The Western Victorian Association of Historical Societies is about to celebrate its 50th anniversary, and members were searching for a number of missing copies of their journal the 'Western Historian', fortunately the Library was able to photocopy the relevant editions from our collection.
At the same time a number of people are researching a couple of unsolved murders, and are finding the digitised Australian Historic Newspapers on Trove invaluable.
And the unsolved murders?
- Firstly 'The Maryvale Murders' occurred in 1874, when Maria Cook with her young daughter Louisa, and an unknown man & dog were killed near the Sheepwash Reserve on Maryvale Station
- Second 'The Gymbowen Mystery', where ex-schoolteacher, and recently married Mary Tierney was poisoned via strychnine in 1905
- Finally a case with a verdict of suicide, but which "reeked with suspicion" according to the coroner - the death of 'the Gypsy Queen' Olga Toohey aka Olga Johan, at the Apsley Racecourse in 1931.
Gypsy Queen- Marriage of Daughter
ReplyDeleteSpero Johan aka Peter Toohey,the then husband of Olga Johan aka Olga Toohey, married her daughter, Stella Stero on 13 April in Adelaide Reg No 183/327. Was this a possible motive for her demise?
The Gymbowen Mystery- After the Event
ReplyDeleteWilliam Tierney- After the mysterious death of his first wife Mary Meehan in 1905, William then married Louisa Molloy in 1907. Louisa was a daughter of Peter Molloy and Annie Hinkley of Tarrayoukyan . Sadly Louisa died during childbirth in 1909. In 1912 William then married Mary Barrett a daughter of John Barrett and Elizabeth Clarke of Edenhope. They had seven children. William died in 1928 and is buried in an unmarked grave in Goroke Cemetery.
Mary Bertram - After the event the immediate Bertram Family along with some of the extended family relocated to the Ariah Park/Narrandra district in New South Wales. In 1908 Mary Bertram married William John Gerhard, they had 9 children they lived in the Temora area of New South Wales. William John Gerhard died in 1923. In 1939 Mary then married George Frederick Ashton, Mary died in 1972 in Wagga, New South Wales.
The Gypsy Queen- More Headlines 1945/1946
ReplyDeleteIn 1932 Spero (Peter) Johan aka Peter Toohey (former husband of Olga) and his wife, Stella (the daughter of Olga) had a daughter Colleen. In 1941, at the age of 9 Colleen was married to Jimmy Stevenson in Chatswood, New South Wales . In 1945/1946 in Sydney, Spero (Peter), her father, applied to have the marriage annulled, his application failed.
spero is my great great granfather i belive he killed olga he was a violent man and always liked his daughter in laws
DeleteYou may be interested in a new book by Mandy Sayer "Australian gypsies : their secret history" which gives a paragraph to Olga's death, and more on Sperio and the Sterio family.
DeleteAnyone researching the Maryvale murders of Maria Cook and Louisa Jane Sugers can find the complete Inquest on line at PROV in the Inquests and Coroners reports VPRS24/P0000 unit 471 item 1884/831. It consists of 35 pages of witness statements etc and makes interesting reading.
ReplyDeleteYou are correct Susan, many of the details in the "murder in mind?" talks (http://wimmera-w-b-w.blogspot.com.au/2013/08/murder-in-mind.html) used information from those & the police correspondence files.
DeleteHi I am an ancestor of William Tierney's brother. A girl employed to care for William Tierney's elderly mother was charged but acquitted due to lack of evidence. Rumour suggests that william and the girl were either in some kind of relationship or the girl was obsessed with William. William lived in the same house with his mother and the girl for several months before he married Mary.
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ReplyDeleteYes, the girl Mary Bertram was employed in the Tierney house at Spring Banks as you said, and there were the rumours.
I don't know if it's of any interest but William Tierneys next wife also died (in child birth it seems).
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