Crime writer, in the library with the knife
It’s not every day amurder weapon falls out of a file at Archives New Zealand.
Wellington archivist TrishMcCormack hardly noticed the bulge in the 1884 criminal case file for Fanny Bonnington, and was amazedwhen it turned out to be a small but lethal looking black knife.
According to the accompanying file, the knifewas Exhibit A in the case of the then 16-year-old servant girl who had given birth to an illegitimate child, killed it in a state of shock and insanity, and tried to dispose of the body.
Her employer, Blenheim brewer Henry Dodson, discovered the trail of blood to the outdoor long drop where Bonnington had buried the body, and alerted the police.
When Dodson confronted her, she was dazedly going about mending a dress, still holding themurder weapon.
The police found the baby had died from knifewounds, but Bonnington was found not guilty on grounds of insanity, and served four months in the Mount View Asylum in Wellington before Dodson collected her, and returned her to her family.
Dodson’s statement suggested it was ‘‘her sweetheart’’ who had ‘‘got her into trouble’’.
Bonnington went on to marry David JamesHerd, and have at least five children. She died in Picton in 1937.
And there are still Dodsons in Blenheim – one of McCormack’s best friends, Joan Dodson, is one of Henry’s descendants.
McCormack had been accessing the file as part of her own research; she is drawn to the morbid and themysterious, and has written three murdermysteries.
‘‘I love that kind of stuff. It made my day,’’ McCormack said.
She took a photograph on her phone and sent Joan a text, and the family are planning a visit to see the file in person as soon as they can.
McCormack said the National Archives kept historic court files as far back as the 1850s, and police files from about 1870 onwards.
Files remain classified for 100 years, but each week new case files open up, and for someone like McCormack, this is always an enticing opportunity for discovery.
To find an old case file is not unusual, but for the weapon to be included is quite rare. Usually objects are kept separate, but this knifewas tucked neatly inside the foldedwad of yellowed paper of the police file.
Among objects kept in the archives is the cranium of the man McCormack dubbed ‘‘Wellington’s Rasputin’’, Francis Roy Wilkins.
Wilkins, 42, was murdered in Wellington in 1947, by either a blow to the head or a gunshotwound, and his body was dumped in the sea. His murderer was never found.
Also present is the axle recovered from the Waikato River in 1970 when police recovered Harvey Crewe’s body.
For McCormack, the archives are a treasure trove of inspiration.
‘‘If I ever start writing books again, I’ll have plenty of material.’’