Arthur Brennan


Arthur Brennan was an Australian rules footballer who played with St Kilda in the Victorian Football League. He also played for Richmond, Port Melbourne, and Footscray in the Victorian Football Association.

Personal life

The son of William Brennan, and Mary Brennan, née O'Farrell, Arthur Brennan was born in Abbotsford, Victoria on 2 March 1881.
He came from a large family; William and Mary had eight daughters and three sons. Both of his brothers played football, most notably Owen Brennan, who was the first member of the family to play in the VFL, with 11 appearances for Collingwood in 1900. His other brother, William Jr, played in the VFA for Northcote and Port Melbourne.

Football career

Brennan played his only senior game for St Kilda during the 1901 VFL season, as a 20-year-old. In round 15, Brennan was a member of the St Kilda team which lost to Fitzroy at Junction Oval by 72 points.
Although his VFL career was brief, Brennan played for a number of years in the VFA. He was regarded as being one of Richmond's finest players in their pre-VFL era, a club he played for from 1903 to 1905. In 1906 and 1907, Brennan played with his brother William at Port Melbourne, then midway through the 1908 VFA season he crossed to Footscray.

Bigamy trial

Arrested on 29 September 1914, Brennan was committed for trial on 7 October 1914, on a charge of having committed bigamy.
At his trial, evidence was given that the Rev. Henry Heathershaw had married Arthur Brennan to his first wife, Catherine Prout, on 7 May 1902, and that Brennan had left her after two years.
Further evidence was given by Alice Mary Patton, who appeared in court having been brought from Pentridge Women's Prison Gaol in order to do so, that, while Brennan was still married to Catherine, the Rev. Albert James Abbott married her to Brennan on 23 January 1910, and that they'd had a child together, which died in its infancy.
Having initially pleaded "not guilty" to the charge, he later changed his plea to guilty, on the advice of his solicitor, Napthali Henry "Sonny" Sonenberg, and was consequently sentenced to 12 months imprisonment.

Military service

1915

Brennan enlisted in the First AIF on 3 September 1915. At this enlistment, he answered "no" to the question "Are you married?". He entered camp at Royal Park, Melbourne on 13 September 1915.
Brennan was discovered to be absent without leave on 24 November 1915, and was "struck off strength of Royal Park Camp as a deserter on 30/11/15 — a decision later confirmed by a Court of Inquiry — and a warrant was issued for his arrest."

1918

Although no further details are given, his service record indicates that the warrant for his arrest was withdrawn on 4 March 1918, and that he re-enlisted on 27 March 1918, and that he resumed his military service on 29 April 1918. At the time of his 1918 re-enlistment, the previous "no" answer to the "Are you married?" question was crossed out and replaced with "yes" — and "Catherine Brennan", of "30 Madeline Street, Carlton, Vic.", "Wife", was now given as his next of kin.
He left Sydney, with the 2nd General Reinforcements, on 1 May 1918, aboard the HMAT Euripides A14, to serve in Europe.
In August 1918, whilst still in England, he was charged with being absent without leave and was imprisoned, without pay for 28 days.
In September 1918, soon after arriving in France, he was imprisoned for three days without pay for "conduct to the prejudice of good order and military discipline in that he discharged firearms in his hut on 23.9.18"; and in October 1918, he was imprisoned, again, for being absent without leave. He was absent without leave, once more, from 26 October 1918 until he was arrested on 18 November 1918.

Court-martial

Brennan and a fellow soldier, Private Patrick McGrath, were arrested in November 1918, and put on trial, in France, after they had forcibly entered an estaminet in Saint-Vaast, on the night of 29 October 1918.
Both were found guilty of "committing an offence against the property of an inhabitant of the country in which he was serving", and both were sentenced to two years imprisonment with hard labour; a sentence which Brennan served, at the Northampton Military Prison, in England.
His sentence was suspended, and he was released from prison on 18 June 1919, under the powers provided by the "Suspension of Sentences" provisions of the Australian Military Regulations under the Defence Act 1903-1915 that had come into operation on 7 March 1917, and was returned to his regiment and, then, was repatriated to Australia in the HMAT Port Melbourne A16, leaving England on 5 July 1919, and landing in Melbourne on 20 August 1919.

Murder

The Brennan household, which consisted of Arthur and five of his sisters, had an arrangement with their immediate neighbour, Norah Power, that, if she was alone and in need of assistance, she would knock on the wall which divided their homes.

12 September 1931

On 12 September 1931, Brennan was shot dead outside his home, at 26 Rowe Street, North Fitzroy, by a burglar, who was trying to get into Power's residence.
That night, Power had been alarmed by the sound of someone trying to get through her window. Brennan was in his kitchen and, once he heard Power's signal, walked across his garden to her home.
He confronted a man he saw standing on Power's verandah who attempted unsuccessfully to defuse the situation by claiming he was at the home to visit a friend.
When he tried to make his escape, Brennan blocked his path at the garden gate and the pair then grappled. During the struggle, Brennan was shot in the chest by a small automatic pistol that the intruder had managed to draw from his overcoat with a free arm. Brennan died there on the footpath within minutes. The gunman was chased by two other bystanders but was able to get away.

Search for suspect

An investigation revealed that the gunman, likely aged 25 to 30, had earlier been seen scoping the area and were, therefore, able to get a good description of his appearance.
The police were unable to locate the suspect; and, after three months had elapsed, the City Coroner gave a finding that Brennan had been murdered by a "person unknown".

Alleged perpetrators

Although the case remains unsolved today, the Victorian police sequentially identified two known criminals as Brennan's murderer, first, at the time of his death, John Gepp, then, later, when that allegation had been retracted, Reginald James Barker, although no evidence supporting either of these official allegations was ever presented in court.

John Gepp, alias John Vernon Pinkus, alias Raymond Brennan, alias John D'Arcy

John Gepp, alias John Vernon Pinkus, alias Raymond Brennan, alias John D'Arcy was shot dead on 18 January, when escaping from the police who had attempted to apprehend him outside his Clifton Hill residence.
In his attempt to evade arrest, he fled the scene, and was badly injured when attempting to clear an iron spiked fence at the Jolimont railway station; and, bleeding profusely, he then ran into an adjacent park, "turned in his tracks and fired a shot at his pursuers". The police returned fire killing Gepp.
At the time of his death, police stated that " now certain from information which has come to hand that was the prowler who on September 12 last murdered Arthur Brennan in front of his home in Howe Street, North Fitzroy". However, in April 1932, once forensic evidence had revealed that Gepp's gun had not fired the bullet that killed Brennan, the police had become convinced "beyond all reasonable doubt that was not the murderer of Arthur Brennan".
On 15 April 1932, Thomas Blamey, the Chief Commissioner of the Victorian Police Force, formally announced that Gepp was no longer considered to be Brennan's murderer.

Reginald James Barker

Reginald James Barker was shot dead on 27 February 1932 while attempting to escape from Pentridge Prison in the company of two other prisoners. Having stolen a warder's rifle, he wounded two of the prison's warders in the process.
Although just 17½, he was more than 6 foot tall, and was strongly built; and "despite his youth, was described by police as being one of the most desperate young criminals who had passed through their hands in recent years" Having previously been convicted of a number of crimes, for which he had served several long terms in detention centres, he was in prison awaiting sentencing, having been found guilty of shooting at a police constable with the intent to murder him, and stealing a motorcycle and sidecar.
On Friday 15 April 1932, in the process declaring that Gepp was no longer considered to be Brennan's murderer, Police Commissioner Blamey also announced that, "as a result of investigations by detectives it had been clearly established that the murderer of Arthur Brennan in Fitzroy on September 12, 1931, was Reginald James Barker".
Prompted by Blamey's emphatic declaration, Barker's mother visited the office of The Herald on the following Monday, and produced documentary evidence, in the form of a medical report from Dr. Edward James Grieve, the Medical Superintendent of St Vincent's Hospital, Melbourne — the veracity of the report's contents were confirmed directly with Dr. Grieve by The Herald. — to the effect that, on his first of seven visits to the hospital, Barker was extremely lame and was given crutches An X-ray taken on 11 September 1931 showed a fracture, that was some weeks old, of both bones of his right ankle; and on 14 September his leg was put in plaster of Paris.
Mrs Barker told The Herald that she had specifically told the detectives, at the time of the coroner's inquest, of her son's injured foot, and that, following that, they could have checked her story with the doctor before coming to their final conclusion.
His mother declared that, at 17 years of age, 6 foot tall, and well-built, her son was significantly different from the "official description of Brennan's murderer given police... between 25 and 30 years old, 5ft.9in. in height, and of thin to medium build"; and, moreover, that, "apart from the difference in description,... her son, from the hospital report, obviously could not have been the prowler who frightened Miss Norah Power, who lived next door to Brennan, on September 12; and he could not possibly have run away after having shot Brennan, as witnesses said Brennan's murderer had done".
Mrs. Barker further declared that the police claim that they had traced Brennan's murder weapon to Barker's home was false: "She said that the detectives who visited her home after her son's death had taken only a grey overcoat — the overcoat which, according to the police, Miss Power later identified. She had never seen a revolver in the house".
In explaining why she had come to The Herald, "with a medical report which, she claimed, showed that her son could not have been guilty of the murder of Arthur Brennan, 48, as alleged by the police" — "'In their endeavor to clear Pinkus', said Mrs Barker, 'the police have put the blame for n terrible crime on my boy, who, whatever else he might have done, was not a murderer. The detectives were told, outside the Morgue at the inquest, about my son's foot injury, and they could have seen the doctors before having made '" — "Mrs. Barker said that she had sought today to place report before the Police Commissioner but that he had refused an interview".

Footnotes

Military sources

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