EXECUTED ON .......... 26th of March 1900 William Robert Jones, aged under 40 was executed at Old Melbourne gaol The charred and mutilated body of eight-year-old Olive Rita Lillian Jones was discovered at Broadford on the 28th of December 1899. She had been raped, strangled, and her skull was smashed to pulp. Rita had stayed with her grandparents and left home on the 26th of December for the purpose of buying lollies and apricots at a shop half a mile distant, but did not return. She was last seen near Dohertys butchers shop, halfway between her grandparents home and the shop. Her dead body was found in a fowlhouse at the back of Dohertys butchering establishment. William Robert Jones, a butcher employed at Dohertys (and not related to the victim), was at once under suspicion of the murder and was arrested on the 2nd of January 1900. Jones had been seen in the fruit shop, asking Rita her name and tickling her under the chin. A neighbour sitting on her veranda overlooking Dohertys premises later observed that smoke was coming from the chimney attached to the boilers, more than usual, and that Jones was about the boiling-down house. Jones was found guilty of murder at the Criminal Court in Melbourne and sentenced to death on the 21st of February 1900. He was hanged at Melbourne Gaol at 10am on the 26th of March 1900.
Posted on: Wed, 02 Jul 2014 05:56:31 +0000
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