| Swindler's mystery and rest is history
By Rosamond Siemon (author of The Mayne Inheritence) IN The Geddes Mystery, Brian Jones has given us two books for the price of one. A rattling good 19th-century real-life mystery and a compulsory lesson in the history of the early days of Moreton Bay, north to Caboolture, the early days of Perth, and other events of the time. In between his excellent unravelling of the tension-filled mystery of his great-grandfather's crime, the narrative is continually interrupted with dozens of over-long biographies of every character, even of those only remotely involved with the life and pursuit of the swindler, William Goodwin Geddes. There's a veritable Who's Who, so you won't need any biographical reference books. One longs for just a few telling lines in the author's own words to sketch in those backgrounds. He seems more concerned with the historical record than with the reader. Then, as the threads of what is a most interesting mystery are drawn together, there is an eight-page journey back into the early days of Perth. Never mind. Persist with it. His editing of the vast amount of information in the AMP Society's Geddes File, 1877-1890, has revealed a cool-headed, clever swindle and one man's determination to catch the criminal. You'll find yourself involved, examining the clues, trying to do your own sleuthing, and to understand this audacious young cheat. The intriguing saga of the cunning 21-year-old began in 1877, but it wasn't until 1889 that the full story hit the headlines in Australian and New Zealand newspapers. The case became a cause celebre. That was 12 years after he faked his drowning in a Caboolture creek and took the AMP Society for a packet. No body was found, so why was there such a large insurance payout so quickly? Was Goodwin Geddes alive? Could that old, sick man in the Adelaide Asylum really be him? What did his parents and his brother, Henry, know? Would the AMP ever get its pound stg. 2500 back? By the 20th century, the name Goodwin Geddes had faded from the public mind but occasionally Australian journals rehashed the mystery. In his book, Jones now has given us the truth -- or most of it. From hundreds of memos and reports, he allows the story to unfold in historical context, with a narrative that follows the chase with all its dead ends and successes. A death without a body will always breed rumours and when they became the basis of the insurance company's mission to find Geddes, the trail became littered with real-life sleuths who turned out to be quite like whodunit characters. The 19th-century Geddes mystery had its quota of Inspector Plods, a crooked detective, blundering investigators who missed clues, surveillance, code names and cryptic telegrams; everything readers could expect in a good detective yarn. Then, in 1884, when the chase was going nowhere, a veritable Batman rose in the ranks of the AMP Society and took charge. For the last five years of the search, Richard Teece, at head office, fastened his tenacious grip on the case. In the twists and turns Geddes is sought overseas and in all the Australian capital cities. In his compelling story, Jones has pointed out that, in 1877, the confidence trick, then so quietly successful, netted young Geddes more money than did the much publicised hold-ups of Captain Starlight and Ned Kelly, who operated at the same time, shooting their way into history books and on to the gallows. With more sophistication, and in his own quiet way, Goodwin Geddes was a master crook. He drew pay for surveying he didn't do, was addicted to the good life's more expensive products, ran up huge debts, then would quietly move to another state. Why did this Lilley Gold medallist, with a well-paid government surveying job, turn to crime? We know he was clever, diligent, and with an exemplary character at the Brisbane Grammar School. What sent him off the rails so early in life? Not many descendants are as candid about an ancestor's crime as Jones, and he speaks with reason. His great grandfather rises quite clearly from the pages of this book but, cunning man that he was, keeps large chunks of his secret. Jones may have missed a clue when he stressed, more than once, his family's desire to climb the social ladder. His belief that his colonising ancestors got to the top may be a little hopeful. In the 19th century, it wasn't done to break ranks. Was it this family obsession with class consciousness that lay behind Goodwin's urge to get easy money and lift himself above the small-time business man? His youthful good looks probably went halfway to people trusting him but, co-inciding with the start of his odd behaviour, his love was spurned by a girl whose family would have considered themselves socially above him. Perhaps ambitious young Goodwin, as inventive as he was clever, thought the road to ultimate success could be hurried via a well-planned swindle and the gambling tables. Aberrant behaviour early in adult life, a doctor who said he had syphilis (19th century doctors often suggested syphilis as the reason for madness), two brothers in asylums? Had Jones probed these areas further, he might have come up with a hereditary mental problem. Despite the author's annoying tempo of slow, fast, slow, The Geddes Mystery is worth reading. Even the biographies may come in handy some day. Courier Mail, 8 February 2003 |
| Book review of The Geddes Mystery by Brian Jones (Spectrum Publications, $29.95) |
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