Murder in a Mining Camp

Murder In a Gold Mining Camp

Murderers I Have Known,
by Harry Mann, ex-Chief of the C.I.B., Perth,
as told to Max Praed

Boom days on the Murchison goldfields! What a picture that calls up, to us who remember the richness and the wickedness! of those roaring times! Cue was a boom town in those days of 1906 when my story opens, with hundreds of miners, prospectors and dryblowers living around that district, each man fighting the hard earth to wrest some part of its golden riches!

In those days Cue meant Gold. The township attracted to it personalities from all parts of Australia – some “big men” in every sense of the word. It is a happy reminder of those days to recall a few of the men who were known, to everybody.

There was Jim Chesson (“The Flamer”) and his brother Tom. There was Bill Heyden, Jim Maloney, Alec McLean, and Sandy Mitchell of the road board. Also Jock Campbell, Palfreyman, and Tobin (of the legal profession), the Clarkson’s, Bob Allen, and Harry Marshall, of the Brewery, the “Father of Football” in the town.

Three miles away from Cue was Day Dawn, with the Great Fingall pay-sheet of just on a thousand names, Then there was the Cue and a score of other shows, all producing big returns of gold. On the tableland were scores of dry blowers, most of them hardy veterans. To these stalwarts of mining and prospecting, Cue was the home town. Barnes and Mahoney were the big storekeepers in Austin-street, and on Saturday afternoons the store was crowded with men buying their weekly or monthly supply of tucker.

Regular amongst them was an old prospector from the tableland, who, because of his good nature and learning, was respected by everyone. It was said that he had been educated for the Church, but beyond that nothing was known of him. He was plain “Mick” Naughton to everyone in Cue.

On Saturday June 9, 1906, Mick put 30 ounces of gold into the Union Bank for an assay. Many thought he had been paid in full, but in reality he had only drawn two pounds – two new banknotes. Then he went to Barnes and Mahoney’s store. They had sold out to Brown and Mitchell, and were going to Mt Magnet, so there was a settlement between Barnes and Mick, in which Mick drew two pounds –

two more new Australian bank notes.

On the following day the Cue Football Club were playing Day Dawn, Both teams were as keen as mustard, and the game drew great crowds. On this day the game was at the Dawn, and Cue was deserted till about six o’clock in the evening. When the Cueites returned to their camps and were just settling down to tea. Suddenly every camp was start-led by the sound of four gunshots which seemed to come from the direction of Mick Naughton’s camp. There was a rush to the camp. One of the first to reach the spot was Tom Chesson who found Mick lying dead at the door of his camp.

Unfortunately, the big crowd milling around the vicinity of the camp destroyed all tracks. It would have been bad business for the murderer if he had been caught that night. The well-liked and respected old dryblower had been shot in cowardly fashion at his camp, and that would have been enough for his mates. Then started a long search covering hundreds of miles. Harry Sampson went up with his push bike, and on his application I followed ten days later. Sampson was a great mate, and a great bike rider. No journey was beyond him, and you could depend on the result, too.

Aziz Wren was an early suspect, and his camp was searched. We were looking for gold specimens, gold slugs, a gold ring, and bank-notes, which had been stolen from Mick’s camp. The thief had undoubtedly expected to get the money for the gold that Mick had deposited at the bank the previous day. Caught in the act by Mick on his return from the football match, and known to him, he had brutally shot and killed the old prospector.

Sampson had Wren in custody, charged with being of unsound mind. When I arrived there was strong suspicion, but we agreed that if we kept him we would not get the evidence to prove the crime. We therefore asked the court for his discharge. We had covered hundreds of miles in investigations, and had followed every report, when one evening I was told that Wren had sold some gold, including some broken pieces of manufactured gold. Half an hour later I was in possession of the first bit of real evidence regarding the identity of the murderer.

Paul Buckholz, now of Perth, put those pieces together, and Barnes identified them as similar to the ring that he had returned to Mick on the afternoon before he was killed. As Sampson was away, I had a chat with Sub-Inspector Mitchell and Warden Troy, and obtained a warrant to arrest Wren on the following day. Scores of times in the intervening months I had chatted with him, but when I approached him he immediately rushed at me and started a struggle. I cannot say how it would have ended but for Tom Oates and his son coming to my assistance. I conveyed Wren to the Cue lockup. On being charged with the crime he replied:

“Yes! He was a Catholic, and I killed him!”

Another search of Wren’s camp and a revolver came to light, which was proved to be the one from which the bullets were fired that killed Mick Naughton and two bank-notes found in Wren’s camp were proved to be the ones given to Mick by Barnes on that fateful Saturday.

AZIZ WREN, (28yrs), was a man of mystery. None knew who he was or whence he came. He mixed with none, was a lonely, friendless man. In his camp I found a diary with many strange entries regarding himself. The most extraordinary was one describing his parentage. He wrote that he was the offspring of a snake that had cohabited with his mother. Evidence at the trial disclosed a well-planned, cruel murder, for the purpose of robbery. The jury found him guilty of wilful murder, but added a rider that the diary disclosed an unbalanced, insane mind.

Ahaz Wren – The Accused – Murchison Times and Day Dawn Gazette 3 November 1906, page 2

Through releasing him after his first arrest his subsequent actions established his guilt. It further established the correctness of the theory that murderers are possessed of unbalanced minds, and are incapable of measuring correctly their means of hiding their crimes. Every attempt is from a wrong angle, and breaks down under microscopic examination. Wren had satisfied himself he had covered his tracks, but everything he did left a photograph. Wren has also constructed for himself a crude set of armour which he wore like a vest and was made of sheet metal covered with cloth plus a hat of similar construction.

The clearest picture of all, however, was the one he left in his diary. For it was there, after all the evidence had been sifted, that we could see the picture of an insane, perverted mind, the mind of a murderer. For the sexual fantasy he had of being the son of a snake is one that reveals unmistakably the depth and extent of his hatred of life and of his fellow man. This was the disease in the mind of Aziz Wren that remained dormant until it was aroused by greed and hatred, which caused him to kill a kindly old man who had done him no harm, and which finally branded him a murderer.

Post Note: In December of 1906 at trial Wren was found ‘Not Guilty on the grounds of Insanity’. He was first detained at his majesty’s pleasure in Fremantle gaol and then transferred to Claremont Insane Asylum where is died in 1933 aged 55yrs. He is buried in the Karrakatta Cemetery in Perth. I have been able to find no details at all  on his life. His name may have been assumed.