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Gallows Ghosts? Mystery at Brisbane's Tower Mill

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Gallows Ghosts? Mystery at Brisbane's Tower Mill [ INVESTIGATIVE FILES JOE NICKELL Joe Nickell, PhD, is CSI’s senior research fellow. A former stage magician and private detective, he is author of numerous books, including The Science of Ghosts (2012). Gallows Ghosts? Mystery at Brisbane’s Tower Mill ccording to The Ghost Guide to of a survey party, including a number Australia (Davis 1998, 224), one of convicts, awoke at their bush camp Aor perhaps both of the ghosts of some thirty kilometers south of Mount two Aborigines—convicted of murder Lindesay. Surveyor Granville Stapy- and hanged at Tower Mill in Brisbane lton—who exhibited a low regard for in 1841—may still be seen there. indigenous people—sent five convicts Residents in the neighborhood in the to clear a passage over a creek while he mid-twentieth century reported that remained at camp with several Aborig- “sometimes when they looked up at inal men and two other convicts, Wil- the small window facing the street they liam Tuck and James Dunlop (Dawson could see a faint glow and a figure inside 2009, 12). the tower, swinging gently from side to Soon three of the Aborigines left side.” No sources are given, but vari- camp but returned with another, all now ous online sites repeat the claims (e.g., armed with spears. Two went to Sta- “Tower Mill Ghost” 2016), and Tower pylton’s tent and two to Tuck’s, while Mill is a stop—sometimes even a point yet another knocked the observing of origin—for ghost tours. Dunlop senseless with a waddy (a club). I became acquainted with the old Figure 1. Brisbane’s historic Tower Mill is reportedly When the work party returned from the tower (Figure 1) in October 2015 when haunted. (Sketch by Joe Nickell) creek about noon, they found Stapylton I stayed for several days at a hotel just and Tuck murdered. Abandoning the down the street from the historic site. (I was dismantled. injured Dunlop, they fled back toward was there to speak at the annual Austra- From its inception as a grist mill, the Brisbane. A group of thirty or so Ab- lian Skeptics National Convention, Oc- four-story structure became (at one time original men meanwhile returned to the tober 16–18, 2015, spending some two or another) a signal station, a fire tower, scene to strip the bodies and loot the weeks in Australia and New Zealand first home of the Queensland Museum, camp. One Aboriginal man came to and conducting several investigations.) a radio-experiment site, a pioneer televi- Dunlop’s aid, and he later managed to Here is my solution to the mystery of sion broadcasting tower, and (presently) crawl into the bush. The next evening, the ghosts in the tower. a weather observatory (“Old Windmill” exhausted and hungry, he ran into a 2015; Dawson 2009, 22). Once, of search party that had been alerted by the Background course, it briefly served as a gallows. fleeing convicts (Dunlop 1840). Tower Mill is the oldest remaining Murder A gruesome scene awaited the search- building in Brisbane. Constructed of ers. Tuck’s body had been stripped and sandstone blocks and brick in 1828, it There had been conflicts between the partially burned, while Stapylton’s was was at that time encircled (about a third Aborigines and British occupants of found so “torn and mangled” (possibly of the way up) by an exterior balcony. the penal colony of Moreton Bay since by the marauders’ dogs) that it could not The tower was built as a windmill for the 1800s. However, with the seizure of be legally identified. Three of five iden- grinding grain, especially corn. That was hundreds of square miles of Aboriginal tified Aboriginal suspects were captured. the main staple of the diet of convicts, land and the arrival of squatters in One died before trial, but two others, who were transported from Britain to 1840, the native people began a coordi- named Mullan and Ningavil, faced the Australian penal colonies (beginning nated response, largely involving attacks Sydney Supreme Court in May 1841. with Sydney in 1788). on livestock. To this powder keg, sur- The prosecution focused on the murder The mill was outfitted with veyors came waving firebrands. They of Tuck whose body had been identifi- wind-powered sails, but when these were intruding on Aboriginal land filled able, but, since it was impossible to say proved unreliable a treadmill, powered by with cultural sites (Dawson 2009, 4–6; who struck the death blow, the accused convicts, was installed. When the convict Chambers 1999, 131–139). were tried as accessories. They pro- settlement closed in 1842, the treadmill On Sunday, May 31, 1840, members claimed their innocence, but—although 12 Volume 40 Issue 3 | Skeptical Inquirer Dunlop swore they were not the at- 1993, 250) that “frequently protrudes located inside the structure, the source tackers—other convicts claimed to have from the mouth” (Spitz 1993, 463). This is typically not an interior one at all. seen them in the vicinity, and they were confirms reports of the “short drop” of Rather, as explained (with examples) in wearing clothes stolen from the camp. the hanging. my The Science of Ghosts, it is a celestial They were convicted and sentenced to It also casts further doubt on the or terrestrial light being reflected by the death (Dawson 2009, 12–20, 27). hanging-ghost story. Not only is that window glass (Nickell 2012, 113–114). This illusion has fooled many. Hanging often-repeated tale effectively discred- ited by the historical error of placing I conducted experiments at Tower The tower served as an improvised gal- the hanging inside the tower, but (and Mill on two successive nights. Various lows for the men’s hanging on Saturday this is a more subtle point) there was no effects are possible, such as the glow ap- morning, July 3, 1841. While ghost mention of the hanging ghost having parently emanating from the window in raconteurs more than a century later grotesque features—as did at least one of question shown in Figure 2, but are actu- would claim people had seen through the two executed Aborigines. Moreover, ally a reflection of a nearby light. a window a hanged man swinging back the description of the ghost does not give These experiments, along with his- and forth, it seemed to me unlikely the any indication that it was Aboriginal, torical research on the execution of two hanging was carried out inside the tower. and only a single ghost is mentioned. convicted murderers at the site, indicate That it stood on a hill suggested the that the reported ghostly phenomena at hanging was to be a very public display, Tower Mill are part of this—and not ■ not one hidden from view. some supernatural—world. I investigated and found that this Acknowledgments was indeed the case. The hanging was I am exceedingly grateful to John and Mary Frantz exterior to the tower, and a large crowd for their financial assistance, which helps make many of my investigations possible. I also thank gathered, including a hundred or so Ab- Ross Balch, president of Brisbane Skeptic Society, origines. The Foreman of Works in the for inviting me to Australia, and both Cassandra Brisbane settlement, Andrew Petrie, Perryman of Rainbow Beach, Queensland, and Tim Binga, CFI Libraries director, for crucial provided a strong round beam that he research assistance. extended from an upper window. The rope was hung from this beam, its noose References Figure 2. Experimental photograph recreates a dangling to the balcony. Possibly a trap- ghostly glow reported in one of the tower’s windows. Chambers, John H. 1999. Australia: A Traveller’s door was put in the floor, or, more likely, (Photo by Joe Nickell) History. Gloucestershire, Great Britain: The Windrush Press. the prisoners may have been dispatched Davis, Richard. 1998. The Ghost Guide to Australia. by pushing them off the balcony (Knight I suspect that the ghost tale—or Sydney, NSW, Australia: Bantam Books. 1892; Dawson 2009, 23). In any case, someone’s apparitional experience that Dawson, Christopher. 2009. The Hanging at the Brisbane Windmill. Fairfield Gardens, the drop was a short one, resulting in the inspired it—was prompted by knowl- Queensland, Australia: Boggo Road Gaol condemned being slowly strangled to edge of the fact of a hanging at the Historical Society. death. (In later executions a “long drop” tower, while, at the same time, that Dunlop, James. 1840. Deposition of June 7; cited in Dawson 2009, 13. was employed as a humane measure, knowledge was factually limited. Thus, Geberth, Vernon J. 1993. Practical Homicide allowing the body to fall far enough to like many other apparitional experiences Investigation, 2nd ed. Boca Raton, FL: CRC create a force sufficient to break the per- that have the ghost supposedly returning Press. Guiley, Rosemary Ellen. 2000. The Encyclopedia son’s neck.) “to reenact its death” (Guiley 2000, 150), of Ghosts and Spirits, 2nd ed. New York: A ten-year-old boy who watched the the Tower Mill tale is based on a false Checkmark Books. gruesome event was foremen Petrie’s re-creation and is therefore itself obvi- Knight, J.J. 1892. In the early days–XI. The Queenslander (Brisbane), February 27, 402– son, Tom. A convict led him by the hand ously false: apparently the work of some 403. Available online at http://nla.gov.au/ to one of the dead men’s coffins where he percipient’s faulty imagination or the cre- nla.news-article19821754; accessed January saw the man’s face. As Tom Petrie’s own ation of a writer of fakelore.
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