Notorious Kelly let off the hook after death of landlady

High Court judge Lord Cowan proved himself to be a man of steely resolve. He defied a crowd baying for the execution of Perth murder accused Cornelius Kelly and gave clear indication to the jury that the 34-year-old Irishman was innocent. Kelly had been facing the gallows accused of killing Margaret Forbes, 57, his former landlady and the wife of a prominent Perth sawyer.

She had been drinking in the company of Kelly on February 1864 but ended the night drowned in the Lade.

Kelly, better known as John, had come to Perth in 1847 and had worked as a labourer for 17 years before that fateful night.

He was known as a “rollicking Irishman” and our archive records “among his weaknesses, which were not more numerous than ordinary mortals, was his liking for an occasional dram”.

Before the end of 1863, Kelly had been staying in lodgings in South Street owned by Mr and Mrs Forbes. However, he wanted a place of his own and got married at Hogmanay that year and set up home.

However, barely six weeks had passed when he fell in with his former landlady who was flush with cash having sold pigs belonging to her husband.

Kelly yielded to enticement and joined his former landlady for a dram. How many glasses they drank and how many public houses they visited was not clear. What was clear was that the body of the landlady was found face down in the Lade behind houses in Charlotte Street the next morning.

The discovery was made by police sergeant John McGillivray. Kelly was arrested and taken into custody. Locals were furious that an outsider had robbed and slain one of their own.

When the case came to trial, hundreds of locals packed the court room demanding the ultimate sanction.

Many witnesses were called but Lord Cowan noted that robbery could not have been a motive because Mrs Forbes had plenty money on her when she was found.

There was no sign of foul play. The jury acquitted Kelly.

He remained in Perth and died in the poorhouse in May 1898, an event recorded in great detail by this newspaper.

Locals were furious that an outsider had slain one of their own