Sunday, August 3, 2014

THE LARRY BOY MANHUNT Continuing biog of Crusading Editor,"Big Jim" Bowditch


On September  21 , l968, Aboriginal  Larry Boy , tribal name  Janba,  found his wife , Marjorie, in bed with a white stockman, David Jackson, 21,  at Elsey Station, 350 kilometres from  Darwin . He took to them with a tomahawk ,  killing his wife and hacking through the ribs of her lover . There was evidence that he carried  his tribal  wife  outside , put her on the ground  and lay beside her. Some claimed he had intercourse with  his  dead or dying  wife . Others  claimed   this  was a  false  story put about to  create maximum feeling against  the man  who had  not accepted  the  sexual use of  his  wife by a white  stockman. 

After the  attack  he  fled into the  surrounding  country which consisted of  bush,  swamp and  sandstone  outcrops. A  massive manhunt  which included  black trackers, dogs,  police ,  many  civilians  and  helicopters  was mounted with  Constable “ Bluey” Harvey in charge.  The officer had been stationed at Wave Hill  at  the  time of  the  Gurindji  walk off  and   Bowditch knew him  well.  

Bowditch  visited the  surviving  stockman in hospital . The man told him he  could not understand  why he had been attacked as  sleeping with  Aboriginal women was going on all the  time.

The  case brought  to light the  common practice  of  white stockmen  taking  granted  the sexual favours of  Aboriginal women . Boy  had  objected to his  wife being used  by white stockmen and had  taken  drastic action  to stop what was  going on.

BOWDITCH  ABUSED

Bowditch  and a photographer went to the search   area to  report on the manhunt ; a white man  shouted, “ Here’s that  boong lover - I’ll show you how we  deal with  black bastards when  we catch him ! ”   Bowditch spent  five days in the area.  The  hunt went on for  40 days.  On the last day ,Constable Harvey,  was  walking by a limestone cliff when he  noticed a small cave  with  cobwebs  across the entrance.  Because of this, he  at first  felt that  the fugitive could not be inside  as he would have brushed the  webs  aside.  However,  he  noticed the  cobwebs were strung like a gate on  thin sticks.  The fugitive had draped the  webs across  the entrance  so as to  give  the impression that  nobody could be inside.  It was  a great  piece of detective work for Harvey to notice the deception.  

SUNG  TO  DEATH  CLAIM

The tenacious constable then  crawled into   the small recess  filled with   foul air  and  found   the wanted man , flat on his back, his mouth  against a  small hole  through which he  breathed. Harvey,   exhausted and suffering from influenza , dragged the  man out... At the trial , Boy was  represented by Dick Ward ; there were some peculiar aspects of the case , one being the claim that it led to  Ward being  sung to death   for somehow, inadvertently committing a breech   of   Aboriginal law.  There was, said Spillettt,  trouble over the fact that a person of the “ wrong  skin ” had been used as an interpreter.Ward  subsequently developed a kidney disease  and  received dialysis  treatment.   Boy was  found guilty of  the  manslaughter of his wife  and sentenced to  eight years’  gaol; for his attack on  Jackson , he got  five years, to  be served  concurrently.
 

Foreman of the jury was Anglican church  official , historian  Peter Spillett. In the year 2001 , Spillett, researching the history  of  pre-colonial  Timor , said he should write  an account of the Larry Boy trial.  It had  lasted  for about  eight days and the jury , during breaks, had gone  on  a harbour trip to Mandorah  with an esky to  slake  their  thirst; on another occasion they had been taken to The Star Theatre , and at interval some had  slipped into the Vic  Hotel for a  drink.
 

CYCLONE  TRACY  KILLS  FILM

Larry Boy  died  in hospital  shortly before he was  due to be released  from   prison.  It was suggested he had picked up a lung disease  while on the  run after the murder of  his  wife .   Friends of the dead man told Bowditch  that  Janba had  willed himself  to die  because he had killed his wife. 

The case so  inspired  Cec  Holmes  that he proposed   making a movie  about the  episode . He and author Frank Hardy worked on the screenplay. On several occasions   Holmes  went overseas to  try and raise  funds for the  film , entitled  Call Me By My Proper Name. At one stage it was suggested  Peter  Finch  might  play  the   role of   Constable Harvey.    Holmes  objected to Hollywood   wanting to  turn  the plot into a kind of Down Under  cowboy  flick.  A decision was made to make  an all Australian film  and pre-production work was carried out in the Roper River  area of the NT  in  late  l974 .   Holmes then went to Darwin to spend Christmas with his family , intending to  begin shooting the  film  in May .  Cyclone Tracy shattered these  plans and the  film was never made.  

His plans  for the  future blown away , Holmes  observed  the cyclone  wrecked city  and  got a job   as a   gangway attendant on  the   Greek   liner  Patris  which  was brought to Darwin to provide   emergency  accommodation.  He spoke to many  southern journalists who came to the city  to report on the disaster  and observed that  many of  them  were soft, complaining  about  the heat  and conditions.  Reporters, he said, used to have a reputation  for roughing  it, but the new breed seemed  soft. One  journalist had contacted his  office  down south   on Boxing Day  and asked  for  water  and  food to be sent . Five days later,three one gallon  containers of  water  and two tins of  steak and kidney had  arrived by air.  

Another  Holmes    project   which  never came to fruition  was  a  film  about  Morrison of Peking, despite  representations  to the Chinese  authorities . When Cec  Holmes  died  from cancer  in  l994 , he had a script with an agent for a   film  about  Pat Mackie , the man at the centre of the Mount Isa  Mine strike in which Bowditch had been involved.  He had also  nearly completed  a  book  about  the social and political problems of the Philippines. NEXT: The Athletic Bowditch family.