Cattle stations. The vast nothingness of the Central Australian bush. The past. A potential wrong conviction. Police corruption. This case TRULY has all the trappings of an #EllenEpisode.

In 1958, Thyra Bowman, Wendy Bowman, and Thomas Whelan were murdered after they stopped to camp at the deserted Sundown Station just past the South Australia-Northern Territory border. All three victims had been beaten and shot. The police were on the lookout for an American-style vehicle towing a caravan that had been seen in the area on the day of the murders. In Mt Isa, Detective Glen Hallahan zeroed in on the vehicle of one Raymond John Bailey, an itinerant worker who had been seen in the area and who was carrying an unregistered rifle and driving a car that he obtained with questionable measures.

Bailey was tried and convicted for the murder of Thyra Bowman, but decades and one very in-depth police corruption inquiry later, questions have risen about whether Bailey actually committed the crime, or whether he was one of the many people who were coerced into confessing to crimes they didn’t commit by the corrupt Queensland police.

EPISODE NOTES:

Whether you believe that Bailey committed the crimes or not, there are a lot of discrepancies and unanswered questions in the case that may have given pause to a modern jury, particularly a jury that may be a bit more well-versed on the rights of people in police custody. This episode only dipped a toe into the extent of police corruption in Australia, and you can read more about Queensland in particular by searching the ‘Fitzgerald inquiry’ or reading any of Matthew Condon’s excellent books. You can also learn more about police treatment of Indigenous people here https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2020/jun/11/deaths-inside-how-we-track-indigenous-deaths-in-custody-and-why-we-do-it and here https://www.creativespirits.info/aboriginalculture/law/aboriginal-police-relations

To find out more about the Sundown Murders, please put on your reading glasses and head to Trove.nla.gov.au, your premier source for strongly-titled old-timey news articles! Some selected gems:

SUNDOWN MYSTERY: ARMED MEN READY https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=EtBYAAAAIBAJ&sjid=yOQDAAAAIBAJ&pg=5219,5301003&dq=whelan&hl=en

OUTBURST FROM GALLERY AT SUNDOWN TRIAL https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/91250781?searchTerm=%22raymond%20bailey%22&searchLimits=notWords|||requestHandler|||anyWords|||exactPhrase=raymond+bailey+|||dateTo=1958-06-30|||dateFrom=1958-01-01|||sortby=dateAsc

BAILEY FOUND GUILTY OF SUNDOWN MURDER

https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/91250953?searchTerm=%22raymond%20bailey%22&searchLimits=notWords|||requestHandler|||anyWords|||exactPhrase=raymond+bailey+|||dateTo=1958-06-30|||dateFrom=1958-01-01|||sortby=dateAsc

You can read more about Stephen Bishop and his petition to get Bailey posthumously pardoned here http://www.stevebishop.net/raymond-bailey-petition.html

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