This page features computer generated text of the source audio. It may contain errors or omissions, so always listen back to the original media to confirm content. You can search the text using Ctrl-F, and you can also play the audio by clicking on a desired timestamp.
Hi. I'm Doctor Alison Laurie. I was the Gender and Women Studies Programme director at Victoria University of Wellington here in New Zealand for many years. I'm a writer, an oral historian and a lesbian and gay activist. Today I'm going to be looking at crime cases as they've involved uh, lesbian and gay people. In this country. There's always been a an association of homosexuality and crime. Uh, male homosexual acts were considered [00:00:30] criminal. Lesbians were often considered criminal by association. There's been that idea of criminality involved in it. What I'm more interested in here is local cases where lesbians and gays have themselves been the victims of crimes and where that often hasn't been considered, uh, to be the case, by particularly by the media and sometimes [00:01:00] by the courts. A very significant local case, uh, was that of Wanganui Mayor uh, Charles Evan Mackey. Uh, he was an important mayor. He strongly supported the arts. Uh, he was a popular man. Uh, however, in May 1920 he was arrested for the attempted murder of the poet Walter Darcy Criswell, who was homosexual. [00:01:30] It was alleged that Mackay shot Cresswell for threatening to expose Mackay's homosexuality. The defence argued that he suffered from homosexual monomania, having made efforts to cure himself and consulted doctors and meta physicians. Mackay was found guilty, and he was sentenced to 15 years imprisonment. This case resulted in widespread anti homosexual feeling in Wanganui and Prejudice Against the Sergeant Art Gallery, which Mackay had helped found. And it also influenced [00:02:00] how Edith Collier's work was received. Um was later taken up by the Bloomsbury set. Um, and when he went to England, uh, in the in 1930 following the publication of his autobiography of Poets Progress, which didn't actually mention anything about the Wui affair. So that's an interesting aspect of him. It's a question of why he attempted [00:02:30] to blackmail Mackay. How come that situation emerged, what it was that he thought he was doing. Some think that there was evidence, uh, of political, uh, connections who had suggested that he do this? Whatever was the case, it really destroyed Mackay. He served his time in prison, then left the country and died overseas, so that's a significant case. [00:03:00] Another interesting case is the 1935 Mario case, and that began the connection of lesbianism with murder in New Zealand, Eric Mario was convicted of killing his wife, Thelma, because of her lesbian relationship with Freda. Stark and lesbians was depicted as part of a loose living theatrical world likely to result in jealousy and murder later in her life. Freda Stark said that her sexual relationship [00:03:30] with Thelma was the most important relationship of her life and that it had begun. In fact, before Thelma had married Eric Mario that she'd married him because the theatre company had collapsed and that, uh, they were. They continued their relationship often when he was at work in the during the court case. Uh, it's the The relationship was given as the motive for Eric murdering [00:04:00] the he did so by administering doses of sedative to her and she died. The newspapers of the Time reported the case sensationally, and they headlined the phrase abnormal girl. Frieda Stark later said that when the newspapers were at their worst, she could not go into Queen Street as people would recognise me because of the pictures in the paper calling out there she is and following her, and when she went into a shop, there'd be people out waiting outside for me to come out. The jury [00:04:30] found Eric Mario guilty of murder and he was sentenced to death. But after several appeals, his sentence was eventually reduced to life imprisonment. Uh, subsequently, people have tried to exonerate, uh, Mario, uh, though I think it's fairly clear that he was aware of their relationship and that that was a motivation for him to attempt to murder her. But it's a very sensational case, and that certainly drew the attention of people to this connection with [00:05:00] lesbianism and murder. This theme reemerges, uh, 20 years later, in 1954 when Juliet Hume, age 15, and Pauline Parker, age 16, killed Nora Parker, Pauline's mother in Victoria Park, Christchurch. This was sensationalised because of the ages of the girls. They were described by by some of the media as the world's worst murderers. Uh, which is extraordinary in a time when we've seen mass murder and things of that kind. [00:05:30] And they were depicted, uh, by as lesbians by both the prosecution and the defence, with the prosecution calling them dirty minded girls and the defence uh, saying that, uh, they they suffered from, uh because lesbianism was a pathological condition symptomatic of communicated insanity. So that was another case where the connection of, uh, lesbian as men murder those two girls were sentenced [00:06:00] to five years imprisonment. They were imprisoned, actually at Her Majesty's pleasure, but were released after five years in 1959 and have subsequently led quite blameless lives. There were other mentions in the newspaper. There's an interesting report in 1955 in the year after this case with the New Zealand pictorial reports Gangs of homosexuals in Auckland living together for the sake of perversion, [00:06:30] you can see these warped brain men and women too, wandering about the streets or sitting idly in night cafes. Auckland has too many of them. Homosexuals have a strict code of Essex all of their own. They fight among themselves, like Kilkenny cats. For this reason, a group of homosexuals is always controlled by the Queen bee, whose word is absolutely final. Others in the sect are Martha, who dress as women. Arthurs, who adopt the normal male role, and butchers who stand in either way. Homosexuals and BC [00:07:00] lesbians and the like are largely only a degrading menace, however undesirable to themselves. So clearly, this kind of depiction is one of of criminality. People, uh, of whom you could expect anything of them now. Other cases, Uh, an earlier case, Uh, in 1944 a 19 year old New Zealand soldier was acquitted of the murder of a 25 year old American soldier because he claimed that the American had made homosexual advances [00:07:30] to him. Then in 1960 Roy Jackson, a waiter at the Codo coffee bar in Auckland, which was a meeting place for, uh, both, uh, camp men and women, uh, lesbians and gay men. Uh, he was killed when he fell from the deck of the, which was docked at Napier after being assaulted by true seamen who were acquitted of manslaughter. Uh, Roy Jackson had had tri down to Napier to see his lover, who was [00:08:00] working on the ship. And as he was trying to get onto the ship, he was thrown by the true seamen onto the dock and killed. The judge commented it was stretching things a bit to say that it was unlawful for the accused to remove Jackson from the ship. As after all, it was their home. The, uh, Auckland, uh, camp community took up a collection for his burial. That was an important case in 1960 but the acquittal sent a signal that killing homosexuals might not result in a conviction. These cases foreshadowed the 1964 [00:08:30] Hagley Park case, where six youth aged between 15 and 17 years were acquitted on a charge of manslaughter. The prosecution alleging they'd gone to Hagley Park in Christchurch with the purpose of finding a queer and bashing him. The homosexual victim Charles From, died from his injuries. The youths claiming he'd made a homosexual approach to them and horrified by this they'd accidentally be beaten him to death. These cases demonstrated the possible consequences of any form of homosexuality, [00:09:00] and the verdicts were consistent with the 1967 acquittal of Doreen Davis for the murder of Ray Pet. And this is a very famous case. Uh, in November 1966 nursing sister Ray Ray Joy pet, aged 40 of the Royal New Zealand Nursing Corps, was found dead in her bed with a deep wound in her neck at the Royal New Zealand Air Force Base. At another critically ill nurse was in Auckland Hospital [00:09:30] being treated for an overdose of drugs. This nurse, sister Dorian Ellen Davis, aged 30 was tried for Pet's murder at Auckland in March 1967. The prosecution alleged that Davis had cut Pet's throat with a scalpel and left the room via the window and drove back to her quarters, where she took an overdose of barbiturates, her motive for the murder being conflict in their lesbian relationship. Davis was defended by Kevin Ryan, the defence lawyer, and [00:10:00] denied all charges, insisting that PET had cut her own throat. There are some suggestions that the military may have tidied the women's rooms before calling the police and arranging Davis's defence as she was going to be charged in a civilian court, and that they may have hoped for a verdict of suicide as it would be less damaging than murder. Pet served with the Royal New Zealand Nursing Corps from 1954 moving to the Air Force Base in February 64. Uh Davis [00:10:30] joined the nursing corps in 62 and met Pet in 66 at the Hobsonville base. With their relationship developed another nurse testifying that because Davis visited PET at night, she felt disgusted and reported them. Consequently, Davis was was to be transferred to Wigram. Uh, the prosecution produced two unsigned letters alleging that Davies wrote to pet. I do love that smile, darling. More and more each time we met and meet and please don't ever deceive, Darling, you mean too [00:11:00] much to me and I to you. The defence argued that Davis was befriended by a woman, outwardly kind and sympathetic, but inwardly a hunting lesbian. Davis testified that Pete was generous and kind at first. However, she said that before I knew it, Raylan was in bed with me. I got a fright. At first she looked different, she said. She wanted me. She tried to kiss me and did. She looked like a man, not a woman. I finally gave in to rain. And on the night of Pele's death, Davis claimed Pet tried to prevent [00:11:30] her from leaving the room. The look I'd seen on Ramon's face was more domineering than I'd ever seen before. I told her just to leave me alone and I went to the door. Sister Pet was looking at me directly. She was sitting up in bed. The next thing I saw was this knife. I saw a lot of blood and that cut on her neck. So the defence, uh, lawyer Ryan argued that even if Davis had killed Pet, she did so in a state of automatism brought on by the shock of pet's, uh, lesbian advances. And Petty [00:12:00] was described as a con genital or essential lesbian, a smiling depressive, uh, and a hunting lesbian. And Davis was portrayed as an innocent seduced by pet. Uh, and she was found not guilty of that crime.
This page features computer generated text of the source audio. It may contain errors or omissions, so always listen back to the original media to confirm content.
Tags