Scott Street Tragedy

The Scott Street Tragedy was the murder of Timothy Daly in Newcastle, Australia on 16 July, 1911.

The 26-year-old boot maker was found dead with a gunshot wound an inch above his eyebrow on the front steps of Messrs. R. Hall & Sons premises on Scott Street, Newcastle.

Constable M'Gann of the Newcastle Water Police was first to the scene. M'Gann had been on board a Scott Street tramcar at about 9:50pm when he heard gunshots fired somewhere on the darkened street. Alighting from the tram, M'Gann soon stumbled upon Daly in a pool of his own blood beside a revolver.

Initial suspicion of suicide was quickly dismissed after a woman living on nearby Zaara Street testified to having seen two men, later identified as Mr. George Smith and Mr. Thomas Jones, at the scene of the crime moments after the gunshots were heard. The unidentified woman said that Smith panicked and hurriedly placed the revolver beside the deceased.

As compelling as the eyewitness's testimony was, she had however not witnessed the murder take place and was unable to say which of the two had actually pulled the trigger.

The murder is only one of several well publicized crimes to have occurred in Australia's second-oldest city. See The Newcastle Tragedy for further information regarding crime in Newcastle during the early twentieth-century.