Snowy Rowles
|
John Thomas William Smith (1905 - 13 June 1932), AKA Snowy Rowles, was an Australian itinerant worker responsible for the Murchison murders, the presumed murders of three travellers near the rabbit-proof fence in Western Australia in 1929 and 1930. None of the victims were ever found, but Rowles was found guilty of the final murder based on circumstantial evidence. He disposed of the victim's bodies using a method suggested by author Arthur Upfield for his book The Sands of Windee.
Biography edit
John Thomas Smith was born in Perth in 1905. In 1928 he was convicted of burglary and sent to prison in the town of Dalwallinu, but escaped from custody after three months and found work as a stockman and boundary rider known as "Snowy" Rowles on the rabbit-proof fence in the Murchison region, where he was not questioned about his background as the area had a high transient population and the majority of itinerant workers had some form of criminal past.
Rowles happened to be a colleague of Arthur Upfield, the author of several detective novels. In 1929 Upfield was working on his fourth book, The Sands of Windee, and had the idea of writing a plot where the murderer was convicted despite there being no body to find. However, he was unable to think of an efficient enough disposal method. His colleague George Ritchie eventually came up with an idea; the murderer could burn the victim's body alongside that of a large animal, sift out any metal parts and destroy them with acid, pulverize the bones into dust and scatter the dust into the wind. However, this left Upfield with no way for the detective to prove that a murder had occurred. This problem was discussed at length with various colleagues, including Snowy Rowles, making him aware of the foolproof disposal method.
On 8 December 1929, two boundary riders named James Ryan and George Lloyd were seen for the last time departing from Camel Station with Rowles. A week later Rowles was seen by his acquaintance James Yates driving a car, which was unusual as he did not own one. Rowles told Yates that the car belonged to James Ryan and that Ryan and Lloyd were walking through the scrub, although Yates did not see them. On 24 December Rowles encountered Upfield in Youanmi and, when asked about Ryan and Lloyd, said they had decided to stay in Mount Magnet and lent him Ryan's car, which Upfield photographed him with. However, Rowles told another person that he had bought the car for £80. Neither Ryan nor Lloyd were ever seen again, but due to the area's large transient population and the fact that they were itinerant workers their disappearances were not noticed until the investigation into the third murder.
Soon after Rowles met a New Zealander named Louis Carron who was working at Wydgee Station. In May 1930 Carron was seen leaving the station in the company of Rowles. He was never seen or heard from again, and unlike Ryan and Lloyd his disappearence was noticed because he had been in regular contact with friends in New Zealand. Rowles cashed Carron's pay cheque in Paynesville soon after, claiming that Carron had sent him to do it on his behalf. One of Carron's friends sent Rowles a telegram asking about Carron but got no response.
Police began investigating Carron's disappearence. Rowles was the prime suspect, and upon discovering Rowles' connection to the disappearances of Ryan and Lloyd, and knowing both about Upfield's search for a plot and that Rowles also knew, the local police suspected that Rowles had killed Ryan, Lloyd and Carron and disposed of their bodies in the manner suggested by Upfield and Ritchie. Detective-Sergeant Manning, who had been in Dalwallinu in 1928, recognised Rowles as the burglar and fugitive John Thomas Smith, allowing police to arrest him, but there was still not enough evidence to prove he had murdered Ryan, Lloyd and Carron. Rowles attempted to kill himself after his arrest.
After Rowles' arrest, a boundary rider patrolling along the rabbit-proof fence entered a hut and found evidence of a large fire, including a large amount of ash, and a gold wedding ring. Knowing both of Carron's disappearence and Upfield's search for a plot, he contacted the police, who soon confirmed that the ring belonged to Louis Carron thanks to a distinctive solder mark caused by a jeweller's error. The fire was taken as confirmation that Rowles had used Upfield and Ritchie's method, but in Carron's case had forgotten to sift out and destroy all metal remains.
With no physical evidence for the other cases, Rowles was only charged with murdering Carron and stealing his pay cheque. Upfield, Ritchie and others testified that Rowles had been greatly involved in the search for a plot and had helped to try and find a flaw in the method. Louis Carron's wife and his jeweller both identified the wedding ring as belonging to Carron, and a pathologist testified that a single tooth found in the ash was human. Rowles was found guilty of theft and the wilful murder of Louis Carron on 19 March 1932, and on 13 June he was hanged at Fremantle Prison.