The Giles Curtis Murder

Returning home from church on Sunday the 13th of December 1868, just eight months after William Robinson was murdered, Howard Estes found his partner shot in the head and nearly decapitated with a knife "which lay bloody on the table", according to the newspaper report. Curtis was a Black settler, a hired hand of the Starks. Several theories arose about the murderer(s). Was it the same killer(s) who shot William Robinson?

The Navy was called upon to assist in the investigation. A gunboat was sent up the coast and rounded up some Aboriginal people for questioning, to no avail. Not until a decade had passed was someone charged with the murder and that person was acquitted.

Colonial Correspondence

Court Documents

Diaries, Journals or Reminiscences

Inquests

Newspaper or Magazine Articles