The Rookwood murder of William King and his young wife Elsie in 1898 shocked not only Sydney, but the entire colony of NSW.
William King had been manager of the large, Roman Catholic section of Rookwood Cemetery for decades, living there in a quaint cottage surrounded by gardens. The 63 year old was a confirmed bachelor until his friend and employee, Martin Cusack, introduced him to 24 year old Elsie. She had moved with a friend from Melbourne, and knew Cusack’s wife, Margaret. Elsie had lived with the Cusacks when she arrived in Sydney, and it was Martin Cusack who gave her away when she married William King in 1893.
Irish born Martin Cusack.
Two years later, on August 25, the Kings welcomed a little boy, named William for his father. Life was now fuller and happier for the elderly Mr King than he could ever have imagined. He and Elsie were active members of the Catholic church, as were the Cusacks. They were all involved in church fundraising and charity work.
A TRAGEDY UNFOLDS
In March, 1898, the cemetery trustees instructed William King to temporarily retrench Martin Cusack and another man from their positions as gravediggers, due to financial pressures.
Cusack was incensed by his dismissal. The order may have come from higher up, but he saw it as a betrayal by King, due to the close relationship between the two families. On the morning of March 12 he waited for William to leave the house , then shot him multiple times. The body was found soon afterwards by neighbours, in the garden of the cottage.
The body was taken into the bush house adjoining the property and laid among the ferns, for the coroner to view.
A SECOND VICTIM
After murdering his employer, Cusack entered the cottage and shot Elsie King as she lay in bed. Her toddler William was sleeping in a cot beside her. In a later statement the critically wounded Mrs King told of her horrifying ordeal;
‘He said, why did the boss sack me? I told him he had directions from the trustees to do so. He then took a revolver …and said. ‘I will kill you’, and he fired at me and the bullet hit me in the face. He fired four more shots at me; two hit me in the back. I was facing the window. After five or six minutes I thought he had gone, and turned around, when he said, ‘Are you not dead yet? and he fired again. The bullet hit me on the back He left the room then.’ (Sydney Mail, March 18 1895)
Due to the severity of her wounds it was decided that the only safe way to convey Mrs King to hospital was by stretcher. Under the close supervision of Dr. Frederck Furnival she was carried by members of the St John Ambulance Association from Rookwood to St. Joseph’s Hospital in the neighbouring suburb of Auburn. The journey took two hours.
Throughout the ordeal Mrs King was conscious, and full of appreciation for her carers. At St. Joseph’s, her young son was placed in a cot by her bed. She was not expected to live, despite a slim hope that the bullets could be located by using Rontgen rays [x-rays] and removed. Well aware of her desperate situation, she begged to be able to make her will, in which she left everything to her child. Her husband’s life had been insured for £400.
Dr. Frederick Furnival
On May 24 Elsie King lost her battle for life. Her final days had been full of pain. She was buried beside her husband in the Catholic section of the cemetery William had managed for so long.
Gravestone of the victims.
Their little boy was raised by friends.
Thirty six year old Martin Cusack was never brought to justice. He took his own life on the same day he shot Mr and Mrs King. His body was discovered by a young lad near the brickfields at Parramatta several days later. In 191o the small revolver that had taken three lives was reported as being among the exhibits at the Bourke Street Museum of Lethal Weapons.
Source – The Star, June 2 1910
BURIAL OF CUSACK SYDNEY, THURSDAY
The remains of Martin Cusack were interred in the Rookwood Cemetery this morning. The cemetery authorities refused to allow the corpse to be buried in consecrated ground, and consequently the burial took place in an allotment of ground the upper portion of which is set apart for the burial of paupers and the lower portion for murderers and suicides. There was no service, the coffin being simply taken from the hearse and lowered into the grave. (The Argus, March 18 1898.
Cusack left a traumatised wife and five dependant children, including a newborn. They too were innocent victims. The Truth newspaper organised a fund on their behalf and there was one small, but very moving donation.
CUSACK FUND
In response to Truth’s appeal to the charitable for assistance for Mrs Cusack, widow of Martin Cusack, the Rookwood murderer and suicide, we have received and handed to the poor creature the sum of one pound. This was the spontaneous gift of Miss Minnie Evoy, of 25 Foveaux Street, a girl of thirteen, who, touched by the sorrows of the widow, raffled her gold locket among her friends, to raise a little money to assist her and her little children.
Mrs Cusack desires us to thank Miss Evoy, and we carry out her wish with the greatest pleasure. (Truth, Sydney, May 29 1898)
The widowed Margaret never remarried. She died in 1946 aged 92, and also rests in Rookwood.
The friends of Rookwood Cemetery hold tours of this historic necropolis.
