Deaths in Custody
There were also four deaths of staff members who were either on duty or living on the prison reserve.
The Annual Reports for Queensland Prisons usually contained a table listing the various diseases that occurred in each of the prisons over the previous year, including any deaths. The table for 1922 can be viewed here (PDF, 369 KB). Some of these deaths took place while the inmate was in hospital and were not always included in the figure.
We understand that a list like this can be confronting for some people, but we in the Boggo Road Gaol Historical Society strongly believe that these aspects of history need to be remembered so they can be respected. We've seen Boggo Road abused in recent years by 'ghost hunts' and an actual 'haunted house'. The deaths of people there has been treated as a commercial prop. This list is a reminder that history involves real people whose tragedies should be remembered so we can learn for the future.
Please note: The following list is a 'work in progress' until indicated otherwise:
We understand that a list like this can be confronting for some people, but we in the Boggo Road Gaol Historical Society strongly believe that these aspects of history need to be remembered so they can be respected. We've seen Boggo Road abused in recent years by 'ghost hunts' and an actual 'haunted house'. The deaths of people there has been treated as a commercial prop. This list is a reminder that history involves real people whose tragedies should be remembered so we can learn for the future.
Please note: The following list is a 'work in progress' until indicated otherwise:
- 1884: Chinese prisoner, suicide by poison
- 1886: Harry Schofield, 'disease of the kidneys'
- 1888: One by asthma
- 1888: One by asthma or phthisis
- 1888: George Stokes, phthisis (tuberculosis)
- 1890: One by 'old age'
- 1891: One by 'disease of nervous system'
- 1891: Patrick William Earls, suicide, cut artery in arm
- 1891: Edmund L.C. Wheeler, suicide by hanging
- 1893: One 'constitional disease'
- 1894: John Arthur Evans, apoplexy (stroke)
- 1894: Thomas Robinson, 'dietic disease'
- 1894: Johnny Ring, pneumonia
- 1895: James Capper, heart disease?, gaol hospital
- 1897: Johnny Santo, thyroid phthisis
- 1897: Thomas Wilson, acute peritonitis
- 1898: William Archer, heart failure
- 1900: One 'dietic'
- 1902: Gun Lin, suicide by hanging
- 1902: James Henderson, typhoid, died in Brisbane General Hospital
- 1903: One 'nervous system'
- 1904: McDonald, typhoid
- 1905: John Smith, suicide by hanging
- 1907: Peter Byrne, suicide by hanging
- 1908: Mary Gee, 'cirrhosis of the liver and kidney and heart failure'
- 1911: One 'acoholism' (male)
- 1911: One gangrene (male)
- 1910: One childbirth complications (female)
- 1911: Annie Campbell, 'Alcoholism, Cirrhosis of Liver and general debility', died in Lady Bowen Hospital
- 1912: One death in hospital, 'digestive system'
- 1915: One 'circulatory system' (female)
- 1916: Anthony Boy, heart disease, died in Brisbane General Hospital
- 1919: One 'violence'
- 1920: One 'circulatory system'
- 1925: Richard Thomas, suicide by throat-cutting
- 1926: Norman Mawson, alias Watson, peritonitis, died in Brisbane General Hospital
- 1930: David Flowitt, suicide by poison
- 1935: Herbert Haines, accident
- 1935: John Boyce, heart failure
- 1940: Vincent Bartulov, suicide by hanging
- 1944: Frederick Lewis, heart failure
- 1946: Norman Cloak, suicide by hanging
- 1947: Reginald Brown, suicide by hanging
- 1949: James Shinnel, suicide by hanging
- 1949: Kevin Robinson, suicide by hanging
- 1950: Vinko Vartulov, suicide by hanging
- 1952: Fred Carpenter, suicide by hanging
- 1952: Foppe Tinga suicide by hanging
- 1953: Samuel James Hannah died after operation in Brisbane General Hospital
- 1955: Josef Dvorak, suicide by hanging
- 1961: Selma Reithuller, heart failure
- 1972: Gary Phillips, suicide by hanging
- 1974: Gary Taylor, suicide by hanging
- 1977: Prisoner Kennedy, murder, stabbed to death in laundry
- 1979: John Andrew Stuart, heart disease
- 1980: Thomas Patrick Lawton, hanged while on remand
- 1987: Daniel Lacey, heart attack
- 1988: Bradley Engleman, accidental overdose
- 1990: Debra Dick, murder (female)
- 1990: Joel Gregory Dan, suicide by hanging
Staff deaths
- 1933: Arthur Peirson (prison governor), natural causes
- 1938: Joyce Leith Gold, (officer), natural causes
- 1966: Bernard Ralph (officer), murder
- 'They Don't Know What Death Is: Ghost-hunting at a suicide scene' (2015). A critique of the ethics of commercial 'paranormal investigations' at suicide or murder scenes.
- 'Lingering Doubts'. A book that examines the murder trial and prison death of Reginald Brown in the 1940s.
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