Author Topic: Town Hall Ghost: Midland: WA  (Read 2507 times)

Offline KANACKI

  • Senior Contributor
  • *****
  • Posts: 4353
  • Kanacki ceisiwr o'r ateb
Town Hall Ghost: Midland: WA
« on: December 06, 2020, 10:28:59 PM »
Can a brutally murdered soul refuse to pass over the other side?

Officially opened in 1907, the Midland Town Hall is believed to be one of the most haunted buildings in its region. The hall was used as Council Chambers in the 1950s before the 1968 Meckering earthquake hit and restorations were required. Approximately $3 million in Government funding was spent on restoring the building, which officially reopened with a Mayoral Ball in 2000.

Midland is believed to be haunted by the ghost of 33-year-old Daria Mulawa, who was brutally murdered on the steps of the town hall in 1955. Daria was stabbed 11 times by her ex-husband after she gained a separation order from him. Her ex-husband Mychajlo was charged for willful murder and sentenced to death at Fremantle Prison.

65 years on, Daria’s spirit is believed to live on in the Midland Town Hall.

Does she still haunt the building?

To be continued....

Kanacki

Offline KANACKI

  • Senior Contributor
  • *****
  • Posts: 4353
  • Kanacki ceisiwr o'r ateb
Re: Town Hall Ghost: Midland: WA
« Reply #1 on: December 18, 2020, 02:28:08 PM »
More on the tragedy that took place in 1955.

Domestic violence is not a modern problem. It has happened time and time again.

The following newspaper Mirror (Perth, WA : 1921 - 1956), Saturday 25 June 1955, page 5 reported on the tragic murder.

Late yesterday 37-year-old laborer Mychaljo Mulawa joined two other prisoners in Fremantle's 'Death Row.' After a retirement of 50 minutes a jury in the Perth Criminal Court unanimously found him guilty of the wilful murder of his attractive 32-year-old wife, Daria, on the staircase of the Midland Town Hall on the morning of April 16 last.

Mulawa represented by Messrs. C. B. Gibson and J. R. Huelin, had pleaded not guilty to the charge— a plea of guilty is never accepted by the Crown in a capital charge. And when the jury filed back into court after a three-day hearing, to return the verdict, Mul-lawa, who had signs of severe emotional strains during the proceedings, stood stiffly to attention in the dock, did not turn a hair as verdict and the judge's sentence was conveyed to him through an interpreter.

Then he stepped smartly down the steps from the dock to the cells below to be taken back to Fremantle Prison where he will join in the condemned cells two other prisoners who have been sentenced to death for the murder of police constables. The crime for which Mulawa, Ukranian, was convicted, related to incidents on the stair case of the Midland Town Hall on April 16. There, it was alleged, Mulawa stabbed to death his pretty wife following an argument over a separation.

 Post-mortem revealed, according to Dr. Thomas Alva Pear-son that Mrs. Mullawa had no less than 11 stab wounds in her body. The actual facts relating to the stabbing were not denied by defence counsel, but the defence relied upon provocation. Addressing the jury, Mr. C. B. Gibson, senior counsel for Mullawa, said that his client had been charged with wilful murder, which meant that he had killed his wife with intent to murder her. He submitted that the stabbing did not amount to wilful murder but could be classed as manslaughter.

He did not suggest that the jury should return a verdict of not guilty, because it had been admitted that there had been an unlawful killing.

 LOSE SELF CONTROL

 But there had been a series of acts which had induced the accused to do what he did. And it was claimed that these acts were sufficient to cause a reasonable person— and the accused was considered a reasonable person — to temporarily lose his self-control and that he was not at the time master of his mind.

On the morning of Saturday, April is, police were alarmed when they were notified that a young woman had been stabbed to death on the inside staircase leading to the top floor of the Midland Town Hall. And here is the story as it was told in the Perth Criminal Court this week Girl photographer Coral
Teresa Martin saw two New Australians — a man and a woman — outside her office and later heard the woman screaming. She rushed out and saw the woman lying on the top landing and the man standing over her with a knife in his hand.

Then Midland Town Hall care-taker Vincent Burghall took up the story. He said that he heard a woman screaming. At first he thought it might have been Miss Martin, terrified by rats which infested the building. But when he rushed up the stairs he saw Mrs. Mulawa. 'She seemed to be trying to tell me something in between her screams,' he said. A KNIFE RAISED 'I saw the man (the accused) there,' he added, 'and tried to pull him away. I saw that he had a knife raised right above his head. Then he plunged the knife as hard as he could into the woman's breast.

The woman seemed to stiffen and stopped screaming.' Burghall said he then rushed away to get the police. Evidence was given by District Medical Officer Dr. Thomas Alva Pearson that an autopsy revealed that Mrs. Mulawa had 11 stab wounds on her body and that death was due to one stab wound penetrating a lung. Carpenter Roman Gwiazdzinski, a Pole, told how he had been employed by the accused to work on a verandah on the couple's home in Swan View.

He denied that there had ever been any undue familiarity be-tween the deceased and himself and that they had ever made love together. Throughout Gwiadzinski's evidence, Mulawa, dressed in a two-toned brown cardigan, blue sports shirt, and grey slacks wrote copious notes furiously, and as he completed each sheet he passed them to the interpreter who, in turn, handed them on to his counsel.

Mulawa, showing signs of in-tense strain, his face pale and drawn, spent a full day in the witness box. He said he was married in the Ukraine in 1941. During the war he spent some years in Germany and there had been occasions when his life was endangered because he wanted to see his wife, who was in another internment camp. After he had employed Roman (Gwiazdzinskl) he said he detected various acts of familiarity between his wife and the carpenter.

On one occasion he came home and found Roman, in his underpants, lying on the marital double bed. On that occasion he question-ed his wife, got angry with her and she started crying, asked him to forgive her and stated that this was the first and would be the last time she had been unfaithful to him.

In December last she obtained a separation from him. Mulawa then described the incidents which ended in the death of his wife. On April 16, he said, he was on Bellevue station and saw Daria enter a train for Midland. Roman was also on the station and caught the same train but in another compartment. Mulawa said he followed his wife, saw her in a store in Midland and said to her: 'Daria, you buy me a present and I buy you a present.' She looked at him 'very cold' and laughed.

He asked her to go with him to a milk bar to talk but she said: 'I don't want milk and I don't want to talk to you.' 'I went to the milk bar,' continued the accused,' had a drink of milk and afterwards went to Mr. Schlam's office in the Town Hall. 'Daria was waiting at the door for Mr. Schlam and told me that the solicitor would not be back for 11 days. 'I said to her: 'We lose a lot of time and spend a lot of money.

We must one day finish all this trouble and come together.' She said 'No. I don't like. I don't want.' She said she wanted a divorce as she only loved Roman. 'I lost control of myself. I took the knife out of my pocket and stabbed her three or four times. She fell down. I don't remember properly what I did but I do remember crying and kissing her. I took off my coat, covered her with it, then down on my knees, made the Sign of the Cross, prayed and cried.'

 PLEA BY DEFENSE

For the defense Cliff Gibson said that although Mulawa was charged with wilful murder —meaning that he had killed his wife with intent to do so the defense would submit that the stabbing did not actually amount to wilful murder but to manslaughter.

It would not suggest that a verdict of not guilty should be returned because there had been an unlawful killing. But he contended that a series of acts had led the accused to do what he did. He claimed that these acts had caused a reasonable person and the accused was a reasonable person to temporarily lose control and that, at the moment, he was not the master of his mind.

The Jury retired for 50 minutes before returning with a verdict of wilful murder and Mulawa was then sentenced to death. In Fremantle's 'Death Row' he joins a farmer and a youth, both convicted of the murder of policemen.

In the following pictures below Daria Mulawa. (photo) victim. Machaljo Mulawa (photo) Murderer Mrs. Tatiana Lukowski (photo) Mother of the victim. Alexander Mulawa (11) (photo) son of the victim.


And so tells the sorry saga leading to the death of Daria. Does Daria still haunt the building?

Some people think she still does.

Kanacki

Offline KANACKI

  • Senior Contributor
  • *****
  • Posts: 4353
  • Kanacki ceisiwr o'r ateb
Re: Town Hall Ghost: Midland: WA
« Reply #2 on: December 18, 2020, 02:32:55 PM »
My apologies double posted picture of  Machaljo Mulawa (photo) Murderer. here a picture of the son  Alexander Mulawa (11) For those who cannot see the pictures its worth joining up at the forum to see interesting pictures into our dark haunted Australian history.

Kanacki

Offline KANACKI

  • Senior Contributor
  • *****
  • Posts: 4353
  • Kanacki ceisiwr o'r ateb
Re: Town Hall Ghost: Midland: WA
« Reply #3 on: December 18, 2020, 02:40:14 PM »
Workmen doing renovation in the old building encountered a strange wistful apparition walking down the stairs only to vanish at the foot of the stairs.

Here is a picture of the stairs below.

Kanacki

Offline KANACKI

  • Senior Contributor
  • *****
  • Posts: 4353
  • Kanacki ceisiwr o'r ateb
Re: Town Hall Ghost: Midland: WA
« Reply #4 on: January 10, 2021, 10:05:17 AM »
Another story of ghostly encounter an electrician passed a women on the stairs? He thought it was strange as it was at the time a sealed off building site before it dawned on him he heard a screams turning round there was no one there.

Kanacki

Offline Simon2

  • Senior Contributor
  • *****
  • Posts: 2345
  • You cannot open a book without learning something
Re: Town Hall Ghost: Midland: WA
« Reply #5 on: February 02, 2021, 11:39:24 AM »
A very grizzly tale KANACKI.

Two Points I make:

1. Why did the husband carry a knife with him to meet his wife? Unfortunately this hasn't been explained, but it was, hopefully part of why the accused was convicted of murder rather than manslaughter. He had taken a knife with him, rather than it being a "weapon of opportunity" being near-by.

2. Daria may not want to move on until she knows her son is okay. A mother's bond can be very strong and can last even beyond death!!
To practice five things under all circumstances constitutes perfect virtue;

These five are gravity, generosity of (the) soul, sincerity, earnestness and kindness.
(Confucius)

Offline KANACKI

  • Senior Contributor
  • *****
  • Posts: 4353
  • Kanacki ceisiwr o'r ateb
Re: Town Hall Ghost: Midland: WA
« Reply #6 on: March 02, 2021, 10:59:16 AM »
Hello Simon

Two interesting points. Perhaps your right she might of died fearful of her sons safety?

Kanacki

Offline Simon2

  • Senior Contributor
  • *****
  • Posts: 2345
  • You cannot open a book without learning something
Re: Town Hall Ghost: Midland: WA
« Reply #7 on: April 26, 2021, 10:24:34 AM »
Hi KANACKI, wonderful to hear from you, hope all is well.
To practice five things under all circumstances constitutes perfect virtue;

These five are gravity, generosity of (the) soul, sincerity, earnestness and kindness.
(Confucius)

Offline KANACKI

  • Senior Contributor
  • *****
  • Posts: 4353
  • Kanacki ceisiwr o'r ateb
Re: Town Hall Ghost: Midland: WA
« Reply #8 on: August 10, 2021, 02:54:41 PM »
This story is reminder how much pain go through in their lives and some times after death?

Kanacki

Offline KANACKI

  • Senior Contributor
  • *****
  • Posts: 4353
  • Kanacki ceisiwr o'r ateb
Re: Town Hall Ghost: Midland: WA
« Reply #9 on: October 11, 2021, 08:33:59 PM »
I hear at one stage they was doing ghost tours at the town hall?

Kanacki

Offline Simon2

  • Senior Contributor
  • *****
  • Posts: 2345
  • You cannot open a book without learning something
Re: Town Hall Ghost: Midland: WA
« Reply #10 on: November 12, 2021, 10:48:07 AM »
Would certainly be on my "bucket list" for "Ghost Tours" KANACKI.
To practice five things under all circumstances constitutes perfect virtue;

These five are gravity, generosity of (the) soul, sincerity, earnestness and kindness.
(Confucius)

Offline KANACKI

  • Senior Contributor
  • *****
  • Posts: 4353
  • Kanacki ceisiwr o'r ateb
Re: Town Hall Ghost: Midland: WA
« Reply #11 on: November 15, 2021, 11:03:44 AM »
Mine too!

Kanacki

 


SMF 2.0.18 | SMF © 2021, Simple Machines | Terms & Conditions | Privacy Policy
SimplePortal 2.3.3 © 2008-2010, SimplePortal