ALLEGED STATEMENT. “DECIDED TO KILL WIFE AFTER QUARREL AT WEDDING”

BRISBANE, January 14. Plainclothes Constable L. White said in Court today that John Erasmus Willis (58, labourer) told him that he decided to kill his wife following a quarrel at a wedding breakfast they attended at Spring Hill.

Willis told him that after the woman’s body had been found on a vacant allotment at Moorooka, on the night of December 24. “I know what I have done, but I made up my mind to put an end to It all. She was always quarrelling, and accusing me of going out with other women.”

Willls, who was charged with having wilfully murdered Sarah Willis, was remanded before Mr. G. Cameron, C.S.M., till tomorrow.

White alleged that Willis said that he left the wedding break fast about 8.30 after the quarrel with his wife. She followed and abused him.

“She smacked my face and broke my glasses, and then tried to throw herself under a passing car,” Willis was alleged to have stated. “When I went to help her she abused me again.”

White said Willis told him that he went home alone to Moorooka, and told the people in the house about the quarrel. They tried to find his wife by telephoning the police and a friend.

“Later the phone rang, and I answered it. I recognised my wife’s voice and hung up on her. Soon after the phone rang again,” according to witness.

“GAVE HIMSELF UP TO A SOLDIER.”

“A friend of the family answered it, and told me my wife was at the tram terminus, and wanted someone to go up for her. I left the house soon after, and met her on the track in an allotment. I walked up to her and hit her on the jaw with my fist, and she fell on her back and did not move. I then cut her throat with a razor.

“After that I gave myself up to a soldier, and asked him to phone the police and Ambulance,” said White, quoting Willis.

The soldier Pte. Gordon Phillip Gower, said that at 11.41 p.m. ‘Willis tapped him on the shoulder, near the Moorooka camp and said: “I have just murdered a woman a few yards down the road. Will you ring the police?”

Gower said that Willis had a razor in his hand, and his hand and clothes were bloodstained.

From Queensland Times, Tuesday 15 January 1946, page 3.

1990 1999 Mka Police Station Bhr

Image: Moorooka Police Station BHR, ca. 1990s. Brisbane Heritage Registrar, Brisbane City Council.