John Thomas Rowles was convicted in Western Australia in 1932 of the murder of Louis Carron and was executed at Fremantle Prison on June 13, 1932. Two other men, James Ryan and George Lloyd, died in the same district in 1929. The Western Australian government attributes those deaths to Rowles, but he was never charged with them, and no court made a finding about them. The case is a conviction for one death, with two further deaths attributed.
All three deaths belong to the Murchison district of Western Australia and to the line of the Rabbit-Proof Fence. The state later placed one site in the story, Camel Station, on its heritage register.
He was born John Thomas Smith in 1905 at North Perth. The Carnamah Historical Society records him as John Thomas William Smith, also called Rowles. The State Records Office of Western Australia files him as John Thomas Smith alias "Snowy" Stanley Rowles. The Carnamah entry suggests that the surname Rowles may have come from relatives of that name, though it describes this only as a possibility. In the Murchison he was known as Snowy Rowles, and "Snowy" is simply the alias that appears in the record.
The Carnamah Historical Society places him in its district for a wheat-carting season, believed to have been in the 1920s. Later he worked as a stockman in the Murchison and was said to be a capable bushman.
In July 1928 he was arrested with another man, Thomas W. Wilson, over a burglary at a general store in Dalwallinu. On the evening of July 25, 1928, both men escaped from the Dalwallinu lock-up. Police did not recapture Rowles then. According to the Carnamah entry, he went north into the Murchison and began to use the name Snowy Rowles.
Camel Station, also called Dromedary Hills Station, lies in the Shire of Sandstone, about 150 kilometers south of Mount Magnet, according to The Grey Nomads. It was established in 1908 as a government farm that bred camels as pack and draft animals for outback stations, and at one time it held 350 camels. It stands along the Rabbit-Proof Fence, and the ruins that remain include a stone residence from the 1920s, timber structures and a timber-lined tank.
In 1929 the novelist Arthur Upfield worked as a boundary rider on the fence, based at Camel Station. The Western Australian government's 2018 heritage statement says that Rowles was among his co-workers there.
The government statement of March 2018 sets out the deaths in two groups.
Ryan and Lloyd died in 1929. The State Records Office of Western Australia holds a police file, dated 1931, on the deaths of Lloyd, Ryan and Louis Carron in the Mount Magnet police district, and its description gives Lloyd's full name as George Henry Lloyd. The government statement attributes the deaths of Ryan and Lloyd to Rowles. He was never charged with them, though the minister who issued the statement described the evidence against him as substantial.
Louis Carron died in 1930. The police file lists him under a second name, Leslie George Brown, and the Carnamah entry names the victim in the 1932 trial as Leslie G. Brown. Carron's death is the one for which Rowles was tried and convicted.
The ages, families and work of the three men are not on record. Of the three deaths, only Carron's was tested in a court.
In March 1931, according to the Carnamah Historical Society, police were looking for Snowy Rowles in connection with a murder when they arrested a man under the name John Thomas Smith. As Smith he was sentenced to three months' imprisonment for the theft and the escape from custody three years earlier. The government statement says that after his arrest Rowles was identified as the escaped prisoner John Thomas Smith. The Carnamah entry says it was later established that Smith and Rowles were the same man.
Rowles was tried in 1932 for the murder of Louis Carron. The Carnamah entry describes an eight-day trial. He was convicted and sentenced to death. The exact wording of the verdict, the name of the court, the date of the verdict and the outcome of any appeal are not on record.
The Grey Nomads heritage report says that evidence at the trial placed Rowles at Camel Station on an evening when Upfield talked through the plot of a novel with the men working on the fence. Screen Australia's guide entry for the documentary Three Acts of Murder calls the trial one of the most sensational murder trials in Australia in the 1930s.
Every legal execution in Western Australia from 1888 until 1984 took place at Fremantle Prison. Forty-three men and one woman were executed there in that period. The prison's history page lists John T. Smith, executed for murder on June 13, 1932. The Western Australian government's statement, the Carnamah entry and the AustLit catalogue all give 1932 for his death at Fremantle, and AustLit and the Carnamah entry give the date as June 13. The Grey Nomads report says that he maintained his innocence until his execution.
Arthur Upfield published The Sands of Windee in London in 1931. The Australian Dictionary of Biography entry on Upfield, by Stephen Knight, says he gained some notoriety when the plot of the novel was apparently used by a murderer in Western Australia. AustLit's entry on Rowles states the same connection. The Screen Australia synopsis says Upfield plotted the novel in 1929 and that Rowles, a stockman, carried out a similar scheme before the book appeared. A Radio National Breakfast item of June 9, 2009 on the television documentary Three Acts of Murder makes the same point: the novel's plot inspired a real killing before the book was published.
On March 6, 2018, the Western Australian Minister for Heritage, David Templeman, announced that Camel Station would be placed on the State Register of Heritage Places. The listing, he said, captured the story of the Murchison Murders, the isolated lives of the fence's boundary riders and the part camels played in the state's development. The Heritage Council's register shows an interim entry on March 6, 2018 and registration on August 31, 2018. The statement added that the story of Rowles features in the True Crime tour at Fremantle Prison.
Attributed, not tried: the deaths of James Ryan and George Lloyd in 1929. The government statement says Rowles was never charged with them. AustLit's catalogue entry for Rowles describes him as charged with the murder of three men, which conflicts with the government statement. The statement and the Carnamah entry, which names a conviction for one death only, agree with each other.
Dates: the Heritage Council's statement of significance places the killings between 1929 and 1931; the government statement and AustLit give 1929 and 1930.
Innocence: the Grey Nomads report says Rowles maintained his innocence until his execution. No later challenge to the verdict is on record.
Source of the plot: a 2018 article by Bill Casey in Australian Aboriginal Studies suggests that a 1927 Western Australian Royal Commission into the killing of Aboriginal people in the East Kimberley may have been the source of the plot of Upfield's novel and of the Murchison deaths. AustLit describes this as a first indication, not a settled conclusion.
1905: John Thomas Smith is born at North Perth, Western Australia.
July 1928: Smith and Thomas W. Wilson are arrested over a store burglary at Dalwallinu.
July 25, 1928: both escape from the Dalwallinu lock-up; Smith is not recaptured and goes north to the Murchison as Snowy Rowles.
1929: Arthur Upfield works as a boundary rider on the Rabbit-Proof Fence at Camel Station; Rowles is among his co-workers.
1929: James Ryan and George Lloyd die; the state government attributes their deaths to Rowles.
1930: Louis Carron dies.
1931: The Sands of Windee is published in London.
March 1931: police seeking Snowy Rowles arrest John Thomas Smith and he is sentenced to three months for the 1928 theft and escape; he is identified as Rowles.
1932: Rowles is tried over eight days for the murder of Louis Carron, convicted and sentenced to death.
June 13, 1932: executed at Fremantle Prison.
March 6, 2018: Camel Station is entered on the State Register of Heritage Places (interim); registration follows on August 31, 2018.