Happy Monday! Hope you had a great weekend. — Dan

A Shark and a Murder, But Not the Way You Think

Pictured above is a tiger shark. It’s probably not something you want to see while swimming — as the Hawaii Institute of Marine Biology notes, it is “one of three main shark species known to attack humans,” and that’s not fun. Don’t worry too much, though; tiger shark attacks are very rare, and usually not fatal. But, yeah, every so often, one of these creatures will strike at a human, and it’s usually not pretty.

That’s what Australian authorities thought had happened in 1935. But the truth was much worse.

In April of that year, a fisherman named Bert Hobson caught a 14-foot tiger shark off the coast of Coogee Beach in Sydney. (Here’s a map.) Hobson’s brother ran the local aquarium, so he brought it there — he figured the shark would make for a good exhibit. And that turned out to be true, to a point. Visitors to the aquarium seemed interested in the shark, but the shark didn’t seem too happy. As Atlas Obscura relays, “after a few days in which it seemed to adjust to its new home, the shark became irritable and began behaving erratically. It repeatedly rammed the walls of its tank before sinking to the bottom and swimming in lazy, irregular circles.”

But the shark wasn’t homesick. It was just regular sick — it had eaten something that didn’t agree with it. We know that because the shark puked. Out came a human arm.

That, in and of itself, wasn’t terribly surprising; as the Dictionary of Sydney notes, “since in late February and early March [1935], three young men had been taken by sharks at New South Wales beaches. Bounty hunters were employed to help rid Sydney's beaches of the menace.” Shark attacks were unusually common at the moment, and everyone just figured that this was another tragic story to add to the list. But upon closer inspection, there was something strange about this arm. It appeared to have been severed from its owner by a knife, not teeth, and tiger sharks aren’t known for their knife skills.

The authorities were called in to investigate. The arm had a distinctive tattoo, depicting a pair of boxers preparing to fight. The police asked the press to share a description of the tattoo in hopes that someone would recognize it, and someone did. Edwin Smith turned out to be the lead they needed. Edwin told the police that his brother, James, had such a tat, and had gone missing a few weeks earlier. The authorities had identified the victim and continued police work was in order.

James Smith, per Mental Floss, associated with some would-be criminals, he “managed a local billiards bar and had a history as both a criminal and a police informant. Following a failed boxing career, he picked up odd jobs around the Sydney area; in addition to running the billiards saloon, he also worked for a boat-building mogul—and crime kingpin—named Reginald Holmes.” Smith had knowledge and perhaps proof of some of Holmes’ crimes, and there were rumors that Smith was blackmailing Holmes. The police had their first suspect.

But there was another. An ex-convict named Patrick Brady worked for Holmes and was one of the people last seen with Smith — he was playing cards with Smith the evening that the latter disappeared. The police figured that Brady and Holmes conspired to murder Smith, and went to arrest both. They collared Brady on May 16 and four days later, went to get Holmes — but Holmes had another idea in mind. He jumped on a speedboat and went out into the harbor, and attempted to take his own life by shooting himself in the head. But the bullet failed to pierce his forehead.

Holmes ultimately told the police that he was a victim of Brady’s menacing. Brady, Holmes asserted, was also blackmailing Holmes, and had murdered Smith to show that he meant business. Per Holmes’ account, Brady had ditched Smith’s body but kept the arm as proof, and gave Holmes the arm as a gift of sorts. Holmes, not wanting to have a dead guy’s arm in his possession, took it out to sea and dumped it where, he figured, it would never come back.

It’s unclear if Holmes was telling the truth, but what is clear is that he never had the chance to tell his story to the court. Before Brady’s trial, Holmes was found dead in his car in what authorities believed was a murder, even though it was designed to look like a suicide. The theory, of course, was that Brady had killed the star witness against him, in hopes of covering up his other crime.

If that theory is correct, it worked. Brady was charged with Smith’s murder but was acquitted. His lawyer successfully argued that the police didn’t prove that there was a murder at all — they never found the rest of Smith’s body and it’s certainly possible that he could have been walking around with only one arm. And further, even if they could prove that a murder had taken place, there was no way to link Brady to it. Brady lived another 30 years as a free man.

What happened to the shark has not been reported.

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🦈More About Sharks 💪

Today’s Bonus fact: There’s a shark mystery brewing in our oceans. In 2015, a team of researchers were exploring an active underwater volcano and found something odd living in it — sharks. That doesn’t make a lot of sense — as one researcher told National Geographic, “there are a number of reasons why there shouldn't be anything living in there except maybe bacteria. Number one it's very hot and acidic, and we measured that. Number two, it's very turbid, so the water is very cloudy. None of these things are good for fish.” But trying to figure out why the sharks were there proved tricky — the conditions also made it nearly impossible for researchers to get close enough to glean more information. As of 2017, the team used robots to get info about the water conditions (pH level, temperature, etc.) but were not able to tag any of the sharks. Research into the area — and the sharks — is ongoing as of 2022.

From the Archives: In Utero Fight Club: Some sharks fight at very early ages — even before they’re born!

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And thanks! — Dan