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

by T. C. Brennan

THE GIRL’S ATTIRE.

Another of the facts urged as showing that Ross murdered the girl was the exact description he gave of her clothing on the morning following the girl’s disappearance. On being asked by Piggott how the girl was dressed, he described her dress and her hat with the college band on it, said in answer to a question that she had on a white blouse, and, on being asked “what else?” said: “Well, she had black stockings, and boots or shoes—I think boots.” (In the signed statement the corresponding passage is “she wore dark stockings and boots, or she may have had shoes on.”) Again, on being asked about her hair, he said it was golden coloured and hung down her back.

The answer to the suggestion that that was a minute description for a man to give of a girl’s dress is that, in the first place, it was given mainly in answer to questions, and it ought not to be difficult for a man to visualise the girl’s dress after a lapse of 18 hours, especially as she was dressed in conventional school-girl style. (Her dress was quite as accurately described by a hotel porter who saw her walking up Little Collins Street.) Harding’s “confession” credits Ross with saying that he told the police she wore boots, and with suggesting that this was an erroneous description designed to mislead. The evidence does not bear Harding out, and the idea that in any case the trifling discrepancy was designed to deceive is ridiculous. And while Harding suggests that Ross was purposely inaccurate in order to deceive, the Crown Prosecutor used Ross’s accurate description to show that he was accurate not merely because he had seen the girl in the Arcade, but because he had taken her clothing off. Since the question of the disposal of the clothing was supposed to have been raised by Harding and dealt with by Ross, it is curious, by the way, that nothing was said to Harding of the underclothing, or of the distinguishing hat, or of the parcel of meat, for these, too, had to be disposed of. But this is only another proof that Harding put nothing into Ross’s mouth which was likely to be falsified by independent testimony.

Here, again, this very matter of hesitation about the boots or shoes tells entirely in Ross’s favour. Either he gave a description to the best of his ability, or he gave a description purposely designed to deceive. The latter alternative may be dismissed at once, because the description was so nearly accurate that it is absurd to suppose it was meant to mislead. There remains, then, the alternative that he described the dress to the best of his ability. A man describing the appearance of a conventionally-dressed school-girl has not room to go far astray. The one thing he would not be likely to remember, or to carry in the mind’s eye, was whether she had on boots or shoes—especially if her stockings were black. But if Ross had stripped the body, that is the one thing that he would have been clear about, for by the hypothesis he took the boots off, and he could hardly have forgotten the gruesome task of unlacing them.

THE LIGHT IN THE SALOON.

There is one piece of evidence which causes some difficulty in that it suggests that someone was in Ross’s saloon after midnight. It is the evidence of the two Italians who swore that there was a light in the saloon at 10 minutes to 1. There does not appear to be much room for mistake in this evidence, for the Italians said they talked with one another about the unwonted circumstance of the light. There does not appear to be any reason to doubt their honesty, even though they have since shared in the reward. During argument before the Appeal Courts, it was suggested as a possibility that other persons might have gained access to the saloon. It was proved in evidence by Mr. Clarke, the Manager of the Arcade, that the door of the saloon nearer Bourke Street could be opened by inserting a knife or piece of tin between the bolts of the Yale lock and the part into which it fits, the lock being loose and the door ill-fitting. Apart from Mr. Clarke’s unchallenged testimony on this point, the fact may be accepted as being beyond controversy, for Mr. Clarke, on the eve of the trial, opened the door in the way mentioned without the slightest difficulty, in the presence of the counsel and solicitors for Ross.

This being the fact about the door, it was not altogether improbable that it would be known to some patrons of the wine saloon who were tenants of the Arcade. The suggestion made in the Appeal Courts was that other persons with a dead body on their hands, which it was urgent they should dispose of, might have bethought themselves of the disused cellars in the wine cafe as a possible hiding place. This would be the more probable by reason of the fact that it was known that the following day would be the last on which the wine saloon would be open, the license expiring with the year. It was known in fact that the police questioned, and detained for a time, at least one occupier of a room in the Arcade whose reputation was far from good. In any event, there is strong evidence that Ross knew nothing about the light in the saloon if it was, in fact, there. On the day of his arrest, he was interrogated for the third time by Piggott. Piggott said: “It will be proved that a light was burning in your wine shop on the early morning of the 31st.” Ross replied promptly: “That is a lie—a deliberate lie.” Piggott said: “It will be proved that a little girl was seen in your wine shop on the afternoon of the 30th.” Ross said: “That’s a lie.” “It will be proved that she had a glass in front of her and was sitting in the room,” continued Piggott, and again Ross answered: “That’s a lie.” And being asked if he had any explanation to give, he added: “You have got nothing over me.”

If that light had been in the wine saloon at 1 o’clock with Ross’s knowledge, he must have known, or at least have thought, that the fact might be proved by a dozen independent and reputable witnesses. If it had been a fact he would have been ready with an explanation, such as that they were dismantling the premises. But his emphatic, if not very polite, answer was: “That’s a lie.” The same remark applies to the answers in regard to the little girl being seen in the saloon with the glass in front of her. If she had been there she would, as has already been said, have been seen probably by a hundred people. But Ross’s answer to the suggestion that she was there was to brand it as a lie. And Matthews and Maddox were the only persons called to prove it was not a lie. That, however, is not the present point. We are dealing with the light in the saloon.

Since the trial a further fact has been disclosed in connection with this question which lends a great deal of support to the theory put forward by counsel on the appeals. A Sydney paper, still in its youth and advertising stage, has degraded journalism in connection with the Ross case in a way that is happily rare in the annals of the newspaper world. As Ross lay in the condemned cell, it gloated over his impending doom in a manner that showed that it did not appreciate the cowardice of kicking a man, even a criminal, when he is down. But it apparently had plenty of money to spend for the work of pushing its circulation among those who like that kind of literature. Its Melbourne representative did undoubtedly get well into the secrets connected with the working up of the case against Ross. In its issue of March 25, it had an article dealing with the preparation of the case which was clearly inspired. One paragraph referred to “another piece of unrecorded history,” as follows:

“There is a card school that assembles frequently at the Arcade, or did prior to the trial. On the night of December 30, the players dispersed shortly before midnight. They went out of the Arcade by way of Little Collins Street. Passing the wine shop, they noticed that it was lit up. But this they also noticed—that Room 33 also showed a light. The tenant was not in the room. He had lent it to a friend who was entertaining there a young woman, the daughter of a former officer of police. Ross, too, had seen the light. He must have noticed it at intervals during the evening, and watched it with despairing hope that its users would go away instead of staying on, hour after hour, spoiling his plans. At last it appeared as though the room was going to be occupied all night. Some new way had to be found. It was then that he thought of Gun Alley....”