SYDNEY’S MOST DANGEROUS WOMAN: SWORN IN AS J.P. WHILE AWAITING TRIAL
PHILOMENA BEST, WHO CLAIMED MINISTER OF CROWN AS FRIEND, JAILED FOR THEFT
Vile Accusations Against Police Inspector and Sergeant, and White Slavery Charges Against Her Victim, Mark the Most Sensational Criminal Trial of the Year
CHIEF CROWN WITNESS NEARLY BLOWN TO DEATH
On Friday, February 4, at No. 1 Darlinghurst Courthouse, Philomena Mary Best, of 38 Great Buckingham Street, Redfern (Sydney), was sworn in as a J.P. by Judge Cohen, who congratulated her on her appointment.
THREE WEEKS LATER—on Friday, February 25—in No. 2 Court, Judge Edwards sent the same Philomena Mary Best to prison for 12 months.
The previous morning, passing her at the rear of the Court, the same Judge doffed his hat to her. She was then in custody. It is presumed this was a case of mistaken identity.
It is a coincidence that the official who witnessed her signature to her two oaths as a J.P. was the same person who three weeks later asked her if she had anything to say why sentence should not be passed on her.
Another strange aspect of the case was that when Mrs. Best presented herself at Darlinghurst to be sworn in as a J.P., she was already under committal for trial. Moreover, she had been committed before the official publication of her elevation. The place of her committal was Bourke, and the venue set for her trial was the Bourke Quarter Sessions. Judge Armstrong is the chairman of those Sessions. No Quarter Sessions judge is more popular with Sydney lawyers whose practice is in the criminal courts. Consequently, when it was learned that Mrs. Best’s lawyer preferred a trial in Sydney before another judge, the uninformed wondered why.
There was a reason.
The Police Court charge sheet was not very informative. It merely stated that between November 5 and 15, 1926, she stole dresses, towels, ribbons, etc., to the value of less than £40, the property of Namut Khan, an elderly Indian storekeeper.
Mrs. Best lived at 38 Great Buckingham Street, Redfern, and kept a residential property. Prior to November, two occupants of the residence were Elsie and Evelyn Hicks, sisters aged 19 and 16 years. It was through these girls that Mrs. Best came into contact with Namut Khan.
The girls met Khan in November outside 193 Elizabeth Street, opposite Redfern Park. Khan was visiting from Bourke on business and stayed with fellow countrymen in the Indian and Syrian district, which overlooks Redfern Park—a stone’s throw from Mrs. Best’s residence.
LEFT BOURKE SUDDENLY
Both girls wanted to go to Bourke to work for Khan. He decided on Elsie, aged 19. The terms of the engagement were arranged at 38 Great Buckingham Street. Elsie was to assist in Khan’s store for £1 a week and her keep. She went to Bourke with Khan.
Khan’s version of Mrs. Best’s appearance in Bourke was that she had friends there and, deciding to have a holiday, asked Khan for part of her train fare. Mrs. Best’s story was that Khan engaged her for a brief period to help him mark new stock at £4/16/- a week, and she spent a considerable portion of her time in Khan’s store. Khan claimed her pretence was to see that Elsie was being treated well.
Mrs. Best left Bourke suddenly. Subsequently, at the Bourke Police Station, and later at Darlinghurst, she explained her sudden departure. She attempted to portray the elderly Namut Khan as an “Old Sultan” and raised the question of “White Slavery.”
Mrs. Best stayed in Bourke for 10 days. Judging by the depletion of Khan’s stock, she had a busy time there. Unbeknownst to Khan, she carried on an extensive parcel post trade. Khan’s stock was sent through the post, addressed to fictitious persons, who were very much alive. Evelyn Hicks got her items supplied. Parcels were addressed to the Paddington Post Office, the Redfern Post Office, the railway station, and the Paddington Police Station, addressed to Plainclothes Constable Hayes. Altogether, Hayes received seven parcels from Bourke containing Khan’s stolen goods.
On her oath at Darlinghurst, Mrs. Best swore that Hayes (“Jim,” sometimes Albert Hayes) was her first cousin.
GIRL GIVEN SECOND CHANCE
Khan did not awaken to what had happened until Elsie Hicks left him suddenly. He missed money and stock and caused her to be arrested at Nyngan. She appeared before the magistrate at Bourke and was fined £2 or 14 days’ imprisonment. Police in Bourke knew Khan as a decent, law-abiding citizen and urged him to give the girl a second chance. He did. He paid her fine and re-employed her.
Khan and others in Bourke then realized that Elsie Hicks had been a tool in the hands of Mrs. Best. Her letters to the girl from Sydney, instructing her on what to steal from Khan’s stock, set the police to work.
On November 22, armed with a search warrant, Police Inspector Linegar and Sergeant J. J. Lynch went to 38 Great Buckingham Street. Mrs. Best denied that any stolen property was on the premises, but she lied. Hidden everywhere was Khan’s stolen stock. The greater portion of this stock had been delivered by Constable Hayes and handed to the woman by him.
Mrs. Best’s arrest followed. From Sydney, she was remanded to Bourke. There, she arrived before the police from Sydney. They got to Bourke only to find that Mrs. Best had already gained control over Elsie, and it was evident from the noise at the Bourke Police Court that Khan was in for a torrid time. If the allegations made against him were accepted by a jury of white men, his finish was in sight.
But Best was a desperate and dangerous woman. She openly boasted of her influence with a Minister of the Crown and the ease with which she could secure an audience with him. She had indicated what she proposed doing with Khan when he stood in the witness box. The suggestion that the aged storekeeper was a white slaver, and that she had fled from him when he had made overtures to her, was enough to make an Oriental in “White Australia” shrink from the consequences.
FLEW AT HIGHER GAME
But Mrs. Best flew at higher game. She made an accusation against Inspector Linegar. Needless to say, the fact that a nasty accusation had been made by a woman against a police inspector was eagerly seized by a Sunday tabloid, which said just enough to place the inspector in a false light, even if the prurient muckraking print had the decency to convey to its readers that the woman was thoroughly discredited. The following Sunday, the same gutter press featured a double-column photograph of Mrs. Best, alongside her public statement that she had not been permitted to tell her story at the inquiry.
As a matter of fact, no investigation was made into the woman’s accusation against Inspector Linegar. It was unnecessary. What was done was an inquiry into the part played by Constable Hayes. That inquiry concluded when Philomena Mary Best was sentenced to 12 months’ imprisonment. She gave her version then, and a jury disbelieved her.
“FRAME UP” THAT CRASHED
It was Hayes who now stood in jeopardy. Originally stationed at Redfern, he had been transferred to Paddington. He was regarded as a smart plainclothes man. When the thinly-veiled accusation of impropriety against Linegar fell flat, Sergeant Lynch, of No. 3 Station, received attention. A “frame-up”—an accusation of corruption, coupling his name with an Oxford Street businessman—was tried on. It crashed. But it revealed Hayes as having attempted the official assassination of the sergeant.
In the meantime, Mrs. Best had been sworn in as a J.P. A Redfern police sergeant had certified her as being of good character. He knew nothing against her.
Her luck was in, in that respect. Other police sergeants at Redfern knew her—not as Philomena Mary Best, but by another name—a woman of shady character and a frequenter of Chinese and Oriental dens in Redfern, Waterloo, and Botany. That she visited Chinese at Botany she admitted on oath. Then she claimed she went on business with her husband. The latter, however, was absent from the trial.
The next move made was to secure a change of venue for the trial from Bourke to Sydney. It sounded reasonable, as Mrs. Best and the witnesses for her defense resided in Sydney, so she should not be put to the expense of going to Bourke for trial. The Crown agreed.
The truth of the matter is Mrs. Best was fully aware that the “White Slavery” charge could not be sustained in Bourke, because out west, old Khan had a decent reputation. A Sydney jury might accept it. As it happened, it did not.
Mrs. Best’s trial was accordingly fixed for Wednesday, February 23. Mrs. Best knew it. So did Hayes.
Namat Khan at Bourke, was advised to come to Sydney. He arrived early on Tuesday morning. Sergeant Lynch met him. Khan was taken to the home of a countryman at 193 Elizabeth Street, Redfern.
A man and a woman saw Khan arrive at Sydney station and saw Lynch meet him. Immediately, the man and woman made a hurried departure.
However, Khan’s whereabouts became known. Early on Wednesday morning, a gelignite explosion took place at Elizabeth Street. It was in front of this shop that, early last November, Elsie and Evelyn Hicks met Namut Khan. The residence of Mrs. Best, located at 38 Great Buckingham Street, is just across the park.
There is no doubt that the intention was to blow Namut Khan to eternity.
Inspector Linegar survived the allegation made against him by Mrs. Best. Sergeant Lynch emerged with his honor untarnished from the “frame-up.” Namut Khan lived to give evidence against Mrs. Best, evidence which the jury believed.
There still remained “the white slavery” stunt. Khan admitted giving Elsie Hicks a ring, but he didn’t know whether it was a wedding ring. Did he ask Elsie to marry him? No, she asked him to marry her.
JUDGE’S SCATHING COMMENT
The police were early astir on Wednesday morning, following the explosion. Elsie and Evelyn Hicks were taken to the Detective Office to disclose what they knew, if they knew anything, about the explosion. It was left to the police to spring a surprise on the female J.P. in the dock.
Elsie Hicks confessed that she and Mrs. Best robbed Khan, and that Mrs. Best had instigated her to steal. When this admission was made in court, the defense crumbled.
Before Philomena went to jail, she heard the judge denounce her as a wicked woman. She also heard the judge give a certificate of fairness and honor to Sergeant Lynch. He, as it happened, had been depicted by Mrs. Best as a cowardly man who sought to trap, bully, and terrify “a good woman.” Police view her as Sydney’s most dangerous woman. They also know that it will not be from her lips that information will come that will enable them to fasten the guilt of the murderous gelignite outrage on those responsible.
