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 20^th 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

'Ghostly Goings on at Adelaide Arcade' 

Other Links:

Adelaide Arcade