Читать книгу Fractured Silence - Emma Curtin - Страница 13

Most of the newspaper reports of Norma’s death had mentioned that she’d been ironing that afternoon, so it’s not surprising that some people considered the likelihood of Norma having had an ‘ironing accident’.

Mr Luhring of Malvern wrote three days after Norma’s death that “it may have happened that the electric iron which is mentioned to have been the last thing the victim had handled had fallen on her head. It sometimes happens that persons when pressing clothes let these drop on the floor and in trying to pick it up she may have struck the table and so cause the fall of the iron or she may have knocked her head against the table when coming up again”.

Miss Margaret Cooper of Hampton had a similar idea: “If the iron was kept on a shelf it may have fallen on her head … Such being the case the undergarment would be accounted for as the room from which the garment was obtained was close to the ironing room”.

Another writer, ‘Sympathetic’, had almost suffered an accident like this herself, but “looked up and was just in time to step back and catch the iron in my two hands, otherwise I would have been hit on the head as Miss McLeod’s injury has been described in the paper”.

Advice was offered to the police about investigating the iron theory: “When Mrs McLeod can be consulted, may one who has had experience of some accidents suggest that you endeavour to ascertain from her, in what position her daughter had placed the iron, if on a high shelf”. It seemed weird to me that someone would bother writing to the police to state the obvious; surely the detectives would know what questions to ask? But so many of these letters read, probably unintentionally, as insults to police intelligence. Did the public really believe the police were too stupid to imagine such scenarios by themselves? Just another reminder of the public belief that the police needed all the help from the community that they could get. And another question I noted to follow up on: What did people think of the police in 1929?

The iron was not the only ‘suspect’ in the accident theory, shelves (and cupboards) also came under suspicion. A St Kilda resident anonymously informed the police that “I knocked my head severely on the frame of the cupboard and was rendered unconscious for some time. Had I not regained consciousness, it would have looked like foul play … Miss McLeod may have been reaching for a golf outfit on the top shelf of a cupboard and may have knocked her head”.

Another St Kilda resident, Miss Emily Bury, was concerned Norma had suffered a similar fate as one she’d experienced (although obviously Miss Bury had survived, a miracle she put down to her short stature). She wrote: “I rose suddenly up under a shelf (close to the corner) and gave myself a bad hurt. I too was alone in the house and caught hold of a towel which was close at hand. My first impulse was to tie my head together – it felt as if it were flying into pieces. I then lay on the bed. I did not become unconscious. I am very short, only an inch or two taller than the shelf, but in the case of a taller person the force of the blow would be greater”.

Another anonymous writer with accident experience questioned, “Was there highly polished lino from her bed to the bathroom? If so the young lady may have taken her shoes off intending to bathe her feet before going to play golf. In stocking feet and probably hurrying she most likely slipped before getting to the bath room and struck her head on the wall”. Like Miss Bury (involved in the shelf incident noted above), this letter writer was lucky enough to stay conscious. But it was not her height that saved her …“I had washed my hair and rolled it in a small towel in the shape of a bun on my head. Otherwise I should not have been able to write this today”.

Another detail in the newspaper accounts of Norma’s death, was her planned golf game. For some readers, this involved an instrument even more potentially dangerous than an iron – a golf club.

Writing from Sydney two days after Norma’s death, ‘X’ wrote: “… as an addict of the game I would suggest the possibility of Miss M probably getting out a golf club and making a few practice swings say perhaps in front of the wardrobe mirror. In the event of the club catching on or being deflected in any way there is a possibility of an accident, especially if she was swinging hard. This has actually occurred to me”. Appreciating that the police may not have found a golf club lying around, ‘X’ added “The golf stick she might easily have slipped back in the bag especially if it was handy”.

But what did police find at the scene and how well did all these theories fit the evidence?