The Murchison Murders

The Murchison Murders were a series of three murders, committed by an itinerant stockman named Snowy Rowles, near the rabbit-proof fence in Western Australia during the early 1930s. The case was particularly infamous because Rowles used the murder method that had been suggested by author Arthur Upfield in his then unpublished book The Sands of Windee, in which he described a way to dispose of a body and thus commit the perfect murder.

Arthur Upfield had already written three novels, but was working as a fence boundary rider on the Rabbit-proof fence in Western Australia. He had decided to write another detective novel, but with a plot difference: there being no body for the detective to find. Unfortunately, he could not think of a way to dispose of a body.

He mentioned this difficulty to a colleague, George Ritchie. Ritchie devised a disposal method: burn the victim's body along with that of a large animal, sift any metal fragments out of the ashes, dissolve them in acid, pound any remaining bone fragments into dust, then discard the remains into the wind. But Upfield then had a problem: the method was a bit too efficient, leaving Bony (Upfield's fictional detective) with no way to detect or prove the murder. Upfield challenged Ritchie to find a flaw in the method and offered him £1 if he could. Ritchie, however, was unable to do so.

The plot of the novel hinged on this point and Ritchie one day met Snowy Rowles, whom Upfield also knew. Ritchie mentioned the problem to him. All of Upfield's friends and colleagues were soon aware of Upfield's difficulties with his plot.

On 5 October 1929, Upfield, Ritchie, Rowles, the son of the Inspector of the fence, and the north boundary rider for the fence, were all present at the Camel Station homestead when the murder method for Upfield's book was again discussed. Upfield himself was clear that Rowles knew of the murder method before this date, but the meeting and discussion were later used as evidence in court to prove that Rowles was aware of the method.

In December 1929, Rowles was in the company of two men: James Ryan and George Lloyd. On 8 December 1929, Rowles, Ryan and Lloyd departed from Camel Station.

Several days later, George Ritchie arrived at Camel Station stating he had met a prospector named James Yates. Yates had told Ritchie that he had seen Rowles driving a car. Rowles had told Yates that Ryan and Lloyd were walking through the scrub, though Yates did not see them himself.

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