Murder of R. W. Holmes
p. 13 · Read in the full issue
Extraordinary Sydney Crime
ISLANDS residents will have a personal interest in the amazing “tattooed arm crime,” now attracting so much attention in Sydney.
Reginald William Holmes, who was murdered in Sydney on June 11, was the well-known boat-builder. His father, William Holmes, established the business, and his son carried it on successfully.
They built many boats for the Islands — particularly pearlers.
The whole case is sub judice, and many details, though well-known among the public, may not be published. The following is merely an outline.
A shark was caught off the coast in April and imprisoned in Coogee Aquarium.
Eight days later it vomited, and among the things disgorged was a human arm, bearing tattoo marks. It was identified as the arm of James Smith, who had disappeared.
Smith had been caretaker of a yacht, the “Pathfinder” which was mysteriously sunk off Sydney early in 1934. Holmes and other men were interested in this yacht. Holmes, subsequently, appears to have paid money to Smith, or his wife.
Smith, in April, 1935, went away to fish, at Cronulla, and never returned. Police, after much investigation, charged a man named Brady with his murder. Brady had often visited Smith aboard the “Pathfinder.”
Holmes, two days later, was noticed out on the harbour in a speedboat, bleeding from a bullet wound in the forehead and behaving insanely. A police boat chased him for three hours, before capturing him —a most extraordinary affair.
Holmes afterwards told the police he had been murderously attacked, and had fled to the harbour. He thought the pursuing police were assassins. Holmes made a statement to the police, and was to have been their chief witness at the inquest, which opened on June 12.
Early in the morning of June 12, Holmes was found in his car, with three bullets through his heart. Police identified certain finger-prints on the car. They commenced a search for a certain man.
The inquest on Smith and the trial of Brady, owing to the difficulty of actually proving Smith’s death —no body has been found—are likely to be prolonged.