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Book details
  • Genre:TRUE CRIME
  • SubGenre:Murder / General
  • Language:English
  • Pages:219
  • eBook ISBN:9781483555652

The Murder of Nellie Duffy

by Stephanie Bennett

Book Image Not Available Book Image Not Available
Overview
It is 1908 in far north Queensland on remote Carpentaria Downs. A popular and fun loving housekeeper-companion is found dead, her throat slit. The station-owners wife, Fanny Wilson, and an Aboriginal station hand, Billy, are arrested and are brought to trial. The trial fails amongst accusations of police incompetence and high-level cover-ups, and the murder is never solved. Stephanie Bennett has spent years researching the available archives, and interviewing relatives as well as travelling to Far North Queensland herself. In this vivid account of life on a remote cattle station at the turn of last century, the life on Carpentaria Downs is laid bare and the murder and subsequent trial are examined. But questions remain. Why do rumours and accusations persist to this day? Why was Nellie Duffy killed? Indeed, who killed Nellie Duffy?
Description
In 1908, on Queensland’s remote Carpentaria Downs station the vibrant Nellie Duffy was found dead, her throat slit. Fanny Wilson, wife of the station manager, and Billy, an Aboriginal station-hand, were charged with the murder. The high profile trial failed. The truth never surfaced. Newspaper headlines screamed of a high- level cover-up, and calls for a parliamentary inquiry went unheeded. Who was responsible for killing this popular housekeeper and companion to Fanny Wilson? Among the many suspects was Fanny's husband, the station boss Henry Wilson, known to police via allegations of cattle stealing and cruelty to Aborigines. For almost a century, the legend surrounding this callous murder has lingered, fuelled by tales of adultery, family secrets, racial exploitation, brutality and police bungling. In The Murder of Nellie Duffy, Stephanie Bennett narrates a fascinating tale and presents a compelling exercise in forensic reconstruction. Along the way she tackles the questions: What evidence was hushed up? Why do rumours that persist in the vast North tell a different story from the one the public was allowed to hear? Stephanie Bennett takes us on to Carpentaria Downs and paints a vivid portrayal of station life on a remote cattle property in colonial far North Queensland. So accurate is her reconstruction, that this book has been used in schools as a true account of life in the Colonial Gulf region of Australia. But the questions remain. Why was Nellie Duffy killed? Indeed, who killed Nelly Duffy?
About the author
Stephanie Bennett is an Australian author and writer of two published books about unsolved colonial murders : The Gatton Murders, and The Murder of Nellie Duffy. A retired dentist, Stephanie has spent over 30 years delving into the murky past of Australia’s colonial outposts; through painstaking and scholarly research of the historical records, by visiting locations and by talking to surviving relatives of victims and suspects. The result has been enthralling accounts of the crimes, an authentic feeling of life in remote Australia of Colonial times, and most importantly, credible suspects for the atrocities. Stephanie has been the subject of magazine articles and radio shows, she has spoken widely to clubs and historical societies and has been the subject of two television specials. Stephanie has written three e-books: The Gatton Murders: A true Story of Lust, Vengeance and Vile Retribution; The Killer with 300 Names: 1898, The Scandalous Escape of the Gatton Murderers; and The Murder of Nellie Duffy. Stephanie is currently finishing the biography of Charles Frederick Urquhart, a man at the heart of these murders and infamous for his control of the Kalkadoon Aborigines.