Colin Campbell Ross

On the afternoon of December 30, 1921, twelve year old Alma Tirtschke was sent on an errand by her aunt. She was to collect a package of meat from her uncle's butcher's shop in Swanston Street, Melbourne and take it a short distance to Collins Street, to deliver it to a customer. The errand should have taken no more than 15 minutes, and when Alma, who was known to be reliable and obedient, failed to return home, her grandmother became alarmed. She was reported as missing, and the police, along with the Tirtschke family searched for Alma through the night. Early the next morning, her naked body was found in Gun Alley, a laneway off Little Collins Street, near the address Alma had been sent to. She had been raped and strangled.

The case became a major newspaper story, sensationalised by the Melbourne press and convincing its readers that a maniac was on the loose and likely to strike again. A reward of 1250 pounds was offered for the capture of the killer; one of the greatest rewards offered in Australia until that time. As time passed with no real progress, the police were criticised, and were subjected to public pressure to make an arrest.

Investigations revealed that Alma had last been seen alive between 2.30 and 3.00 pm on the afternoon of her disappearance, at the corner of Alfred Place and Little Collins Streets, near the lane in which her body was subsequently discovered. Among the numerous men interviewed was Colin Ross, a saloon manager, who described seeing a girl matching Alma's description, outside his saloon. His description of events closely matched that of several witnesses who had also seen her.

Colin Ross was well known to the local police as he had recently been acquitted on a charge relating to his involvement in the shooting and robbing of one of his customers. Despite Ross' willingness to co-operate police began to interview him in greater detail. Ross was able to nominate several witnesses who had seen him tending his saloon on the afternoon of Alma's death, and who would confirm that he had not left the premises, but the police remained convinced that he had killed Alma, and on January 12, 1922 they arrested him for murder.

The public fascination with the case intensified as newspapers published news of Ross' arrest, but Ross told his lawyers, family and friends that he had nothing to fear. As an innocent man, he said, it was only a matter of time before he would be released.

The trial began on February 20, 1922 and witnesses were presented to speak of Ross' guilt. John Harding, who had a previous conviction for perjury, was being detained in prison at the time, "at the governor's pleasure". He testified that Ross had confided in him in prison, and had admitted his guilt. Ivy Matthews, a prostitute, and Julia Gibson, who worked as a fortune-teller under the name "Madame Gurkha" also testified in court that Ross had confessed the crime to them.

The prosecution also offered forensic evidence in the form of several strands of hair they had obtained from Alma Tirtschke shortly before her funeral. A detective testified that on the day of Ross' arrest he had noticed several strands of "golden hair" on a blanket in Ross' house, which were later removed an examined by the state government analyst, Charles Price, a trained chemist with little previous experience in the new field of forensic science. Price testified that he compared the hairs under a microscope, and concluded that the hair found in Ross' house was a light auburn colour", while Alma's hair was a dark red. He measured the diameter of the hairs and concluded that they were of a different thickness. At one point in his testimony he commented that the hairs on Ross' blanket had most likely fallen from the head of a regular visitor, such as Ross' girlfriend, but after a long testimony stated that he believed the hairs were "derived from the scalp of one and same person." His contradiction was accepted by the judge without comment.

Ross' barrister, Thomas Brennan, protested and requested that a further examination be carried out by a more qualified person but the judge refused. The jury found Ross guilty of murder and he was sentence to death by hanging. His legal representatives were convinced of his innocence but found that public opinion remained strongly against Ross and news of his death sentence was met with public celebration. Ross' representative sought to obtain the right to appeal but this was refused by the judge who stated that Ross' guilt had been proven beyond doubt. Brennan sought leave to appeal to the Privy Council in England, but his application was refused.

Brennan remained supportive of Ross and certain of his innocence, but had exhausted all avenues in his attempt to save Ross from execution. During this time Ross received a letter in prison from a man, who failed to give his name, but who admitted that he had killed Alma, and although consumed by guilt, was not willing to come forward as it would cause grief to his family. Brennan later wrote that he believed the letter to have been authentic.^[2]

Colin Ross was executed on April 24, 1922 at Melbourne Gaol in a particularly gruesome manner. A new four-strand rope was used for the first time in an Australian execution and proved to be a failure, as Ross slowly strangled for more than forty minutes before his death. A prison report later ruled that such a rope must never be used again.^[3]

Thomas Brennan became consumed with his failure to save the life of Colin Ross, eventually writing a book, The Gun Alley Tragedy in which he attempted to establish that Ross had been hanged for a crime he did not commit. Although Brennan attracted supporters it was not enough to persuade the Victorian government to re-examine the case, and over the following years, interest began to wane in all but the most ardent of Ross' supporters.

In 1993, Kevin Morgan, a former school-teacher became interested in Ross' case, and began to research the events surrounding the murder of Alma Tirtschke and execution of Colin Ross. He read handwritten notes in the bible Colin Ross had kept with him in prison, and which had been preserved by his family following his death. Morgan was moved by the simple notations in which Ross wrote of false witnesses, knowing that Ross had written these notes without expecting anyone else to read them.

Morgan examined interview records and court transcripts and discovered information that had been kept from the court at the time, including the testimony of six reliable witnesses who placed Ross inside his saloon for the entire afternoon of Alma Tirtschke's murder. Furthermore, a cab driver, Joseph Graham, had heard screams coming from a building in Collins Street at 3.00pm, which was within the timeframe Ross was verified as having been in the saloon. Graham's interview had been disregarded by police and he had not been called to give evidence. Following Ross's arrest, Graham attempted to have his story told through a solicitor, but was not permitted to present his version of events in court. Morgan also noted that the witnesses against Ross were of dubious character and could have been motivated to present false testimony; John Harding's sentence was reduced after he stated that Ross had confessed to him in prison, and the prostitute, Ivy Matthews and fortune-teller, Julia Gibson had shared the reward money. A closer examination of the long testimony of Charles Price regarding the hair samples, seemed to support Ross' innocence.

Two years after he began researching the case, Kevin Morgan found a file in the Office of the Public Prosecutions, which contained the original hair samples, which had been thought lost. He began a legal fight for the right to submit the hair samples for DNA testing, finally winning the right in 1998. Dr. Bentley Atchison of the Victoria Institute of Forensic Medicine found that the hairs did not come from the same person, thereby disproving with certainty, the most damning piece of evidence presented at Colin Ross' trial. His findings were confirmed by a second series of testing conducted by an independent agency.

On October 23, 2006 the Victorian Attorney General Rob Hulls wrote to the Chief Justice, Marilyn Warren, with a 31-page petition asking her to consider a plea of mercy for Ross. The subsequent pardon, granted on 27 May 2008, is the first case in Victoria's legal history of a posthumous pardon. As of 2007 the matter has not been heard by the court, which cites workload and an expectation that it will be heard in 2007.

• Morgan, Kevin (2005): Gun Alley: Murder, Lies and Failure of Justice, Simon & Schuster. ISBN 073181228 X
• Pinkney, John (2003): Great Australian Mysteries, The Five Mile Press. ISBN 1-7414-024-7
• Australian Dictionary of Biography, retrieved May 4, 2007.
• The Age - "Push For Colin Ross Pardon", by John Silvester, October 26, 2006, retrieved May 4, 2007.
• The Supreme Court of Victoria - Petition for mercy on behalf of Colin Campbell Ross, dated October 26, 2006, retrieved May 4, 2007.

• The Gun Alley Murder Gravesite of Alma Tirtschke at Brighton General Cemetery (Vic)