Cursed pyjamas, decapitation, and submarines are part of this Friday the 13th horror history story. A version of this tale of the dead was told live on West Bremer Radio.
There’s loads of bad luck stories throughout history, and the Queensland city of Ipswich is no different. Like the time on Friday the 13th in September 1867 that Dr Henry Von Lossberg appeared in the Ipswich court charged with speeding.
He’d been pulled over while travelling along the main thoroughfare of Brisbane Street. Dr Von Lossberg was found guilty of speeding and fined forty shillings. But the whole truth of the matter was that the doctor was driving his horse and buggy, he was doing between twelve and fifteen miles per hour – that’s about the same as when you rush across the road to get your coffee – and he was on his way to a medical emergency, so you’ve got to think that the doctor was extremely unlucky to be fined for speeding.
But for bad luck stories related to one person, I can’t go past David Griffiths. He was born in Wales in 1878 and came to Australia to work in the Ipswich coal mines. David lived in South Station Road at Silkstone. He passed away when he was eighty-seven years old after having worked in the mines for fifty years. I can’t decide whether he was unlucky, or lucky to have survived working underground for as long as he did.
David must have known was what coming when he married Janet Hare in 1903. That’s because Janet had disasters happening all around her. These included her brother having died of blood poisoning, her father’s toes were cut off by a train, and her parent’s home at Silkstone was burnt down – after her father’s pyjamas caught fire.
Meanwhile, David’s brother James Griffiths had a narrow escape when he was found in the stable of the Prince Alfred Hotel at Booval, Ipswich, with his throat cut. He told police he couldn’t remember what happened. The brother survived that, but six months later his luck turned when he was found under the East Street overpass – this time with his head completely severed.
The man who found the brother’s body was later shot with a pistol and collapsed into a flower bed in the city’s Queen’s Park.
Then there was David’s son Alwyn Griffiths. He was captured by the Japanese at the fall of Singapore in the Second World War. The son survived the slave-labour of working on the Thai-Burma railway, but his luck changed when his prison ship the Rakuyo Maru was torpedoed by an American submarine – and Alwyn was lost at sea.
One of Alwyn’s mates who also survived the Thai-Burma Railway, he survived the sinking of the ship, but was unlucky shortly after being discharged – he was killed by a train in Sydney.
So each Friday the 13th don’t worry about having bad luck because there’s always someone who’s worse off and seemingly cursed. Think of David Griffiths – his wife’s house burnt down because of her father’s pyjamas, his brother was decapitated, and his son was sunk by the Americans.
CLICK HERE TO LISTEN TO A VERSION OF THIS STORY TOLD LIVE ON RADIO.
Photo credits:
What are the Best Names for Black Cats – Pet Helpful 2023.
Dr William Henry Von Lossberg – Queensland Times, Ipswich, 1st November 1913, page 10.
David Griffiths, Ipswich Cemetery – uploaded to Find a Grave by Anne – here lies 2018.
Rakuyo-Maru – uploaded to Find a Grave by John Winterbotham 2020.
History Out There 