Tragedies and Suicides – The Dark History of Mt Coot-Tha Part Two
The Mystery of the Unknown Man
1929 saw more tragedy and mystery fall upon the majestic mountain that overlooks the beautiful city of Brisbane. The most bizarre of the findings was the body of an unidentified man close to the famous lookout kiosk at the summit of the mountain. What was odd about this finding on the 26th of June 1929 was the fact that the man, whose identity is still a mystery to this day, had been dead for over six months yet was so close to a major picnic and tourist destination for the city. On that Wednesday morning two friends, William Sharp and Clement Brown, were walking very close to the famous kiosk when they came across the body hanging from a tree. The man was hanging by a leather strap from a branch of the tree and was dressed in an expensive tailored suit, indicating that he was a man of some wealth. Immediately both men ran to the kiosk and called upon the Toowong Police who removed the body and transported it to the morgue. An autopsy revealed that the body was in a severe state of decomposition and must have been hanging from the tree for at least six months. Due to the amount of time that had passed since the man’s death, the only identifiable item in his pockets was a handkerchief. There were no records of a man fitting his description being missing in the months prior to his finding and, although it was close to the kiosk and on a popular walking track, nobody had seen or even noticed the smell of the body for the six months he had been hanging there. There was no suicide note or indication of foul play, nor were there any indications of how the man had come to be there considering that no cars were left abandoned nor did any taxi driver recall a man fitting the description being driven anywhere close to the lookout.
Double Suicide
Oddly, at the very time that this case was being covered, another double suicide was occurring at the bottom of the mountain. Yet again, this double death was near the entrance to J.C. Slaughter Falls. In fact, the very same Police officers were called to this case as the previous one and would, indeed, have passed the site of the suicide on their way to investigated the man at the summit kiosk without realising what they were passing.
On the morning of the 26th of June 1929, as William and Clement were discovering the body up at the summit, Mr J. McCullough left for work but noticed a fancy limousine parked just down the road. He thought nothing of it at the time but did note that the car was still there that night. On the Thursday morning, noting that the expensive car was still there, he walked over to investigate. Looking into the limousine, he noted that there was nobody in the driver’s seat. Tragically, as he looked into the back of the car, he noticed the bodies of a man and a woman. They were clearly dead. He immediately called the Police who began the investigation. It was a busy week for the Toowong Police.
The deceased man was thirty year old Percy Harvey who was found seated slumped down in the back seat with his arm around his deceased girlfriend, twenty eight year old Amy Davidson. In the back with them was an empty bottle of gin, another of lemonade and two bottles of strychnine and a tumbler which had pink crystals at the bottom of it. It turned out that Amy, who was in the employ of a family as a live-in maid, had not been seen since leaving for a day out. Percy had hired a limousine for the day and then stopped at a chemist on Queen Street to buy the strychnine. According to the family that Amy worked for, she was a pleasant and happy young woman who seemed in love. Percy was a taxi driver who had been having difficulty getting work. The inquiry showed that the two of them had driven to Mount Coot-Tha and parked oddly close to where Reginald Vaughan had parked with Cecelia less than two years previously. Some time on the Tuesday night the couple mixed their poisoned drinks, took a drink and then lay in each other’s arms which is how they were found on the Thursday. The apparent motive for the suicide was a lack of work for Percy.
This was just another dark chapter in the story of Mount Coot-Tha. A chapter that sounds so horrible but is merely a prelude to what was to come.
This was just another dark chapter in the story of Mount Coot-Tha. A chapter that sounds so horrible but is merely a prelude to what was to come.