156 Man and Shark 



had disgorged the arm of a man named Smith. Smith had disappeared. 

 The arm, carefully preserved as the Crown's only evidence of a crime, 

 was not enough to warrant an inquest. The coroner could not assume 

 that Smith was dead until other parts of his body were found. In a quiet 

 way (he was called "William the Silent" by reporters). Prior enlisted the 

 aid of Gilbert Percy Whitley, shark expert of the Australian Museum in 

 Sydney, and probably the first ichthyologist ever called into a murder 

 investigation. Whitley was asked to gather all possible scientific data on 

 the food and physiology of digestion of sharks, particularly the Tiger. 

 Prior knew that, if the case ever came to court, the Crown prosecutor 

 would have to tell an incredible tale. Only the scientific evidence Whitley 

 was gathering could make the tale credible to a jury. 



While the ichthyological phase of the murder investigation was 

 pressed by Whitley, detectives went about the more familiar job of look- 

 ing for a killer. The detectives soon unearthed a series of interesting facts: 

 (1) Smith, a pool-hall operator, had been involved in some seemingly 

 shady business deals with one Reginald William Holmes— a wealthy 

 Sydney boat-builder. When questioned by the police, Holmes admitted 

 knowing Smith and giving him money for business purposes. That was 

 all. (2) Smith had last been seen in the company of Patrick Brady. The 

 two men had stayed in a cottage in the fishing town of Cronulla. The 

 landlord reported that after they left the cottage, a trunk, a mattress, 

 some rope and sash cords were missing. (These articles were never seen 

 again.) He also stated that he had found a can of evil-smelling liquid in 

 the cottage, which he thought was blood. 



An alarm went out for Patrick Brady. After questioning him, the 

 police charged him with the murder of James Smith. Four days later the 

 police received a startling phone call: Reginald Holmes was racing his 

 boat around Sydney Harbor with a bullet in his head. When they caught 

 up with Holmes he was babbling incoherently— "Jimmy Smith is dead. 

 I'm nearly dead, and there is only one other left." But Holmes did not 

 die— then. An x-ray picture showed that a .32-caliber bullet had flattened 

 itself against the unusually thick frontal bone of his skull. He was re- 

 leased from the hospital several days later. That same night he was found 

 murdered in his car. 



Now the police had tu^o murders to deal with. The Crown's case 

 was shaky in each instance. It was almost impossible to make the charge 

 against Brady stick: there was no body; there was no known date of 

 death; there were no clues as to how Smith was murdered. Fingerprints 

 found in Holmes's car belonged to a business associate who admitted 

 using the car many times. Each man was tried and acquitted. 



To get a clearer idea of what happened to Smith and Holmes we 

 must return to the "avenging arm" disgorged bv the shark. What the 

 arm told was interpreted in this way: 



