"Are we going for a ride on the bike Daddy?"

 “Are we going for a ride on the bike Daddy?” I find these words chilling. They were said by a 4 year old boy, Noah Smith, to a man who wasn’t even his father. The man, George Edward James, had been living with Noah and his mother, Cecilia Smith. George and Noah were then seen biking from their home in Aro Valley out towards Kilbirnie. Noah's body was found later that day wedged between some rocks at Shelly Bay and George was found in the harbour attempting suicide by drowning. 

George Edward James was born in April 1876 in the UK and later married Annie Chambers in Nottingham on the 25th of April 1898 Unfortunately nine months later Annie had to have an operation as a result of which their marriage was childless. This was said to have greatly saddened them both. They both left the UK in 1909 and arrived in Wellington, New Zealand in 1910

In 1916 they adopted a girl named Nancy. It’s difficult to say how old she was as George later claimed she was only a week old at her adoption but her birth certificate does have two separate dates. The day she was supposedly born in 1912 and the day she was adopted in 1916 which would’ve made her four years old at adoption. Anyhow they lived in Wellington for a time then moved to Petone, Lower Hutt. George worked as an engine driver (train driver) for the Petone Borough Council. Nancy May grew up and married Garnet William Rowse in May 1931 

Unfortunately on the 27th of Jan 1933 George's wife, Annie passed away. She left everything she owned to their daughter Nancy. I’m not sure what her cause of death was but you’ll see from the death notice that her death wasn’t unexpected so I’m guessing it was medical reasons with suspicion attached.

After Annie’s death, George lived with Nancy at her home in Petone for about six weeks. With Nancy being the sole-beneficiary of Annie, George aged 56 did not seem to take this well and difficulties arose between the two. I was told by someone once that this was how things were done back then. If a male passed away he would generally leave everything to his male heir. If a female passed away she would leave this to her daughters. While this could’ve been the case - it would be the only one I have come across for the 1930s era Looking into it further I found that George and Annie appeared to have an unhappy marriage. The information I found didn’t go into detail, it just said that their life together was unhappy so possibly that had something to do with it as well.

George started running into debt and said he was destitute. He asked Nancy and her husband for help and they said they would do what they could as far as food and clothing were concerned but they would not give him any money. George seemed ok with that but later said he would contest the will of his late wife if Nancy did not let him have some money. Nancy's husband took over the legal work connected with the estate and discovered that the estate had no value.

Meanwhile, George now aged 57 met a woman, Cecilia Smith aged 45-46 Cecilia was a widow with a four year old son George Noel Smith (to avoid confusion I have been, and will continue to refer to George Noel Smith by his middle name, Noel) The trio moved into a boarding house on Willis Street. They seemed to live happily together with George doing all the cooking and the washing and had bathed Noel while Cecilia spent most of her time sewing. George often spoke in praise of her fancy-work. Before they moved out however the proprietor of the boarding house said George looked different and was very nervous and worried looking. They also said that Cecilia had told them that George was getting on her nerves, and she had made up her mind not to marry him as she thought she would have to keep him (meaning pay for his food and everything)

In early June George, Cecilia and Noel moved in together in a house on Ohiro Road, Aro Valley, Wellington. The house consisted of three floors and the trio moved into the bottom floor which was once the basement of the house. The woman who lived in the middle floor had shown George the flat the day before. The woman was led to believe by George that he and Cecilia were married as he had said to her that he wanted his wife and little boy to see the flat. They moved in the very next day.

A week after they moved in the woman living in the flat on the middle floor met Cecilia and Noel. She called Cecilia, Mrs James. Cecilia corrected her and said her name was Mrs Smith and she and George were not married but another week later Cecilia told the woman that they were getting married on Monday but George had a lot of worry and a court case going on and that they were not going to get married until the case was fixed. While I couldn’t find a court case I could see that George was in constant contact with his solicitors to try and receive funds from his late wife's estate. It was later revealed that George and Cecilia never lived together as man and wife but they had agreed to marry on the 28th of July. Cecilia was Catholic (so no bedroom hanky panky until marriage) and as George was a protestant he was seeing a catholic father for religious instruction.

When rent was collected from George and Cecilia a week later, George was referring to Cecilia as “Badge” The person collecting the rent also mentioned that Cecilia seemed very concerned about the state of worry that George was in. 

On the 30th of June 1933 a man was out collecting mussels near the vicinity of Point Halswell. Shortly after midday he came across the body of a young boy. The boy was found on the rocks at the high tide mark and had apparently been dead for three or four hours. It was said that the boy had been drowned in the morning and then the body was left on the rocks by the receding tide. He had fairly long dark hair and dark eyes, dressed in black trousers, a grey overcoat, a red cap with dark spots, grey socks and black shoes.

Roughly 90 minutes later a Harbour Board employee heard cries from a man who was struggling in the sea near Thorndon. The man was clinging to a pile with his hands and legs and was up to his waist in water. He was thrown a rope three times before he was able to catch it. He caught the rope and was drawn to safety. He was in a half dazed condition and shivering. The men who pulled him from the water noticed a hat and blue coat lying nearby with a letter which was given to him as he was taken away in the ambulance. He was later identified at the hospital as George James.

The body of the boy found at Point Halswell had at this stage not been identified however a resident of Ohiro Road heard about the rescue of George and decided to call the police at about 6pm to give them certain information. With this information they were able to identify the boy as Noel. 

This then of course resulted in a constable visiting the flat where George and Cecilia lived. The flat was locked and there was no response to their knocks so the constable forced entry into the flat and found Cecilia lying on a small bed covered in a dark blanket. She was dead. A blood-stained table knife was found behind a chair and a large pool of blood on the other side of the small bedroom. Cecilia was discovered to have a severe wound in her throat and several cuts to the back of her neck. There were also wounds on both hands which was consistent with the gripping of the blade of a knife and having it withdrawn from her grasp. Her body remained in the flat guarded by two constables until morning when it was removed to the morgue. 

George meanwhile was recovering in hospital. George was already under suspicion and being guarded by  constables on shifts. George told one of the constables guarding him that he had been worrying all day and could not get five minutes' peace through things flashing across his mind. The constable said that he appeared to be quite rational. Another constable who had also been guarding him said that one of the first things George asked for was his solicitor and a catholic priest. After they visited him he started complaining of pains in his head saying “My head is awful and feels as if it is going to burst” He also asked if they had found Noel, when they replied in the affirmative, George broke down and cried. When George said his head was awful I don’t think he meant from drink. For the past few weeks he had been constantly worried about his lack of funds so had taken to starving himself so he wouldn’t need money for food. He believed his headaches that he had been having were from all his worries (stress) and lack of food. 

George requested to see Nancy. A message was sent and she arrived at the hospital later with her husband. After the visit from Nancy and her husband George said “Mrs Smith was a pure woman and a good catholic, but my daughter despised her. My wife left everything to my daughter. Now my daughter won’t help me. I am only just beginning to realise what has happened. I loved and adored Mrs Smith and she was a straight woman, and if I had had money to get married I would have been very happy” He then broke down.

George left the hospital on July 21st 1933 and was arrested straight away and accused of the murder of Mrs Cecila Smith. Court proceedings took two months and finally began on the 21st of September. He was not accused of the murder of Noel as such a charge could not be proved with evidence. More on that further on. George pleaded Not Guilty.

Witnesses started coming forward with their stories about what they had heard and seen the morning of the 30th of June.

At about 7:45am neighbours heard the screams of a woman and child coming from the flat. No sound was heard from George and since there were no calls for help the neighbours decided not to intervene. The screaming lasted for a few seconds. After the screaming a neighbour heard Cecilia say “Oh George, go for a doctor. I am done” Around one hour later, George was seen leaving the flat holding hands with Noel. Another neighbour saw Noel come out the gate with George right behind wheeling a bicycle. As the neighbour passed he heard Noel say “Are we going for a ride on the bike, Daddy?” The same neighbour saw them both later on going up Willis street with George cycling and Noel sitting on the handlebars.

Another person later also identified George and Noel as the pair he had seen riding a bike with Noel sitting on the handlebars. He saw them cycling down Crawford Road heading towards Kilbirnie. He remembered the pair especially because he saw Noel laughing and it reminded him that it was his own child's birthday. It sounds like Noel was very happy and having a good time riding with “daddy” This was the last known person to see Noel alive before his body was found on the rocks near Point Halswell.

It was suggested that George took Noel round to Point Halswell, struck him on the back of the head or else threw him on the rocks, stunning him in some way, and then placing Noel in a depression between some rocks at high tide and drowning him. This was supposedly done so that Noel was ‘got rid of’ otherwise he would have been a living witness. The medical examiner deemed the blows to the back of the head happened before Noel drowned.

During investigations the police found several letters in the flat. It appeared that originally Cecilia was led to believe that George had property but in view of the letters that were found it showed that George had nothing coming to him. Cecilia must have discovered this and known that he did not have the means to marry her. It was then suggested that she had properly at that stage decided to part from him and as a result he became determined to murder her and commit suicide himself. They now had a motive.

The letter that was found with George’s belonging after his suicide attempt had been written for Nancy and was produced during court proceedings. It read as follows:

Friday. Mrs Rowse. Nancy you see what you have brought me to now. If you had only gave me and Badge a little sum out of the money to start us up in married life the same as me and your mum did for you when you was married it would have gave me a chance but no you wanted the lot home and everything and turn me out into the street yourself enough as you had everything you wanted when we took you into our life as a baby and gave you everything. I love Badge and her boy and I am sorry to have come to an end like this but it is all through your selfish ways that I did this you was happy it did not matter about me once your father so this is the last words from me. 

Yours Broken hearted Father G. James

When George was put in the witness box and questioned he came forward with what happened in the flat before leaving with Noel.

He said Noel had been playing and cutting a piece of wood with a knife. Whilst doing so Noel cut his hand and George wrapped it with a handkerchief. Noel then went to pick up the knife again. George said Noel was a most determined boy. Cecilia then came out of the bedroom and started an argument with George claiming that he had led her to believe he had money when he didn’t. She then told him that Noel could have the knife back if he wanted it. Noel picked the knife up again and threw the knife at George. It missed George, hit a window and fell on the window seat. Cecilia then picked the knife up and went towards the bedroom. George said to her “He deserves a good thrashing and if he was my own boy I’d thrash him” When she passed George on her way to the bedroom he tried to take it out of her hands. She then picked up a piece of wood and hit him on the side of the head with it. George was already unwell with a sore head so the blow made him angry. He followed Cecilia into the bedroom as he thought her intentions were to give Noel the knife back just to make him even angrier. He went to pick up the knife and a struggle ensued. During the struggle George said he must have lost his senses as he did not remember what happened after that. He did not remember leaving the flat, he did not remember where he took Noel. He could not remember anything until he started recovering in hospital a day or two later.

When it was suggested to George that he had intended to kill Cecilia he said “At no time did I form any intention of killing Mrs Smith. I loved her, and nobody could have been more fond of her. I really worshipped her. I loved the boy and I was the only man the boy ever took to as his father” as he said those last few words he showed obvious signs of breaking down.

George's defence team were saying that George was provoked by Cecila during their argument (about giving a knife back to Noel) and that yes Cecilia did receive injuries but George had no intention of killing her. George said “During the struggle I must have lost my senses and I don’t know what happened” When it came to Noel, George straight out said “He would not hurt a hair on Noel’s head” They were also saying that the evidence was overwhelmingly that the crime was not one of murder but manslaughter. Reason being they claimed that George had at no time had any intention to kill Cecilia.

The prosecution team however were saying George had admitted that he inflicted the injuries on Cecilia but the test was whether the provocation was sufficient to deprive any reasonable man of his self-control. They were saying that there was no justification for George to use a knife on a woman and would a reasonable man use a knife on a woman so as to cause such terrible injuries? If it was true that James lost his head would he not have stabbed Cecilia in various parts of the body instead of directing all his blows on the throat? They said George did not remember what happened afterwards but all his actions were surely those of a man acting deliberately. They were not those of a dazed man.

The Chief Justice summed up saying the evidence was consistent with the theory of the prosecution team. That the prisoner had decided to do away with the woman and the boy and commit suicide himself but if you accepted Georges evidence as true, you still had to consider the question of provocation and decide if it was sufficient enough to justify reducing the charge from one of murder to one of manslaughter.

So basically the jury had to decide if George was guilty of murder and if he knew what he was doing or if it was manslaughter because he had lost control of himself. 

I find it interesting here that they only accused George of murdering Cecilia and not Noel. Apparently the prosecution team didn’t charge George for the murder of Noel because there was not enough evidence to prove that Noel's death was not due either to accident or misadventure. It was said that George may have just left Noel as some spot around Point Halswell and Noel may have stumbled, struck his head and been rendered unconscious and so slithered down into the water. Reading what a lot of witnesses said about the love between George and Noel yeah ok I guess this is a possibility. George may have wanted to keep Noel alive and then kill himself so he didn’t have to face the consequences of what happened to Cecilia. Both defence and prosecution team theories fit. Does seem a little co-incidental about the timing of Noel’s death though…

I can see why the defence team took the manslaughter route with Cecilia  as it does seem possible that George had no intention of murdering Cecilia. However his actions afterwards with Noel and himself seem deliberate to me. The actions of a man with a guilty conscience, even if he couldn’t remember it afterwards or at the very least claim to not remember it afterwards.

At 10:23pm on the 15th of November 1933 the jury found George Edward James guilty of the murder of Cecilia Smith. They did tack onto the verdict a strong recommendation to mercy. When George was asked if he had anything to say why the sentence of death should not be passed upon him, he made no reply. The Chief Justice donned the black cap, addressed George and pronounced the sentence of death. When sentence was passed George collapsed and had to be supported by two guards who removed him moaning from the dock.

A few weeks later on the 12th of December the minister of justice and executive council decided not to interfere with the carrying out of the death sentence and it was to be carried out within seven days. George was told that evening in his condemned cell. He had already been led to expect the worst so apparently took the decision calmly and made no reply. The decision was made to carry out the sentence of death in three days.

15th of December 1933

George had become resigned to his fate. He received religious consolation from two Salvation Army spiritual advisors. He slept well the night before and had even put weight on during his stay in prison (Mt Crawford Prison here in Wellington) He submitted quietly to being pinioned and drank two whiskies before leaving his cell for his execution. George mounted the 17 steps quickly to his position on the scaffold and when asked if he had any last words he replied “Good-bye everybody, May god have mercy on my soul” The white cap was drawn over his face, the noose put around his neck and as the 8am whistles sounded in the city, Georges body disappeared from the canopied platform and into the curtained space below. George’s sentence was carried out and he was hanged until dead. It was said to be one of the speediest executions in New Zealand at the time. From the moment George left his cell to when he was dropped on the scaffold it took less than three minutes.

One hour later and George's body was examined by the coroner and taken down. It might sound like a long time but this was normal. The body had to hang for one hour to make sure death had occurred. A verdict was returned that George had met his death in accordance with the law.

He was buried later that day in an unmarked plot at Karori Cemetery. He's very close to that small bush/tree in the middle of the pic below. My poor choice of shoes and an overgrown path meant I couldn't get directly to his plot the day I took this photo although I have visited it in the past.

Cecilia and Noel are also buried at Karori Cemetery. They are together in an unmarked plot.