The Gun Alley Tragedy: Record of the Trial of Colin Campbell Ross

by T. C. Brennan

CONFESSIONS COMPARED.

Then the objection will be raised, as it was raised by no less august a tribunal than the High Court, that even though the two confessions disagree in important details, and conflict hopelessly with the direct evidence of Ellis, they are in agreement in the main fact that they contain the admission that Ross outraged and killed the child, and disposed of the body in the alley, and are in agreement in a number of minor points. It is, however, the points of agreement and of disagreement that suggest so strongly that the two confessions were fabricated. Let us look at the facts.

On January 23 the police had no account of the supposed confession from either Matthews or Harding. By January 25 they had both. Let us see how they agree. It is essential in testing the confessions to keep in mind what the police knew on January 23. We can deal afterwards with the question whether what the police knew Harding and Matthews also knew, or probably knew. The police knew that the girl was in the vicinity of the Arcade at about 3 o’clock. They knew that Ross had been talking to Gladys Wain in the saloon for about an hour after four o’clock in the afternoon; they knew he was to meet, and did meet, Gladys Wain at 9 o’clock; that he went home for tea in the meantime; and that he was with her for over an hour after 9.15; they knew that he went home late by train to Footscray, and thence by tram to Maidstone. All these things were in Ross’s statement made on January 5, and the police had the opportunity of testing them. They interviewed Gladys Wain and apparently they satisfied themselves as to the truth of Ross’s statement so far as it concerned her. They knew that the dead girl had been outraged and had been murdered by strangulation; and they knew that though at first it was said that the marks around the girl’s neck pointed to strangulation by a cord or wire, that this was disproved by the medical examination (see the “Herald” of January 6 and January 10). They knew that the body was not in the alley at 1 o’clock (see the “Herald” of January 2); and they knew that Ellis had said that he had seen a man going in and out of the Arcade up to nearly 1 o’clock. They knew that Ross was suffering from a venereal disease. With these points settled, there were only five matters to be filled in by conjecture if Ross was to be saddled with the crime. One was how did the girl actually get into the saloon, the second was how did Gladys Wain fail to see anything of the girl when she was there in the afternoon. The third was the exact manner of the girl’s death. The fourth was how was Gladys Wain prevented from seeing the body when she came in at 9 o’clock. The fifth was how did Ross get back from Footscray late at night to dispose of the body. How these matters of conjecture were filled in in the two alleged confessions can be seen clearly by the following parallels. (The rooms indicated will be described in the terms used through the trial, not in the terms used in the “confessions.”)

THE MATTHEWS CONFESSION.	THE HARDING CONFESSION.
(1) The child came up and asked him for a drink. He gave her a glass of lemonade and took her into the cubicle.	When the child got opposite his place he spoke to her, and she took no notice of him at first. He said: “You have nothing to be afraid of; I own this place, and if you are tired you can come in and sit down.” She went in and he took her into the cubicle and induced her to take three glasses of sweet wine.
(2) She stayed there until about four. Stanley could see her too. A girl named Gladys Wain came to see him, and he told the child to go through to the beaded room, and he “kept her in there” [how?] until Gladys left, and then brought her back into the cubicle.	About this time a woman whom he knew came to the door of the cafe, and he spoke to her for about three-quarters of an hour, and when he went back to the cubicle the girl was asleep. A little later “his own girl” came to the door of the cafe, and he spoke to her until nearly 6 o’clock. Stanley couldn’t see her when he was serving, because the screen was down, and when the screen was down no one dared go into the cubicle.
(3) After 6 o’clock, when Stanley left, he got “fooling about with her” (she being quite alert and knowing what was meant), and it was all over in a minute. “I strangled her in my passion.” After it was all over, “I could have taken a knife and slashed her up and myself too, because she led me on to it.”	At 6 o’clock the girl was still asleep in the cubicle, and “I could not resist the temptation.” She moaned a little and seemed to faint. I left the room, and after a little time she commenced to call out again, and I went in to stop her, and in endeavouring to stop her I must have choked her. I got suddenly cool and commenced to think.
(4) He had to meet a girl friend, so he took the body from the cubicle and put it in the beaded room off the big room, and brought Gladys Wain into the cubicle, and when Gladys was gone he brought the body back into the cubicle.	“Could Gladys not see the girl when you went into the cafe?” No, as the body was in the cubicle, we had our drink in the big room.
(5) I asked him how he got back, and he said he came back by motor car.	I said: “Did you go back by car?” He said, “No”; he had a bike. I said: “A motor bike?” He said: “No, a push bike.”

It will be seen that on every point about which nothing was known to the police, the two “confessions” are absolutely at variance. On the points known to the police, they absolutely agree except that Harding (rightly) makes Ross speak to another girl at the door before he speaks to Gladys Wain. This the police knew from Stanley’s statement, though it is not in Ross’s written statement. Further comment on these suggestive facts seems unnecessary.