The irresistible temptation of a jam tart led to a Warwick mystery that remains unsolved for the past 137 years. I told a version of this story live on radio 4WK.

Way back in the nineteenth century the Warwick police in Queensland had a bit of a questionable success rate.

In the 1860s, the sergeant in charge was Robert Grayson who was one of the unsuccessful searchers for the lost girl of Callandoon, and again was unsuccessful in searching Mrs Mandall who disappeared from Emu Creek. Grayson later mysteriously disappeared himself.

Reporting to him was Constable Matthew Fitzgerald. He was a mounted constable of very diminutive stature who everyone called “Little Fitz”.

His big investigations included charging a Chinaman by the name of Ah Fat on suspicion of being a lunatic. Another time he chased boys who had tied tin kettles to the wedding cart of Sergeant Grayson’s daughter, but they got away because his legs were just too short to run fast enough.

On Christmas day of 1887, Constable Fitzgerald himself became a mystery. That’s because he suddenly dropped dead.

The night before his death, Constable Fitzgerald had been screaming out in pain from his Albion Street home in Warwick. Constable Thomas O’Keefe was despatched and spoke to Fitzgerald to see what all the yelling was about.

“What’s the matter, Fitz?” O’Keefe asked.

“They’ve poisoned me,” Fitzgerald replied. “They left some tart on the table, they knew I would take it… I did so, and it’s burning me since.”

Fitzgerald was referring to his wife and oldest daughter. Fitzgerald died the next morning.

Medical examiners found that Constable Fitzgerald had been poisoned with arsenic. Arsenic was found in a jam tart that his wife Mary Fitzgerald had made. Mary was charged with murder and their daughter Minnie charged with being an accessory. Mary and Minnie were committed for trial and appeared set for the gallows.

The Queensland attorney-general Arthur Rutledge then created a sensation. Incredibly he decided to pull the pin on the whole case. He cited lack of evidence.

Rutledge said there was no evidence to connect the women to the actual poisoning, and there was little or nothing to disprove the theory of suicide.

Bizarrely he was suggesting that Fitzgerald had poisoned his wife’s jam tart himself before eating it.

The Fitzgeralds remained in Warwick for a couple more years, until a ten-year-old daughter also died. What was left of the family then moved into Brisbane. Minnie got married but had no children of her own.

Constable O’Keefe, who took Fitzgerald’s statement on the night that he died, was transferred to the Gulf of Carpentaria and his career never progressed.

And so despite Constable Fitzgerald being poisoned with arsenic, arsenic being found in the jam tart, the tart was baked by his wife Mary, and the night before his death Constable Fitzgerald actually told police exactly what happened, no one was ever convicted or even charged with this remarkable poisoning case of 1887.

The lesson here is never be tempted by a freshly baked jam tart.

CLICK HERE TO LISTEN TO A VERSIO OF THIS STORY TOLD ON RADIO 4WK.

Photo credits:
Traditional jam tarts – The Spruce.
Inspector of Police taken around 13 January 1879 – State Library of Queensland.
Sir Arthur Rutledge, 1883 – State Library of Queensland.