Boggo Road Gaol – A Female Perspective – Dora Damkohler
A Female Perspective – Dora Damkohler
“I’m a disgrace to my sex, and have been drinking Morphia and Chloral.
I’m drunk now, but I’m not a criminal, and why should I be sent to Gaol?”
Dora Damkohler 9th May 1903.
Dora Damkohler 
Alias: Dora Martin
Age: 33
Native Of : France
Height: 5 feet 3 1/2 Inches
Build: Slight
Complexion: Sallow
Hair: Brown
Eyes: Grey
15 Prior Convictions
Markings : False teeth upper jaw. White spots on face.
Dora Damkohler, a French immigrant, had a dangerous addiction to alcohol, more specifically spirits, chloral and morphia. However, because of this, she made every effort in the courtroom to change the way women were treated in gaol and to seek rehabilitation for herself and other addicts.
Dora Damkohler, also known as Martin, was known among the police at the Central Police Court in Brisbane. Her troubles first landed her in the hands of Boggo Road Gaol first in 1903, where she paid regular visits every couple of month for the next several years until her final sentencing in 1908.
With every encounter with the police, she pleaded guilty to not being a criminal, but a woman who wanted the chance to be helped through rehab. Her active espousal for the government to form an Inebriate Home (or rehab centre) to fully mend her critical drinking habit caused chaos for the Brisbane Police Court. Her case was the first of many to make the court realise that 3 months in gaol will not cure her, and others, of their dependence on alcohol; and there was a need for an establishment of a recovery program.
Salvation Army Home for Women Stanley Street Brisbane 1912
Damkohler, a fiery woman who had a strong desire for receiving help, won over her addiction, which lead to the establishment of rehabilitation, resulting in help for other struggling prisoners.
In celebration of Queensland Women’s Week and International Women’s Day, we are delighted to share the stories of Boggo Road Gaol from a female perspective.
This article was contributed by Researcher Abby Smith as part of the ongoing research program for Boggo Road Gaol Pty Ltd. The aim of the program is to bring to light and share articles relating to Boggo Road for the purposes of review and study. Do you have a story to share or something you would like us to know about? You can contact the research team here
From the Headlines…Escape!
Let’s face it. No one really “wants” to go to gaol!
Imagine finding yourself locked up for say ten years… You have nothing but time to think about the outside world and how much you want to be in it.
For prisoners in Boggo Road Gaol nothing could be more true!
Escapes from gaol have made many wonderful Hollywood movies. But they are often stories of true life prisoner escapes from some of the most notorious prisons in the world.
Queensland’s most notorious gaol – Boggo Road – is no exception!
This weeks story is one of the prisoners that the walls failed to hold. John ‘The Bird’ Dennis.
John Dennis
Crime: Break and Enter (Habitual)
Term : 5 years 9 months
1924-1931
John Dennis “The Bird”
Known Alias:
Harold Peckman, Harold Bickman, Jack Simpson, John William Dennis, Peckman & Co, Alfred Peckman, Pickman, Kingsbury.
Age: 24 Years
Native of: New South Wales
Height: 5ft 4 1/2Inches (164cm)
Weight : 10 Stone (63.5kg)
Build: Medium
Complexion: Dark
Hair: Dark Brown
Eyes: Dark Brown
Clothing: Last seen wearing…Blue serge suit, Grey felt hat with black band, striped cotton shirt, collar and tie and black boots.
Escaped: 30th October 1924
John Dennis, A notorious B and E man from New South Wales with an accomplice had moved to Queensland with the express purpose of ripping off the good people of Brisbane. He was convicted of seven counts of breaking and entering on the 18th of August 1924, each charge to be served concurrently. In a short four week run, they stole large quantities of valuable jewellery and personal effects, that they pawned.
During the trial John Dennis tried to convince the judge that they were poor and needed to commit the crimes to support themselves. The Judge having none of it convicted each on the seven counts and declared them both habitual criminals.
Habitual criminals were treated more strictly than other prisoners and are not to be released from gaol until they prove that they have turned a corner into a law abiding life.
After the trial, Dennis and his accomplice were transported to Boggo Road Gaol via the Black Maria (the usual mode of transport to and from the court) Where they were admitted and locked up in number two division.
Number Two Division Boggo Road Gaol
Shortly after admission, the clerk, realised that an error had been made. There was no photograph on file for John Dennis. This must be amended. So it was, on the 30th of August 1924 John Dennis under escort from a warder of number two division, was taken through the visitor gate at the front of the gaol and marched across to have his photograph taken in number one division. The distance between the two divisions was only short roughly 60 meters.
The ever wily John Dennis, however, had other thoughts in mind. It was on the return journey that he made a break for it! Dashing down the gravel forecourt onto Boggo Road, and quickly mixed himself in with the crowd. The warder quickly attempted to catch him, but unfortunately tripped. John Dennis had escaped.
For the next eight months, John Dennis nicknamed “The Bird” by the press, eluded the authorities who had looked for him high and low. He hid in Red Hill, in plain sight. He had a wow of a time! He had drank in pubs, played snooker, visited the cinema and even had a romance with an usherette.
It was on a chance investigation by police that he was taken into custody as “Kingsbury”
John Dennis was returned to Boggo Road Gaol to serve out the remainder of his original sentence including the time that he was free.
It wasn’t long however, John Dennis got it into his mind again that he wanted to be free. He had cleverly constructed a ladder made of strips of calico plaited together and a rope made of blankets knotted together. He apparently had secreted a hacksaw blade into his cell. Using the blade he managed to cut through a one inch thick bar in the window of his cell, pushing it to one side squeezed his tiny frame through the 7 inch (18cm) opening he had created, and lowered himself down on his blanket rope. He had done it… or so he thought! Waiting for him at the bottom was a prison officer with a pistol pointed square at his chin.
This was the last of his “Great Escape” attempts.
John Dennis did indeed turn over that ‘new leaf’ . He was released on conditional parole on the 9th of January 1931. Having enough of Queensland, he eventually moved back to New South Wales to his family.
This Sunday, come behind the walls and gates and hear about some of the fascinating Escapes from Boggo Road Gaol. Hosted by Director Jack Sim.
This is a rare treat! Don’t miss out! Get your tickets here
Have you visited our Gaol Shop? Inside you will find loads of wonderful memorabilia. There are also a number of publications on the Gaol and its prisoners, one of them in particular is a great read Escape from Boggo Road – Volume 1 written by Director Jack Sim and Author Caroline Stevenson.
BOGGO ROAD OFFICIALLY CLOSED 25 YEARS AGO
BOGGO ROAD OFFICIALLY CLOSED 25 YEARS AGO
BRISBANE CORRECTIONAL CENTRE CLOSES – 27 JULY 1992
25 years ago, on Monday 27 July 1992 Corrective Services Minister Glen Milliner closed the gates of Number One Division of the Brisbane Correctional Centre, officially ending the era of Boggo Road Jail Australia’s most notorious prison. In May 1988 the Kennedy Report had recommended the closure as well as a new focus on rehabilitation rather than retribution.
Over 119 years of operation, thousands of men and women served time behind its red-brick walls.
There were many infamous inmates including the “Houdini of Boggo Road” escapologist and jail-breaker “Slim” Halliday and the Whiskey Au Go Go nightclub fire-bombers James Richard Finch and John Andrew Stuart. Forty-two prisoners were executed by hanging – the last in 1913.
In the 1980s Boggo Road was the scene of dramatic escapes, riots, hunger-strikes and roof-top protests which led to the prisons official closure 25 years ago in July 1992.
Heritage-listed No. 2 Division – the remaining section of Boggo Road – is as it was when it closed. It is part of the new Boggo Road Urban Village redevelopment. Since 2012 Boggo Road Gaol Pty Ltd has conducted guided tours, events and experiences at the historic site.
SPECIAL EVENTS: Thursday 27 July 2017 – 10.30am outside the prison gates to commemorate 25 years since Boggo Road Gaol’s closure + History. Saturday night – Ghost Tours. 28 / 29 July – Hourly History Tours with re-enactments by the Prison Players.
Jail Open 7 Days – HISTORY tour (11am)
Book Group Tours and Jail Hire / Events
RSVP bookings@boggoroadgaol.com
PRISON’S FIRST TALKIE
FROM THE HEADLINES…PRISON’S FIRST TALKIE
Eighty-Two years ago… The prisoners of Boggo Road Gaol got a very rare treat. They saw their first ‘Talkie’! that may not sound like much to you and I but these are men who had never seen a motion picture with sound. Something that today is unheard of with the advancements in technology, surround sound, multidimensional extravaganzas that we see each week…. Not to mention the equipment we have in our very own living rooms and even on our mobile phones! Some would say they should have never received such an opportunity. Some would say it was about time that prisoners were treated as human beings and witness some of the outside world. All of this was very controversial at the time…
There were no better films at this time than Charles Dickens’s “David Copperfield”. It was and still is a masterpiece of its generation. If you haven’t seen it…I can highly recommend it. So this Friday the 7th of July, get out the popcorn, and catch a ‘talkie’… in the comfort of your very own lounge chair.
Or, if you want a truly authentic experience…Join us at Boggo Road Gaol for the Prison Movie Series. For dates and times visit www.boggoroadgaol.com/movies/
PRISON’S FIRST TALKIE
Boggo-Road Men See First Local Release of Film
“DAVID COPPERFIELD” IN GAOL
Some Brisbane residents who previously had never heard or seen a talkie, yesterday of seeing such as had the privilege yesterday of seeing such a picture for the first time in their lives.
Unique in many ways was the occasion. For it marked the first showing of films in 10 years at Boggo-road Gaol, and the first exposition of talkies in that institution at any time.
One hundred and ten prisoners comprised the audience, among them many of the most famous criminals in the State – men who had seen nothing but the inside of the gaol since long before the first talkie was shown in Brisbane!
SILENT films were shown to the prisoners about a decade ago, and concert parties have visited the gaol on regular occasions, but many of the long-termers have never witnessed a talking film.
The program yesterday commenced with a colored “Silly Symphony”, after which the film version of Charles Dickens’s immortal “David Copperfield,” which has not yet been released to the public in Brisbane, was screened, and the show concluded with one of the famous Laurel and Hardy comedy shorts.
The effect on the 110 members of the motley audience was astounding. Men like Jeynes, Turner and Fountain-men whose crimes had shocked a nation- sat enthralled by the movements and voices of the silver figures on the sheet as the “David Copperfield” story was unfolded.
Like a well-ordered class of school boys at their first picture show they sat… Murderers, thieves, knockdown men, “con” artists, criminals of all descriptions… laughing uproariously at the antics of the comedians…charmed by the beauty and simplicity of Dickens’s famous creations.
Permission for the prisoners to see the films was obtained from the Home Secretary (Mr. E.M. Hanlon). The Comptroller of Prisons (Mr. J.F.Whitney) was host to a party of visitors that included Mr. Les. Andrews (MGM Films), F Mussared (Cremorne Theatre), G. Campbell (R.C.A Photophone), and Mr. McLeod a Brisbane engineer. “The men’s reactions to the films were a most extraordinary sight. “ Mr. Mussared said last night. “And it was an experience that one doesn’t have very often.
In the front row sat three men convicted of murder. In other seats, were men convicted of other crimes of violence. Yet the effect of the pictures on them was- well as far as was observable, the same as the effect on any ordinary, average, theatre audience.” “Mr. Micawber must have caught their fancy,” he went on, “for every time he appeared they burst into laughter. It was good to think that the pictures helped them to forget their own troubles for a little while, at least.”
WHAT WILL HAPPEN TO BOGGO ROAD GAOL
Boggo Road Gaol will be closing for tours & events late 2015. The Gaol is to be redeveloped in 2016. The heritage-listed Gaol will be adaptively reused and the modern sections of the prison will be demolished to make way for bars, restaurants and cafes. Visitors will be able to eat and dine where prisoners served life sentences. Current plans are that one of the three original cellblocks will be retained in its original form; a new museum will tell the Gaol’s story with artefacts and displays. Please support Brisbane’s history and take a tour of Boggo Road before it closes. This is the public’s last chance to see the Gaol as it is.
Please join our Boggo Road Gaol Facebook page to be kept informed about the Gaol’s redevelopment HERE
Boggo Road Gaol Pty Ltd will be keeping you regularly updated with news on the development here on Facebook.
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Fish in Prison: Riots from a prisoner’s perspective (1980s)
In the 1980s Boggo Road Gaol was constantly in the headlines. It became a place of riots, hunger strikes and rooftop protests. Many of the prisoners were prepared to starve themselves and even die to tell the world that Boggo Road Gaol needed to go. Within No.2 Division, cells had no toilets and running water, food was inadequate, and prisoners were often treated harshly. Compared to the rest of Australia, it was like going back a century.
Over the years there were many riots and protests leading up to the closure of Boggo Road Gaol. In 1983 rioters took over and destroyed the Industrial Division, damaging cells to the point they were uninhabitable for six months. They rioted in D Wing, burning their sanitation tubs, urinating and dropping burning debris on the fire brigade and officers as they attempted to subdue the inmates.
Finally the authorities started to take notice and in 1986, construction of three new prisons was granted and work began to build the Wacol HM Brisbane Industrial Prison, HM Prison Chewko and Borallon Prison. In 1988 the Cabinet commissioned Mr Jim Kennedy to review the corrective services in Queensland bringing about the closure of Boggo Road Gaol, with No.2 Division being closed in 1989.
Glen “Fish”, a former prisoner at Boggo Road Gaol during the 1980s, witnessed firsthand the chaos within the red brick walls: being crammed in exercise yards with 30 other men, the brutal bashings and hunger strikes. On 4BC TRUE CRIMES Jack Sim will be discussing this tumultuous time in the Prisons history and the closure of Boggo Road Gaol.
Listen to this fascinating story on Australia’s longest running true crime show TRUE CRIMES – presented by Jack Sim on 4BC Nights with Walter Williams. Thursday evenings 9.35pm on Radio 4BC.
DUPED BY A CON.WOMAN : Gladys Hardgrave (1935)
On the 24th of February 1935 The Truth Newspaper reported that Gladys Hardgrave was found guilty of astute confidence tricks, after a dramatic legal fight. This short, slim woman with tear brimmed sparkling blue eyes stood weeping as she was sentenced to 37 weeks imprisonment. As she was led to the watch house cells she murmured “to think it has come to this”.
News article from 1935
At large in Queensland for little over a month, Gladys Hardgrave posed as a gentlewoman, robbing businesses in Brisbane, Caboolture and Southport of more than £123 (roughly $10,670). She was revealed to be a clever swindler, tricking over 7 stores, banks and business people. Purchasing shoes, hotel rooms, clothing by handing them boomerang cheques and simply walking away with goods and money. Dud cheques fell like autumn leaves.
The C.I.B. Branch started their investigation, Detective acting Sergeant “Nobby” Clark, Detective Currey and Purcel were assigned to the task of catching this fraud. They found her in one of the leading hotels in Sandgate, posing as a wealthy widow, with a trained nurse to attend to her 17 month old daughter.
When arrested, Gladys was wild and uncaring, but after hours in court she began to weep with her head bowed. She told detectives her crimes were committed in order to live well and look after her baby.
Hear more about Gladys on Australia’s longest running true crime show “True Crimes” – presented by Jack Sim on 4BC Nights with Walter Williams. Thursday evenings 9.35pm on Radio 4BC.
Did she kill her husband or was she unfairly executed? (1887)
At 8 o’clock on Monday morning, 13 June 1887, Ellen Thomson was hanged at Her Majesty’s Brisbane Gaol for the murder of her husband. She is the only woman to be executed under Queensland law and on the gallows of Boggo Road Gaol.
But did she receive a fair trial, and did she deserve the ultimate punishment?
Author Vashti Farrer’s latest book reveals a tropical Queensland alive with goldrush excitement, and the hard lives of pioneering communities in Port Douglas, from English immigrants to Chinese settlers, all looking to make a better life. Into this world stepped a young widow, Ellen Thomson, who married an older farmer, Billy Thomson. After many years of working the farm on the Mossman River together, on the night of 22 October 1886, Billy Thomson was found dead with a gunshot wound to the head. What happened?
VASHTI FARRER was fascinated by the life and death of Ellen Thomson after stumbling upon her story in the museum at Port Douglas. Initially Vashti wanted to write a novel, weaving the perspectives of Ellen, her lover and her husband together, but instead has created a wonderful work of non-fiction set in the historical and social context of the times. Beyond a reasonable doubt outlines events of that fateful night, the subsequent trial and executions and gives a fascinating insight into life at the time. It also raises the question, was Ellen Thomson guilty beyond reasonable doubt?
Listen to Jack Sim and Vashti Farrer discuss the story of Ellen Thomson on Australia’s longest running true crime show “True Crimes” – presented by Jack Sim on 4BC Nights with Walter Williams. Thursday evenings 9.35pm on Radio 4BC.
You can purchase Beyond a reasonable doubt at the Boggo Road Gaol shop. Join Ghost Tours Pty Ltd on a ghost tour within the walls of Boggo Road Gaol and hear the story of Ellen Thomson.
https://bookings.ghost-tours.com.au/products.asp?Category_ID=369
REOPEN A MYSTERY: MARJORIE NORVAL (1938)
Brisbane True Crimes author Ken Blanch, will call on Attorney-General Jarrod Bleijie to reopen the case of the 1938 mysterious disappearance of a Brisbane social identity when he launches his latest book nest Sunday November 5 at Boggo Road Gaol.
In Marjorie Norval: The Girl a railway Station Swallowed, Ken Blanch recalls the sensation and the massive police and fatal air force search that resulted when Miss Norval failed to return from a trip to Bundaberg to see a sick relative. He also produces evidence that her inquest was manipulated to avoid a political scandal.
Marjorie Norval was well known in Brisbane – the social secretary to the wife of Premiere William Forgen Smith was driven to Brisbane’s central railway station on the 11th of November 1938 and was officially never seen alive or dead again.
Miss Norval told her friends and work colleagues that she was going to Bundaberg, but had told her sisters that she was going to the North Coast with secret business for the Premiere.
The coroner, Mr J Leahy, concluded that she had died at the hands of an unidentified abortionist. The inquest was held was the first held in Queensland into a case where a body had not been found.
In this book Ken Blanch reconstructs Marjorie’s movements on the night she disappeared and shows she would have exited the railway station unobserved and walked the short distance to the rooms of Brisbane’s most active medical abortionist of the time in Edward street.
Blanch also accuses a former Police Commisioner of failing to properly investigate a sighting of Marjorie Norval the next day at the Doctor’s Caloundra holiday home and uncovers the men who conspired to perjure evidence given at the inquest to prevent a political scandal.
Blanch has published reviews of homicides that he covered as a Police rounds reporter during the 1950s with Jack Sim’s Classic Crime series, but is now self-publishing as Seagle Crime Stories. His new book Marjorie Norval: The Girl a railway Station Swallowed is the first in a series of a small books about unsolved Queensland crimes and is available from Blanch’s website www.seaglecrimestories.com and the Boggo Road Gaol Shop.
BOOK LAUNCH In Marjorie Norval: The Girl a railway Station Swallowed
When: Sunday November 9, 10.30am
Where: Boggo Road Gaol Shop at Boggo Road Gaol Precinct, Annerley Road, Dutton Park
Hear who Ken Blanch believes had a hand in the disappearance of Marjorie Norval Thursday 6.11.2014 on Australia’s longest running true crime show “True Crimes” – presented by Jack Sim on 4BC Nights with Walter Williams. Thursday evenings 9.35pm on Radio 4BC.
WATERHOLE DROWNING : REVEREND JOHN GREGOR (1848)
WATERHOLE DROWNING: REVEREND JOHN GREGOR (1848)
Early newspapers in Brisbane frequently carried reports of tragic deaths by drowning in the surrounding waterholes. Many sank to the depths by accident, unable to swim. Others stumbled in to the water drunk or committed suicide.
Nundah Cemetery – the final resting place of Reverend John Gregor
A sad story was posted in a local Newspaper in 1848. Reverend John Gregor was found dead in a Nundah waterhole. John Gregor, ordained as a minister of the Church in Scotland made his way out to New South Wales in 1837. Licensed as minister of the district of Moreton Bay, he arrived in Brisbane on 17 January 1843 with Captain John Wickham, the first resident police magistrate. Gregor was responsible for the whole inhabited area around Moreton Bay, a huge area for one man to manage.
He worked out of a crude church attached to a lumber yard. Under constant financial strain, supervising so many people and day schools his work started to wear him down. His first report, ‘Two Journals of Missionary Tours in the Districts of Maneroo and Moreton Bay, New South Wales in 1843’ (S.P.G., The Church in Australia, London, 1846), was enthusiastic, but the next indicated his growing discontentment. From 1845 he lived at the German station at Nundah, and this further distanced him from the flock.
Theodore Franz, a witness said that Reverend Gregor had been complaining of a headache and the heat, watching him walk down to the waterhole he assumed it was just to bathe and cool off.
“About ten minutes afterwards, I heard Nicquet calling to me and asking if Mr. Gregor could swim. I answered “No” and hurried to the place where he was. I did not see Mr. Gregor there. I undressed myself and sprang into the water and swam to the place where I thought Mr. Gregor might have sank— Mr. Nicquet also came into the water. He felt the body of Mr. Gregor with his feet, but could not succeed in raising him; but after another attempt he did succeed. I assisted to draw the body to the land—there was no appearance of life, although the body was warm. We did all we could to restore life, but without success.”
Do you think it was just an accident? Find out on Australia’s longest running true crime show “True Crimes” – presented by Jack Sim on 4BC Nights with Walter Williams. Thursday evenings 9.35pm on Radio 4BC.