Not Guilty
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About this ebook
In 1910 in Bendigo, three children were found dead in their home, brutally murdered with an axe and a knife.
Their mother, Camellia McCluskey, was a de facto wife at a time when such a position was not socially acceptable. Her partner, George, was considerably older than her. The two lived together happily for a few years before the relationship deteriorated, putting in place a chain of events that finally resulted in the slaying of Dorothy, Eric and Ida.
'Not Guilty' tells the story of those events, and the court proceedings that followed them. A storm of newspaper coverage surrounded Camellia as the Australian media struggled to understand the motivations that led her down the path she took.
This story is based on Camellia's letters, court records, newspaper coverage, and other historical documents.
Christine Gardner
Christine has had a fascination for history most of her life. When the youngest of her five sons started school Christine went back to school as well. After several years at TAFE, studying both visual arts and writing, she went to university and eventually graduated with a BA in History/Philosophy of Religion, with Honours. She's written all kinds of books since then, most with at least some history included.
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Not Guilty - Christine Gardner
CONTENTS
1. Veneer of Respectability
2. Friends and Lovers
3. Retribution
4. The Crime Scene
5. The Inquest
6. The Trial
7. The Verdict
8. The Transfer
9. Sisters of the Good Shepherd
10. A New Home
Appendix 1. Truth Reports on the Murders.
Appendix 2. Truth Reports on the Inquest.
Appendix 3. Truth Reports on the Trial.
Appendix 4. Governor’s letter releasing Camellia to George Clancy.
Justice A’Beckett then asked if there was any difference between ‘the fury she worked herself into and the fury which a physically sound and vindictive man might work himself into against the person who had offended him’. Dr. Gaffney replied ‘In the case of a strong man it was anger, and anger alone and resentment. In this case it was not that so much as worry and anxiety about her own condition’.
Author’s Note
This is not a whodunit; there is no mystery here about who committed the brutal murders of three children. The crime is vividly described both by the police and the perpetrator, with no room for doubt as to what happened, as well as the how and when of the crime. The killer even tells us quite firmly and consistently why she did it, but if there is any mystery it is in the why. The judge at the trial instructed the jury to decide if the crime was that of an insane woman or one who was simply vindictive and vengeful. Was their judgement correct? Make up your own mind.
I have changed the name of the father of the children as a courtesy to his descendants and have not disclosed the full address of the house where the murders happened for a similar reason. The killer herself has no descendants.
Everything else in this story is fact, or, in the case of some of the more creative newspaper articles, not entirely! Some of the letters and other records may be grammatically incorrect or contain spelling mistakes—I have left these as they are. I feel I should warn readers that some of the material, as described by the newspapers and coroner’s reports, is very graphic. The Appendices section at the end is a copy of records already used in part within the book and I have included that as I know some readers will find the records themselves of interest, as I do.
CHAPTER ONE: Veneer of Respectability
The neighbour heard ‘very dreadful screams which continued for about half an hour’.
Later Bendigo generations would know it as the house where the axe murderer killed her children, but in 1910 the two storey residence was one of several middle-class homes in a respectable area. By the end of the 20th century the story had been forgotten or relegated to the land of the urban myth. The house still stands, a little faded and worn, but a home with many stories no doubt more pleasant than this one.
The McDonalds appeared to be a respectable middle-class married couple. The man of the house, George, managed the local jam factory, while his partner, Camellia, looked after their three young children and ran the household. The house was a substantial property, suitable for a man in George’s position; downstairs there were a kitchen, two pantries and a wood cellar, while upstairs there were two bedrooms, a sitting room and a drawing room. There were also three smaller rooms in the basement, making it quite a sizeable dwelling.
The interior of the rented house though, away from public view, was far from lavish. According to the local newspaper, the furniture was ‘scanty’. The front room held a piano, which was described as old even though it was not yet fully paid for, along with a few chairs. Another room opposite contained an old couch and a small table. In the main bedroom there was a double bed and a chest of drawers, while the children’s room contained nothing but a hammock made from old bags sewn together. The other rooms on the ground floor were used to store lumber and ‘a considerable quantity’ of rubbish. Downstairs, the breakfast room held a dining-table, with an old armchair in one corner and a chest of drawers in another.
Like their home, the McDonald family was not quite what it appeared on the surface. The couple were not married; George had an estranged wife and five adult children and Camellia was a single woman. The relationship had become difficult, with constant arguments; Camellia accused George of having another mistress and of not spending enough time with her and the children. On that critical day in August 1910, she warned him if he left her and the children alone again on a Sunday he would regret it. She’d made threats before but this time George would regret spending that day away from his family.
When the couple first met, in 1900, George had already been living apart from his wife for several years. He had a property in South Sassafras, near Ferntree Gully, and for some time also ran a local grocery store and butchery, with the sale of rum as a profitable sideline. He was a member of the local council for several years and helped form a co-operative of local growers which was the basis for the Monbulk Jam Factory. Camellia lived with her mother and sister on a nearby property and was around twenty years old, while George was forty-four. When he became manager of the Ferntree Gully factory he employed Camellia as a clerk and the relationship began.
According to the Truth, a Melbourne tabloid newspaper, George lured Camellia ‘like a spider lures a fly’. They sat together in the office chair ‘where billing and cooing was indulged in with the inevitable result. She returned home one evening no longer a virgin’. This chair was evidently a key symbol for Camellia of their relationship, as will become apparent later in the story. George’s housekeeper left, perhaps because of the disgrace involving her employer, and George moved into the same hotel where Camellia was living.
Truth states that ‘the scandal became so manifest that the directors and shareholders of Monbulk intervened’. George continued working at the factory but perhaps the directors insisted the couple leave the area, so their scandalous relationship wouldn’t affect the company’s reputation and therefore their profits. Truth was careful to state that the couple were not living together at the hotel, clearly not wanting to damage the hotel’s reputation, so the necessity of moving perhaps became the incentive for George and Camellia to live as man and wife.
They moved to Camberwell, a suburb of Melbourne, in 1905, where they lived together under Camellia’s name, McCluskey, for a short time. When their first child was born they were living in another suburb, Auburn, under the name McCutcheon; Dorothy’s birth certificate shows her father as John Robert McCutcheon, a thirty-six year old commercial traveller born at Black Lead. Camellia is named as Mary McCutcheon and her correct age of twenty-five is shown. The document states they were married in 1902 and that they have no previous issue.
Apparently they were willing to go to some lengths to avoid any further public humiliation, even lying on official birth records. Camellia wore a wedding ring and was probably desperate to appear as a respectable married woman now she was a mother. When the twins were born her health became ‘delicate’ and life for Camellia took a turn for the worse. George was still employed by the Monbulk company and, when they opened a factory at Burnley, he stayed at East Richmond during the week and returned to Camellia and the children only at weekends. He became involved with another factory worker by the name of Maudie Smith and spent most of his evenings with her.
Camellia claimed that George became ‘increasingly anxious to part with the place at Fern Tree Gully’. He told her that business was ‘falling off’ and, although it was not his property, he did hold shares in the company. According to Camellia he set fire to the factory one night and destroyed it, starting his own factory later in North Melbourne, after buying some of the equipment and pulp from the Monbulk company. In spite of this, when he was offered a position in Bendigo, at a salary of six pounds a week, by jam-makers H.M. Leggo’s and Co., he accepted it and moved there alone. His mistress, Maudie Smith, followed him two weeks later and became forewoman at the factory. She lived with George until Camellia unexpectedly arrived on the train with the three children. George had no choice but to find a new home for his family; he lived with them but still managed to spend his free time with Maudie.
The move to Bendigo must have held some hope for Camellia at first; a new town and a new beginning for the couple and their children, where they knew no-one and no-one knew they were not married. But her health was not what it had been before the twins were born; she was very thin and appears to have been very lonely in Bendigo. Her sister, Adelaide, had joined a convent in 1906 and their mother had died four years before that. Camellia had lost touch with her father and had no friends in her new home. She was soon deeply depressed when she found out Maudie Smith was living in Bendigo and working at the factory with George.
She wrote to a Mrs Pump, possibly a former neighbour, about her unhappiness:
Your welcome letter received and card for Dolly which amused us greatly. Dolly was in great glee to think it came all the way from Doncaster. She asked me a thousand questions how it came.
The old farm will cost Mrs Kent something before she sells it. I often think of the place and sometimes I wish I was back there. I don’t like Bendigo at all and I have had a bad time of it since I came here what with one thing and another. I envy you in your own nice home and happy life, that is the life I crave for and have always done so, but it seems it is not to be. I have not made any acquaintances and it is very lonely. Mr McDonald is always working, no half holiday and he always has some work or other even on Sunday to do. He never gets home to tea till eight o’clock and often takes his lunch with him now. So you may be sure it’s