|
Who Destroyed
Her “Virginal Womb”?
This
ghost says they hanged only one of her murderers.
Roofless stone walls stared
at me as I stood gazing across what was left of the Fouracre Inn at
Waroona, Western Australia. In the weeds at my feet was the leathery,
flattened outline of a putrefied cat. It was a fitting greeting, for
the woman who ran this tiny stopover in the early 20th
century had been firmly spirited into eternity by unknown hands.
Even before the 44 year-old
solitary spinster Leah Fouracre was cut from her life, there drifted
around a trembling tale of a boy, who, lost from his house, was found
again on the property in the winter. Fastened high up in a fig tree,
his skeleton was unveiled as the autumn leaves fled.
Misery ghosted over the
Fouracre land. Leah's murderer however, was set to pay for his crime
--- he'd been caught.
Let's open the letter that
the condemned Sinhalese man, Augustin De Kitchilan gave as
“My Last Confession”. He snorts:
"Who (is) the murderer -- can
you guess or shall I tell? No, no, guess who is the murderer of poor
Leah Fouracre. Guess, guess, not me it isn't -- but who? Ah, by whom
fell the noble death? Ah, who did pull the trigger of the Martini
Henry? Ah, guess, him in the mist or him in the bured (burnt) up farm.
Guess, guess, him-in-the-mist. Of course, so they say. So guess, guess,
who was the murder (er) of Leah Fouracre.
"I bid you all my last
farewell.
"I remain in death your
loving brother."
A second letter reads: "He
with a smile would come to destroy a loving maiden fair, to destroy her
virginal womb, who undreaming of the despair, would embracing give
welcome.
"Ah, thou blind though maiden
fair, hesitate thou thy welcome.
"For he would thus lead thee
to despair.
"Ah, be warned thou maiden
sweet by poor Leah Fouracre's fall."
Here, he warns about the
folly of naive trust. Leah was swooped on after offering de Kitchilan
work and lodgings. It was said he came to know that she had gold and
jewels. Recently released from Fremantle gaol after serving a term for
theft he was obviously on the lookout for his next situation.
A visitor to the Fouracre
farm in August, 1907 -- Michael Lyon -- came upon Leah's fire-lashed
body. Ghastly and cruel the scene was, for only a gush of rain from a
thunderstorm had spared the place for evidence. De Kitchilan had made
off south, seizing Leah's horse for his use.
When arrested in Bunbury for
impersonating a police officer, Leah's belongings were found on him;
also, her bay horse was identified. This put him before the noose. He
penned the two letters before his execution and they are most curious.
de Kitchilan fiendishly asks us to guess, and guess again.
Indelicately manhandled;
robbed of her valuables; blasted in the head with her own rifle; set
alight and left to burn in her bedroom -- yet equipped ghost hunters
declare they have been unable to detect any "uninvited presence".
Cameras and instruments will never record the thundering dread that
Leah passed to me. She is there, but not as some "friendly spinster
poking around in the ruins looking for a pot of gold sovereigns." No
indeed. She is a most pressing and insistent spirit who beckoned me
instantly to share the depth of insult she bears endlessly. Mislaid
money is not her worry. It is the escape of the one who defiled her.
For it was not the named murderer, but the other one who partnered this
deed -- one who was close to him -- that she wails for. Of course he is
dead now, but the uncaught crime is not, nor ever will be unless
serenity is bestowed to her. This is the torturous gap that Leah
herself cannot seal.
© Esmerelda
Jones... Author of Vintage & Victorian Fiction
Image:
Remains Of "Peppermint Grove Cottage", The Fouracre Property At Waroona
(formerly Drakesbrook) Western Australia.
©Esmerelda Jones
Facts: "Mandurah
- water under the bridge" by Jill Burgess 19988 and
The
J S Battye Library of West Australian History.
Hanged on October 23, 1907. Photo of De Kitchilan,
alias Buchman ("Legal Executions In Western Australia" by Brian Purdue,
1993).
title: The Exterior of an Old Ghost Town House
Available from AllPosters.com
 
|