One hundred and twenty years ago there was a shocking case of mistaken identity which led to an innocent death. I told a version of this story live on West Bremer Radio.

In 1905, on a lovely family farm at Mount Walker (pictured above), 38km south-west of Ipswich in the Scenic Rim, Queensland, lived nineteen-year-old Olive Baills. She resided with her family near where the Mount Walker State School used to be.

Olive was the sixth of twelve siblings who all went to the Mount Walker school. They were all active members of the Mount Walker Church of Christ, and Olive’s oldest brother was even a church deacon there for twenty-one years.

They were committed members of the temperance movement, and Olive regularly sang at Band of Hope concerts. She sang beautiful renditions of hymns including, “Have Faith in One Another” and “Revive Thy Work, O Lord.” Olive had the voice of an angel.

The other big family at Mount Walker was the Jenner family, and they were also members of the Church of Christ and the temperance Band of Hope. The Baills and Jenner families were very close, so close in fact that Olive’s oldest brother married one of the Jenner girls.

Olive’s life was a loving family one, but it all came crashing down one day in 1905. That’s when she was accused of stealing a gold brooch off her brother’s mother-in-law.

The accusation split the family, the police were called and Olive was dragged off by Ipswich’s Constable William Wilson who had previously been involved in a case of mistaken identity. Olive appeared in the Ipswich police court, a prima facie case was proven and so Olive was remanded to Harrisville where the main witnesses lived.

For the next two weeks, Olive was held in custody, not wanting to be seen due to the shame of the whole affair. She couldn’t go to church or sing at the temperance meetings.

Finally at the Harrisville police court, on the 30th of June 1905, Olive faced court. The proceedings that day were dominated by jewellery thefts that had seized the district.

Appearing immediately before Olive was a Rose Geary. She was charged with stealing a gold bangle from a bedroom at the Railway Hotel in Harrisville. Just a month earlier, the same girl was sentenced to three months imprisonment for stealing more jewellery at Beaudesert, but avoided gaol time because it was her first offence. For this Harrisville theft, however, she got one month imprisonment in the Brisbane gaol.

It was then Olive’s turn to appear, on remand from Ipswich, charged with stealing the gold brooch, which was the property of Mrs. Bessie Jenner. But then the case against Olive fell apart. The police had completely mistaken the identity of the real criminal. You see, the brooch in question had already been found in the possession of Rose Geary, who was the earlier accused, and she had readily confessed to stealing it.

Olive’s case was dismissed, and Rose Geary was convicted of stealing the brooch and sentenced to fourteen days imprisonment.

But the sentence was to be concurrent with the previous one which is the strange part. You see, after all the humiliation that Olive suffered, the real thief got no extra punishment.

Olive was accused, twice dragged into court, suffered more than two weeks of custody and public humiliation, and yet not even a single day was added to the sentence of the person who had really stolen Mrs Jenner’s brooch.

Olive never married, her health suffered, and just five years later she died at the Ipswich hospital following an operation.

Olive’s remains were taken by train to Rosewood and buried in the Mount Walker cemetery. As the coffin was being lowered, the scene was really touching because among those assembled at the graveside were Olive’s school friends from the Mount Walker state school, all still young women themselves. As a token of respect, the flag at the school was hoisted at half-mast as was the custom.

This all began just five years earlier when Olive was falsely accused of stealing from her brother’s mother-in-law, which was an embarrassment from which she never recovered.

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

Photo credits:
Farm at Mount Walker, 1907 – State Library of Queensland.
Church of Christ, Mount Walker, 2005 – Kerry Raymond, Wikimedia Commons.
Ipswich Old Courthouse, 2024 – Harold Peacock 20241020_060709.
Railway Hotel and Commercial Hotel, Queen Street, Harrisville, 1900s – Aussie~mobs 2018 via Flickr.
Edith Olive Baills. Mount Walker Cemetery – Anne – here lies, 2018, via Find a Grave.