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Published byElvin Cannon Modified over 9 years ago
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The Shark Arm Case
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In April of 1935, two Australian fishermen donated a 10-foot tiger shark, caught off the coast of Sydney to the Coogee Beach Aquarium.
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Coughing Up The Evidence After showing signs of increasing distress, on April 25 it vomited up its stomach contents which included a well-preserved human arm. Experts were left to wonder: had this been a case of a shark attack on an innocent swimmer, or was this part of a dismembered body of crime victim?
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Unarmed Tattoo The limb was well muscled and remarkably well preserved. The skin bore a tattoo of two boxers confronting each other. A rope was tied around the wrist, and…
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The Doctor’s Report There were clear signs that the arms had been hacked off its body by a knife, not a shark bite.
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Identifying The Appendage The only realistic hope was to find a way of retrieving the fingerprints. This involved removing the fragile layers of skin in pieces for the tip of each finger in turn, and reassembling the fragments to produce a complete print. When complete, the prints were checked against criminal records and a match was found.
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The Armless Victim The prints, and the arm, belonged to a former boxer and small-time criminal named James Smith who had already been reported missing.
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The Story Smith had disappeared from home on April 8, telling his wife he was renting a cottage with a man named Patrick Brady (a known criminal) for the two men to do some fishing. A wide sea search failed to find any other parts of Smith’s body.
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The Suspect Being the last to see Smith alive, Brady was arrested on 16 May and charged with the murder of Smith. A taxi driver testified that he had driven Brady on the day Smith had gone missing, and that "he was dishevelled, he had a hand in a pocket and wouldn't take it out... it was clear that [he] was frightened.
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"THERE CAN BE NO INQUEST, MUCH LESS A TRIAL FOR MURDER, WITHOUT A CORPUS DELICTI AND ONE TATTOOED HUMAN ARM DISGORGED BY A SHARK IS NOT A BODY!" Before the Commonwealth's High Court Brady's counsel, Clive Evatt, argued,
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A Possible Theory It is speculated that Smith was killed by Brady on the orders of gangland figure Eddie Weyman, who was arrested during a bank robbery apparently due to information Smith had given to the police.
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The Science of Crime Scene Investigation
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