German Ada could have been saved from a fatal beating at the hands of James Gardner on the night of 21 August 1883. A neighbour heard her screams as a stammering man threatened her, and went to find the nearest police officer. This constable, on being told that violence was occurring at an address in Archer Street, dismissed the report as just another row in a house of ill-fame, and did not follow it up. No one intervened, and Ada died from her injuries.
Ada Gardner (nee Muller) was 28 years old and had worked as a prostitute in Brisbane and lately in Rockhampton. She lived in a house popularly called the One Gun Battery (it had been the Three Gun Battery when it was built, but the two adjoining houses been removed). The One Gun Battery was Ada’s home and place of business. At times, another girl, Eliza Sandover, lived with Ada and her de facto husband James Gardner.
James Gardner, also known as James McMahon, was 19 years old and had lived with (and off) German Ada for two years. Originally from Aberdeen, Gardner had a distinctive voice, with a severe stammer. When he did work, he would do a shift or two driving a hansom cab.
James and Ada drank heavily, and friends and associates knew that James would beat Ada when he was in his cups. Eliza Sandover recalled the drunken rows and beatings that went on. Gardner, drunk himself, would beat Ada for her drinking, and hold her down to kick her. Eliza remembered that Gardner would knock the toes out of his boots, so viciously would he kick Ada. Four days before Eliza decided to leave the Battery, she heard Gardner say “I will kill you; I will swing for you” as he beat Ada.
Monday 21 August 1883
At one am on Tuesday 21 August 1883, a carpenter named Hugh Chisolm woke suddenly. He could hear a woman screaming “murder, murder”. It seemed to be coming from the house in Archer Street, about 80 yards away. He knew the house and knew Ada Gardner by sight. Hugh felt that this sounded serious and decided the best course of action would be to find the nearest Police Officer. There were no telephones in Rockhampton in 1883 – the first exchange was still a year away – so Chisholm set out on foot to find a patrolman.
As Hugh Chisholm went past the Archer Street house on his search, he heard a man say, with a distinctive stammer, ” Will you speak now, no, not now, you-,” followed by a sound that seemed like a body thumping against a wall.
Chisholm located Constable McCaffery near the Queen’s Hotel and told him what he had heard. McCaffery, he felt, treated the matter “quite jocularly”. Civic duty done, Chisholm went home to bed, hearing no more from the Archer Street house. Perhaps the Constable had been, after all.
That morning, Thomas Jones, the proprietor of the Cosmopolitan Hotel in Archer street, noticed that German Ada did not come in for her regular 7 am drink. That was unusual – she never missed a day, and she’d left his bar at 10:30 the previous night, quite sober. Ada had been complaining of late about James Gardner beating and ill-using her. She once asked Thomas Jones for shelter and a bed, but he said no, thinking of the type of people German Ada would attract if she was in residence.
About 5 that afternoon, Thomas Ingham, the chemist and druggist on East Street, had a visit from James Gardner, asking for a bottle of physic for someone who was sick with the gripes. Ingham was busy at the time, so Gardner returned at 6pm for the bottle of medicine – a mixture composed of laudanum two drachms, spirits of nitre half an ounce, about an ounce of tincture of rhubarb, and filled up with peppermint water, a tablespoonful to be given every 4 hours.
Senior Sergeant David Graham was on duty at the Rockhampton Police Barracks at 7:40 pm that day, when James Gardner came in and reported, ” Ada, the little prostitute I was living with is dead.” Gardner claimed to have returned home from work at 6 pm to find Ada unwell, then went to the chemist to get her some medicine, but when he got home, he found her dead. She was black and blue, he added, because he had given her a beating on Monday night.
Gardner was not arrested – it was just a sudden death until they had further evidence. Senior Sergeant Graham took Constable Cahill and went to the Archer Street house, where he found Ada Gardner dead in bed in the front room. Cahill went for a doctor. The body was quite cold.
The police took stock of the room. There was blood on the bedsheets, on the quilt, on Ada’s chemise and petticoats and on a handkerchief under a looking glass. Doctor Harricks arrived to perform an examination and found bruises and contusions. He estimated that Ada had been dead for at least five hours. Something was seriously amiss with James Gardner’s story of finding her unwell at 6 pm. Doctor Harricks asked the Police Magistrate to order a post-mortem after the inquest opened the next day.
At 11 pm, Detective Arthur Clarke, apprised of the evening’s developments, found James Gardner at the cabstand in East Street, and asked him some questions about Ada. Gardner told him that he and Ada had parted ways at the Cosmopolitan Hotel about 11:30pm the previous night. He did some driving, and then asked after her at the Hotel after midnight, only to be told she’d gone home. He went to her house, but the lights weren’t on, so he slept the night in the No. 9 hansom cab.
Gardner described seeing Ada the next morning at 6 for a drink. She was her normal self but complained of lightness in the head. Gardner said he left to go to work, then returned to Ada’s house at 5 pm, and found that she still had a little light-headedness, and a slight case of the gripes. Detective Clarke asked Gardner if he noticed any bruises on Ada, received a vague reply about some marks on her face. That was enough for Clarke- he arrested Gardner for Ada’s murder there and then.
Tuesday 22 August 1883
An inquest was held on the body at the house in Archer Street. Hugh Chisholm was called up to formally identify Ada Gardner before her body was taken to the Hospital for a post-mortem examination.
The post-mortem showed how badly German Ada had suffered. The official cause of death was a rupture of the liver, caused by a blow that left a large tear in it. There was bruising all over her head and body. The police seized James Gardner’s boots to compare them with the abrasions on Ada’s body, particularly the ones just above her groin and on her scalp. A second opinion from Dr Poland confirmed that kicks from boots like Gardener’s could have caused Ada’s bruising.
Wednesday 23 August 1883
The committal hearing of James Gardner would commence shortly at the Rockhampton Courthouse, and Hugh Chisholm was being called to give evidence about what he had seen and heard that night. Detective Clarke remembered Hugh Chisholm’s statement about hearing a man with a distinctive stammer when he passed Ada’s house on his way to find a constable. Clarke was feeling creative and brought Hugh Chisholm to the lock-up where Gardner was being held. Chisholm had not been told that there had been an arrest in the case – he was just told to listen to a voice. Keeping the witness quiet and out of sight of the prisoner, Clarke asked Gardner how he slept the previous night. The prisoner replied “All right. It was cold last night,” in a very distinctive stammer. Chisholm identified the voice as belonging to the man he had heard at Ada Gardner’s place that night.
Monday 03 September 1883
James Gardner was committed to take his trial for murder at the next sittings of the Supreme Court in Rockhampton. The committal hearing gave him a chance to hear the evidence against him and ask questions of witnesses. His attempts to minimise his guilt backfired. He queried Thomas Ingham the chemist on the time of his visit, saying it was much earlier, but Ingham was insistent – he had noted the time of the visit. Gardner queried the statement he was alleged to have given to Senior Sergeant Graham. Graham had not read out the part about Gardner having beaten Ada on Monday night. Gardner managed to bring it out in the hearing by pointing out that Graham had left out that part, and then trying to correct it to “It was Monday night previous to Ada’s death that I gave her a clip”. That failed.
Gardner called a witness for his defence, John Schwarten, a local baker who did not add anything to the case by saying “we do not take much notice of rows there, because they happen often.”
Thursday 20 September 1883
The Court system worked surprisingly quickly. The Supreme Court held sittings in Rockhampton, and the Attorney-General came to town to prosecute James Gardner, who was not represented. His Honour, Justice Pring, asked if there was any member of the legal profession present who could appear for the prisoner, a very young man on trial for his life. The Attorney-General had no objection and sent out for someone to come to the Court. A barrister named Mr Feez was located, and another gentleman who was in Court offered to help instruct Mr Feez as the prosecution made its case.
The Attorney-General opened by castigating Constable McCaffery, who had not gone to the house in Archer street on the night of 21 August 1883. At best he could have saved Ada, at the very least he could have apprehended the prisoner and made sure no miscarriage of justice took place.
The witnesses from the committal gave their evidence. Mr Feez queried why Hugh Chisholm had not gone to the deceased’s house himself. Hugh Chisholm said that it was not his place, he thought a murder was happening and it was proper to get a policeman. Mr Feez then questioned the voice identification, but Chisholm was able to say that he had heard the voice three times in his life – once, on the night of the murder, then at the lock-up and that very day in Court.
No witnesses were called for the defence, and Mr Feez summed up by imploring the jury to acquit if they had any doubts about the voice identification and the boot marks. There was the question of manslaughter, he started to say, but Justice Pring thundered down from the bench that no evidence had been called relating to manslaughter, and it was not up for debate. This stopped Mr Feez in his tracks, and he repeated that if the jury had any doubts, the defendant must be given the benefit of them. Considering that he’d been called into Court mid-morning, with no preparation, and conducted the defence a capital murder case by his wits, he’d done his best.
Justice Pring summed up and informed the Attorney-General that if he had not already reported Constable McCaffery to the Police Commissioner for dereliction of duty, Justice Pring certainly would.
The jury took 10 minutes to find James Gardner guilty. When asked if he had anything to say to the verdict, Gardner stammered out that he had nothing to say.
James Gardner alias McMahon, you have been found guilty of the murder of Ada Gardner on evidence of the clearest character to my mind. Your previous character appears to be unknown, but for the last two years you have lived on the wages of sin. You, a strong lad of nineteen years of age, have during that time lived on prostitution, and you are likely to end your career soon. The woman with whom you lived was an unfortunate girl, though she was a prostitute. Living on the terms you did you should have protected her. You have still some weeks left in mourning for her, for I cannot hold out the slightest hopes of mercy for you. I trust you will employ that time in a repentant spirit and that you will learn that which one and all hope for when we leave this world probably better men than you.
Justice Pring’s Statement to the Defendant.
The following day, Hugh Chisholm handed over his conduct money as a prosecution witness to the Ladies’ Benevolent Society.
Tuesday 25 September 1883
The Steamer Leichhardt arrived at Brisbane with James Gardner and two indigenous men also under sentence of death. Jango had been found guilty of the murder of a white woman in July that year, and George of an indecent assault on a 12-year-old girl in August. The press waiting for the steamer were most impressed by Jango – an 18-year-old who was fluent in English and singularly intelligent. Of James Gardner, it was said he “assumed a swaggering air of bravado and seemed utterly insensible to the ignominy of his position”.
Monday 08 October 1883
The clemency pleas of George, Jango and James Gardner were rejected by the Executive Council. George and Jango were unmoved – they had nothing to hope for from white men – but James Gardner was upset. After the apparent indifference he showed on his arrival at Brisbane, things had suddenly become very real.
Tuesday 16 October 1883
James Gardner was executed by hanging at Brisbane Gaol. He was visibly distressed on the scaffold, and accepted that he had caused German Ada’s death, but it was the drink that made him do it. Mr Muller, German Ada’s father, obtained special permission to witness the execution. He may not have been able to save Ada from herself while she lived, but at least he could see her killer pay the penalty.
Ada Gardner is buried at the South Rockhampton Cemetery, Row B, Burial 81. Her headstone maker has her name and age at death (28).
James Gardner alias McMahon is buried in the South Brisbane Cemetery, Plot 6B. Memorial ID: 48740271.
Women still die at the hands of their partners with appalling regularity.
Sources:
Brisbane Courier (Qld.: 1864 – 1933), Thursday 11 April 1878, page 3
Telegraph (Brisbane, Qld.: 1872 – 1947), Thursday 4 July 1878, page 3
Brisbane Courier (Qld.: 1864 – 1933), Saturday 16 November 1878, page 5
Brisbane Courier (Qld.: 1864 – 1933), Wednesday 7 July 1880, page 2
Morning Bulletin (Rockhampton, Qld.: 1878 – 1954), Thursday 23 August 1883, page 2
Brisbane Courier (Qld.: 1864 – 1933), Friday 24 August 1883, page 5
Morning Bulletin (Rockhampton, Qld.: 1878 – 1954), Friday 24 August 1883, page 2
Morning Bulletin (Rockhampton, Qld.: 1878 – 1954), Saturday 25 August 1883, page 2
Darling Downs Gazette (Qld.: 1881 – 1922), Monday 27 August 1883, page 3
Maryborough Chronicle, Wide Bay and Burnett Advertiser (Qld.: 1860 – 1947), Saturday 1 September 1883, page 2
Queensland Figaro (Brisbane, Qld.: 1883 – 1885), Saturday 1 September 1883, page 6
Morning Bulletin (Rockhampton, Qld.: 1878 – 1954), Monday 3 September 1883, page 2
Morning Bulletin (Rockhampton, Qld.: 1878 – 1954), Thursday 20 September 1883, page 2
Morning Bulletin (Rockhampton, Qld.: 1878 – 1954), Friday 21 September 1883, page 2
Brisbane Courier (Qld.: 1864 – 1933), Tuesday 25 September 1883, page 4
Morning Bulletin (Rockhampton, Qld.: 1878 – 1954), Monday 8 October 1883, page 3
Morning Bulletin (Rockhampton, Qld.: 1878 – 1954), Tuesday 16 October 1883, page 3
Nina Kleinhoder and Geraldine Mate, 2010: “The Telephone in Queensland”; Queensland Historical Atlas [online], QHatlas.com.au
Queensland State Archives, Item ID 2947 Photographic material: Digital image ID:17243 “Photographic record, description and Criminal History of James Gardner, alias James McMahon, 24 September 1883.”
Other illustrations: Wikipedia.
Findagrave.com Memorials.
Moreton Bay and More 