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The Sydney Morning Herald (NSW : 1842 - 1954), Saturday 18 May 1935, page 15

National Library of Australia http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article17158609

; AQUARIUMMYSTERY.

ARM DISGORGEDBY SHARK.

CHARGE OF MURDER.Detectives investigations following

the disgorging of a human arm by ashark in the Coogee Aquarium on April25 took a dramatic turn last nightwhen a man was charged with murder.

The arm has been positively identi-fied as that of James Smith 40 abilliard marker of Bateman s-roadGladesville who disappeared from hishome on April 8.

The circumstances of the discovery of thetragedy arc probably unprecedented in crimeannals and the case Is unlcme in the historyof the New South Wales police force.

Although the entire resources of the Crimi-nal Investigation Branch have been employedseveral pbstacles still have to be surmountedbefore the death of Smith can be legally pre-sumed.Smith It was learned left his home on April

8. Before his departure he told his wife thathe Intended setting out on a fishing expedi-tion with a companion but did not mentionhis friend s name. His prolonged absence didnot arouse any undue anxiety and for morethan a fortnight there was no suggestion thathe had met with misadventure and the policewere not informed that he was missing.

The next link in the remarkable train ofcircumstances that has culminated in thearrest of a man on a capital charge was sup-plied by two fishermen who set out fromCoogee on a shark fishing expedition nearly afortnight after Smith was last seen alive. Theycaptured a 14-foot monster which was ulti-mately placed on exhibition In the CoogeeAquarium. The shark refused to cat andfor a week swam lazily up and down the poolbrushing its body against the sides. Thenlate In the afternoon of Anzac Day it com-menced to flay the water to foam dashed upto one end of the aquarium nnd threshingwildly with Its tall disgorged several objects.A few moments later the small group ofspectators were horrified to see a human armfloat to the surface together with severaloleces of the flesh of another shark.

POLICE RETRIEVE ARM.The Randwick police were hastily summoned

to the aquarium and the arm was draggedout of the water. A short piece of rope wasbound tight iy around the wrist and on theforearm was a tattooed picture of two boxersin fighting poses. The ann had apparentlybeen severed at the shoulder but from thestate of preservation of the limb the policewere unable to determine whether It had beenripped off a body by the shark or had been

ripped off a body by the shark or had beendeliberately severed.Fishery expel ts were astonished at the re-markable preservation of the flesh on the

arm and hand. Mr. D. G. Stead stated thatnormally the strong gastric and intestinalJuices of the shark would digest any fleshwithin 36 hours and that there was no casecn record of flesh remaining comparativelyIntact in a shark s alimentary canal for morethan that period. He suggested that the onlyexplanation was that the shark had beenaffected by a sudden change n Its environ-ment and that the shock must have halted ordelayed its digestive processes.Intensive inquiries were commenced to estab.llsh the identity of the dead man. Severalmen who had had tattooed marks on theirarms had been reported missing. The dis-appearance of Smith was then brought for-ward together with that of another man whohad a somewhat similar picture on his arm.Ultimately the field was narrowed to thesetwo men and then Smith s brother positivelyidentified the limb.

In the meantime the skin on the fingers ofthe hand was removed In flakes and piecedtogether by the finger-print specialists. Thisarduous operation occupied some weeks itwas found that although the prints securedwere somewhat indistinct they substantiatedthe identification.Although the possibility of foul play hadnot been overlooked the detectives were early

of the opinion that the man had committedsuicide by tying a rope around his armsand body and weighing it down with someheavy object before leaping into the sea. Thistheory gained support by the position of theknot in the rope around his arm.Every effort was made to find other parts ofSmith s body. Police were detailed to searchthe beaches in the locality where the sharkhad been caught but their efforts were un-successful. The body of the shark which haddied in captivity was dissected but no otherhuman remains were recovered.

Associates of the dead man were interviewedbut no one was found who had been fishingwith Smith or had even seen him set outand police reached the conclusion that heprobably had never gone fishing.Investigations reached their climax duringthe last week-end when certain informationreached the police that caused them to doubttheir earlier theory of suicide. Detectivesergeants Matthews and Allmond and Detec-tives Burns Caiman McDermott and Mannlon were detailed to the case by the Chief ofthe C.I.B. Superintendent Prior and theclosest secrecy was preserved concerning theirmovements. The police were anxious to com-municate with one of Smith s former asso-ciates; but could not find the man. The de-tectives visited a hut at Cronulla and tookpossession of certain articles; but the occupantwas absent.

AMAZING COINCIDENCE.It was learned that Smith s arm was the

only part of lils body that had any distin-guishing mark. The police came to the con-clusion that the body had entered the seasome distance from the land and that oceancurrents had prevented any other part beingwashed ashore. Probably nothing would everhave been known of the tragedy If the armbearing the tattoo mark had not been seizedby the shark. The fact that the identicalshark that attacked the body should havebeen captured was an amazing coincidence.Although the investigations had been aidedto this extent by fortuitous circumstance de-tectives realised that they had many legal dif-ficulties to surmount before Smith could bepresumed to he dead. As no body was forth-coming the City Coroner Mr. E. T. Oramcould not hold an inquest and there was

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could not hold an inquest and there wasnot sufficient of the body to permit his hold-ing a magisterial inquiry. It was pointedout to the police that the finding of the armdid not necessarily imply Smith s death. Mr.Oram accordingly has been unable to hold aninquiry of any nature and he could not re-call any precedent in legal procedure.

It is anticipated that the police will attemptto overcome this obstacle by bringing medicalevidence to testify that the man could notnave lived without medical attention as thearm had been severed high up in the shoulderand the main blood vessels had been tornaway.

Late on Thursday night a squad of detec-tives surrounded a house in North Sydney.No one responded to their knocks on the frontdoor. Then the police at the rear saw a manappear at the window and when he saw themhe immediately came to them and during theday made a statement.

Last night a man was formally charged atthe Central Police Station with having feloni-ously and maliciously murdered James Smithat Cronulla on or about April 8.