DEATH BY STRYCHNINE & A ‘WILL’ TO FIND JUSTICE

DEATH BY STRYCHNINE & A 'WILL' TO FIND JUSTICE

Mrs Margaret Roche was a hard working, shrewd business woman. She rose from the position of barmaid to become the owner of considerable property. Included were two hotels in Queensland; the Telegraph Hotel at Charleville and the property she lived in, the Claren Hotel, in the small

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JANE SMITH (BAIKIE) THE MURDER TRIALS

JANE SMITH (BAIKIE) THE MURDER TRIALS

For the background to this story, CLICK HERE. Poisoning – ‘Of all felonies, murder is the most horrible, of all murders, poisoning the most detestable, and of all poisoning, that causing a lingering death the most  cruel.’   Chief Justice Sir Edward Coke, 1615 JANE SMITH –

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DEATH AT SEA; ‘I ONLY GAVE HIM PLUMS AND BISCUITS!’

DEATH AT SEA; 'I ONLY GAVE HIM PLUMS AND BISCUITS!'

On February 16 1901,  the S.S. Talune was moored at the wharf in the New Zealand city of Wellington.  It was ready to leave for Sydney.  A young woman who had crossed with the vessel from Lyttleton, in the South Island, approached  chief steward  James Fletcher with

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CONALD PAGETT AND THE BEX POWDER CASE

CONALD PAGETT AND THE BEX POWDER  CASE

THE CONCLUSION OF THE VERA WATT  POISONING CASE. FOR THE FIRST PART, CLICK HERE. When the Coronial Inquest into the death by poisoning of Mrs Vera Watt ended in January 1942. her ex-lover Conald Pagett was committed for trial and remanded in Long Bay Gaol. However, on 

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