The Stone River Murder Case

This is a lengthy blog and is an interesting story, not for the salacious details of a rare murder at Stone River but for other reasons: the detail offered by newspaper reports of the time, the primitiveness of the forensic methods (including a 'post-mortem' conducted on the spot), the fact that Joseph Edmonds was acquitted despite convincing evidence; and for the revealed prejudices of the time regarding the value of a “coloured” person’s life; and the reluctance to believe that a white man could commit such a savage crime and thus the attempts to implicate either a Kanaka or an Aborigine in the murder. 

THE SETTING

Murder date: 13 November 1906 at approximately 3 pm.

Murder site: Sandy Creek on opposite side of road to Bailey’s farm.

Victim: Booba Khan (variously identified as an Indian hawker or Hindoo). Prior to his death he had been in partnership with Kashgar Singh. Singh (described as a Buddhist in the court hearing) gave witness at the trial of Joseph Edmonds.

Accused: Joseph Edmonds, miner and drover. Previously convicted of larceny and cattle thieving.

Cause of death: head trauma and strangulation.

Possible motive: dishonoured cheques.

Edmonds bought goods off Khan on 10 November 1906 to the value of £7/5/-. These goods were silk shirts, khaki and tweed trousers, merino singlets, silk blouses, 12 yards of silk, silk handkerchiefs, mouth organs, scent, lady’s brooch and two brass rings.

Payment was made to Booba Khan by two cheques from the cheque book belonging to William Henry Groves and his partner, only identified as Neil. According to Groves, he  supplied the two blank cheques to Edmonds on Edmonds’ request. Edmonds told Groves he had a private mark in the Commercial Bank (a blotted “O”) Groves asked him to record on the cheque butts what they were for. Groves claimed in Court that the selling of cheques to others in this manner was normal at Waverley. 

Kashgar Singh presented the cheques to Mrs Jones’ Public House at Waverley, where she refused to cash them. She deemed the cheques valueless.

Kashgar Singh and Booba Khan went to Edmonds’ camp to tell him that the cheques were worthless. Kashgar Singh demanded the goods back, but agreed to let Edmonds keep a pair of trousers and shirt which he could pay for “by-and-by”. Edmonds assured him that the cheques were fine. Singh threatened to tell the Ewan police if Edmonds did not return the goods. Khan and Edmonds came to an agreement that they would travel to Ingham together with a party that had been organized by Groves on the 12 November to take a sick man to Ingham for treatment. Groves had volunteered to do this because he had gained Ambulance Brigade experience in Townsville.

Edmonds promised that when they arrived in Ingham he would get the money from his father to repay Khan £8. Alternatively, he told Groves that in Ingham he would go to the bank and prove that the cheques were not fraudulent and then return to Waverley and write another cheque in front of Mrs Jones! Kashgar and Khan lent Edmonds a horse for the journey.

According to Edmonds’ evidence those who set off for Ingham were Edmonds, the sick man (later identified as John Cuckane/Cochran/e, a miner from Kangaroo Hills)* and Khan (who had on him the two cheques, a £5 note and £1 in silver). Groves asserted that there were between seven and nine people in the party and that the “Indian Hawker” caught up to them.

THE MURDER

The sick man was conveyed in a buggy and then transferred to horseback. Edmonds accompanied by Khan went ahead on horseback to Bailey’s to fetch another buggy to carry the sick man to Ingham. The range was hilly and stony and it was impossible to get a buggy up or down it. The rest of the party, bar one man — Martell — and Groves were sent back. When Martell and Groves reached the foot of the range they met Edmonds who had returned with the buggy. He was accompanied by another man John (Charlie) Johnson. They had with them, besides the buggy, a saddle horse and a pair of horses. They transferred the sick man to the buggy which Johnson drove. Edmonds rode alongside the buggy. Martell went back the way they had come. They proceeded to Johnson’s house, six miles distant, where they placed the sick man, who was retching, under the shade of a tree and left water with him. Waiting there was Booba Khan with his horses. Edmonds and Groves went to Johnson’s house to have dinner and then returned to the sick man, putting him back in the buggy. He was given water in a brandy bottle for the journey. The weather was hot and muggy and Edmonds’ horse, meanwhile, had tired and Edmonds requested Khan to take the horse back and deliver his saddle to the Post Office when he got to Ingham. He would pick it up from there. Groves drove the buggy, Edmonds sat in the buggy while the sick man was lying down. Khan set out to accompany them. Groves questioned Edmonds why Khan was accompanying them and he explained about the cheques and that Khan was coming down to Ingham to verify that they were sound.

In conversation Edmonds was supposed to have flashed a gold ring with a green/blue gemstone which he called a “knuckle duster” and then said to Groves that “If a bloke could do him [Khan] in, what a nice lot he would get.” Groves told him to forget that idea opining that Khan would have no money.

17 miles from Johnson’s was Bailey’s place on the left-hand side (going to Ingham). At that point one of the horses became tired. They stopped at Bailey’s gate. Edmonds was given the reins and Groves went up to Bailey’s house (located behind a rise and at a distance of some 300 to 400 yards) to procure a fresh horse. As he headed off he saw Khan coming over the hill towards them. When he returned 40 minutes later (having been unable to procure a replacement horse) he found the sick man alone in the buggy, Khan’s three horses were grazing 20 yards from the buggy. Khan and Edmonds were nowhere to be seen. Louis Bailey came down in a horse and dray, stopped to talk and then drove on. Five minutes later, Edmonds appeared from the direction of Bailey’s house sweaty, flushed and dishevelled and with leaves on his shirt. Groves reprimanded him for leaving the sick man, but Edmonds retorted that he had only been gone a few minutes to get a drink of water (a drink which Grace Thompson, grand-daughter of Andrew Bailey later provided evidence as to having given him from a cup on the tank stand. She also noted that he was hot and shaking). The sick man spoke up saying that Edmonds had in fact been gone for nearly an hour. As a fresh horse couldn’t be procured Groves suggested that they press on to Ingham. Before they set out he asked Edmonds where the “Indian hawker” was and Edmonds replied that he didn’t know.

After setting out again the sick man requested a drink of water. Groves told Edmonds to get down from the buggy and go around to the back of the buggy and give him a drink from the bottle (it was the only water they had). Edmonds said he couldn’t find the bottle but the sick man said that Edmonds had had it at Bailey’s gate. Edmonds claimed he must have dropped it and that they could collect it on the return journey. Groves noted that Edmonds seemed uneasy and appeared to be watching him (Groves). They next stopped at Norris’ gate, two miles distant from Bailey’s where Edmonds was again left in charge of the sick man while Groves wen to procure a replacement horse. This time he was successful, but nine miles from Ingham at W.B. Johnson’s another horse had to be replaced. This duly done, the group continued on. Groves commented to Edmonds that the “Hindoo” was a long time catching them up and Edmonds asserted that Khan had gone on ahead saying to Edmonds that “Me go on; you catch me up.” On reaching Ingham the sick man was transferred to hospital at about 7 pm. Groves and Edmonds parted ways near the Masonic Lodge. Edmonds told Groves he would return back to Waverley with him on Thursday.  Edmonds then went to his father’s home. Meanwhile Groves reported to the Sergeant of Police his concerns about Edmonds and Khan. 

As a result of the statement made to Sergeant Connolly by Groves a search of Ingham was made for Khan. Connolly then despatched Constable Cook on November 14 to search for Khan. As Cook headed towards Waverley on Stoneleigh Road he located three horses grazing. All were still bridled and saddled and one carried a swag. The horses were those belonging to Khan. He drove them towards Andrew Bailey’s gate where he observed two trails of trampled grass on the opposite side of the road to Bailey’s gate leading to Sandy Creek. 37 yards in was a fence and something appeared to have been dragged under the fence and further 21 yards down to the bank of Sand Creek. He found single tracks in the creek bed. With the help of an Aboriginal tracker named Flanagan/Flannigan he located the body of Booba Khan. The deceased was found high on the bank of Sandy Creek, 899 yards from Bailey’s gate. His body was concealed by heavy brushwood.When Edmonds appeared, purportedly looking for Khan, Cook detained him. It was noted that at the time he was detained that he was wearing a white silk shirt, khaki trousers, clasp boots, a brown felt hat and a white silk handkerchief around his neck (perhaps items he had previously purchased from Khan).

The last time Groves claimed to have seen Khan alive was at Bailey’s gate on November 13. On Thursday 15 November he travelled out to Bailey’s where the tracker, Acting Sergeant Connelly, and Doctor W.C.C. MacDonald (Government Medical Officer) were waiting. Constable William Cook had remained overnight camped under a tree with the suspect Edmonds. Doctor MacDonald ascertained the deceased had been felled by blows to the head and then strangled. His body was identified by both Edmonds and Grove as being that of Boobah Khan. An identifying piece of clothing, his turban, was later found a distance from his body together with shards of the broken brandy bottle. Booba Khan was buried where he was found. Edmonds was arrested for the murder and remanded in custody.

THE COURT HEARING

Prosecution evidence included Edmonds’ boot tread. The tracks were found to match (though no cast could be taken). Further evidence was that the green stone had become dislodged from Edmonds’ ring. There was a 11inch long piece of glass from the brandy bottle stuck in the turban of the deceased. Arthur Frederick Kemp, employed by the Commercial Banking Company of Sydney Ltd. Ingham Branch, stated that Edmonds never had had an account with that bank. Edmonds made no attempt to repay the debt when he got to Ingham. His evidence was inconsistent. For instance, Groves and Edmonds disagreed about when Edmonds (who claimed to have worked with horses in India) yelled out, supposedly to Khan, in Hindoo, “going on”, and where Edmonds claimed that Khan was supposed to have been in relation to them at various stages of the journey. While in hospital the sick man was called upon to give evidence on the events of November 13. He verified Groves' version though because of his critical condition the veracity of his recollection was brought into question. Edmonds' evidence about the bottle was also discrepant, at one point saying he didn’t know where it was and then saying he had dropped it on the road. Another factor that went against him was that he had previous convictions for larceny and cattle thieving.

The defence was able to argue that the boot size was a common size. The judge opined that the ring was hardly a ‘knuckle duster”.  Red stains found on his clothes were not identified as blood by the Government analysist. Much argument was undertaken to disprove that Edmonds could carry Khan, who was claimed to have weighed over 11 stone, any great distance. Edmonds denied the conversation detailed by Grove about the ring and about the cheques. He also claimed he dropped the bottle when the horses moved on when he was trying to give the sick man a drink of water. He explained his absence from the buggy was because he would not drink water from the same bottle as a sick man. He had gone to cut a piece of cane to quench his thirst and then gone up to the house for a drink of water. As evidence of his innocence he claimed that he got a horse from his father and went to town to the Post Office to see if his saddle had been delivered by Khan as they had arranged. He looked around town for him and then rode back out to Bailey’s gate to see if he could locate him and met Cook there with the horses and his saddle.  He also dismissed the evidence of leaves on his shirt by saying that they were brush tops of the cane (supposedly when he went to get a stick of cane to quench his thirst).

However, the way the trial would go was evidenced by the all-white male jury having difficulty coming to a decision.  In February Mr C. Jameson for the prosecution, optimistically stated that the evidence pointed to Edmonds being guilty. Yet by March the evidence presented was being regarded as “wholly circumstantial”. What was to transpire was also foreboded by the ongoing questioning during the court hearings as to whether there were Kanakas and Aborigines in the area at the time of the murder. It was remarked that there was a “blacks’ camp” about five miles distance up Waverley Road. Edmonds made sure to mention that he saw a group of Kanakas carrying bows and arrows as he, Groves and the sick man journeyed to Ingham.

The evidence that a Kanaka or an Aborigine may have committed the crime was not strong as in the Stone River area, cane farmers Menzies and Bailey, were who were identified as having employed Kanakas previously, were not employing them at the time of murder because they were employing only white labour. Moreover, Cook attested that he did not see any Kanakas or Aborigines when he camped at Baileys with Edmonds, the day he detained Edmonds as a suspect for the murder.

Questions were raised about the shape of Kanaka’s feet compared to white men’s feet and whether they would wear boots. The answer to that question was “no” and so any idea that they could have left the boot tracks was also dismissed. Nevertheless, these attempts to implicate Kanakas or Aborigines, insinuating that one of those groups could have been more likely responsible for the murder than Edmonds, a white Ingham farmer’s son, were made throughout the court hearings.

The value put on Khan’s life is reflected in the  answer to the question: “Did the murder raise a good deal of talk” to which the reply was “On account of the victim being a coloured man it is not likely that there would be so much talk of it” and  “nothing worth speaking of.” On the other hand the arrest of Edmonds was said to have caused "a great sensation at Waverley." At no time during the witnesses' depositions was Booba Khan mentioned by name. Even when Edmonds was arrested it was for the murder of "an Indian, name at present unknown."

Though the due legal process was being followed in relation to a suspicious death, that the victim was “coloured” and the suspected murderer white, public sympathy and interest in the case reflected pervading prejudices, among them the belief that a Kanaka or Aborigine was more likely to have committed such a savage murder than a white man.

THE VERDICT

It is not surprising then, that finally on 31 May, 1907, Joseph Edmonds was acquitted of the murder of Booba Khan.

*COCKRANE PATRICK JOHN Old Ingham Anglican (C of E) 0 69 Date of death: 06/12/1908 Age: 50 M SCOTLAND Cause of death: SPRUE

 SOURCES

“Stone River Murder,” Evening Telegraph Friday 31 May 1907, 1.

“The Stone River Murder. The End of Boobah Khan,” Evening Telegraph Thursday 30 May 1907, 1.

“The Stone River Murder Case. Trial of Joseph Edmonds,” Northern Miner Friday 1 March 1907, 2 and 5.

“Northern Supreme Court,” Northern Miner Thursday 30 May 1907, 4.

“The Stone River Murder,” Morning Post 5 March 1907, 2.

“Northern Supreme Court. Alleged Murder,” The Northern Miner 1 June 1907, 4.

Hinchinbrook Shire Counctil - register of burials. Book 1.