The autopsy on Graeme Thorne’s body was conducted on 17 August 1960, the day after it had been found at Seaforth, by Government Pathologist Dr John Laing, with the assistance of Dr Clarence Percy, who had inspected the body at the scene where it had been found. Their findings enabled conclusions to be drawn as to the cause of death. Their examination disclosed that there was ‘a patch of abrasions’ on the right side of Graeme’s neck, but no fracture of the hyoid bone, situated at the front of the neck and easily susceptible to injury in the event of strangulation. There were ‘scattered surface haemorrhages’ inside Graeme’s lungs and upper air passages, consistent with asphyxiation. Graeme’s stomach was empty, indicating that death had occurred ‘at least some hours’ after he had eaten his breakfast; however, because the body had been found a considerable time after his death, a more precise timing was not possible from the autopsy alone. Dr Laing found a wound to the back of Graeme’s head with an underlying fracture of the skull, indicating the use of ‘considerable force’. The battering of Graeme’s head had caused a cerebral haemorrhage: bleeding from blood vessels within or around the lining of the brain, thereby indicating that Graeme had still been alive at the time of the blow. Over a period of time, this bleeding within the confines of the skull causes intense pressure on the brain stem, which controls breathing and heartbeat and, without medical intervention, will eventually lead to death. Both Dr Laing and Dr Percy concluded that Graeme’s death had been due to either blunt force trauma to the head or asphyxiation, or both.1
In order to further the investigation, it was imperative for the police to know whether Graeme had been killed soon after his abduction or whether he had been kept prisoner for any substantial time. To advance this aspect of the case, certain parts of the body and clothing were sent to other experts to ascertain if they could assist.
Professor Neville White, the professor of plant pathology in the Faculty of Agriculture at Sydney University, examined under a microscope a yellow-green mould known as Aspergillus repens that had developed on the heels of Graeme’s shoes. He discovered that this distinctive mould had reached what is known as the ‘sex spore stage’ of development. After examining the mean daily temperatures during the weeks between the kidnapping and the finding of the body, Professor White came to the conclusion that the shoes had not been walked on for at least four weeks prior to the body being found. Professor White also examined the socks Graeme had been wearing. Under the microscope, the professor found that they had decomposed from the actions of a primitive nematode – a type of worm. By assessing the number of nematodes on the socks – and again with knowledge of the prevailing temperatures – Professor White determined that the socks had not been walked on for somewhere between thirty-five and forty-five days prior to the body being found. As Graeme had been abducted forty days prior to the discovery of his body, these observations strongly suggested that he had been killed and his body dumped quite soon after his abduction. Deterioration of the body from blowfly larvae indicated death at least three weeks prior to the testing, which supported the estimates derived from the mould and the nematodes.
Other pieces of circumstantial evidence supported the scientific assessment of the timing of Graeme’s death. His school tie was still as his mother had tied it just before he left home for school. His coat was still fully buttoned and two handkerchiefs in his trouser pockets were still folded in their laundered state. These additional facts, together with his untouched lunchbox, were indicative of his death having occurred several hours after his abduction. The information about the timing of Graeme’s death was disclosed to Bazil and Freda Thorne in the hope that it might assist them to know that their son had not suffered for more than a few hours, however it was not disclosed to the public.
A few days after the autopsy, Detective Sergeant Alan Clarke of the Police Scientific Investigation Bureau carefully examined all of the items found with Graeme’s body. His role was as the coordinating crime scene officer, however at the time there was no such position title. He minutely examined each item of physical evidence that had been found at Grandview Grove and made the decision whether it should be passed on to another expert and, if so, to whom.
Extensive enquiries were made about the picnic rug, which disclosed that it was one of approximately 3,000 of its kind manufactured by the Onkaparinga Company in Adelaide. This particular rug showed signs of considerable wear, and a number of its tassels were missing. From both Graeme’s clothing and the picnic rug, Detective Sergeant Clarke scraped off tiny specimens of leaves, seeds and general vegetable matter. He took samples of soil from Graeme’s coat, trousers, socks, shoes and the scarf that had been wrapped around his neck. Other officers in the Scientific Bureau found hairs on the rug and on Graeme’s clothing, which were taken for further examination to Dr Cameron Cramp, a microbiologist at the Medico-Legal Laboratory at the Department of Health in Sydney.
After carefully examining the leaves, seeds and vegetable matter, Sergeant Clarke went to the vacant lot next to 16 Grandview Grove with a botanist from the Royal Botanic Gardens, who confirmed what Sergeant Clarke had suspected – that the plant material did not come from that lot. Sergeant Clarke concluded that it was likely to have come from the location where Graeme had been killed or where his body had been secreted after his death and before it was dumped.
Sergeant Clarke next consulted with another botanist at the Royal Botanic Gardens, Dr Joyce Vickery, to identify the type of plants that the leaves and seeds had come from. Dr Vickery called together all the botanists at the Botanic Gardens and with their combined knowledge they were able to identify the plant material as coming from two varieties of cypress: Chamaecyparis pisifera (Sawara cypress) and Cupressus glabra (Arizona smooth bark cypress). The former was quite widespread in Sydney, but the latter was rather uncommon. The combination of the two growing in close proximity to each other was likely to be rare.
When the Police Scientific Investigation Bureau officers examined the soil samples taken from Graeme’s coat, trousers, the soles of his shoes, and from the knotted section of the scarf around his neck, they noticed that they included minute fragments of a pink-and-white, sand-like substance. One of the investigating police suggested that this might be mortar. Sergeant Clarke took the soil samples to Mr Horace Whitworth, the senior curator at the Geological and Mining Museum in George Street North in the city, who confirmed that the material was indeed limestone mortar. The even distribution of the pink-and-white mortar on the clothing indicated that Graeme’s body must have been laid on its back in an area where the mortar was evenly distributed on the surface, suggesting an area under or near to the foundations of a building.
Dr Cameron Cramp conducted a close examination of the hairs found on the picnic rug and Graeme’s clothing, and found both animal and human hairs. The animal hairs were microscopically examined and found to have the characteristics of dog hair. The human hairs were of three distinct types, including one that had been treated with a reddish henna rinse.
By the beginning of September 1960, with the identification of the two types of cypress tree, the pink-and-white mortar and the human and dog hairs, police had six significant pieces of information about the man who was most probably the kidnapper. They knew he:
• spoke with a foreign accent
• had the use of a 1955 blue Ford Customline
• had access to a building with pink-and-white mortar
• had access to a building near two varieties of cypress tree
• probably lived with a woman who used a red henna rinse and
• probably had a dog.
In mid-September, the police made the belated decision to focus their enquiries more intensely on the suburbs near to where Graeme Thorne’s body and schoolbag had been found. Sergeant Clarke instructed two police officers, Detective Sergeant Mick Coleman and Detective Constable J. Shiel, to conduct a rigorous, street-by-street search of Seaforth and its environs, looking for houses made with pink mortar in combination w
ith the two types of cypress tree. He provided them with a sample sprig from each of the two trees. The two officers conducted a concerted search of the streets of Seaforth and neighbouring suburbs, which occupied them for several weeks, with many sightings of one or two parts of the equation, but never of all three.
Finally, on 3 October, Constable Shiel went to the Balgowlah Post Office, which covered mail deliveries to Seaforth, Clontarf, Balgowlah and adjoining suburbs, and asked all the post deliverymen to keep an eye out when delivering the mail for a house with all three features. Later that very day, an observant postman noticed that number 28 Moore Street, Clontarf had pink mortar in the brickwork of the foundations and both types of cypress tree in the garden. He immediately notified the police of his discovery, and Sergeant Coleman and Constable Shiel quickly attended the address, where they were thrilled to see that all three characteristics were present. For abundant caution, they asked Dr Vickery to attend the house to verify the identity of the trees, which she did.
Coleman and Shiel reported their findings to their superior officers. Police were given entry to the house by the new owner, Mr Palmer, and a more detailed inspection disclosed that there was easy access through an opening in the rear wall of the garage to a dark, damp alcove within the house foundations. Thankfully, Mr Palmer had not yet got around to cleaning the garage after taking possession of the house nearly three months earlier. Numerous fragments of twigs, seeds and leaves from the two cypress trees had been blown into the garage and the alcove. In the alcove, police could also see abundant fragments of pink-and-white mortar on the bare ground. It was quickly ascertained that the male occupant at the time of the kidnapping, Stephen Bradley, was a man with a foreign accent who had previously been interviewed as a Ford Customline owner. The police were dismayed, however, to learn that Bradley had departed Australia with his wife and children just eight days earlier.
All the characteristics of this house and its previous occupant matched the profile of the killer, and it was only two miles from where the body had been dumped. Surely, this could not all be mere coincidence! Only now did the police revisit the information that had earlier been provided by the Telfords about their neighbour in Moore Street and by Mr Browne about his neighbour in Osborne Road.
The following day, the police went to a Granville car yard where they found Bradley’s Ford Customline. Inside the boot, Detective Sergeant Clarke found a hairbrush with loose hairs, and there were more hairs on the floor inside the car. These were sent to Dr Cramp at the Medico-Legal Laboratory in the Department of Health for comparison with the hairs from the picnic rug. A close inspection of the spare-tyre well in the boot of the car disclosed soil and vegetable matter that appeared visually to be similar to what had been found on Graeme Thorne’s clothing and the rug in which his body had been wrapped.
Subsequent testing of the car boot disclosed that if Graeme had been conscious and otherwise unharmed, and if his mouth had not been gagged, there was a sufficient intake of air into the boot to ensure his survival. However, with the scarf around his mouth and the boot lid closed, he was at risk of dying from asphyxiation. The blow to his head created a slow bleed which gradually reduced his capacity to breathe even further, causing Graeme to veer towards death.
On 5 October, Sergeant Clarke took numerous specimens of soil, twigs, leaves, seeds and mortar from the garage and the alcove of 28 Moore Street. He also took possession of a piece of twine he found hanging on the back fence, which appeared to be very similar to the twine that had been wrapped around Graeme’s wrists and ankles. On the same day, the Goggomobil previously owned by Stephen Bradley was located and inspected. More hairs were found on the floor of that car, and they also were sent to Dr Cramp. The following day, Detective Sergeant Coleman and Detective Constable Shiel went to Mr Mauer’s second-hand furniture shop and took possession of the vacuum cleaner and carpet that Bradley had sold. The vacuum cleaner bag and the carpet contained hairs of several types and colours, which were also forwarded to Dr Cramp.
On 7 October, Dr Cramp examined all of the hairs that had been submitted to him, and found both human and canine hairs. When he compared the canine hairs from Bradley’s two cars with those found on the rug and Graeme’s clothing, he discovered that both sets of hairs came from the same breed of dog.
On that same day, following information from neighbours at Clontarf that Bradley had owned a Pekinese dog, police were able to locate Cherie, who had been left at Stewart’s Veterinary Hospital at Rushcutters Bay pending transfer to England. Dr Cramp collected comparison samples of hair from Cherie and from about ninety other dogs of varying breeds. He compared these to the hairs found on the picnic rug, looking at length, fineness, curve, colour and character. He concluded that it was highly probable that the dog hairs on the rug came from a Pekinese dog and that they were indistinguishable from the hairs taken from Cherie.
The human hairs, which had been found on the picnic rug, on Graeme’s clothing and on the scarf around the boy’s neck, were compared by Dr Cramp to hairs found in the boot of the Ford Customline, in the Goggomobil, in the vacuum cleaner bag, and on the carpet sold to Mr Mauer. The comparison enabled Dr Cramp to conclude that there were three types of human hair on the body and that they were indistinguishable from the three types of hair found in the Customline, the Goggomobil, the vacuum cleaner bag and on the carpet.
In addition, a red colouration found on several human hairs on the rug was consistent with a henna hair rinse that Magda Bradley had used. Bazil and Freda were kept informed of the progress of the investigation, but it was also explained to them that a difficult and protracted process lay ahead if Bradley was to be apprehended and brought back to Australia to face trial. None of these findings was disclosed to the public.
By this stage – only four days after the discovery of 28 Moore Street, Clontarf – the scientists had weaved a cogent, convincing, circumstantial case against Stephen Bradley. However, the police also wanted direct proof, as the combination of the two types of evidence would be virtually irrefutable. So, on 8 October police showed Freda and Bazil Thorne an array of photographs, which included one of Stephen Bradley. Both were readily able to identify him as the man who had come to their door purporting to be a private enquiry agent on 14 June, about three weeks before Graeme’s abduction. This was the first piece of direct evidence, as opposed to circumstantial evidence, to link Stephen Bradley to the kidnapping. On the same day, Cecil Denmeade and his former fiancée – now wife – Dorothea, were shown the same array of photographs and they were able to say that the man they had seen getting out of the blue Ford was ‘similar’ to the photo of Bradley.
On 12 October, Sergeant Clarke went to the Bradleys’ former flat at Manly and located a calico bag tied with string that appeared very similar to the string that had been tied around the picnic rug covering Graeme Thorne’s body. Several days later, the Bradleys’ former neighbour at Manly, Neville Browne – who three weeks earlier had tried to alert the police to his suspicions about Stephen Bradley – located some loose, processed film negative strips that had been thrown away in the garden behind the block of flats. He handed these over to the police, who printed them. One of the photographs showed Magda Bradley sitting on a rug that was remarkably similar to the one that had been wrapped around Graeme Thorne’s body.
Also on 12 October, a police officer flew to Adelaide with the picnic rug to confirm with the manufacturers, Onkaparinga, that it had been made by them. He then flew to Melbourne, where he interviewed Jacob Fogel, who had been friends with Magda while she was married to Gregor Weinberg. Fogel identified the picnic rug as a gift he had given Magda in 1955 when her son, Ross, was born. By now, the police were convinced that they had successfully identified the owner of the rug that had been used by the kidnapper.
Several days later, Sergeant Clarke, along with colleagues from the Police Scientific Bureau, returned to the house in Moore Street, and again closely inspected the garage and alcove. On the garage floor, in am
ong sweepings, they located a thread of woollen material that appeared to be identical to the threads of the tassels on the picnic rug; it should be remembered that the picnic rug wrapped around Graeme Thorne was missing some of its tassels. The noose was tightening even further.
A day or two later, Detective Sergeant Clarke took various pieces of evidence to Malcolm Chaikin, the Professor of Textile Technology at the University of New South Wales. These included: the picnic rug, the twine that had been tied around Graeme’s wrists and ankles, the string that had been wrapped around Graeme’s body to keep the rug in place, the calico bag with string from the Manly flat, the twine that had been found hanging over the back fence at Clontarf, the piece of tassel from the swept rubbish pile in the garage at Clontarf, and various other items. Professor Chaikin and a team of assistants conducted numerous examinations and tests on these exhibits, from which they concluded that the twine from around Graeme’s wrists and ankles was identical to the twine found in the backyard at Clontarf; that the string from around the body was indistinguishable from the string on the calico bag; and that the thread from the garage was identical to the threads in the tassels on the picnic rug.
On 14 October, Mr Horace Whitworth, the curator of the Geological and Mining Museum in Sydney, certified that the pink-and-white mortar in the samples from the garage and alcove at Clontarf was identical to the mortar on the clothing and other items found on Graeme Thorne’s body, and also to the material taken from the boot of the Ford Customline.
The police located the firm of removalists that had picked up the Bradleys’ furniture from Clontarf on the day of Graeme’s kidnapping. One of the men who had done the job that day, Gordon Barker, recalled that Stephen Bradley had not allowed them to go into the garage, which was locked, and instead insisted on bringing out various items from the garage himself.
A Clontarf real estate agent, Roy Burling, recalled that he had shown Stephen and Magda Bradley five homes in late June, and that one of them was at 16 Grandview Grove, Seaforth.
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