In 1935, owner of the Coogee Aquarium and Swimming Baths, Bert Hobson, needed a large and exciting exhibit to draw visitors to his business in the midst of the Great Depression. The answer came to him when while fishing, he caught a fourteen foot Tiger Shark, and immediately added it to his roster of sea life. A week after this shark was added, it began convulsing, before vomiting up, among other things, a human arm.
Police identify the victim discovering he was a shady scammer
Hobson immediately called the police, who recovered the arm from the pool, only to find a tattoo on it, depicting two boxers fighting each other. This tattoo led authorities to trace the victim, discovering that the arm belonged to saloon keeper and former boxer Jimmy Smith, a man described as having no enemies or adversaries at all.
A few years before the case, Smith found himself employed as a builder to a man named Reginald Holmes, an all around shady employer. On the surface Holmes was a boat builder, but in secret he ran insurance scams and drug deals, delivering said drugs via speedboat.
While working for Holmes, Smith got caught up in his crimes, scamming builders, driving speedboats, and helping with other illegal activities. Smith and Holmes were soon joined by another accomplice, Patrick Brady, a forger who helped fake checks for the duo.
Smith was blackmailing Holmes
One of these fake checks is rumored to have caused a disagreement between Smith and Holmes, one that ended in Smith blackmailing Holmes, giving him possible motive for the murder.
On April 7, 1935, 11 days before the shark was caught, Smith and Brady were said to have left a local hotel, going to Brady’s cottage a few miles away to continue drinking. Later that night, a cab driver picked an odd acting Brady from the cottage, driving him to Holmes’s house nearby. This has led many to assume that this is when Smith was murdered.
The Cab driver would say later that Brady was clearly frightened, and hiding something strange in his jacket, possibly Smith’s severed arm. A month after this incident and the discovery of the arm, Brady was arrested for forgery, and then questioned regarding Smith’s murder.
In this police interrogation, Brady implicated Holmes in the murder of Smith, who then said that he did not even know Brady, an outright lie.
Holmes ended up shooting himself
A few days later, Holmes was out in his speedboats, and somehow shot himself in the head. Luckily for him, he survived, only falling into the harbor before climbing back into his boat and speeding away, now pursued by the Sydney Police. This boat chase carried on for almost four hours before Holmes was apprehended, with him telling police that he was shot by someone else and was trying to escape.
After talking to the authorities, Holmes claimed that Brady was the real man in charge, extorting him, and bringing the arm to his house in an attempt to blackmail Holmes. Holmes also said that Brady had murdered Smith, cutting his body up and putting the pieces in a trunk, before dumping said trunk in the bay, a common way of murder at the time. Holmes also claimed that he paid Brady the blackmail money, and Brady left the arm to him, which Holmes immediately threw in the ocean, where it was then eaten by the infamous shark.
In a deal with the police, Holmes agreed to tell this story in court, before being found dead on the day of the trial, three gunshots in his chest. Brady’s trial went on without Holmes, but quickly fell apart without the other man’s testimony, leaving him to walk away free soon after.
Shark Arm Murder Theories
Holmes was telling the truth to the police, and Brady murdered Smith in an attempt to blackmail Holmes. This is supported by Holmes’s sudden demise, and the advantage Brady got from it. This could be disputed due to the difference in sizes between the two men, with Smith being much taller than Brady, making it unlikely that the man could have killed him alone, unless Brady used a gun.
No One killed Jimmy Smith, as there was no body attached to the arm. It’s possible since his body was never found, that Smith could have faked his death, cutting off his own arm or having his wife do it for him as a way to escape Holmes’s schemes.
Smith was killed at Brady’s cottage, but without the help of Brady. This theory was suggested by Alex Castles, an Australian Legal Historian, and relies on the testimony of Brady’s wife, who said after coming to the cottage that night, that she heard a group of men inside, none of whom were her husband. This theory suggests that by the time Brady reached his cabin that Smith was already dead, and that Brady took the arm to Holmes unsure of what to do.
Holmes orchestrated Smith’s murder as a way of getting revenge for Smith working for the police, taking away his money and intentionally foiling scams. In this theory, Holmes ordered Brady to kill Smith, who then brought the arm back to Holmes as proof, which he then threw in the ocean. This theory ends with Holmes setting up one last scam, his own death, where he hired men to kill him on the day of Brady’s trial, giving the life insurance money to his family.
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