Australia's infamous 'shark arm' homicide

Australia is known for its beauty. But it’s also known as a place where the wildlife can kill you if you aren’t careful. Australia is known for its deadly saltwater crocodiles, kangaroos, koala bears, and monstrous sharks.

I am going to share one of Australia’s most infamous crime stories. It involved a murdered man and a tiger shark.

On April 17, 1935, Albert Hobson was fishing in the Coogee Beach in Australia. He somehow managed to catch an enormous tiger shark. And since his brother was a proprietor of Australia’s Coogee Palace Aquarium, Hobson knew the ideal new home for this shark. It’s believed to have been around 12-feet-long.

The shark was transferred to the aquarium for onlookers to see. On April 25, 1935, aquarium visitors received a jolt. As spectators watched, the large shark vomited up a human arm. Shark experts and local authorities soon arrived to investigate.

Whose arm was inside the massive tiger shark's belly?

The arm didn’t have any teeth impressions, which meant the shark didn’t bite it off. Someone had killed this man and tossed his arm into the ocean.

The arm had a tattoo of two boxers and intact fingerprints. Authorities released a picture of the arm to the public and asked if anyone could identify it. A man named Edwin Smith came forward. He said his 40-year-old brother Jimmy Smith had vanished on April 8th. Edwin confirmed the tattoo was his brother’s. Jimmy Smith was a boxer and small-time criminal.

After identifying the arm’s owner, the police opened a homicide investigation. The search pointed to criminals Patrick Brady and Reggie Holmes. The investigation started with Brady. However, when police arrived at his home, he was gone. He left soon after Smith disappeared.

The police then focused on Holmes. They learned Smith, Holmes and Brady smuggled drugs and committed other crimes together. The police brought Holmes in for questioning. He denied knowing Smith. With no evidence to hold Holmes, the police released him.

Who really murdered Jimmy Smith?

Holmes then attempted suicide by shooting himself in the head. After surviving his suicide attempt, he cooperated with the police. He claimed Patrick Brady had murdered Jimmy Smith over money.

After Brady killed Smith, he cut up the body, placed it in a trunk and tossed it into the ocean. Brady kept Smith’s arm and showed it to Holmes. He blackmailed Holmes and said he would end up like Brady if he didn’t pay.

Brady then tossed the detached arm into the ocean. A tiger shark then ate the arm. Afterward, a larger tiger shark ate the smaller one. This explained how Jimmy Smith’s arm ended up inside a tiger shark. Holmes agreed to testify against Patrick Brady in court.

Holmes never lived to see a courtroom. The day before his anticipated testimony, he was found dead inside his car. Someone had fatally shot him. The police didn’t know if he committed suicide or if someone murdered him to prevent his testimony.

Without Reggie Holmes, the state’s case fell apart. In September 1935, a jury acquitted Brady of killing Jimmy Smith. Brady died 30 years after the trial and consistently proclaimed his innocence.

With Brady’s acquittal, this concluded the notorious “shark arm case.” So who killed Jimmy Smith? An author named Alex Castles wrote a book titled “The Shark Arm Murders.” Castles thought a criminal named Eddie Weyman had killed Smith.

Weyman was one of Australia’s most dangerous men in the 1930s. You definitely didn’t want to cross him. It was later discovered that Smith was a police informant. And this may explain why someone murdered Smith. After Brady’s acquittal, Australian authorities charged no one else with killing Jimmy Smith. Today, the case remains unsolved.