Snowy rowles biography sample

1930s murders in Western Australia

The Murchison Murders were a series of three murders, committed by an itinerant stockman known as "Snowy" Rowles (born John Thomas Smith),^[1][2] near the rabbit-proof fence in Western Australia during the early 1930s.

Rowles used the murder method that had been suggested by author Arthur Upfield in his then unpublished book The Sands of Windee, in which he described a foolproof way to dispose of a body and thus commit the perfect murder.

Snowy rowles biography sample

Rowles

Rowles was born in 1905 in North Perth, Western Australia. His original name was John Thomas Smith. Prior to the murders, Rowles served three months in jail for theft.^[3]

Upfield's search for a plot

Upfield had already written three novels,^[4] but was working as a fence boundary rider on the rabbit-proof fence in Western Australia.

He had decided to write another detective novel, but with a plot difference; there being no body for the