs. Marshall to open the windows. A pet bird was kept in the dining room in a cage was dead. Sydney’s nanny, a 13-year-old girl named Jeannie Barrett, arrived soon after Mrs. Marshall and was unable to wake ‘Siddie’, who was still lying on the dining room floor. A doctor, Dr. Hines, was called and he confirmed that Sydney had died at half-past seven. The cause of death, after a post-mortem, was ‘poisoning with coal gas’.

Mrs. Kennedy was unable to be interviewed at the time, being dazed and ‘drugged’. Dr. Hines said that she smelled strongly of coal gas, he could smell alcohol on her breath and he supposed she had also taken chlorodyne (laudanum, chloroform and cannabis). In the afternoon of 11 January, Mrs. Kennedy claimed she could not remember what had happened the night before. Dr. Hines admitted that the drugs Mrs. Kennedy took could cause memory loss and she was ‘mentally unhinged’ and not responsible for her actions.

An inquest into Sydney’s death was held a few days later. Mrs. Kennedy was called as a witness. She claimed that Sydney often turned on the gas stoves and he had been beaten for it. However, on 10 January, Mrs. Kennedy had instructed her nursemaid, Jeannie Barrett, to write a letter for her. It read:

“Tired of life; heart broken; husband in Tasmania, with long Ada Brown, called Madame Cleria, aboichest, by trade. Let my baby and myself go to the students to the hospital. Has been connected with Mrs. Brown for about two years. Anything I have left will go to my friend Mrs. William Clarke, Mirtna Charters Tower, insurance money, or any money I have left.”

Jeannie Barrett did not understand the word ‘aboichest’ and Mrs. Kennedy corrected her, meaning ‘abortionist’.
The coroner, Dr. Ramsay Smith, did not believe that by being drunk and drugged meant that Mrs. Kennedy could not be held responsible for her son’s death. As he pointed out, nobody forced the drugs down her throat and she was in control of her actions at the time when she took the drugs. He determined that Sydney’s cause of death was coal gas poisoning, but that it could not be determined who put the gas on. Mrs. Kennedy was sent to trial for murder.

The case, which was sensational – involving an attempted suicide, a wayward husband with an abortionist for a mistress – was very popular in Adelaide at the time. When Mrs. Kennedy appeared at the Adelaide Police Court, the gallery was packed with spectators. The newspaper described it as a ‘sardine tin’. Anyone not directly involved in the case was asked to leave before the charge was read, though. Mrs. Kennedy’s husband sat on the front bench. Bridget Lauretta Byron Kennedy was “daintily attired in light jacket, white gem hat, and dark veil” when the charge of murder was read against her. Witnesses who were called at the coroner’s inquest were also called during the hearing. Dr. Hines did not want to kiss the Bible, as he thought it unsanitary, but was overruled by the court. The case was not heard with a jury and did not go to trial, as it could not be proved that Mrs. Kennedy turned the gas on. She was dismissed.

Eight months later, in August 1902, a dead woman was found in the West Park Lands near the railway line. The body was identified as Bridget Lauretta Byron by her husband. The cause of death was poisoning by either caustic potash or prussic acid, as bottles of both substances were found in her belongings. 

Following the tragedy, 'Professor Kennedy' returned to Adelaide and continued to run his business from shop 11. He was described as a 'lecturer' and briefly had a waxworks display. The Adelaide Arcade Museum is now situated in the Kennedys' apartment.

References:
‘A Child Poisoned’, The Register, 14 January 1902, p. 5
‘The Arcade Tragedy’, The Advertiser, 15 January 1902, p. 5
‘The Arcade Tragedy’, The Register, 18 January 1902, p. 5
‘Death by Poisoning’, The Register, 12 August 1902, p. 4
The Advertiser, 4 February 1908, p. 2

Other Links:


Tuesday 15 November 2011

Christmas Pageant


In honour of last week's Christmas pageant, I thought I'd do a post about, well, the pageant.
The truth is, I don't know that much about it. I've always taken it for granted that it's there, every November, and never really thought that much about it. So it's something I should research (if my interest in it lasts for a fortnight or so...)
I'd like to post a photo but I don't have any and all the State Library photos are under copyright (sorry). You can check them out for yourself on Trove (just search 'John Martin's Christmas Pageant')
Anyway, the first John Martin's Christmas Pageant was held in 1933 and here is a review from The Mail (now the Sunday Mail) for your enjoyment (note the spelling mistake in the first line!):

Xmas Pageant in Adelaide
CROWD ON CITY STREETS


Qaintly-garbed fairytale characters paraded before the people of Adelaide today in a huge Christmas pageant. It ended when Father Christmas stepped from the chimney of a cleverly-made house and passed through a guard of honor into the Magic-Cave at John Martin's. 
The procession, which was half a mile long, traversed Angas, King William, Grenfell and Pulteney Streets, North terrace and Rundle street. Many elaborate floats, containing characters of every description, were included in the display, which was watched by the largest crowd seen in Adelaide since the days of the war. It cost about £1,250, and reflected much credit on its organisers. 
Several bands added harmony to the pageant. About 300 members of the staff of John Martin's took part. All nations, and all the charming people of fairyland, were represented in the colourful scene. After having seen the procession many children went away, filled with the happiest of thoughts. As many as were able worked their way through the enormous crowd in the Magic Cave afterward to chat with Father Christmas.


Reference:
"Xmas Pageant in Adelaide", The Mail, 18 November 1933, p. 14

Monday 7 November 2011

Beginnings...

Well, here it is. My first history post. I figured it was best to start at the beginning, and South Australia’s colonial history begins at a boarding school in Liverpool(!)

Edward Gibbon Wakefield (and dogs), 1840. Photo from SLSA

Anyone who has spent a long weekend holiday in South Australia will know of Port Wakefield Road, and maybe even the town Port Wakefield. There’s also Wakefield Street in the city. So, as well as being the surname of the Sweet Valley twins Jessica and Elizabeth, what’s so special about Wakefield? These places are named in honour of Edward Gibbon Wakefield, a convicted criminal who never set foot in Australia. South Australia is so proud of its ‘no convicts here’ history, so why honour a criminal? Well, the South Australian colony was based on the Wakefieldian theory of systematic colonisation. If you’re still with me, good! It gets better from here, I swear.

In March 1827, Edward Gibbon Wakefield (then aged 31) abducted 15-year-old heiress Ellen (sometimes Ethel) Turner from her boarding school in Liverpool. After telling her that her father was ill, and then that he was a wanted fugitive, Ellen agreed to go with Wakefield to Carlisle, about 10 miles south of the Scottish border. There, she was told by Wakefield’s brother William that her father approved of a marriage between her and Edward. Edward Wakefield and Ellen Turner were married at Gretna Green, just beyond the Scottish border. At the time, the age of consent for girl was twelve, so Ellen was of age. However, the marriage was contested by her family (who soon learned of her abduction and traced the newlyweds to Calais) and Ellen returned to England with her uncle. Edward and his brother, after a lengthy trial, were sentenced to three years’ prison and Ellen and Edward’s marriage was annulled on 15 May 1827.

During his three years at Newgate Prison, Edward Wakefield devised his theory of systematic colonisation. In order to create a free settlement (i.e. no convict labour), land needed to be sold at a good price and the income from the land sales used to support migrants (labourers and their families). Working people who moved to South Australia couldn’t be able to afford land right away, as the colony needed people to work the land (and save their money to one day own a piece of it) who weren’t convicts. Still with me?

Anyway, by 1836, Colonel Light and a group of religious dissenters had decided to make South Australia their home. The people who bought the land (and after whom a lot of the streets in Adelaide are named) were wealthy and middle-class and had climbed as high as they could on the social ladder in England and were able to make a name for themselves in the new colony. As you might know, South Australia faced great hardship in its early years, partly because there weren’t enough working people to sustain the population (no working people means no crops and that means no food and food is sort of vital for survival). But, luckily for South Australia, the Germans arrived and brought the means of growing food and making wine with them (yay!).

So, there you have it. A very basic history of the beginnings of South Australia. Thanks for reading :)

References:

Crisp, Hudson. ‘Planned in Prison, South Australia’s Foundation: Romance of Edward Gibbon Wakefield’, The Mail, 16 July 1927, p. 1 (accessed digitally via trove.nla.gov.au).

Pretty, Graeme L., 'Wakefield, Edward Gibbon (1796–1862)', Australian Dictionary of Biography, National Centre of Biography, Australian National University, http://adb.anu.edu.au/biography/wakefield-edward-gibbon-2763/text3921