On first glance it appeared to be a truck crash, without a truck. Timber fruit boxes were strewn across the road and a large man’s fully clothed and lifeless body lay nearby. As police investigations commenced, Stafford locals gathered near the scene trying to determine what had occurred. The location was Shand Street, within a short walk to the victim’s home, and the dawn light revealed a set up; fruit boxes placed on the road to distract a victim who would stop to move them out of harm’s way. Closer inspection of the crime scene discovered a homicide; bullet wounds to the victim, spent bullets on the ground nearby, drag marks in the dirt, the six fruit boxes, but the motive for murder was a mystery.
A reconstruction of the scene by Queensland Police Scientific Section confirmed the body could be dragged by one person. A newspaper reported ‘Detective Owen Henness, weighing 11 stone, easily was able to drag Constable Peter McKillop, weighing 15 stone, the 50 feet to where the victim was found. Police feel the tests ruled out the theory that there must have been more than one killer’ (Telegraph, 29 Sept 1971, p. 3).
Reconstructing the Jack Henry Cooper murder scene, Sparkes Hill Recreation Ground on Shand Street, Stafford, 1971. Detective A Higgs is seen atop the police vehicle filming the test, and also recorded people attending the cremation service from the roof of a building.
Image No. PM1489 courtesy of the Queensland Police Museum.
Police Divers commenced a search of Kedron Brook, a long and winding water course nearby, for a weapon capable of quietly firing .22 calibre rounds. Crime Investigation Bureau Detectives examined the fruit boxes with the intention of locating their owner, whilst also identifying witnesses. Meanwhile Forensic Police Officers continued to examine the Sparkes Hill Recreational Ground for tyre tracks of a suspect vehicle, and finding none surmised that a motorcycle may have been used by the offender. Police Commissioner Whitrod recommended a “reward of $10,000 be offered for such information as will lead to the apprehension and conviction of the person or persons responsible for the murder; and further that a proviso be included in the printed reward notice to the effect that His Excellency the Governor will be advised to extend a free pardon to any accomplice, not being the person who actually committed the murder, who first gives information”.
Constable 1/c N. Cooper (left) and Senior Constable P. Sheehan, of the Water Police wading through Kedron Brook in search of a weapon in the Cooper murder investigation.
Newspaper clip courtesy of the Courier Mail, 2 Oct 1971.
A New Farm resident reported seeing a young man remove fruit boxes from the New Farm Fruit and Vegetable Market, and gave Detectives a description of the man and his vehicle. A similar vehicle was seen idling near the National Hotel where victim Jack Cooper worked on the night of the murder. Ballistic examination of 14,000 cartridge cases then identified the firearm used, a .22 calibre rim fire Armalite auto loading rifle. It packed away into its own butt stock and the rifle used in this crime had been modified to work with a silencer. Further investigations revealed robbery as a possible motive; the National Hotel was currently storing around $17,000, equivalent to $173,000 today.
Persistence paid off with extensive door knocking in New Farm identifying a suspect with severe financial trouble and knowledge of the proceeds stored at the hotel after staying there occasionally. Donald John Maher owned a printing business, and a sawn off Armalite rife. Initially reluctant to cooperate with police, Maher eventually admitted his plan to frisk victim Cooper for the National Hotel safe keys, before accessing the safe to steal the money. The plan failed when he shot Mr Cooper dead to retrieve the safe keys, then found to his horror the man had not been in possession of the keys that night. Donald John Maher was found guilty of murder and sentenced to life imprisonment.
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This article was written by Museum Assistant Georgia Grier from the best resources available within the Queensland Police Museum. The Police Museum is open 9am to 4pm Monday to Thursday and 10am to 3pm on the last Sunday of the month (Feb-Nov) and is located on the Ground Floor of Police Headquarters at 200 Roma Street, Brisbane. Contact: E: museum@police.qld.gov.au
“FROM the VAULT – Science Stacked Against Fruit Boxes” by the Queensland Police Service is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution (BY) 2.5 Australia Licence. Permissions may be available beyond the scope of this licence. http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.5/au/legalcode