Good afternoon all, it has been another hot day here the day started out cool and ended up pretty damn hot.

Mum and I went to see nan this morning she has been moved to a different room and is now in a room on her own, it is a double room but she has no room mate and this mean Perla has a bed to sleep in while she is there over night. The reason she was moved is because they still think she is at the end of her life and will not be with us much longer, but then a week ago they didn’t think she would survive the night and she is still hanging in there. The room nan is now in is the room she was in when she first went into this nursing home.

While there staff came in to change her position in bed and we were chatting about how we like the nursing home and how when my great-aunt was in a different nursing home we found that place terrible as it stunk all the time and we would usually take aunt outside to visit with her because of the smell and one of the staff members said her mother is a nursing home at Mount Hutton and that is what it is like there, she was shocked at the state of the home and the smell, working in a nursing home like the one nan is in she didn’t realise how bad some are. The home nan is in doesn’t smell at all.

It was 54 years ago today that I came into the world, weighing only 4lb 2oz and look at me now, I am one of those people who loves her birthday it means I have been around for another year and I have no problem telling people how old I am.

My nan always would say she only felt 21 still and wouldn’t tell you how old she was, I never got what the big deal was about saying how old she was but for many years I had no idea how old she was.

So far the only present I have received was a pair of sunglasses that cost $10, I know how much they were because I was the one who pointed them out to Tim.

On Sunday I am going to have a baked lunch here for my birthday, I was going to have lasagne and chips or baked spuds only the frozen type of baked spuds but Tim went on about how he doesn’t like lasagne and wanted a proper baked lunch, of course it is me who has to spend the morning in the kitchen cooking. Kathy said she would make me a cake as I said I was going to just buy myself a birthday cake.

Sandra was upset when she heard I was cooking myself a baked lunch for my birthday so I am also going over to my parents place on Saturday for lunch mum is doing something for me so I guess it is all good I will get to birthday lunches.

I have received many birthday wishes today and thank all who have wished me a Happy Birthday.

This afternoon I have Leo till his mum gets here and Blain has gone to his mates place for a while and I was suppose to drive him home around 7.30pm but when I was coming home from getting Leo I realised I do not have enough fuel to get to Natasha’s place and home again and I have no money for fuel, in fact I will not have enough fuel to get Leo to school in the morning the first thing I will have to do is go get fuel in the car in the morning before taking Leo to school but after Tim gives me money for fuel.

Ok let me tell you a little more about Harry Crawford aka Eugenia Falleni, at the committal hearing in August 1920, witnesses included the dentist who made the false teeth found with Annie young Harry’s mum and his aunt also identified the gemstone found with the body as being Annie’s.

Young Harry also gave evidence about how his mother only married Crawford/Falleni because he was so persistent and that there had always been fights between them and it was never a happy marriage. He told how his mum was worried about Crawford and how they left him but he found them and smashed up everything.

He told how when Crawford took him to the Gap and tried to get the boy to follow him through the fence to the cliff edge but as young Harry felt that his step-father didn’t like him and his manner was more unpleasant then normal he didn’t trust the man so stayed back, of course his lawyer objected to the evidence but the magistrate allowed it on the ground that it indicated Crawford’s state of mind.

The Government Medical Officer (Dr Palmer) repeated his testimony from the post-mortem that he believed Annie died of burns and was alive when the fire began, due to blistering on the skin he could not say if she was conscious or not, although he did state the small cracks on the skull were likely a result of the fire but a more substantial one could have been the result of violence against her person.

Henrietta Schieblich, who rented a room to Harry after Annie’s death, said he told her his wife had left him and added “We had a jolly good row, and I gave her a crack on the head, and she cleared off”. She also claimed Harry had said he was going to kill Annie’s son on the night he took him to dig holes in the scrub. Another witness supported young Harry’s evidence that Harry, who couldn’t read or write and had asked others to look for mentions of a murder in the newspapers in the weeks after Annie’s disappearance.

The prosecutor was given permission to treat Harry/Eugenia’s daughter Josephine as a hostile witness and submitted her earlier sworn statement to police as evidence:

“I first remember my mother when about seven years of age. She always wore men’s clothing, and was known as Harry Crawford. I was brought up at Double Bay by Mrs. de Angeles, whom I used to call ‘Granny.’ Granny told me that Harry Crawford was my mother, and that my father was the captain of a boat. My mother was very cruel to me when I was a child, and often forgot me. Granny told me that my mother tried to smother me when I was a baby. Mrs. de Angeles died when I was about 12 years of age, and my mother took me to a little confectionery shop in Balmain, kept by a Mrs. Birkett, who had a son named Harry. My mother told me Mrs. Birkett had some money, and always thought my mother was a man. I said to my mother, ‘She’ll find you out one of these days.’ My mother replied, ‘Oh, I’ll watch it. I would rather do away with myself than let the police find anything about me.’ My mother told me always to call her father, and not let Mrs. Birkett nor anyone else know that she was a woman. I did not know that my mother was married to Mrs. Birkett, but they occupied the same bed-room. They quarrelled a great deal, and mother used to come out and say, ‘More rows over you. I cannot get any sleep.’ I replied to my mother, and she said, ‘Oh, a lovely daughter I’ve got.’ I said, ‘What can you expect? A lovely mother I’ve got.’ In 1917 I met my mother, who told me everything was unsettled and upside down, as Mrs. Birkett had discovered she was a woman. My mother seemed very agitated, and was always reticent about herself.“

At the end of the hearing Crawford/Falleni was committed for trial and refused bail. A few days after the committal hearing, the magistrate, Mr. Gale, was criticised in a Sydney newspaper for personally escorting into the courtroom, and providing ‘box seats’ for, a popular actor and actress.

The trial of course caused a press sensation with the accused appearing in the dock first in a man’s suit then in women’s clothes

The Crown case followed the evidence presented at the committal, although the Prosecutor was reticent when ‘referring to the relations between the accused and the deceased because “there were some matters to which he did not care to refer to in the presence of women”.He was rebuked by the presiding Chief Justice, Sir William Cullen, who responded that if women came to a Criminal Court they must be prepared to hear such things otherwise they would stay away. The Prosecutor then concluded with information that he said demonstrated the accused ‘was so practical in deceit’ as to be able to convince two women ‘for years’ that he was biologically male. Only described as ‘an article’ at the time, later newspaper accounts report the Police search of the home Falleni shared with Lizzie in Stanmore, and the discovery of a dildo in a bag belonging to Falleni the exchange between Falleni and the Police detective was repeated in Court:

“[Falleni] said: ‘You will find it, something there that I have been using.’

Detective: ‘What is it, something artificial?’

[Falleni] replied: ‘Yes, don’t let her see it.’

Detective: ‘Do you mean to say that she doesn’t know anything about this?’

[Falleni] said his first wife had not known about it either, ‘Not until the latter part of our marriage.’

Evidence from other witnesses did not always support the Crown’s case. While on his way to work, David Lowe saw a woman with a suitcase behaving in a ‘half-witted’ way, who disappeared into the scrub 200 yards from where the burned remains were found and Police-Inspector Mayes was one of those, at the original inquest, who suggested the body may have been of a woman who set herself on fire accidentally.

Naturally Harry pleaded not guilty to the murder but the jury took only two hours to reach their verdict and he was convicted and sentenced to death, asked by the Chief Justice if he had anything to say he spoke to his lawyer and replied “ I have been three months in Long Bay Gaol, I am near to a nervous breakdown, I am not guilty, I know nothing about this charge and it is only through false evidence that I have been convicted. Naturally he appeal against the conviction on the basis of

“…that the jury’s verdict was against evidence, that the evidence tendered by the Crown was weak and merely circumstantial; that the case against the accused set up by the Crown was destroyed by the evidence of the Crown’s medical witnesses; that the identification of the appellant with some person alleged by the Crown to have been seen in the neighbourhood of the place where a charred body was found was unsatisfactory, and that owing to nervous prostration at the trial, the appellant was physically unable to make a statement of facts, which would have answered the circumstantial evidence…”

The Court of Criminal Appeal dismissed the case finding that if the original jury ‘came to the conclusion that the accused was the person who had brought about the death of the woman, no matter by what means, it was justified in finding a verdict of guilty’

Although his sentence was commuted to imprisonment for life but his alleged immorality in passing as a biological male was made much of in the popular press, which portrayed him as a monster and a pervert.

Friends of Harry and ‘prison reform workers’ petitioned ‘on several occasions’ for his release and in February, 1931, reportedly following an hour-long visit with the prisoner, the Minister for Justice granted him freedom on the basis that he was nearly sixty years old and ‘not of robust health’.Upon leaving Long Bay Prison, he was taken by car ‘for an unknown destination’.

In the Evening News questions were again raised about the case such as there being no certainty that the body was Birkett’s, the skull fractures and the effect of the fire, the possibility of poison and the lack of ‘definite evidence that Falleni had taken the woman’s life’.

In April 1935, when Inspector Stuart Robson gave a speech upon taking on the role of officer in charge of the Broken Hill Police District, he recalled his involvement with the Falleni case:

“I was also responsible for the arrest of Eugenia Falleni, the famous man-woman. She was the child of an Italian skipper and he dressed her in male clothes and she worked as a cabin boy. She kept to male attire, and her exploits are well known. She was convicted for the murder of her ‘wife,’ and was sentenced to life imprisonment. I arrested her when she was working as a man, breaking down rum in a Sydney hotel cellar. That was three years after the murder. I thought I had arrested a man, and it was not until she declined to undress that I thought there was something wrong. A doctor made the discovery. She was subsequently released and has completely disappeared.”

Crawford/Falleni had assumed the name “Mrs. Jean Ford” and became the proprietor of a boarding house in Paddington, Sydney. On 9^th June 1938 he stepped off the pavement in front of a motorcar in nearby Oxford Street and was struck by it, and died of his injuries the following day in Sydney. He was only identified through fingerprint records and the £100 she gained from the sale of the boarding house business, just before the accident, was found in his bag. The inquest returned a verdict of accidental death. Crawford/Falleni’s funeral notice was announced under his final name and he was buried in the Church of England section of Rookwood Cemetery.

Hello everyone I am stinking bloody hot, and in a caravan with no air conditioning just a stupid fan that is blowing warm air around so not in the best of moods, I have sweat dripping off me and a headache to boot.

Add to that the fridge in the van was turned right down so the bait Tim had in the freezer was crap and the fridge stinks something awful although the van no longer smells as we have all the windows opened. I am drinking warm Pepsi Max as the fridge takes a good 24 hours to get really cold. Tim has switched it to gas as he things that will make it colder faster I am not so sure but what do I know.

The park it’s self isn’t that bad we are across from the amenities block which is good but I am not sure if I will have a shower or not tonight guess it will depend on how I feel later at the moment with the heat I am not feeling that steady on my feet.

I haven’t said much to anyone about how when I am in the shower I feel unsteady from the heat in fact when I have a bath at home I often feel unsteady when I get out due to the heat so to be honest at times the thought of having a shower where I don’t have some where to sit makes me nervous.

Tim bought himself a slab of beer but didn’t get me anything, which at the moment is annoying me just saying.

I have limited internet here and Tim doesn’t want to pay for credit for Jessica’s Wifi hub thing so I am writing this and will just get online to post only have 100mb and have used 70mb already.

Oh yeah Tim bought a solar panel that he attached to the roof of the van, now when he said he was doing that I asked if it would be secure he said it would be but I wasn’t sure anyway it blew off and we lost it that is $200 we won’t get back, he said he wants to get another one. I said I would rather air conditioning for the van as I can’t take the heat.

At the moment he has gone to the lake only a short walk from here to try fishing just so you all know I hate fishing and don’t eat seafood………….period

I hope to be back ready blogs on Tuesday or Wednesday if I had better Wifi I would be doing that while Tim is off fishing.

Oh nearly forgot to mention where we are we are in Port Macquarie which is a 3 hour driver from our home.

Doing a repost also today as it is 6 years since we buried my grandfather he died on the 4^th November 2010 and was laid to rest 6 days later on the 10^th November 2010.

Ronald Francis James was born 10th October 1925 in Wickham. He served in the Airforce during WW11, he had to enlist twice because he was under-age and the first place realised he was under-age and kicked him out so he went somewhere else and enlisted again. He had a fake birth certificate saying he was born on the 10 April year unknown.

He married my grandmother Florence Torrens Townsend on the 28 December 1950 at a church in Hamilton. My mum was 10 at the time and she always considered him he dad and not her step father. Mum and him had a close relationship for many years. Yes there was a time when my girls where young that he wanted nothing to do with us but that passed and he in fact didn’t remember that time during the later years of his life.

He and nan had only 1 child a son Francis.

Up until the 8th June 2010 he was living at his home with my grandmother who has Alzheimer’s and was taking care of her. He would also walk to Charlestown Square and home a couple a times a week.

On the 8th he went to the doctors and was sent to hospital for tests and never went home again. He was diagnosed with Asbestos Cancer which is an aggressive cancer

He passed away on the 4th November at 4am. His funeral was held at St Albans Church in Charlestown.

He was known to his grandchildren and great grandchildren at Poppy James.

May he rest in peace.

Good morning or afternoon, I am starting this in the AM but no idea when I will finish and post it.

I am home, last night was my last night house/dog sitting, the last few days by the time I got back to Dave’s place in the afternoon I just had no motivation to blog or check emails hence the reason I have not been around this week but things are back to normal now.

Yes I could have used Leo’s laptop while here during the day but decided to hand write some letters to pen pals as I am out of printer ink and since Tim had to fork out $220 for a new front tyre for his motor bike and $250 a few weeks back for repairs to the bike and the ink for my printer is like $23 each I will wait for a while before I ask him for money for the ink. We also need to get some scripts filled that I will need to get on Friday aka tomorrow more money we need to spend.

I also need to offer a correction, recently I said I had never had a broken bone, well my sister Sandra reminded me that as a baby I had a fractured skull and that counts as a broken bone, since I don’t remember it happening I was only a few months old.

In other news on Sunday or Monday right now I can’t remember which day anyway not important whichever day it was mum received a phone call from the nursing home to inform her that nan has a really bad chest infection and had been seen by the doctor and prescribed antibiotics but they wanted to know if mum and Uncle Frank wanted her treated or just left to possible die without intervention.

Mum said she could not make that decision on her own and had to speak to Uncle Frank, they said they could not reach him and thought he had gone away on holiday again, mum said no Frank had not gone away and she would get hold of him. Well she did and it was decided to give nan the medication and see what happens.

Then on Tuesday afternoon the nursing home rang Uncle Frank and said they didn’t think the antibiotics where working and she may not last the night, and if the family wanted to see her before she passed away to go and do it. So Uncle Frank and Aunt Perla went to see her and mum and dad went over and I called in on my way back to Dave’s place she didn’t look good but she is hanging in there. While I was there my daughters sent text messages to ask how nan was, Tim had told them all what was happening.

Yesterday mum and I went back to see her and my sisters Sandra and Jeannie went to see her as well. Nan had a fever when we were there and I had to get a wash-cloth to sponge her down and I also went to find a staff member to ask when nan last had medication for the fever. Someone came and took her temp and went to fetch the RN she also turned the air con on to help cool nan down. The woman in next bed complained that the air con was blowing on her and she was cold, mum and I took no notice, if the woman was cold she could cover herself with a blanket we were more concerned with nan.

Sandra was saying that she had tried to ring our other sister Sue but she wasn’t answering, I said she should have sent her a text I would had done so but thought Sandra was handling it. Mum said she would ring Sue when she went home, I hope someone has got onto Sue. There are times I think I have to do things to make sure they get done.

It is now midday and I am just getting back to this, I sent Sue a message about nan and she rang me to tell me she got the messages from the others and said she would like to see nan but is busy today and will call in to see mum this afternoon and might get over to see nan tomorrow.

I thought nan looked a bit better today, no fever although she was a little clammy and she still has the cough and when she coughs she gets distressed.

The woman who shares her room is a right pain she was speaking very loud no make that she was yelling and when mum told her to be quiet she said it was her medication was making her yell. What the hell, what medication makes someone yell?

She also told us we couldn’t put the air con on as it would make her cold, then she left the room and we turned the air con on.

Sandra was telling mum that yesterday after we left she started complaining again and wanted the air con turned off and Sandra told her no nan needed it to help cool her down and then she went on and on about how she was so sick and no one cared if she ended up in hospital Sandra said she wasn’t interested and to use a blanket if she was cold.

Because Sandy told her a few times she wasn’t interested in her complaints and such the woman ended up calling Sandy a effing rat, this didn’t bother Sandy and when she left Sandy hid the control to the air con.

Today when mum mentioned this woman’s behaviour to one of the nurses she was shocked and told mum not to take any notice of her that the woman is a trouble maker and no one wants to share a room for her but the woman can’t afford to have a single room. She has been moved a number of times as those she has shared with complained that the couldn’t stand her and that she was accusing them of going through her stuff. She even tried to complain that someone had been through her stuff in the room she is in with nan but since nan cannot get out of bed and doesn’t even talk other then a few words here and there she had no idea who it could had been.

Kathy-Lee has dropped Summer off for me to watch for an hour or so while she goes to the shops so she is here watching telly and drinking pink milk.

Well here I am on Monday morning and I am using Tim’s old laptop, the one Leo uses as mine is still at my brother’s place and I am at my place I had to take Leo to school and I have to meet mum at the X-ray place at 2pm so I am hanging out here for the day.

Before I took Leo to school I had to go and have blood test done and of course the first woman couldn’t find a vein so had to wait for the other one to be free and then they had to use a butterfly (a small needle with tube).

It really feels like summer here, as it has been bloody hot the last few days, so glad for air conditioning and shorts. I can’t imagine how women coped way back when women had to wear long ass skirts with petty coats and thick knee length or longer stockings. Also they would have to wear dresses that came up to their necks with long sleeves because showing skin was such a no no.

Today us women get around in shorts and tee shirts and the young females like teenagers wear really short shorts and skirts and show a lot of skin.

Can you imagine what it was like for a woman to go to the beach or swimming pool and have to wear those swimmers that went from the neck to the knee, no I don’t swimmers any more but when I was in my 20’s I would get around shorts and a bikini top during the summer days. That is because when Tim and I were first married we didn’t have air conditioning in fact we didn’t have air conditioning for many years but now I wouldn’t be without it.

That said I still prefer to have the doors and windows open as long as there is a cool breeze although on Saturday the breeze was bloody hot so no having the doors open then, today the breeze is nice and cool and I am happy to have the front and back doors opened.

In other news it is my birthday in 9 days time and I am hoping to get at least one gift card I can use to buy new shorts as the ones I have are about 4 years old and I am down to only 3 pairs of old stained shorts nothing nice enough to wear out.

Hello everyone, it is Saturday afternoon here and what a day it has been another stinking bloody hot day here, yesterday it was stinking bloody hot and today it is stinking bloody hot with bloody hot winds to boot.

I am somewhat drunk and I am blaming the wine it is the wines fault I am drunk I have had about a bottle of wine and wine does make me drunk faster then other grog well it seems to.

I am house/dog sitting for my brother came here Thursday night but had to get up at 6am yesterday to go home to be there when Jessica dropped Leo off before she went to work.

My sister Sandra and her girls Temika and Denni are with me and I also have Leo as his mum (Jessica) has to work today, all day and night she had to pick up a work van at 9am she is doing the A Day on the Green at Bimbadgen Estate which is a winery about 40 minutes from here so she will not be home till around 11pm tonight.

Just had a phone call from Jono asking me to ring Kelli she has been evacuated from her home due to a bush fire and she had no where to go so Sandra asked her to come her she has Daemon and Blain with her and a dog so this is going to be one crowded small ass house just saying.

Ok she is here so all is good Sandra rang Dave to make sure it was ok with him that she comes here with the boys and the dog and as far as I know he said it was ok as he would because my brother is bloody cool.

I just told my sweetheart, not Tim a secret……………….

Good morning have you heard of Eugenia Falleni, aka Harry Crawford, no didn’t think so, so today I am going to tell you a bit about Eugenia/Harry.

Way back in 1917the mother of young boy Harry Birkett went missing young Harry was too busy with life to concern himself about his mums disappearance in fact for two-and-a-half years Harry was too busy with the demands of life to concern himself with searching for his mother who vanished over the Eight-Hour Day long weekend in October 1917.

During this time Harry was in the care of his step-father Harry Crawford, living in boarding houses including the home of Mrs Marcellina Bombelli and in mid 1918 young Harry went to live with Mrs Bombelli’s son this was when young Harry discovered that his step-father was in fact a woman. It was after discovering this that Harry decided to look into what happened to his mother.

Frank Bombelli told Harry that Crawford was a woman called “Nina” who liked to dress as a man and that his mother knew Nina’s family in New Zealand, Frank said he didn’t think it was right to tell Harry when he first moved in with him as Harry was only 14 and he thought it was inappropriate to tell him such scandalous details, however, by the time young Harry turned seventeen Frank decided he was old enough to know the truth.

After hearing this information young Harry was suddenly panicked about what happened to his mother. Thinking back to the last months of their family life before she disappeared he could now see that there had been an abrupt change in her attitude to her husband.

Now older his mother’s actions made more sense as a young teenager he had just accepted what his step-father had said in way of explanation for his mother’s disappearance. He could also vividly remember the journeys to The Gap and Woolahra that his father dragged him to in the week after his mother vanished (a infamous suicide spot)

He then had a moment of shock when the revelation hit him with the memory of how his step-father had asked him to read an article about an unidentified, burned body that had been found in the Lane Cove River Park and the strange emotional reaction he had seen in his step-father.

Young Harry Birkett became totally convinced that his mother had been murdered by Harry Crawford and that the body that had been found near the Cumberland Paper Mills was her. He was determined to uncover his mother’s fate, no matter what it was. If his step-father had murdered her he wanted him brought to justice, whether he was a man or woman.

So Harry sought out his aunt whom he had not seen in about three years to tell her of his suspicions she was pleased to see him but when he informed her that he hadn’t seen or heard from his mother since October 1917 she became terribly distressed and concerned about her sister.

His aunt told him that his mother had told her shortly before her disappearance that Harry was a not a man, as they discussed his mother’s disappearance they fed off each other’s suspicions until his aunt came to the same view as her nephew that her sister had been murdered by Harry Crawford.

They decided to report Annie (his mum) as a missing person and tell the police of their suspicions about Harry Crawford and that they would inform the police of the strange facts they had been given about his gender and his Italian origins and his New Zealand family.

In May 1920, Harry and his aunt Lily attended the Criminal Investigation Branch of the New South Wales Police, they were interviewed by Detective Sergeant Stewart Robson, who assumed the role of chief investigator. Harry told the Detective Sergeant as much of the circumstances as he could recall about the strange fortnight after his mother had disappeared.

This included mention of the article in the newspaper about the body that had been found in the Lane Cove River Park around the time his mother had disappeared and his strong suspicion that the body could be his mother’s.

Detective Robson was naturally intrigued at this extraordinary information, and resolved that, if it was true, he would use it to his advantage during the investigation. He asked them both to come back to see him several weeks later, by which time he would have been able to ascertain what evidence still remained from the original police investigation in 1917, and they could then make formal written statements.

It was an easy task for Detective Sergeant Robson to locate the police documentation about the investigation in 1917 of the body that had remained unidentified. He simply called for the file and exhibits, which had been retained at the Chatswood police station.

By mid-June, several weeks after their visit, Harry and Lily again attended the Criminal Investigation Branch, where Detective Robson showed them the jewellery, shoes, enamel cup, picnic basket, and the small piece of gabardine material that had been recovered from the park. They were able to identify the items as having belonged to Annie.

At long last, more than two-and-a-half years after Annie’s death, there was sufficient circumstantial evidence to conclude that the body was hers.

Detective Sergeant Robson took formal statements from his two witnesses. He deliberately did not include in their written accounts the information about Harry’s gender and origins, but kept this up his sleeve so that he could use it as a potentially powerful investigative tool.

He would later present it in an unduly self-complimentary way that suggested it had only emerged because of his comprehensive and exemplary skills as a detective, rather than attributing this connection to Annie’s son.

It does not appear that the police engaged in any further inquiries before deciding to arrest and question Harry Crawford. For Detective Sergeant Robson, the information he already had from Harry and Lily was sufficient to make the decision to arrest Harry Crawford. Robson thought that there was a good chance that, on being confronted with what the police already knew, Harry Crawford might confess to the murder of his wife.

The decision to adopt this course of action, trying to prompt a confession from their suspect was made in the belief that if Harry did admit to the murder, it would make the police investigation much more straightforward and require far less laborious police legwork.

This was a common approach by the police to the prospect of an involved and lengthy investigation, so the decision was made to delay any further investigations till after Harry Crawford had been interviewed.

On the 5^th July 1920 two detectives went to were Crawford was working and went up to him and and said “I am Detective Sergeant Stewart Robson and this is my colleague Detective Watkins. What is your name?”

Although Harry did not initially know the purpose of the visit by these two officers, any confrontation with the police was sufficient to raise his level of stress and fear. As a highly experienced police officer, Sergeant Robson immediately detected that rise in tension and his instinct was to exploit it to his advantage.

After asking his name, the sergeant asked, ‘How long have you been working here?’ to which Crawford replied, ‘A few weeks.’

Sergeant Robson then asked him, ‘What nationality are you?’ This was ostensibly a strange question for Robson to ask at this early stage, but understandable if one knew what young Harry had told him.

Crawford’s response was to ask the detective, ‘What do you want to know that for?’, to which the policeman replied, ‘I believe you are an Italian.’ Crawford said, ‘No, I am a Scotchman and was born in Edinburgh.’

Robson said, ‘I have my doubts about you, and I am going to take you to the Central Court or the Detectives Office to make further investigations.’ The moment that Harry Crawford had dreaded for so many years had finally arrived.

In a legal sense, Robson was deliberately vague as to whether or not Crawford was then under arrest, although his suspect would clearly have thought he had no option but to accompany the police to wherever they wanted to take him. The law provided that if Detective Sergeant Robson was going to arrest Crawford, he was under an obligation to take him to the Central Police Court at the ‘earliest reasonable opportunity’.

At this hour, around the middle of the day, there was clearly no impediment to meeting this requirement of the law, as the Central Police Court in Liverpool Street, contiguous to the Central police station, would still have been in session. However, instead of taking Harry Crawford to the court, Detective Sergeant Robson took him to the Criminal Investigation Branch offices at the Central police station. No doubt, if Robson had been queried about this diversion, he would have asserted that Crawford was not under arrest and had voluntarily accompanied them to the police station for questioning.

Harry Crawford was escorted to the third-floor offices of the Criminal Investigation Branch. He was introduced to Superintendent Bannan, who was the officer in charge.

With the authority of his office and his superior age supporting him, the Superintendent said to Crawford: ‘These officers, Robson and Watkins, have been enquiring for some days about a matter which we think concerns you a great deal.

And what I want to know is whether you are willing to make a statement setting out your social relations with different people since you have been here, where you have been working, and people that you know generally.

You will be taken out to the top room and you can make your statement there. But, before you do go, I wish you to thoroughly understand that the statements that you do make shall be absolutely voluntary.’

Crawford replied, ‘All right.’

Crawford was then taken to one of a series of small interview rooms on the top floor of the police station. A formal statement was then typed out by a police typist based on Crawford’s answers in response to Sergeant Robson’s questions. After the statement had been completed, Sergeant Robson invited Crawford to read it.

Despite the fact that Crawford was illiterate, he gave the appearance of reading the document, and then signed it. The statement contained numerous lies about his origins and personal history and, most importantly of all, stated that he had been a single man all his life until marrying Lizzie Allison in September 1919.

Following the making of the statement, Sergeant Robson left the interview room for five or ten minutes and then returned to inform Crawford for the first time that he had interviewed Harry Birkett and Lily Nugent and that he had reason to believe that Crawford had married Harry Birkett’s mother some years earlier.

Sergeant Robson also told Crawford that he proposed to produce Harry Birkett in his presence, and he gave Crawford the option of an identification line-up with other people if he wished. Crawford declined the offer, saying, ‘I don’t want to be lined up with a lot of other people. I have got enough worry on my head at present.’

There then followed a most extraordinary exchange between Sergeant Robson and his unsuspecting and disadvantaged suspect, who did not know the extent of the Sergeant’s knowledge about his identity.

Sergeant Robson skilfully used the information he had been given by Harry Birkett and Lily Nugent to unbalance his suspect and to push him into a corner from where, Robson hoped, he could only escape by making admissions. According to the police, it went like this:

Robson: You still say that your name is Harry Crawford and you were born in Scotland?

Crawford: Yes.

Robson: Have you any marks about your body that will assist in identifying you as a Scotchman and where you say you were born?

Crawford: No.

Robson: Strip off a little and let me see.

Crawford: No, I object to that.

Robson: Very well, the government medical officer is in this building — Dr Palmer. Would you care to go before him?

Crawford: I do not mind.

Robson then took Crawford to Dr Palmer’s office, nearby in the same complex. By this stage, Harry Crawford was in a complete panic. He had no idea what evidence the police had to link him to Annie’s death.

Unbeknown to him, there was in fact very little. Robson was playing a very nimble game of cat-and-mouse. Crawford had a flashback to the time many years earlier when, as a sailor on the Norwegian barque, he had been caught out and exposed, and he shuddered with horror at the memory of the terrifying ordeal that had followed.

He was fearful that the police were intending to charge him and that he would be sent straight to a men’s jail where he would again be viciously raped. He was prepared to do anything to avoid a repetition of the terrible, violent invasion of his body suffered all those years ago.

However, when confronted with Dr Palmer, Crawford could not bring himself to disrobe, and so he objected to the doctor examining him. Robson then took Crawford back to the interview room, and their conversation continued:

Crawford: I suppose now I will have to go to jail?

Robson: I am not quite sure about that yet, at the present juncture.

Crawford: What do they do with you when they take you to jail?

Robson: Well, I’m not quite familiar with their methods, but I think they first give you a good bath and a change of clothes.

Crawford: Well, I want to go into the women’s ward.

Robson: Oh, not quite. No chance of that.

Crawford: Come here. I want to tell you something (calling Robson away from the typist). I want to tell you that I am a woman and not a man.

Robson: Well, I can only take you as you appear to be, dressed as a man, and that is a matter entirely for the doctor.

Crawford: Is the doctor here now?

Robson: Yes, he is still there.

Crawford: Well, can I go and see him?

Robson: Yes.

Robson again took Crawford to see Dr Palmer and, in Robson’s quite intrusive presence, Crawford disrobed a little and told the doctor that he was a woman. After an examination that required a mere second or two, Dr Palmer declared that Crawford was indeed a woman. Robson and Crawford then returned once again to the interview room, where the conversation continued:

Crawford: This is a terrible thing for me, and the worry of my life.

Robson: Well, we are going out to your place now, where you say your wife is, and I am going to make a little search.

Crawford: (desperately pleading) I do not want you to let her know anything.

Robson: What, do you mean to say that she has not found out anything since you have been living with her?

Crawford: No, she does not know anything.

At that point, Robson brought Harry Birkett into the room. The young man immediately identified Crawford as the man who had married his mother years earlier, and promptly left the interview room without the slightest acknowledgement of his step-father.

Robson then offered to read Harry Birkett’s statement to Crawford. After reading it to him, their conversation continued:

Robson: How is it you never mentioned anything to me about this first wife, that is explained in the statement?

Crawford: Oh, you have it all now. You have got as much as I could tell you. I did not want to say anything about it. She had been drinking a great deal, a source of worry to me, and she had been going with other men. [end quote]

There then followed several further questions about the circumstances of Annie leaving home in 1917. Robson then informed Crawford that he and the police would go to where he was living with his present wife, in order for the police to conduct a search.

Robson at this stage still maintained a deliberate obfuscation about whether Crawford was under arrest and whether he was compelled to accompany them to his home. Crawford had still not formally been placed under arrest, but neither had he been told that he had a choice whether or not to accompany the police to his home.

By this stage, Crawford was feeling quite terrified and thoroughly confused at his predicament. He was horrified at the thought that Lizzie, whom he dearly loved, might discover his true identity and the reality of their lovemaking.

He firmly believed that if she did find out, their relationship would disintegrate, just as had the one with Annie. More than anything else, he wanted to protect Lizzie’s feelings.

Detectives Robson and Watkins then took Crawford to his home when they arrived, Detective Robson introduced himself to Lizzie, told her that they were investigating a murder and informed her that they were going to search the house.

Lizzie began to cry, and continued crying for the whole time that they were there. The two police officers, with Crawford in tow, went into the main bedroom, where the police commenced to search. Crawford felt completely defenceless and overwhelmed by his overriding concerns for Lizzie, who was crying in another room.

In one corner of the bedroom there was a large, handsome, solid leather portmanteau inscribed in gold letters with the initials ‘HLC‘.

Detective Robson walked across the room as if to open the portmanteau, when Crawford interrupted him, Let me open the bag and I will give you something that is in it.

Robson: No, I could not do that.

Crawford: Well, don’t let the wife see it.

Robson: What is in the bag?

Crawford: You will find it, something there that I have been using.

Robson: What is it? Something artificial?

Crawford: Yes, don’t let her see it.

Robson: Do you mean to say that she doesn’t know anything about this?

Crawford: No, and I do not want you to let her know.

Robson then opened the portmanteau and searched through it. He found a pair of well-tailored trousers, braces, shirts, sleeve links, sleeve suspenders, collars, socks — in fact a complete masculine outfit.

Robson also found a revolver that contained two live rounds, two empty fired cases and one empty chamber. Hidden underneath, he found a cloth bag. He opened the bag and in it he found the object Crawford had so carefully fashioned all those years before and with which he had so surreptitiously but successfully pleasured many women, including both his wives.

With a furrowed brow, Robson gingerly removed the object from the bag and in front of Crawford held it up by the strap between two fingers, as though it were the tail of a decomposed rat that the cat had brought in. The conversation continued:

“Robson: Is this what you referred to as having used on your wife?

Crawford: Yes.

Robson: Did your first wife know that you were using anything like this?

Crawford: No, not until about the latter part of our marriage. Not until about the latter stages of our married life. I think somebody had been talking.

By this stage, Robson clearly thought that he had sufficient evidence with which to charge Crawford. The police took him from the house telling Lizzie only where they were taking her husband and leaving her in a state of complete ignorance about what had just occurred.

They proceeded directly back to the Central police station to charge their suspect with the murder of Annie Birkett.

In the space of just a few hours, the persona of Harry Crawford, which had been so carefully crafted and successfully maintained for twenty-two years, had abruptly disintegrated, as he was forced to revert to his original identity as Eugenia Falleni.

Harry felt as though his inner soul had been ripped from within him. Eugenia was an alien presence that had ‘passed away’ years earlier and now she had been forcibly resurrected.

Well that is all for this part I will do a second part next week to wrap up what there is to know about Harry Crawford or should I say Eugenia Falleni.

Hello November, hope you are going to be a great month for me and mine, if you are not will not change that it is still November that is one of those things that cannot be changed for about 30 days when November is gone.

While I was waiting for Leo to get out of school I heard these women talking and one of them said “all people brake a bone at some point” and I thought no they don’t I am 53 and never had a broken bone.

Ok many people may brake a bone of two in their lives just not me, well not so far. However, there are some people who have a tendency to fall over and maybe break something. I remember when I was a teenager we (the family) were one holiday in Melbourne and while walking down Little Collins Street my mum stumbled and fell over that is the first time I can remember mum falling over since then she has fallen over a number of times.

There was the time she fell over at home and broke her wrist and when it happened dad said it wasn’t broken just sprained but after a while (as in hours) the hand became swollen and she was taken to A & E and it was X rayed and she was told it was broken.

A few years later while she was at the local shops she fell over an old slap of cement that was where the old phone box was and broke her arm, she picked herself up and went into the butchers to get the mince my sister wanted and drove herself home, however, when she got home she couldn’t turn the car off or pull on the handbrake and had to toot the horn to get someone to help her.

The a few years after that while out at the local shopping centre (Charlestown Square) she slipped on a grape that was on the ground and fell over again, breaking her arm and shoulder that fall resulted in her needing a complete shoulder replacement..

So mum has had both shoulders replaced has plates and pins in her arm which made the scanners beep when going through scanners when boarding the ship in May.

Neither of mums arm will straighten completely and she can not reach her her arms up above her head, she cannot peg washing on the clothes line.

She also has arthritis running down the length of her spine causing her a great deal of back pain and now she has trouble with arthritis in both of her knees and has been told she needs both knees replaced and is on the waiting list to see the specialist about that.

So I can tell you mum is on a lot of pain relief but many days it doesn’t help she is in pain 24/7 and it gets her down a lot, my sister Sue goes and massages her knees some days but not as often as mum really needs it done.

I am amazed at how much mum continues to do each and every day, she still watches preschool children (aged 4) two, three or four days a week for often many hours during the day taking the same children two and from day care when needed.

My sister Sandra does a lot for mum and dad she is the one who mows the lawn and does the vacuuming and helps mum with the weekly shopping carrying things inside the house and putting the shopping away.

Out of my daughters the only one to have a broken bone was Jessica when she rode the pee wee 50 (mini motorbike) through the fence in the park she also needed stitches to her forehead.

Blain fell over while jumping off something at day care and broke his arm requiring surgery a couple of surgeries if I remember rightly he has a scare on his arm, this was the same day care that Leo went to as did Temika and now Landon, Denni and Hayley, Kathy’s daughter Sydney-May also went there for a year or so. Just thought I would throw that in there.

Here we are at Monday yet again so that means a weekend update and some Monday thoughts as in whatever pops into my head I will mention, hope that is ok with all.

Tim just arrived home and you know, I know he is going to turn the telly on because he often doesn’t like the quiet. I have the telly on when I get up but turn it off when I take Leo to school and usually don’t turn it on again when I get up. I don’t mind a quiet house, I can and do often blog and listen/watch telly at the same time but of a morning if I am home alone I will just do stuff on the computer in quiet.

As all know I don’t blog much over the weekend, I read some at times but usually I like to spend the weekend watching shows I have recorded and Sunday is the day I ask my daughters to come over for lunch. Last Sunday I did a chicken and bacon pasta bake and some home-made fried rice. I had asked Natasha, Steve and Blain if they would like to come over for lunch but again they were a no show. I was annoyed but at the same time I understood that Natasha has been busy setting up her new house, the act of moving can be over pretty quick but the setting up of the house can take a couple of weeks.

However, this was the second time I had invited them to lunch that they forgot about, I will extend the invite one more time and if they forget or don’t turn up next time then I what, stuffed if I know I would like to say I wouldn’t invite them again but hell I properly would invite them again because I am far too kind.

Today it is the 31^st October for some that means Halloween, but not me I am not into Halloween, I just don’t do it. I have nothing against those who do but when I was a child and really until about 20 years ago it wasn’t a thing here in Australia. To me it is a foreign thing that our stores have latched onto to make more money. I know and accept that the next generation will most likely be right into it and that is ok just don’t expect me to be into it.

On the topic of Halloween, on Saturday the suburb over from be did a big Halloween event they do it each year, its free too, they have jumping castles and face painting and many of the stores have signs saying they do trick or treating and children can go into the stores for trick or treating. Kathy and her girls and Jessica and the boys went and they all had a good time, it was a stinking hot day though and by the time they were done they were exhausted they only stayed for a couple of hours. I drove them first I drop Jessica and the boys off then went back to Natasha’s new house where Kathy and the girls were waiting and then I drove them I then went and left Kathy’s car at Natasha’s house and brought Jessica’s car home.

Tim took our car to work on Saturday as he discovered that the front tyre on his motorbike was as bald as can be he has it booked in to get a new tyre today it has been four years since he last replaced the tyre.

Today is also my baby brother’s birthday he is 38 today, I can remember when he was a baby and I used to change his nappies and walking the floor with him at night wearing mum’s dressing gown to settle him while mum drove dad to work. I gave him a dozen cans of Jack and Cola and a key thing

It is also 38 years ago this year that my mum had her stroke, Dave was only 6 weeks old when mum had her stroke, it happened over the weekend but mum waited till the Wednesday to go to the doctor as she had to wait for dad to get paid before she had the money to see the doctor. She went from the doctors to the hospital when the doctor told her she had to go to hospital she said how can I, I have 5 children to take care of including a 6 week old he said you can take the baby with you but you have to go to the hospital now and so she d id. Today you wouldn’t know she ever had a stroke.