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On this week in... 1936

Three's a crowd

On 30 April 1936, miner Ernest John Taylor was to be tried for the willful murder of Hector Alexander McDonnell, a construction-worker on the railways. Taylor had lodged at Yalgoo with McDonell and his wife, Rose Marie McDonnell. It was alleged that Taylor and Rose Marie McDonnell had been having an affair and conspired together to murder Hector McDonnell by arsenic. Perhaps in an attempt to put pressure on one to give evidence against the other, it was decided that the two defendants would be tried separately, with the widow’s trial to be held first. Despite evidence that she had bought arsenic powder in the days prior to her husband’s death and failed to send for medical help during his final illness, Rose Marie McDonnell was found not guilty. In light of this verdict, the Crown decided not to proceed against Taylor.

This trial report is from Western Argus

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