The Imprint

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Wed 12 Oct 1898:—The adjourned inquest touching the death of Sarah James, wife of Charles James, tailor, took place at the Court House on Monday last, after the evidence of the deceased's husband, Dr Massey, A. J
Hardwicke, chemist, and Mrs Williams, landlady of the Sydney Hotel, Hillgrove, had been taken the jury returned a verdict that the deceased, Sarah James, came by her death on the 7th October by taking a dose of strychnine, self-administered at Sydney Hotel, Hillgrove.

Does the imprint belong to Sarah James?

I’ll leave you to dwell on that story for now as there’s a house in Armidale to check out.



To be continued…..

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Here’s a story I came across.

There’s a house, that is occupied at the moment, that is really haunted in Brown St, Armidale, just up from Nevilles, towards the Catholic Church. 3 or 4 houses up on the south side of the street, we lived there in the 1980's, for about 12 months.

My sister/inlaw's 3 year old son would interact with "Lady and the Man". The house was part of a very large property and the " Lady" was the lover of the Man, and she was murdered in the cottage, as she was in a clandestine relationship with the Overseer, who was the "Man".



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What was the spookiest that did happen this one night, around 4 am, was the little 3 year old boy (my nephew), was found by me out the front of the locked house. He was crying. I asked him how he got out here, and he said through the glass doors in his bedroom, but there were no glass doors in his bedroom. They were there, when the cottage was built , but not in our time.

The "Lady and the Man", got him out of his cot, and walked him thru the glass doors to outside where the horse rails were then disappeared in front of him. They each had a hand in his hands. That was the last straw, we had to get a priest in to bless the house, but they did not go away, they got more and more upset with us.



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I got pushed a few times, so did the little boys dad, our wives felt hands around their throats anytime of the day. The parents of the boy moved him into their bedroom, and put a blessed cross on the doorway, and they had no issues in that room. All we had was noises of horses moving around our room at night, because our room was right at the front and was part of the old stables.



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You would hear the blind go up a few times a night in the little boy's old bedroom, even after we tied the blind tie, tightly to the hook. It just got scary. My wife and I moved out , but the sister/inlaw and her family stayed for another 3 months, until they were hunted out, by some scary interacts with the ghostly inhabitants.

Was there any truth to these alleged hauntings?



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THE ARMIDALE MURDER

Tue 11 May 1909:—The Government has renewed the offer of £100 reward for evidence which will lead to the conviction of the person, or persons who murdered the young girl in her room at Armidale some months ago. It will be remembered that the murdered girl slept in the same room with a fellow servant and that during the night the other girl ran screaming out into the passage saying that her friend had been murdered.

She declared that she awoke to find a man going out of the window, and, trying to awaken her companion, found that her throat had been cut. A man was seen to leave the neighbourhood of the hotel about the time of the murder, by the police officer on duty, but he knew nothing then to induce him to take particular notice of the man. Suspicion seemed to point to the girl's companion at first, but it is now believed that she was quite innocent.

Was the victim murdered in Brown St?



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The murder shocked the local community and the national audience. Most reports referred to it in headlines as the Armidale Tragedy or Armidale Murder. Hannah Kelly’s throat was cut as she lay in her bed at an Armidale Hotel where she worked. She died there. Hannah Kelly and Agnes O’Leary shared room 16 at the Central Hotel on the corner of Jessie and Rusden Streets Armidale on the morning of Sunday 13 December 1908.

Strike one, let’s move on to the next one.



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STARTLING ARMIDALE MURDER

Fri 7 Nov 1919:—Mrs Mary Willmott (50), was found dead this morning. There is a suspicion that she was murdered. Mr Angus Cameron went to Willmott’s house early this morning and discovered the body of the woman in the yard, with her head split open. Sergeant Jones and Dr Harris (Government medical officer) went to the scene of the tragedy and saw the daughter of Mrs Willmott, a married woman, 22 years of age, who was the only person able to give any account of what had taken place.

Her experience had evidently left her in a terrified condition. The girl slept at her mother’s home last night, she said, while her father was at Anderson’s place, a few miles away. Shortly after midnight there was a knock at the door, and her mother inquired if it was her husband. The man replied No. The stranger then entered the house by the window and a struggle ensued between her mother and the man, who beat the woman with something that looked like a strap. Mrs Willmott continued the struggle for a short while, and then escaped through the window to the outside of the house.

The stranger followed her. She made her way into another room where the daughter heard footsteps indicating that a further struggle was taking place. The young woman was in a terror stricken condition and hid herself under the bed.

Was this crime committed in Brown St?



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VICTIM’S DAUGHTER ARRESTED

Fri 14 Nov 1919:—A sensational development occurred in connection with the Armidale murder.
On Tuesday, Ida Willmott (22) was arrested and charged at the local police court with the murder of her mother at Cooney Creek near Armidale. Accused was remanded till Saturday and was removed to Armidale gaol.

Strike two, next.



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ARMIDALE MURDER AND SUICIDE

Sat 9 Nov 1940:—Evidence that a young girl had rejected her employer's attentions and that the man became very jealous when he saw her talking to other young men and said unpleasant things about them was told to the District Coroner (Mr R. L Blake), who conducted an inquest into a double tragedy.

After hearing lengthy evidence, the Coroner returned a verdict of murder and suicide on October 15. The victims were Eileen Veronica Brennan (22), and Leo Henry Grant (26), baker and pastrycook, of Armidale.

'I think that Miss Brennan was the victim of a person temporarily demented by jealousy,' said the coroner in delivering his finding. 'I can not find anything to suggest that she led him on,' he added, 'or anything even remotely suggestive that any action of hers contibuted to incidents leading to the terrible crime.'

Medical evidence was given by Dr B. J Jackson. He said there were eight wounds from half an inch to an inch and a half long in Miss Brennan's head. Her skull was fractured. Two .22 bullet wounds behind her left ear led to her brain.

Dr Jackson said that there was a bullet wound behind Grant's right ear. A .22 short was lying outside the cranium. There was a recently healed scar about 5ins long across Grant's throat.

The Coroner said that the only conclusion he could draw was that Grant murdered the girl and took his own life. His finding was that Miss Brennan died of bullet wounds in her head, feloniously and maliciously inflicted by Grant and that Grant died from a bullet wound in his head, wilfully self-inflicted.

I must admit, sounds remarkably similar to the haunted story.

Could the “Lady and the Man” be Eileen Veronica Brennan and Leo Henry Grant?



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