The Shark Arm Murder: When a Tiger Shark Spilled a Killer’s Secret

In this episode of The Compendium, we dive into imfamous The Shark Arm Murder, one of Australia’s most bizarre and unsolved mysteries. When a tiger shark at Coogee Aquarium vomited up a human arm in 1935, it set off a true crime saga involving forgery, blackmail, and a deadly underworld rivalry. Today we explore the story of Jimmy Smith, Patrick Brady, and Reginald Holmes, and how their tangled lives shocked Sydney. Was the shark merely a witness, or did it hold the key to solving the crime? Tune in for this incredible blend of historical crime and wild twists.

We give you the Compendium, but if you want more, then check out these great resources:

1. Shark Arm by Phil Roope and Kevin Meagher (Book)
2. National Library of Australia: Archive on the Shark Arm Murders
3. Atlas Obscura: "The Bizarre Case of the Shark Arm Murders"

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Credits:

• Hosts: Kyle Risi & Adam Cox
• Intro and Outro Music: Alice in dark Wonderland by Aleksey Chistilin
• All the Latest Things Intro: Clowns by Giulio Fazio

Chapters

• 0:00 Sneak peak
• 1:14 Welcome to The Compendium
• 1:59 Topic of the week
• 46:41 Outro

Transcript

[00:00:00] Adam Cox: did you know sharks can turn their stomachs inside out and pass its teeth to vomit up their latest meal.

[00:00:07] Kyle Risi: I didn't know that, but that's very similar to what frogs can do, right? They eat like a bad meal and they're like, Ooh, I need to vomit, but they can't vomit. So they just turn their stomach inside out. 

[00:00:16] Adam Cox: Yeah, exactly like that. 

[00:00:17] Kyle Risi: That's what the shark has done to expel this arm. 

[00:00:20] Adam Cox: Yeah, exactly. . and they do this for a variety of reasons because, yeah, something doesn't sit right with them. Or they do it when they feel stressed.

[00:00:26] Apparently if they want to eat more. So a slight case of bulimia. I don't know. The original Romans, 

[00:00:33] Kyle Risi: right? 

[00:00:33] Adam Cox: Yeah. 

[00:00:33] Kyle Risi: oh, let's have likea feast. And then you got the vomitorium on the side and oh you've eaten everything you can oh just go to the vomitorium yeah stick your fingers down your throat if you need a hand we've got steve here he's my handmaiden he'll help you 

[00:00:45] Adam Cox: yeah he's got really long fingers yeah it's right to the back 

[00:00:48] Kyle Risi: and that you off you go to eat some more [00:01:00]

[00:01:16] Adam Cox: Welcome to the Compendium, an assembly of fascinating and intriguing things. We're a weekly variety podcast that gives you just enough information to stand your ground at any social gathering. We explore stories from the darker corners of true crime, the annals of your old unread history books, and the who's who of extraordinary people.

[00:01:34] I'm your ringmaster for this episode, Adam Cox. 

[00:01:37] Kyle Risi: And I'm your Sharon from finance this week. needs 

[00:01:43] Adam Cox: A finance department. 

[00:01:44] Kyle Risi: Finance department, yeah. 

[00:01:45] Adam Cox: okay. 

[00:01:45] Kyle Risi: You don't be spending like, off the rails. You gotta keep within budget, right? 

[00:01:49] Adam Cox: Yeah, like who ordered this giant cage and elephant this week?

[00:01:53] It's out of budget. 

[00:01:54] Kyle Risi: Yeah, who ordered these human parts for the tigers? 

[00:01:57] Adam Cox: We don't have budget for this! Yeah, [00:02:00] it's weird how most of our roles now are nothing to do with the circus. I think we literally ran out of circus things. so in today's episode of the compendium, we will step back in time to Sydney, Australia in 1935, a city buzzing with energy where the harbour sparkles under the sun and trams rattle through the bustling streets.

[00:02:19] It's a place where the beaches are alive with swimmers braving the surf and the line between high society And the gritty underworld is thinner than you'd expect. 

[00:02:28] Kyle Risi: Okay, so we're in Sydney. Basically. Yeah. And it's gritty. 

[00:02:34] Adam Cox: And it's gritty. 

[00:02:35] Kyle Risi: Yeah, that's all I've got for that clue. 

[00:02:37] Adam Cox: no idea what we're talking about.

[00:02:38] Okay, so I will reveal a little bit more. It's a sunny public holiday. Thousands are flocking to the Coogee Aquarium Baths. Oh, we've been there. we've been to Coogee. These baths don't actually exist anymore, but we have been to Coogee. 

[00:02:50] Kyle Risi: Oh, they've been shut down. 

[00:02:51] Adam Cox: Been shut down. and these, people that are spending their public holiday, they are eager to enjoy, the sunshine and everything else and get a glimpse of the newest [00:03:00] marvel, A massive four and a half meter tiger shark recently captured off the coast. Families are laughing, children are staring in awe. What? At the poor tiger shark? Yeah. Okay. Haha, look how stupid he looks. You got caught. and this giant creature glides effortlessly through a saltwater pool that's a far cry from today's modern aquariums.

[00:03:19] So it's not really that nice actually, it's just a giant pool. 

[00:03:22] Kyle Risi: Oh, poor shark. 

[00:03:23] Adam Cox: , but then something extraordinary happens. The shark becomes agitated, drawing the crowd's attention as it thrashes in the water. Then in a moment that leaves everyone speechless, it reveals a hidden secret from the depths, a discovery that propels Sydney into one of its most baffling mysteries.

[00:03:39] The shark vomits up a human arm. Eww! 

[00:03:44] Kyle Risi: Whose arm is it? 

[00:03:45] Adam Cox: Well yeah, you could assume that this shark has perhaps eaten a human, which, Sounds bloody plausible. Yeah, but the thing is, what's attached to this human arm is a piece of rope, as if the arm was tied up. 

[00:03:58] Kyle Risi: Oh, is this a gangster [00:04:00] story?

[00:04:00] Like, oh, someone's chucked him overboard and attached a big rope. to the arm. 

[00:04:04] Adam Cox: that's the thing. Like what, what's been going on here? Because is it just like sharks got hungry and eaten a human? Or has someone been fed to the sharks?. So today we're going to meet a small time crook with a knack for vanishing acts, a man dabbling in forgery whose luck might be running out, and a respectable businessman who might be hiding more than he seems. 

[00:04:23] Kyle Risi: As 

[00:04:24] Adam Cox: rumours swirl and the media frenzy builds, the city's police grapples with a mystery that they couldn't have predicted.

[00:04:30] Has there been a tragic accident or something more sinister at play? 

[00:04:34] Kyle Risi: I'm so living for this. What's happened? It's got to be gangs, right? It's got to be gangsters. 

[00:04:38] Adam Cox: Gangsters, yeah. Actually, before I get on to the main story, did you know that sharks, if they didn't have fins, they wouldn't be able to swim the right way up?

[00:04:47] They would just like roll over in the water, and they wouldn't be able to swim in a straight line. 

[00:04:50] Kyle Risi: Really? Is that what you learned from this podcast? 

[00:04:53] Adam Cox: Why? What does that mean? I just had no idea. That's one of the reasons, that's what some of the fins are for. Otherwise, they would just roll around.

[00:04:59]

[00:04:59] Kyle Risi: fins! [00:05:00] Sorry, for a second, I was like, they're gills. I was conflating gills with fins. Oh, interesting, okay. I guess that kind of helps them keep them buoyant, or like, right where they are. Yeah, 

[00:05:10] Adam Cox: I just thought it was really, I don't know, never knew about that. 

[00:05:12] Kyle Risi: So if, I chopped off your arms and your legs, just chucked you in the swimming pool.

[00:05:17] I doubt you would be able to stay there after that. 

[00:05:19] Adam Cox: That's true, I probably 

[00:05:20] Kyle Risi: would float to the bottom. You're like, oh no. Yeah, okay, 

[00:05:24] Adam Cox: don't think of it like that. so yeah, so our mystery is all about what happened to that human. Um,but before you get concerned about whether you would lose your arm to a shark, you are more likely to get struck by lightning, fatally fall down the stairs, drown in a bathtub, or die from a bee sting than you are being killed by a shark.

[00:05:44] Kyle Risi: Okay, we were recently in Kochi. 

[00:05:46] Adam Cox: Yeah. 

[00:05:47] Kyle Risi: We were walking along the promenade. 

[00:05:48] Adam Cox: huh. 

[00:05:49] Kyle Risi: And across all those little beaches. Yeah. On the way to, where was it? Bondi beach. And every other beach that we came to, there was A bunch of decaying flowers to [00:06:00] commemorate someone who'd been eaten by a fucking shark.

[00:06:03] Adam Cox: There was! There wasn't, wasn't always a shark attack. I think some drowned and stuff like that. Because a shark was 

[00:06:08] Kyle Risi: involved. 

[00:06:09] Adam Cox: I think now, there isn't actually too many sharks. It's quite safe to swim at Bondi Beach. 

[00:06:14] Kyle Risi: Yeah, but that was a lot of flowers across a bunch of beaches. do you know what? I'm gonna be like, yeah.

[00:06:19] The odds are pretty high. 

[00:06:21] Adam Cox: now, it's a 

[00:06:22] lot safer, but back in 1935, it was pretty renowned for, sharks. So, at the time, they were seen as a public enemy number one. And that was because there was a load of shark attacks in Sydney, which were becoming a regular occurrence, Partly because the city's slaughterhouses and sewage were dumping straight into the ocean.

[00:06:42] Kyle Risi: Eww. And 

[00:06:43] Adam Cox: so it was thick with this refuse and it was attracting a lot of sharks around the area, bull sharks, tiger sharks, great whites. And so if you were going to go for a swim back then, yeah, you probably wouldn't make it out alive. 

[00:06:55] Kyle Risi: Gross. Actually, did we not hear like very recently, it was in the news, where All [00:07:00] these like big black blobs showing up on Sydney beaches.

[00:07:03] Yeah, that's right. And when they investigated what the black globs were, they found that it was human poo, but also there was a ton of cocaine in it. So Australians are really coked up. Yeah. it's Sydney, so it's a financial area, districts of the country, 

[00:07:19] Adam Cox: Yeah, big city, you know, got to make it through Monday to Friday.

[00:07:23] Kyle Risi: And that's the thing though, like when you go out on a bender and you've been drinking a shit ton. And the next one you have that poo. It's black.it's like, it's tar. Eww. yeah, these people are going out on these benders across Sydney. Taking a load of coke, shitting their guts out the next day, and then causing all the beaches to be shut 

[00:07:42] Adam Cox: down!

[00:07:42] Come on, Australians! For several days, wasn't it? But I think there was a leakage from the sewerage, wasn't it? And that's why it wound up on the beach. I mean, 

[00:07:48] Kyle Risi: yeah, yeah, that's the reason why. They're not shitting on the beach, Adam. That's not what I'm saying. Sorry, Australians. Adam's gone for the attack again.

[00:07:56] Ha ha ha. I'm not saying Australians are shitting on the beach. I'm saying, obviously, [00:08:00] that there's been a leakage in the sewerage plant. 

[00:08:02] Adam Cox: making it clear. After I pissed off some Australians before. 

[00:08:08] Kyle Risi: But, do you know what, I bet , if they had, tested the Thames water, yes, there'd be loads of coke in there as well, but there would also be, antidepressants.

[00:08:16] Adam Cox: Yes, . And it's 

[00:08:17] Kyle Risi: good to know that the Australians are happy, man. That's true. They've got the sun, they've got the sand, they've got the lifestyle, they've got the men, they've got the women. They've got the sharks. What's there to be unhappy about? Yeah. You live on fucking Coogee Bay. 

[00:08:29] But anyway, 

[00:08:29] Adam Cox: Let's crack on. So earlier that year in 1935, there had been several men that had been attacked by sharks and, along the New South Wales beaches. And there were bounty hunters, had been hired to help clear the waters, essentially. They really wanted to get rid of these sharks.

[00:08:45]

[00:08:45] Kyle Risi: there'll be like someone going, Oh, there's a bounty for a bunch of sharks. I know what we'll do. We'll set up a shark breeding plant. 

[00:08:51] Adam Cox: then release them 

[00:08:52] Kyle Risi: and then shoot them and then get some money because that's what they did in India when they had like a major cobra issue.

[00:08:58] Adam Cox: Oh really? 

[00:08:58] Kyle Risi: So the government was like, yeah, we've got [00:09:00] too many cobras in India. We'll give you a bounty. We'll give you like 2 for every cobra that you bring to the government. So these people just started creating these cobra breeding centers in their houses and then , killing the cobras and taking them to the government and going, money, please.

[00:09:14] And then the government, like, wow, this, this is not good. And they put an end to it. So then what all these breeding places did, they then just released all the cobras that went into the wild, and then they had, like, three times the amount of cobras! 

[00:09:27] Adam Cox: So this is what's happening here. Well, , that hasn't been reported on.

[00:09:30] How do you breed a shark? in a shark tank. That's a big operation you've got going on there. Yeah. anyway, So it's April the 17th, 1935, and a few weeks after the most recent attack, a fisherman hooks a giant tiger shark off Coogee Beach. So this shark , was four and a half meters long, and the fisherman was pretty lucky to catch it. Not just because it was so big, but thankfully it was unconscious when it was found.

[00:09:54] Essentially what had happened, they had laid these traps, and overnight a relatively small shark had [00:10:00] come along, Got caught on a hook, and then the tiger shark had spotted this other little shark that got caught, came along, ate it. And then was like, oh, it gets caught itself by all the thrashing about.

[00:10:12] Yeah. And then it tries to like, free itself, but then becomes so knackered that it can't get free. It passes out. It passes out. And so the next morning, the fisherman's like, oh, we've got a tiger shark. Yeah, great. And then takes it back to shore. 

[00:10:24] Kyle Risi: And that's what then becomes this trophy for this aquarium.

[00:10:28] Adam Cox: Yeah, essentially that. He takes it back to the Coogee Aquarium boss because he thinks it would be a good idea to put it on display as a tourist attraction for the up and coming Anzac Day, which is a national day of remembrance. 

[00:10:41] Kyle Risi: So basically, 

[00:10:42] this tiger shark has eaten another smaller shark and a human.

[00:10:47] Adam Cox: yeah. we don't know that yet. 

[00:10:48] Kyle Risi: Okay. 

[00:10:49] Adam Cox: We don't know what's happened. the shark was held, in the aquariums for about a week. and it wasn't a modern aquarium.with big glass walls, and anything like that. It was just a swimming pool.

[00:10:57] Kyle Risi: Oh, oh, there's a pond. There's a shark in it. [00:11:00] Enjoy. 

[00:11:00] Adam Cox: It has a shallow end and a deep end. It wasn't anything special. It's literally a pool. Yeah.and it was actually used by the public to actually swim in. But in the colder months between April and October, it's too chilly.

[00:11:10] So they would bring in like wild animals to showcase. 

[00:11:13] Kyle Risi: Oh, that's cool. Like we saw a couple of those, I think on Bondi Beach, when you're standing on top of that little mount, you look down and there's like, Right on the ocean. It's like a little pool and people are doing laps at four o'clock in the morning.

[00:11:26] Come on Australians Jesus get some sleep and then people are like swimming in the early hours of the morning. 

[00:11:31] Adam Cox: Yeah, and so on Day, which was April the 23rd25th thousands of people are Had the day off, and they decided to spend their afternoon at the Coogee Aquarium to go see this new, shark.

[00:11:41] and it's been drummed up as like this big, man eating monster, that's, people wanted to go see. I guess it wasn't really that often that you'd perhaps see a shark anyway back then, so it was quite a big spectacle. 

[00:11:51] Kyle Risi: Yeah, I guess so. 

[00:11:52] Adam Cox: Plus, I think it was also the biggest ever shark that was ever displayed there, so it was quite a big thing that day.

[00:11:58] so late afternoon, the [00:12:00] crowd had thinned a little bit. And there's only about a dozen people that remained around the pool. And the shark is looking a little slow. Doesn't look that well. And then out of nowhere, the shark starts thrashing around and darts around the pool, bumping into walls and then churning up water and splashes on Lucas, who are just like, what the hell's going on?

[00:12:20] And then it swims down to the shallow end and it goes still. And then the people crowd round. And then, all of a sudden, a light brown, sludgy muck spread through the water. Eww. And the smell was instantly, gross. And one by one, the shark's undigested meals floated to the surface. half a rat, chunks of fish.

[00:12:39] Half 

[00:12:39] Kyle Risi: a rat?! 

[00:12:40] Adam Cox: Half a rat. Ha ha ha

[00:12:42] Kyle Risi: ha! What's a rat doing in the middle of the ocean? 

[00:12:45] Adam Cox: Who knows, yeah? chunks of fish, feathers, so it was eating a bird. And then the grand finale, an adult human arm. 

[00:12:53] Kyle Risi: Wow. 

[00:12:53] Adam Cox: and what was also really strange was the fact that this arm had a rope tied around its wrist.

[00:12:59] And [00:13:00] first people's reaction was like, Oh, could someone have fallen in? Had there been a terrible accident? But that rope would suggest whoever's arm that was was probably tied up. and the arm was believed to belong to an adult man and naturally the police were called and they take a look at the arm they're like yep that's a human arm all right so they questioned the QG aquariums owners who were two brothers and they're known to be like these hustlers who do anything to boost ticket sales.

[00:13:24] Oh the dodgy characters. Yeah. Do we 

[00:13:26] Kyle Risi: know them because we have a friend who lives in Coochie Bay maybe were they like notorious like business dealers of the time. I don't know. 

[00:13:33] Adam Cox: asked Nick. 

[00:13:34] Kyle Risi: Yeah. 

[00:13:35] Adam Cox: As far as I'm known, they're just these hustlers, so I don't know if they're that big a deal.

[00:13:39] But they did used to set their own traps in the ocean to capture wild animals for display, . 

[00:13:44] Kyle Risi: You're saying like that as if that's like a bit of a clue. 

[00:13:46] Adam Cox: , obviously trying to drum up business, , 

[00:13:47] Kyle Risi: They're looking for a shark.

[00:13:48] Yeah. Because the summer months are over, it's getting cold out there in Coogee Bay, 

[00:13:53] Adam Cox: and 

[00:13:53] Kyle Risi: they're like, do you know what? Let's put a shark in the swimming pool. 

[00:13:56] Adam Cox: Why not? So the police asked the brothers if there was any [00:14:00] chance someone could have fed the arm to the shark while she'd been in the pool. 

[00:14:03] Kyle Risi: Yeah, because I just have a stack of arms.

[00:14:05] Adam Cox: . Yeah, The brothers insisted that it had been pretty impossible for anyone to have done that without them, you know, noticing.

[00:14:16] Oh, my arm's gone! 

[00:14:17] Kyle Risi: When did that happen? Yes, Steve, you've not had your arm for nine days. Yeah, I don't know where I left it. 

[00:14:24] Adam Cox: so the police accept that. Okay, fine. , if no one had fed the shark the arm whilst it was in the aquarium or this pool, then how did it happen? Yeah, this 

[00:14:32]

[00:14:32] Kyle Risi: is a conundrum. 

[00:14:32] Adam Cox: Yeah. It must've got it from the wild, right?

[00:14:36] it's been in this pool for a week . 

[00:14:37] Kyle Risi: no one's fed, the arm to it while it was in the aquarium. 

[00:14:41] Adam Cox: Yeah. 

[00:14:41] Kyle Risi: Some tragic happening has happened out there in the ocean. 

[00:14:44] Adam Cox: Yeah. And then it sat in the stomach for about a week and then it's regurgitated it.

[00:14:49] Because it's probably rotting. the thing is the arm was in very good condition. Oh. Its fingerprints were still intact. So it hadn't broken down from any of the stomach acid or anything like that. And so [00:15:00] the idea was that smaller shark had perhaps eaten the arm, and then the tiger shark had then eaten the smaller shark, and so the tiger shark was breaking down the smaller shark and its body, and then as that was decomposing, the arm was left, and then it got to the arm in its stomach, and then it was like, oh, this doesn't taste good, and then vomited it out.

[00:15:18] Kyle Risi: That makes 100 percent perfect sense. 

[00:15:20] Adam Cox: that's what they think. 

[00:15:21] Kyle Risi: That's a good explanation for like, 

[00:15:22] Adam Cox: why it hasn't decomposed. That's what people believe at this point in time. although side note, did you know sharks can turn their stomachs inside out and pass its teeth to vomit up their latest meal.

[00:15:34] Kyle Risi: I didn't know that, but that's very similar to what frogs can do, right? They eat like a bad meal and they're like, Ooh, I need to vomit, but they can't vomit. So they just turn their stomach inside out. They just empty out their content. It's like when you like have all that lilt in your pocket, you're like, Oh crap, I've got all this crap in my pocket.

[00:15:49] You turn your pocket inside out. Women won't know this because, of course, famously, People don't make pockets in women's clothings and then they just empty out their pocket and then like you dust it off and then you put your pocket back [00:16:00] in. 

[00:16:00] Adam Cox: Yeah, it's exactly like that. Yeah. But I was watching these videos and you actually do see the stomach from these sharks and it just pops out almost like it's like blowing a balloon or something.

[00:16:10] That's rank. Yeah, and then all this other crap comes out of it. 

[00:16:12] Kyle Risi: that's what the shark has done to expel this arm. 

[00:16:14] Adam Cox: Yeah, exactly. . and they do this for a variety of reasons because, yeah, something doesn't sit right with them. Or they do it when they feel stressed

[00:16:21] Apparently if they want to eat more. So a slight case of bulimia. I don't know. The original Romans, 

[00:16:28] Kyle Risi: right? 

[00:16:28] Adam Cox: Yeah. 

[00:16:28] Kyle Risi: oh, let's have a feast. a big feast and then you got the vomitorium on the side and like oh you've eaten everything you can oh just go to the vomitorium yeah stick your fingers down your throat if you need a hand we've got steve here he's my handmaiden he'll help you 

[00:16:41] Adam Cox: yeah he's got really long fingers yeah it's right to the back 

[00:16:43] Kyle Risi: and that you off you go to eat some more wow 

[00:16:46] Adam Cox: but the wildest reason i read was that sometimes And I couldn't fact check this.

[00:16:51] So I've only found this on one source. Don't pretend we fact check! Sometimes we do. Um, but sometimes when they throw up, they do that when they think they're about to be [00:17:00] eaten or attacked. And so they throw up as a bit of like a shiny ball, look over here, and then whoever's attacking it will then go eat its vomit.

[00:17:07] Kyle Risi: Oh, that's so smart! 

[00:17:08] Adam Cox: And 

[00:17:10] Kyle Risi: Oh, hang on. You just vomit it. Are you gonna eat that ? 

[00:17:13] Adam Cox: Yeah. 

[00:17:13] Kyle Risi: Yeah. You, you. I'll have it. gross. keep coming with all these different similarities, but like lizards do that. Do they? Yeah. So if a lizard is under an attack, it'll sever its own tail.

[00:17:25] And then it'll just run off. And then hoping that you just eat the tail. . Because tail will just grow back. 

[00:17:29] Adam Cox: Yeah. I guess it's all similar, like reptiles, sharks, amphibians. I don't know. Man, 

[00:17:34] Kyle Risi: the animal world is just amazing. 

[00:17:35] Adam Cox: Yeah. Anyway, back to the story. So one theory about how the shark came to possess the arm was that it could have been arecent shark attack, that was pretty common in the 1930s.

[00:17:44] So what they needed to do was try and find out who did this arm belong to. it was scooped out, taken to the police station for preservation, and they examined the arm. And what they found was that there was this, distinctive tattoo, where two men with [00:18:00] boxing gloves were facing off. So it's pretty unique.

[00:18:02] Kyle Risi: I was going to ask if it had any tattoos. , I imagine it being like 1950 tattoos that Amy Winehouse has got. And I like pin up girls and stuff. And then you've got like this little boxer. 

[00:18:11] Adam Cox: Yeah, like that. But it's the 1930s. So it wouldn't have been a 1950 tattoo.

[00:18:14]

[00:18:14] Kyle Risi: okay. Same thing. 

[00:18:16] Adam Cox: But yeah, so the story hit the front pages and newspapers included the description of this tattoo. And the next day, a man Do you 

[00:18:23] Kyle Risi: have a husband who's missing an arm? If he hasn't noticed and you have, then maybe it's his. 

[00:18:28] Adam Cox: This is what we think it looks like. It's Gerard, where's your arm?

[00:18:31] Uh, I can't find it. That's odd.so the next day, a man comes forward after seeing the newspaper article, and he says, I'm pretty sure that's my brother John's arm. And his brother is called Jimmy Smith. They showed him the photo of the arm the tattoo because in the paper it was just a description and he recognises it straight away and he's like, yeah, that's my brother's arm.

[00:18:53] Where the hell is the rest of him? 

[00:18:55] Kyle Risi: Yeah. 

[00:18:56] Adam Cox: The police began some forensic testing, and they verify Edward's claims [00:19:00] that this was his brother's arm because, They looked at his fingerprints and Jimmy Smith was already known to the authorities. 

[00:19:06] Kyle Risi: Oh, so he's a bad guy? 

[00:19:07] Adam Cox: Yeah, he was a bankrupt builder.

[00:19:11] Okay. And a, because that 

[00:19:12] Kyle Risi: famously makes you a bad guy. 

[00:19:13] Adam Cox: Yeah. And he's a bit of a small time criminal. He's also a boxer, hence the tattoo. But yeah, he's a small time criminal with a record of minor convictions and he had essentially I guess, gradually got. his way into the underworld, with, various different crimes.

[00:19:27] And he was involved in the legal gambling that was, right throughout Sydney at the time. And over the years, he'd been involved in drug smuggling, insurance fraud, all sorts of scams. So the police are aware of Jimmy and what he's been up to. sure enough, they agree, yeah, it's a match.

[00:19:42] They call his wife and being like, are you missing a husband? Both laugh. . And she's like,yeah, he hasn't been home for 

[00:19:49] Kyle Risi: three weeks. Both laugh. if she hasn't gone to the authorities already, then that might be quite normal . 

[00:19:55] Adam Cox: Exactly that, because she had told the police that he'd gone on a fishing trip to [00:20:00] Cronulla, 

[00:20:00] with his buddy, a guy called Patrick Brady, otherwise known as Paddy. And he was meant to be gone for just a week, but instead he hadn't returned for three weeks. And he would disappear at times throughout the year because he was a criminal. And she's not going to alert the police that my husband's missing because he's a criminal.

[00:20:16] Sure, sure. 

[00:20:17] Kyle Risi: And that's the lesson that, people need to learn. , when your husband says you're going on a fishing trip, they very rarely are going fishing. this guy here, obviously, life of crime, going off doing dodgy dealings. What about that other guy, who was like, oh yeah, I'm going on a fishing trip?

[00:20:30] Wife follows him, having a ten man orgy in a hotel room. Yeah. Every three months. 

[00:20:35] Adam Cox: Yeah. With other men. It's either those two things. No men actually fishes. They just are committing crimes for having gay orgies. 

[00:20:43] Kyle Risi: Actually, our best friend, Nick, is a huge fisher. And he goes away on these little fishing trips.

[00:20:49] I bet you he's doing both. Life of crime and having a 10 man gay orgy while his wife stays at home. Has to be 10. Oh, it's 10. It's either a 10 some or 11 some. 

[00:20:59] Adam Cox: The whole football team. [00:21:00]

[00:21:00] Kyle Risi: I think you can't have an orgy unless there's 11 people. Because it's fun to say. Oh, yeah. Oh, how'd you What'd you get up to on the weekend?

[00:21:06] I had an Elevensome. 

[00:21:07] Adam Cox: Someone could mistake that for Elevensies. Elevensies? Same thing. Yeah, biscuits and chocolate. Yeah, yeah. And then 

[00:21:13] Kyle Risi: we had a massive Elevenman orgy. 

[00:21:15] Adam Cox: Yep, there we go.

[00:21:16] So at this point, it's pretty clear to, Jimmy's wife and everyone else that not only is Jimmy missing, but wherever he was, he was missing an arm and could well be dead, essentially. But he's safe to say he's dead. Well, um, a limb doesn't necessarily mean that,the person's dead. Listen, bitch.

[00:21:33] Kyle Risi: if he had lost the limb, he would have gone. To find help. he would be on someone's radar. Possibly. He'd be in a hospital somewhere going, yeah, we've got a guy here who's lost his arm. 

[00:21:41] Adam Cox: But a found limb does not mean to the police that that person is dead. They could have faked a death.

[00:21:46] they could be, alive and well, but obviously he's still missing and they need to try and find the rest of them. 

[00:21:50] Kyle Risi: Okay.

[00:21:51] Adam Cox: So experts are still examining the arm, and one thing they are pretty sure of is that it was cut off by a knife, held by a person, and not chewed [00:22:00] off by a shark. 

[00:22:00] Oh, so a discarded arm! Even worse. Okay, get real. 

[00:22:05] Kyle Risi: Tell me more.

[00:22:05] Adam Cox: So therefore, the police instantly think, okay, some foul play has happened and we need to investigate Jimmy's connections in the criminal world. And then the first person they're going to ask is the guy that he's supposedly on a fishing trip with, Patrick Brady. 

[00:22:19] Kyle Risi: with 

[00:22:19] Adam Cox: So Paddy's area of criminal expertise lied in forgery. Witnesses say that Jimmy was drinking with Paddy at a pub in Cronulla, so they did go there on April the 8th. And then no one had seen or heard from Jimmy since. Naturally, the police wanted to have a chat with Paddy, but they had a difficult time trying to find him because it just so happened that when this shark had spat out this arm at Coogee Aquarium, which was all over the news, Paddy does a vanishing act.

[00:22:44] Oh, does he really? He came back from the fishing trip. 

[00:22:47] Kyle Risi: Without his buddy. 

[00:22:48] Adam Cox: Without his buddy, and he's laying low, sees this news report, and then Shit, I need to get out of here. 

[00:22:53] Kyle Risi: Okay, interesting. 

[00:22:55] Adam Cox: So the police try and trace Paddy's whereabouts during the time Jimmy had been missing.

[00:22:59] They [00:23:00] interviewed several locals in Cronulla, including Paddy's landlord and taxi drivers who had ferried him around the place. Paddy's behavior was pretty dodgy to say the least. The landlord reported that Paddy had removed a mattress, a rug and a metal trunk from the cottage that he was staying in.

[00:23:16] Only to replace them with brand new ones. And the one thing that was really odd, was that he had scrubbed the walls clean. Almost obsessively clean. 

[00:23:25] Kyle Risi: I'm so sorry. Again, I'm gonna come back to the orgy. This is classic cleanup behavior of a bunch of guys who've just had a massive 

[00:23:34] Adam Cox: orgy. Do you not just lay down some tarpaulin?

[00:23:37] That way you haven't got to clean up, you just scrunch it up and stick it in the bin. 

[00:23:39] Kyle Risi: No, the rusting's too distracting.this is the cleanup operation after everything's done. It's like, okay guys, great, got , some, a bucket, and a mop. So I clean the walls, Remove the mattress because you've got to burn there.

[00:23:52] Adam Cox: Yeah, it's you can't, I can't sleep on there. That's not going to dry out for a while. They can't rent out this room again. So 

[00:23:58] Kyle Risi: it sounds like, yeah, it could be [00:24:00] dodgy behaviour. 

[00:24:01] Adam Cox: Or does it sound like he killed him at his place, cut off his arm, took him in the trunk or whatever, and that's why he's replaced everything?

[00:24:07]

[00:24:07] Kyle Risi: like that's what you want me to think. 

[00:24:09] Adam Cox: But I'm gonna need more convincing. Okay, fine. So people who saw Paddy, shop owners and taxi drivers and others, said he looked a total mess. He was scruffy, disheveled, and always on edge. He seemed anxious and shifty and downright rude. paranoid in every interaction he had with someone.

[00:24:25] And it didn't take much for the police to peg him as their main suspect. So when they finally tracked him down, they arrested him and brought him in for questioning. And let's just say Paddy didn't really do himself any favours. he got tangled up in a web of lies with every answer, only making himself look guiltier by the minute.

[00:24:42] But then Paddy dropped a bit of a bombshell. Whilst he hadn't done any favours for himself, he did point out that there was another guy involved. called Reginald Holmes, who we'll call Reggie. And as Paddy called him, a wealthy boat builder who was practically Sydney royalty. According to Paddy, Reggie was no [00:25:00] saint though.

[00:25:00] Kyle Risi: No, they never are right. 

[00:25:02] Adam Cox: Reggie appeared to be a well-regarded businessman running successful boat building companies at the harbor at Mac. Mahons Point on Lavender Bay, but his clean cut image hit a darker side. Reggie secretly operated a profitable smuggling ring using high speed boats built at his

[00:25:18] boat shed to retrieve cocaine, cigarettes, and other contraband, thrown from ships passing by into Sydney's harbour. I like it. So you'd pick it up and then go sell it. 

[00:25:28] Kyle Risi: I'd do that. 

[00:25:29] Adam Cox: Yeah, who's gonna, realise that's what he's doing, right? 

[00:25:31] Kyle Risi: , you were going to point the finger at someone, if you found, some contraband, you'd be like, it's obvious who it's going to be.

[00:25:35] It's Ritchie. But it's smart , you have a boat company, you've got some ships passing by, Dodgy deal's been done. You're the middle man. Great. 

[00:25:42] Adam Cox: You're just going for a sale at night and then you just pick up some cocaine like, oh, what do 

[00:25:45] Kyle Risi: you know? 

[00:25:46] Adam Cox: So Jimmy Smith, was actually a employee of Reggie, often piloting some of those boats during those smuggling runs.

[00:25:54] However, the two had recently fallen out over a failed insurance scam, and the rumour was that Jimmy had started [00:26:00] blackmailing Reggie, leveraging the boatbuilder's social standing to keep the money flowing . 

[00:26:05] Kyle Risi: Ah, okay. 

[00:26:06] Adam Cox: Paddy was convinced that Reggie had arranged to have Jimmy killed to get rid of the problem.

[00:26:09] And one of the taxi drivers even confirmed he had taken Paddy to Reggie's place right after Jimmy disappeared. And it started to look like Reggie was in this one way or another.this is enough of a lead for the police to start investigating Reggie. pay him a visit. And like Paddy, he does himself no favors and acts like a man with something to hide, which obviously he does.

[00:26:29] but whether it's Jimmy's death, we don't know at this point. He's just generally nervous about all the other sort of stuff that he does. Either way, to the police, he was clearly hiding something, but they decided that there was not enough to pin anything on Reggie, so they let him off. For now. To the police, Paddy was still the most likely suspect, and chose to charge him with the murder of Jimmy Smith.

[00:26:48] Kyle Risi: Oh, so he's been charged with it. See, I don't think that he did it, because I know what you're like. You like to,take me on a wild goose chase. oh, red herring over here, and whatever. I'm gonna say Reggie's innocent. In this. [00:27:00]

[00:27:00] Adam Cox: Okay. Okay. So Paddy's Arrest hits the front pages on May the 19th, so not long after the original incident with the arm being revealed.

[00:27:09] But just when it seemed like things couldn't get any more bizarre, the story would take another turn. . On the morning of May the 20th, Reggie, still feeling the effects of a heavy night on the town, decides to take his speedboat out onto Sydney Harbour.

[00:27:22] He anchors near Potts Point, a bustling spot with lots of people around, and they're in their boats, just enjoying the shoreline and everything like that. None of them had any idea what was about to happen. Reggie stands up. He takes a big gulp of brandy straight from the bottle, because he's still pissed as well.

[00:27:38] Kyle Risi: huh. 

[00:27:39] Adam Cox: He proceeds to raise a pistol to his forehead. And pulls the trigger. 

[00:27:42] Kyle Risi: Oh, he kills himself. 

[00:27:43] Adam Cox: Bam. 

[00:27:44] Kyle Risi: that's the actions of a guilty man. It's gotta be. 

[00:27:47] Adam Cox: with that, we'll just take a quick break, we'll be right back, 

[00:27:50] Kyle Risi: okay, great.

[00:27:52] Adam Cox: Okay, so we're back, and Reggie has just shot himself in the head in front of a bunch of people whilst on his boat. Because he's [00:28:00] guilty. Surely. he's got something to hide. 

[00:28:02] Kyle Risi: Yeah. 

[00:28:03] Adam Cox: the sound of the gunshot alerts anyone that wasn't fully paying attention. And for those that had clocked Reggie and what he was doing, they witnessed him fall backward off his boat and into the water. People are stunned because what could have caused Reggie to do this? What could have been so bad that he wanted to take his own life?

[00:28:20] And for a short while, there was a stunned silence, and then some frantic splashing could be heard, as the shock of hitting the water had revived Reggie, and he pulled himself back up onto his boat. 

[00:28:31] Kyle Risi: He just shot himself in the head and he's like, Ooh, that's cold!

[00:28:35] Adam Cox: And he's back on the boat. Yep, he was still alive. Okay. He had loaded the gun with cheap, faulty bullets made of nickel, and combined with Reggie's thick skull, the bullets were not strong enough to go all the way through his head, and instead the bullet had lodged into the bone , causing a nasty cut on his forehead.

[00:28:52] So he's still streaming a lot of blood, but he's alive and he's just probably got a really bad headache. 

[00:28:57] Kyle Risi: And I bet he's like, Ow! I've [00:29:00] been shooting people in the head all this time, this bloody hurts! Yeah, 

[00:29:03] Adam Cox: this, yeah, I don't want to do this. I'm so sorry guys. 

[00:29:06] Kyle Risi: I'm a changed man. 

[00:29:07] Adam Cox: So, whilst Reggie had tried to take his life in quite a spectacular fashion, he equally failed just as spectacularly.

[00:29:15] you'd think after something like this, Reggie would go I probably just need to go to the hospital, to make sure that he's all right. all honesty, he's not really sure what to do. he's planned to be dead right now.

[00:29:24] And he's like, well, I've got the whole afternoon. 

[00:29:26] Kyle Risi: I've got the whole afternoon off. All right, well, I'm out. I'm going to the pub. Yeah, I'll have another brandy.

[00:29:36] But the thing is, though, surely in that moment, you'd be relieved. And then you've got a new appreciation for life. , let's reform my life. I'm going to get out of crime, I'm going to stop doing the smuggling. But if you were really devastated, like, I was planning on being dead.

[00:29:48] You'd be like, You can just try again, you know. Not with that 

[00:29:52] Adam Cox: gun you could. Just get 

[00:29:53] Kyle Risi: another gun! 

[00:29:54] Adam Cox: So some people that kind of knew who he was, they approached him with a bit of caution, but they were like, are you okay? you just [00:30:00] shot yourself. And he's still pouring blood and everything else, and while they're trying to find out what's going on, the police shows up, because of course someone's alerted.

[00:30:07] to the police that some guy has just shot himself. And when Reggie spots the police that are heading towards him, he panics, realising just how guilty he must have looked. And without a second thought, he sped off in his boat, and the police gave chase in a boat as well. And Reggie is on one of the fastest speeds boats in the harbour, and so he's like weaving out of the harbour, between ferries and other sort of boats and stuff like that, whilst the police are chasing him.

[00:30:30] Wow. And, The police would get close, because Reggie would allow them to get close, but then he'd zoom off again to try and lose them, Toying with him. Well, I think he's just trying to like, I don't know, get them to a point where maybe their view was blocked or whatever, so he could then make a getaway.

[00:30:44] Right. , but it just doesn't work. The police find him and for the next four hours, there is just this cat and mouse chase in the harbour and eventually Reggie runs out of fuel and so that's when the police catch him. We 

[00:30:57] Kyle Risi: got, yeah. 

[00:30:58] Adam Cox: So they take him down to the station, where [00:31:00] he starts to get interrogated for the next three hours, still with a bullet lodged in his forehead.

[00:31:05] It's not like they say, oh, do you need any medical attention? They're like, no, I want a confession out of you or something. 

[00:31:10] Kyle Risi: Yeah. You confess and then we'll get you maybe a band aid. Because that looks pretty sore. 

[00:31:15] Adam Cox: Not seeing a way out of this, Reggie finally decides to spill the beans, and he doesn't hold back.

[00:31:20] He claims that Paddy was the one who killed Jimmy. He said Paddy had come over to his house, which was corroborated by that taxi driver, and brought Jimmy's severed arm. And according to Reggie, Paddy had waved it around with a stern warning. He says this is what I'm capable of. don't cross me.

[00:31:39] Don't point that thing at me. And he demands 500 pounds immediately. Okay. And I didn't realize because Australia had , the pound before they had the dollar. Yeah, I know this. I didn't know that. 

[00:31:48] Kyle Risi: yeah, we covered this when we did the emu war. 

[00:31:50] Adam Cox: Oh, did we? 

[00:31:50] Kyle Risi: Yeah. 

[00:31:51] Adam Cox: Oh, okay. 

[00:31:52] Kyle Risi: Then I did know this.

[00:31:53] Australians really wanted to because they were like, doing really well as an economy. And they were like, the pound had [00:32:00] just debased itself. And that really impacted the Australian economy. And they're like, why should our economy be based on the British pound? We want our own currency.

[00:32:08] And then they moved to the Australian dollar. 

[00:32:09] Adam Cox: So I read it was because of decimalisation, because we were still on Was it shillings and 

[00:32:14] Kyle Risi: it could be all within like that realm but yeah, and to right Like why should the Australian economy be based on? Like an economy that's halfway around the world.

[00:32:23] Yeah, that's bullshit. It doesn't make sense. No. 

[00:32:25] Adam Cox: So Paddy had demanded this 500 pounds and the message to Reggie was like if he didn't keep paying him money and cooperating with that blackmail, he would end up just like Jimmy without an arm. To the police, the whole story just sounded insane, but imagine a man showing up at someone's doorstep, waving a severed arm as a threat, and then, they're both pointing fingers at each other, it's like something still doesn't quite, add up.

[00:32:50] Kyle Risi: Okay. 

[00:32:50] Adam Cox: and then how did the arm end up in the shark's stomach anyway? 

[00:32:54] Kyle Risi: Reggie has a boat, right? And he's probably gone out to 

[00:32:57] Adam Cox: Just ditch the arm. 

[00:32:58] Kyle Risi: Yeah, exactly. Go get some [00:33:00] fags that are floating in the ocean and then just dump the arm. 

[00:33:02] Adam Cox: Yeah, that's a fair 

[00:33:03] Kyle Risi: point. , 

[00:33:04] Adam Cox: so the police are stuck. Paddy's facing charges already, but Reggie's high speed boat chase and dramatic behavior made him look just as guilty. maybe Paddy's story was true and Reggie was hiding something, or maybe Reggie was terrified, that his smuggling and insurance scams would come to light, that's why he tried to take his own life rather than face public humiliation, because he is this prestigious person in society.

[00:33:28] In the end, the police leaned towards Paddy as the likely killer, and got Reggie to agree to testify against him at the coroner's request . But then on June the 11th, Reggie withdraws 500 from his account and late in the evening left home telling his wife he had to meet someone. So it does sound like he is being blackmailed.

[00:33:47] Yeah. Early the next morning, he's found dead in his car. He'd been shot three times at close range and it looked like he had committed suicide . But to forensic police, there was no doubt that he was [00:34:00] murdered. and what was particularly odd given Reggie was supposed to give evidence that morning against 

[00:34:05] Kyle Risi: Oh really?

[00:34:05] Eesh. And I degree because of course he tried to commit suicide before. But then of course if he was serious about committing suicide, he may have just done it again straight away, but then Why did 

[00:34:17] Adam Cox: he take money out of his bank account? Yeah, that's true. 

[00:34:20] Kyle Risi: I can see the attempt by Paddy to try and make it look like a suicide.

[00:34:25] That sounds plausible. But the other events around that, like the missing money, Makes it look a bit dodgy. 

[00:34:30] Adam Cox: The inquest still goes ahead, even though, Reggie can't testify. And with only Jimmy's arm as evidence, there was simply nothing the prosecution could prove beyond reasonable doubt. The cab driver did testify that Paddy looked disheveled and kept one hand in his pocket as if he was, like, hiding something.

[00:34:48] I don't know, like a gun, maybe? 

[00:34:49] Kyle Risi: had one hand in 

[00:34:51] Adam Cox: his pocket. But the trial wrapped up in, under two days, and with the judge instructing the jury to deliver a not guilty verdict, Paddy was acquitted and walked out of the [00:35:00] courtroom a free man. Okay! And in the end, no one's ever been convicted of killing Jimmy Smith.

[00:35:05] So he never turns up then? Never turns up, and then all we know is that Reggie is probably murdered, but it looks like suicide, But what people still can't, I guess come to a conclusion is that why was the arm severed or cut off?

[00:35:19] Clearly something has gone wrong, but they can't pin Jimmy's murder or anything on anyone. 

[00:35:24] Kyle Risi: Well, I mean, cutting up the body, I get it. you probably want to discard the body, right? He got rid of the mattress and he cleaned down the room and stuff So obviously that's possibly where he's chopped up his body to then go and discard in the ocean or somewhere hence why the shark has gotten it But why keep the fucking arm and show up at his house waving it in his face going I'm gonna get you if you let you give me some money 

[00:35:47] Adam Cox: But then because it's got the tattoo on it's kind of show.

[00:35:49] Look I did generally kill Kill Jimmy and I will kill you 

[00:35:54] Kyle Risi: Do you know what? If someone showed up in my house waving an arm, it means like, I've killed Adam. Here's his arm. Here's [00:36:00] proof. I don't need to see proof. You have an arm in your hand that you've stabbed someone's body. I believe you.

[00:36:05] It doesn't matter if it's Adam. You've 

[00:36:07] Adam Cox: clearly done this to someone. Yeah, that's true. and so since then, this mystery has remained one of Australia's strangest unsolved murders. They've got a lot of them, haven't they? Mmm. The common theory has always been that Paddy killed Jimmy and managed to slip away thanks to a few legal loopholes, while Reggie arranged his own death to dodge the shame of people discovering he was a crook.

[00:36:30] Kyle Risi: I think people knew he was a bloody crook. 

[00:36:33] Adam Cox: Reggie's family had multiple life insurance policies on him and those wouldn't pay out if he had taken his own life. , but then why he tried to kill himself in the harbour, he either clearly forgot about that, Or, yeah, it just didn't make sense. 

[00:36:45] Kyle Risi: Yeah, that's true. 

[00:36:47] Adam Cox: in 2020, a fresh theory surfaces and puts a new perspective, on this case.

[00:36:52] And it comes from two Aussie high school teachers, a guy called Phil Roop and another guy called Kevin Meagher. [00:37:00] They've been following this case since the 80s, and they'd gone through every police report, witness statements, and newspaper articles. And they come up with their own conclusion about Jimmy's murder, And what actually happened.

[00:37:11] And they put that all in this book called Shark Arm. Appropriate. Yeah. So their theory goes like this. By the end of 1934, Jimmy Smith was no longer an average small time crook. He had become a police informant, a rat, and what they called a fizzer or a fizzgig. 

[00:37:27] Kyle Risi: you gotta get rid of them, right?

[00:37:28] Adam Cox: The 

[00:37:29] Kyle Risi: snitches get stitches. 

[00:37:30] Adam Cox: And he'd been tipping off the police for years to get himself out of trouble, and this status made him the lowest of the low in the criminal world, and word was out and Jimmy's days were numbered. One particular crime boss, which the shark arm theory suggests that Jimmy was killed by Paddy under orders from a gangster called Eddie Wayman.

[00:37:48] Eddie had been arrested in 1934 while attempting to cash a forged cheque, and later during a bank robbery, both allegedly due to tips that Jimmy had provided to the police. So the plan was [00:38:00] to stop Jimmy snitching, or fizzking, which I really like that word, And they didn't want him to expose anyone else, any other sort of criminals.

[00:38:07] So the plan was to make Jimmy's murder a brutal, unforgettable warning to other potential informants. 

[00:38:13] Kyle Risi: but they never, it doesn't sound like they used it for that though. How do you mean? Because yeah, they got his arm. But then, do you know what I mean? It doesn't feel like they used the arm as that warning.

[00:38:24] Adam Cox: I guess maybe, if you're a criminal , then people will talk and go like, oh, do you know who did that to Jimmy? ? It was Eddie, actually. Sure. 

[00:38:31] Kyle Risi: Yeah, and I guess the significance of having the tattoo 

[00:38:35] Adam Cox: is 

[00:38:35] Kyle Risi: obviously to prove that, right?

[00:38:37] Adam Cox: Exactly. 

[00:38:37] Kyle Risi: I mean, if it was, an orgy ring happening, then you could have just, like, said it's penis, right? It's not an orgy, Kyle. No, but I want it to be. but you could have just said it's penis and gone, like, show that as evidence. People won't know if that's Jimmy's, though.

[00:38:50] They will if it's an orgy. If it's not so that proves it's Nonno . 

[00:38:55] Adam Cox: Okay, case closed on that . So the night Jimmy vanished, he was at his rented [00:39:00] cottage in granola with Patty, and a group of dangerous men showed up. And while Paddy managed to escape, Jimmy wasn't so lucky. Hours later, Patty returned to find the place covered in blood. Oh, and one of Jimmy's arms was left behind on the mattress to send a message. And the rest of Jimmy was, nowhere to be found. Too terrified to go to the police and fearing he'd be next, Paddy was worried he'd, be pinned, with the murder of Jimmy.

[00:39:25] And conviction would have meant the death penalty. And so he's feeling trapped. He can't obviously go to any other sort of gangs or anything like that. So Paddy decides to clean up the cottage, hiding signs of this brutal murder. And he gathers all the blood soaked items, the mattress, he stuffs that into the metal trunk and he dumps it all into the ocean.

[00:39:44] And over the next few days, he replaces the missing items, hoping the landlord wouldn't notice. But of course, the landlord's this place is spotless. What happened here? 

[00:39:52] Kyle Risi: Ha! Why? Adam, this house is too clean. Yeah. It's very suspicious. Yeah, what [00:40:00] happened? Does any of the items that he dumped in the ocean ever arrive on the shore or anything?

[00:40:05] Nope, just the arm. They found it, just the arm. 

[00:40:07] Adam Cox: So Paddy went to see Reggie, and if Reggie's account is true, he may have brought along Jimmy's severed arm waving it around to make a point. But Paddy had two demands. He wanted Reggie to keep paying the hush money to him. even though that Jimmy is gone, he still wanted to blackmail him.

[00:40:22] And secondly, He wanted Reggie to vouch for him in the criminal underworld, spreading word that Paddy wasn't a snitch, and Paddy needed Reggie's cooperation to keep his income and protect his reputation, hoping he would be able to continue his life in hiding without the law or anyone else breathing down his neck.

[00:40:38] Right. And at some point, either Reggie or Paddy tossed the arm into the ocean, hoping that would be the end of it. And if everyone stayed quiet, this thing would blow over. So the last thing they probably thought of, by dumping it in the ocean, that it'd be eaten by a shark, who would then get captured, stuck in a giant aquarium, and then the shark would then throw it up for everyone to see.

[00:40:55] Perfect storm. So the police investigation into Paddy meant Reggie panicked, attempted [00:41:00] suicide, and then failed, and then tried to pin the blame on Paddy, likely hoping to get rid of him whilst protecting himself. Jesus, 

[00:41:07] Kyle Risi: I just hear like Benny Hill in my head, .

[00:41:10] Adam Cox: And so he didn't want to get involved with that. Because I guess these criminals maybe thought Reggie was a liability as well and a loose end, and that he might crack and spill everything. And so they couldn't risk him testifying at the coroner's inquest. So they arranged to have him killed that morning.

[00:41:25] And so with Paddy getting off and with Reggie now dead, basically this criminal underworld would never be able to come to light. 

[00:41:34] Kyle Risi: Sure, I see. They gotta keep themselves secret. 

[00:41:37] Adam Cox: But then the one question is, Jimmy's arm and how it got in the shark's stomach. Yes, they possibly dumped it in the ocean, but most sources, say that actually the shark maybe swallowed the arm, not in the wild, but when it was in the aquarium.

[00:41:53] Hang on though, 

[00:41:54] Kyle Risi: , so like, when they caught it, someone had come in the night and just fed the arm just to dispose of [00:42:00] it, not realising that actually. The shark wouldn't like it and they vomited it up. 

[00:42:04] Adam Cox: yeah, , 

[00:42:05] Kyle Risi: Because you said like the arm wasn't decomposed in any way.

[00:42:09] But if it was over a short period, and it had happened like the previous night, then there wouldn't have been a huge amount of time for it to start like decomposing the skin and stuff. And then it vomited it up. Yeah, 

[00:42:20] Adam Cox: I think this is the thing because people were like, okay, did the small shark eat it and then that's how the big shark was able to then.

[00:42:26] spew it out. but even with a week in a small shark stomach, it still would have decomposed a little bit. And so there's theory of if the shark had eaten it, a week ago in the wild, it should be more decomposed. than it was. And because it had a piece of rope wrapped around its wrist, what they thought is they used that as a way of kind of to get some momentum to throw it over like the walls of the aquarium.

[00:42:54] and into the pool for the shark to eat. 

[00:42:56] Kyle Risi: Oh, so there's a chance that they didn't have access to the actual pool [00:43:00] itself, so they needed that rope. Oh, okay. And then it gives them multiple chances to try and do that. Even if they did have access to the pool, then maybe they needed to like you do with fishing, right?

[00:43:09] You'd wrap the rope around the arm, and then you would sling it to where the shark is to lure it, drop it right in front of it. 

[00:43:15] Adam Cox: Yeah. 

[00:43:16] Kyle Risi: Ah, I, I believe that theory more. That makes more sense. 

[00:43:20] Adam Cox: It does, because that's why the tattoo was still really clear. That's why the, fingerprints were also, legible that.

[00:43:27] yeah, they think that actually that's, it was, yeah, lobbed over the aquarium wall. 

[00:43:32] Kyle Risi: And This is a perfect lesson as to why you shouldn't eat seven day old meat that's been just laying around.

[00:43:37] Yeah. Even sharks can't handle it, right? Yeah. It's 

[00:43:39] Adam Cox: And there we go then. So that's another reason why it spits it out. and also 'cause the owners of the aquarium were a little bit dodgy anyway, so they probably knew. I don't know, maybe they knew what was going on. Maybe they're happy for someone to discard the arm.

[00:43:49] Maybe they got a payoff for allowing someone just to feed it to the shark, thinking that's how we get rid of it. 

[00:43:54] Kyle Risi: Or if they're all like part of this criminal underground, they probably had a little conference meeting like, Okay, [00:44:00] we've got this arm, we need to get rid of it. It's do you know what?

[00:44:01] I have a shark. It's on display at the moment. Just come tonight and we'll just feed it to the shark and get rid of it. cause they are, they're networks, right? 

[00:44:09] Adam Cox: yeah, that's the most popular theory now. And it does make sense, far more sense than, it was stuck out in, little baby shark get eaten by a bigger shark, like Russian doll type thing.

[00:44:20] But yeah, that is the story of the Sharkon murder of 1935. 

[00:44:23] Kyle Risi: That was really fun. Yeah, as murder 

[00:44:26] Adam Cox: goes, 

[00:44:27] Kyle Risi: that was fun. Yes, a bit of a change from the more kind of hard hitting journalistic kind of like stories that we like to tell. 

[00:44:33] Adam Cox: Yeah, it feels easier to talk about this because one, I guess a lot of the family or close family wouldn't be around now.

[00:44:39] And so we can I don't know, it's not quite as hard hitting. 

[00:44:42] Kyle Risi: yeah. And that little theory at the end wrapped it up in a nice little bow. That's plausible. Yeah. With, Australians are always the smartest. Like, when it always comes down to Oh, these scientists have just discovered X, Y and Z. It's always from some weird university in New South Wales.

[00:44:59] They've got all the [00:45:00] best people. 

[00:45:00] Adam Cox: no, these are just two school teachers. 

[00:45:02] Kyle Risi: But even though,the scientists are impressive, but imagine what the school teachers are like. 

[00:45:06] Adam Cox: Yeah. 

[00:45:07] Kyle Risi: Yeah, coming up with all these different theories. 

[00:45:08] Adam Cox: It's like any of those Netflix dramas where people, the whole, what was it about, the cats, was it?

[00:45:13] Don't fuck with cats. Yeah, exactly. It's all these kind of internet sleuths, high school teachers, people solving crime, coming up with actual, rationale for why these things happened. 

[00:45:22] Kyle Risi: That's it. It's always the most plausible thing, isn't it? 

[00:45:24] Adam Cox: Is indeed. Shall we run the outro? 

[00:45:27] Kyle Risi: I think we're ready to run the outro.

[00:45:29] Adam Cox: And that wraps up another journey into the fascinating and the intriguing on the compendium. If today's episode tickled your curiosity, don't forget to hit that follow button on your favourite podcast app. It makes a world of difference when you do. And for our diehard listeners, next week's episode is waiting for you right now on our Patreon, completely free of charge.

[00:45:48] Or if you want more from us, then join our Patreon's Certified Freaks tier to unlock our entire archive, enjoy exclusive content and get a sneak peek of what's to come. New [00:46:00] episodes drop every Tuesday, and until then, remember. If you're planning a crime, best make sure there's no pesky sharks around to cough up that evidence.

[00:46:08] cats cough things up. Don't feed your dead 

[00:46:10] Kyle Risi: body to a cat. 

[00:46:11] Adam Cox: No, that's a lot of body for a cat to 

[00:46:13] Kyle Risi: eat. Don't feed a dead body to your herd of cats. They're all vomiting up chunks of human. Gross. See you next week. See 

[00:46:22] ya.