Extract from The Folklore of Western Australia Edited by Marc Glasby
Victor McCaskell, his wife and baby had a farm about 14 miles from Bruce Rock back in 1930. Helping on the farm was a young worker called William Frederick Francis ‘Billy’ Halbert aged 17yrs. McCaskell complained to his neighbors about Billy’s behavior and had apparently talked about firing him, only to be threatened by Halbert afterwards.
On December 30th 1930 Jack Rae, (a neighbor). saw Victor running through the paddock towards him carrying a small bundle. As he got closer Rae was horrified to see that it was Victor’s baby covered in blood. McCaskell said that he had finally had enough of Halbert and had told him to finish up what work he had to do and then leave the farm. McCaskell had gone off to complete his daily tasks and had returned in the afternoon to find his wife and baby dead and Halbert hanging from the front porch in an apparent murder/suicide.
The post mortem told that Mrs McCaskell died from a wound in the face from a blow from an axe, death would have been instantaneous. Further injuries were inflicted on her body post mortem. The baby was also killed with the axe and suffered terrible injuries.
Eva McCaskell – Call News-Pictorial – Perth 9 January 1931, page 1
The police began an investigation and slowly it looked like things just didn’t add up. During the autopsy it was found that Halbert was already in an advanced stage of rigor mortis but that McCaskell’s wife (Eva Trena McCaskell nee LLOYD) and baby (Robin Victor McCaskell) were not. Very strange as Halbert was supposed to have died AFTER them.
It was also noted that the rope mark around Halbert’s neck formed a complete circle, as if he had been strangled rather than hung. When the police examined the rope, they found that if Halbert had had it around his neck he could have stood on the veranda with six inches of slack rope to spare. Lastly they also found that the box he was supposed to have stood on and kicked away was too heavy to have been moved in such a manner.
Victor McCaskell – Truth – Perth 11 January 1931, page 11
Another neighbor stated that he had visited McCaskell’s farm the afternoon of the murders and found Halbert lying dead on the porch but there was no sign of a rope around his neck. McCaskell was kept under watch by the police in the local hotel but as time progressed he became more and more agitated. Finally he made a break for it and took off in a car towards his farm. The police gave chase but couldn’t keep up and McCaskell reached the farm first. Abandoning his car McCaskell ran away on foot behind a hay stack and as the police gave chase again there was a violent explosion from the far side of the stack. McCaskell had apparently hidden a stick of TNT in the hay and now that the game was up, he put it in his mouth and lit the fuse!
A fitting end for an evil man.
The motive? Just money.
McCaskell had taken out a two thousand pound life insurance policy on his wife two months earlier. The Coroner recorded that McCaskell committed the murders while he was insane but the cold calculated way he set Halbert up, strangled him and then waited several more hours before brutally slaying his own wife and child show that the murders were in fact anything but a spur of the moment act of insanity.
Further Reading: The Ardath Murders
Moya Sharp
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