Jim’s Australiana Spot – 2UE - November 6, 2011

  SHARK FACTS - Part Two - The Shark Arm Case

The Shark Arm case began on ANZAC day 1935 when a human arm was regurgitated by a captive 3.5-metre tiger shark caught 3 kilometres foff Sydney in mid-April and transferred to the Coogee Aquarium Baths, where it was put on public display. Within a week the fish became ill and vomited in front of a small crowd, leaving the left forearm of a man bearing a distinctive tattoo floating in the pool. Before it was captured, the tiger shark had devoured a smaller shark.

It was this smaller shark that Fingerprints lifted from the hand identified the arm as that of former boxer and small-time criminal Jim Smith, missing since April 7, 1935. Smith's arm and tattoo were also positively identified by his wife Gladys and his brother Edward Smith. Jim Smith was also a police informer and examination revealed that the limb had been severed with a knife, which led to a murder investigation which led police to a Sydney businessman named Reginald William Lloyd Holmes (1892-1935).

Holmes was a fraudster and smuggler who also ran a successful family boat-building business. Holmes had employed Smith several times to work insurance scams. Initially, Holmes denied any association with Patrick Brady but four days later, on 20 May 1935, the businessman went into his boatshed and attempted suicide by shooting himself in the head with a .32 calibre pistol. However, the bullet flattened against the bone of the forehead and he was merely stunned. Revived after falling into the water, he crawled into his speedboat and led two police launches on a chase for several hours until he was finally caught and taken to hospital.

In early June 1935, Reginald Holmes decided to cooperate with the police investigating the murder of Smith. He told Detective Sergeant Frank Matthews that Patrick Brady had killed Jim Smith and come to his home, showed him the severed arm and threatened Holmes with murder if he did not receive ?500 immediately. Holmes discarded Smith's arm into the surf at Maroubra.

On 11 June 1935, Holmes withdrew £500 from his account and late in the evening left home, telling his wife he had to meet someone. He was also very cautious as he left his home, accompanied by his wife to the door of his Nash sedan. Early the next morning, he was found dead in his car. The case has remained unsolved to this day.

The police charged Patrick Brady with the murder of Jim Smith, he was found not guilty and acquitted.

Jim Smith and Linda Agostini	The tattooed arm of James Smith

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