The Currie Tragedy - a case of domestic violence
Account of the deaths of Edith Alice Currie (nee Booth) and Hugh Currie
Drawn from newspapers of the day
6 January, 1920
The Acting-Sergeant of Police stationed at Barcaldine, Thomas Joseph Regan, at about 11am received a telephone call from Mrs Hall who said, “Mr Hall told me to ring you up and tell you that he had gone over to old Currie’s as something had happened there, and he wanted a policeman to go there”. He didn’t leave immediately as he expected Hall to come by and pick him up in his car.
Then Frank Hall himself rang and said, “For God’s sake, come down to old Currie’s, something dreadful has happened … murder, I believe”.
The Acting Sergeant instructed Constables Seary and Turner to go to old Paddy Curry’s on the motor bike. He followed on foot. There was a prisoner in the lockup, so he sent a message to Constable Ache to take charge of the station.
He found that nothing had happened at Paddy Curry’s place and ascertained there was another Currie place at the other end of town.
The three police officers immediately went there on the motor bike and side-car, where they met Frank Hall and Arthur Currie.
The five men walked into the house. In a bedroom at the back they saw the body of Edith Alice Currie.
The Scene
Edith was fully clothed, lying face down in a large pool of blood on the floor.
The top half of her body was covered with blood.
Sergeant Regan saw that the skull was fractured in several places on the front and behind the ears, on the right side, and the throat was cut from under the right ear across nearly to the left ear.
He estimated that she had been dead about half an hour as the body was cold.
There was a bloodstained claw hammer lying on the floor near her feet. Hair was visible on it. There was an empty razor case on the dressing table, but they couldn’t find any razor.
The glass in the two lower panes of the windows in the room was smashed to pieces, and there were traces of blood in the passage leading from the back of the house.
How it happened
On Friday, Edith came from Muttaburra to join her husband in Barcaldine, taking up their residence at the home of Hugh’s mother, in the eastern part of the town. Hugh’s two brothers, Arthur and Frank, were also residing there at the time as well as a sister, Mary, and a sister in-law, Mrs. Arthur Currie, and a couple of children.
There was apparently nothing wrong until Monday morning. Mary noticed Edith sitting very quietly on the verandah, and asked her if she was not well. The deceased said nothing, but nodded her head.
She had slept in the same room as her husband the previous night, and as far as anyone knew, there had been no row.
Shortly after, Hugh Currie came out and asked for a hammer and nails to fix the bed in his room, which he said
was shaking and wanted nailing up. Edith was in her bedroom and called out to Josie (10 year old daughter of his sister, Mary Hoare) as she was passing by to go into the bedroom. Just then, Hugh Currie, looking wild, went into the room and ordered the child out, locking the door after she left.
Almost immediately a loud argument could be heard from the room – Josie then heard her Aunt crying, and went and told her mother and another aunt, who were in the laundry. Edith called out, “He has locked me in, let me out.”
The two women went to the door and demanded to be let in, but failed to get the door opened. Mary threatened to break the door down with an axe if he didn’t let them in, to which Currie said, “If you do, it will be the end of you!”.
They could hear Edith crying, asking him to let her out.
Mrs Arthur Currie then went round to the window and heard Hugh Currie say three times apparently to Edith, “Will you come with me?”. Edith refused each time.
Mrs Arthur Currie then threatened to smash in the window. Through the lace curtains she saw Currie turn his wife around and strike at her. So she then smashed the glass with her bare hands. Mary was still at the door trying to force it open.
Edith was heard to fall.
Then the door burst opened, and Mary saw Currie, who had his back to her, strike a further blow to his wife. He then quickly turned around, his face nearly touching Mary’s. He was very excited, and seeing the two women -his sister and sister-in-law – he yelled out to Mrs. Arthur Currie, “You b—– b–ch! I’ll do the same for you!” and he made after them, brandishing the hammer in his hand.
The two women grabbed the children and ran off. Currie followed them for a distance before returning to the house and apparently cutting his wife’s throat. He then made off to the bush at the back of the house.
The Aftermath
Sergeant Regan interviewed Arthur and Frank Currie, Mrs Arthur Currie and Mary Hoare.
He had the body of Edith conveyed to the morgue, where the two doctors Cook examined it. Dr Cook, Snr, gave him a certificate of death.
He then assisted in the search for Hugh Currie.
Tracking down the accused
About 4 pm the three policemen were at the back of town and on Hugh Currie’s tracks when they met Mr Schneider who told them he and his boy had seen Currie out at the Alice about an hour before. Currie had been running about in the bush with no hat on, and when they called him he had taken off ‘like a shot’. He had apparently wandered out there during the course of the day.
Constables Seary and Turner went out the 4 miles to the Alice and the Sergeant went back to the station to get horses where, about 5 pm, he received a telephone call saying that Hugh Currie had been seen at the back of his brother Arthur’s house. Constable Ache and the Sergeant went at once to the house and met Arthur Currie at the front, who told them Hugh was down in the back yard.
They went down the yard to the first gate and there they found Hugh Currie, lying on the ground on his back.
His arms and legs were extended right out, and he had an open razor in his right hand. His throat was cut right across, the wind pipe was severed and he was breathing through the gash in his throat. The razor was bloodstained, and there were two pools of blood – one near the body and one two yards away.
Doctor Cook came soon after and bandaged the wound.
When his head was lifted Currie breathed through his nose. He suddenly opened his eyes and looked around at them.
Sergeant Regan said, “How are you?”
Currie replied, “All right”.
“Do you know how your wife is?”
“No”.
“Do you remember quarrelling with her this morning?”
“No”.
“When did you see her last?”
“Yesterday. Why, is anything wrong?”
“Yes”.
Currie then moved his hands (which were covered with blood and dirt) to his face and said, “Oh Jesus!”.
Sergeant Regan said, “You’ve cut yourself”.
“No, I’m all right. Giv’us a drink of water”.
Currie was then taken on the ambulance litter to the hospital, where Dr Cook attended to him.
An operation was immediately performed. Doctor Cook advised that this went well, but Currie had previously lost too much blood, and despite every effort, he collapsed and died at about 10 o’clock that night, an hour after the operation. Sergeant Regan was present.
The Inquest
The inquest heard that Hugh and Edith quarrelled and separated 10 weeks or so after their marriage, living apart after that time, for about 12 months.Hugh Currie had apparently heard rumours of misconduct on the part of Edith with other men. Sergeant Regan did not believe the rumours. The Police Magistrate, Mr R Curtis, hearing the case, remarked: “It was very easy for people to allege such things against women”.
Sergeant Regan believed that jealousy was the cause of Currie committing the crime as he was known to be of a very jealous disposition.
Mr Curtis said that doubtless the crime was committed during a temporary fit of insanity: no-one but a madman would have committed such a ferocious deed.
At the time of the murder, Hugh’s mother was seriously ill in the Barcaldine Hospital, and Edith’s father was seriously ill in the Muttaburra Hospital. He died soon after.
Mr Curtis was satisfied that Hugh Currie murdered his wife Edith by hitting her on the head with a claw hammer and cutting her throat with a razor. He then returned to his home after running wild in the bush from about 11 am till about 5:30 pm and cut his own throat, subsequently dying from his wound.
Edith Currie’s body was taken to St. Peter’s Church of England at about 10.30 a.m., and after a short burial service there the Rev. P. E. Demuth concluded the sad rites according to the Church of England at the graveside.
Mrs. Booth, Edith’s mother, had arrived in Barcaldine by car the previous afternoon, and attended the funeral of
her daughter. She left the same day for Muttaburra.
The funeral of Hugh Currie left his mother’s residence at 5.30 p.m. Mr. T. Leyland read the burial service at the graveside.
So, Hugh and Edith were buried on the same day – 6 January 1920 – in the Barcaldine cemetery. [Edith in plot 400. Hugh in plot 158].
Hugh Currie
Son of John and Catherine Currie, Barcaldine
25 years old
Shearer and labourer
Married Edith Alice Booth in Muttaburra over 12 months prior to the murder
Edith Alice Currie
(nee Booth)
Daughter of Robert, storekeeper, and Mrs Booth, Muttaburra
22 years and nine months old, born in Muttaburra
Living apart from her husband, Hugh Currie
No living children from marriage
