Great excitement was generated in 1865 when a murder was committed in Toowoomba and arrests began in the streets of Ipswich. I told a version of this story live on West Bremer Radio.

The Toowoomba murder remains unsolved today 160 years later despite loads of people being charged.

The victim was Mrs. Margaret Curtis, a twenty-eight year old mother of two who was strangled on Ruthven Street. But what’s interesting is the excitement it created ninety kilometres away in Ipswich.

There were no witnesses, and yet vague descriptions of a man harassing women that night were circulated as being that of the murderer. The government offered a reward of £100 for the apprehension of the murderer.

The result was a rush to activity in Ipswich like you wouldn’t believe. Almost everyone was a suspect. People began being rounded up off the streets.

The next morning immediately after the murder, Toowoomba’s sub-inspector of police Jeremiah Foran formed a posse with several townsmen and headed directly to Ipswich. That’s because they believed a suspicious man was heading to Ipswich after leaving Toowoomba the night before.

Sub-Inspector Foran from County Kerry in Ireland wasn’t one to joke around, because a few years later he’d take his daughter-in-law to court over his late son’s property. Just a year earlier, a reward of £10 had been awarded to Foran for the armed apprehension of a bushranger.

Not one, but two persons were arrested on the same day by Ipswich’s constable John Elligett. Elligett was under the command of sub-inspector Edward Quinn. Quinn had previously unsuccessfully prosecuted Ipswich’s possible first serial killer. Quinn would dismiss Elligett from the police force a number of times over misconduct, and Elligett would later lose both eyes when caught in an explosion at Denmark Hill.

Anyway, on this occasion both of Constable Elligett’s suspects were taken to the Ipswich lock-up, in the Ipswich courthouse charged with murder, and both dismissed.

One was arrested in the morning on the main thoroughfare of Brisbane Street. He was William Barber but he had only just arrived in Ipswich from Brisbane and knew nothing about the murder.

The other was arrested in the afternoon at Seven Mile Creek near Rosewood. He was James Munroe who had just been released from Toowoomba gaol and pretended to be insane. He was apprehended in the White Lion Inn at Seven Mile Creek after being detained there by two Ipswich publicans who were eager for the reward.

They were Frederick Moore and Michael O’Brien, a former convict and the son of a convict respectively. O’Brien was the licensee of the Rising Sun Hotel at Rosewood. Moore was the licensee of the White Lion Inn where the arrest was made, and Constable Elligett would later return to the White Lion to arrest Moore for stealing a cow, but that’s another story.

Meanwhile Brisbane’s police sergeant Denis McCarthy responded to another Ipswich publican John Devine. Devine wanted the reward and reported that he saw the murderer come into his Booval Hotel. Sergeant McCarthy then tracked for 100 miles a man called Daniel Edwards who he was told matched the description. When Edwards was brought before the Ipswich court it was pointed out that the prisoner was over six feet tall, but the description of the murderer was just five feet five inches, so yet another Ipswich accused was released.

In any case, at least six different people were charged with the murder. The excitement in Ipswich over the £100 reward continued but the murder was never solved, in fact it is still an open case and the money remains unclaimed today.

There’s a lot more to this story that I’m researching and posting here in the coming weeks.

CLICK HERE TO LISTEN TO A VERSION OF THIS STORY TOLD ON WEST BREMER RADIO.

Photo credits:
Arrests in the streets of Ipswich, 1865 – Copilot_20250531_123008.
Ruthven Street, Toowoomba, 1870 – State Library of Queensland.
Queensland police inspector and his Toowoomba posse, 1865 – Microsoft Copilot.
Ipswich Courthouse c1860 – State Library of Queensland.
Rising Sun Hotel, Rosewood – Picture Ipswich.