HISTORICAL CRIME
The execution of Charles Patrick Joseph O’Leary DR AUKE ‘JJ’ STEENSMA, MANGING DIRECTOR, STEENSMA PTY LTD Like a candle that’s set In the window at night, Your fond love has cheered me And guided me right. Mother Machree, by Rida Johnson Young & Ernest Ball1
A
t 7.50am on Thursday, 14 November 1946, Charles Patrick Joseph O’Leary2 was heard to sing the 1910 American-Irish song; Mother Machree, a song that he claimed his mother would sing to him when he was a young lad. Ten minutes later, O’Leary, whose mortal body had been given to the Sheriff Mr A.S. Blackman, was taken from the cell that held the condemned on the first floor of the A-Wing, New Building at the Adelaide Gaol. His hands and arms were pinioned to a belt that went about his waist, by the hangman. O’Leary was led to the trap of the gallows a small distance away. He faced south, looking towards the large windows that were covered by a sheet. The identity of the hangman being only known to the Gaol keeper and the Sheriff. Outside a large contingent of mounted motor traffic and foot police encompassed the Gaol as it was feared that demonstrations would break out;3 though the prepurted trouble did not eventuate. The Barrier Miner newspaper of Broken Hill quoted that other than the hangman, the only people that were present at the execution were; “the Sheriff, the Prison Medical Officer, Gaol Keeper, two police officers, two priests, and four prison guards”.4 O’Leary was asked if he had anything to say, to which he replied with a smile on his face; “Thank you, gentlemen”.5 Morton et al. claim that “on the scaffold, O’Leary is reputed to have sung, ‘it’s a great day for the Irish’.”6 In a matter of seconds, the hangman’s assistant pinioned the ankles of O’Leary. A hood was placed over his head, and the hangman’s rope was placed on the left side of his neck with the knot placed under his left ear. Two prison guards stood on boards on either side of O’Leary to ensure that he remained upright. The hangman
42 THE BULLETIN March 2020
moved into the adjourning cell, waited for the signal from the Sheriff, which came immediately, and the lever was pulled. O’Leary dropped the “prescribed distance” and paid the ultimate price for the murder of Walter ‘Spoggy’ Ballard, a 58-year-old sawmill hand, at Nangwarry, on 7 July of that year. It was the 60th execution to be conducted in South Australia. O’Leary was left to hang for the mandatory one hour. The body of O’Leary was then taken down, and an inquest was conducted by the Acting City Coroner, Mr Zeesing, who had arrived at Adelaide Gaol at some time before 9am.7 Ironically the inquest was performed to determine whether the cause of death was attributed to the breaking of the spinal cord, as should and was the case, or from a heart attack or strangulation. O’Leary’s death was instantaneous. Mr Zeesing would have asked the Sheriff whether the execution had been conducted in a manner per the rules with the law. The sheriff acknowledged the conduct. After the inquest, the body of O’Leary was buried in the grounds of the New Building at the Adelaide Gaol, “in a pre-dug grave at the southern end of the building”,8 colloquially known as “Murderer’s Row”. His initials and the date of his execution are painted on the wall and read: 29 C.P.J. O’L. 14-11-46.9 O’Leary had been found guilty of the murder of Ballard. O’Leary and several other employees at a timber cam at the Government sawmill at Nangwarry had started drinking early on Saturday morning and continued well into the night. The next morning Ballard was found in his cubicle, in what the High Court would say was a “dying condition”.10 He had been hit on the head some eight or nine times by a bottle, after which he was doused in kerosene was then set on fire. A group of sawmill workers removed the burning clothes of Ballard. The group “then had to restrain a snarling O’Leary, who was threatening to finish him off with an axe”.11 Ballard died from his injuries “at the Mount Gambier Hospital at about 2 PM the same day without regaining consciousness”.12
The local police this is were called in to investigate. O’Leary had a bottle in his possession and a pullover that had belonged to Ballard.13 O’Leary had also been accused of the unprovoked assault of several other employees, that “consisted of brutal blows at the head”.14 The police found that “O’Leary had already served a prison sentence for manslaughter. The Police suspected he had robbed Ballard, and when Ballard died they charged him with murder”.15 On Thursday, 25 July 1946, the coroner, Mr H C LeLievre, after conducting the inquest, found that deceased Ballard came to his death by murder at the hand of Charles Patrick O’Leary, Nangwarry, on July 7, 1946.16 Mr V R Hague, of Adelaide, appeared for the Commissioner of Police, to assist the Coroner and Mr R L Badenoch, of Mount Gambier, appeared for O’Leary.17 O’Leary, who was 34 years old at the time, was committed for trial. The case against O’Leary was heard at the Mount Gambier Sittings of the Supreme Court, by the South Australian Chief Justice, Sir Thomas John Mellis Napier KCMG KStJ QC,18 and a jury.19 O’Leary was found guilty and “sentenced to death on October 9 for the murder at Nangwarry on July 7 of Walter Edward Ballard”.20
