Williamstown amateur historian Barb McNeill is Star Weekly’s history columnist. This week she revisits the sad tale of Margaret Mould whose body was exhumed when police suspected she had been the victim of a poisoning during an “illegal operation“.
At the Williamstown Magistrates Court in January 1932, Claude William Mould, respected estate agent who had formerly had his office in Pier Street, Altona, was charged with having between 11 May 1931 and 1 September 1931 at Altona converted to his own use over 28 pounds received as an estate agent.
He had been instructed by Green, Dobson & Middleton, Solicitors, to collect the rent of three Altona properties on behalf of the mortgagees, Manchester Unity Independent Order of Oddfellows, and pay the monies into the solicitors’ account.
Constable Cowdon stated that for over three years, Claude Mould had run his Pier Street agency, C.W.Mould & Sons – the sons being Jack and Claude, aged 19 and 16 respectively. The defendant vigorously denied the charge, having discovered, 12 months previously, a cash box deficiency of 150 pounds. This he had paid from his own pocket, and, suspecting that Jack had been helping himself, had tackled him with it. Jack denied it, blamed other members of the family, but was given the sack in May 1931. To Claude Mould’s grief, Jack was now busily getting into trouble in Adelaide and his father was still repaying the missing money.
As devastating as this family trouble was, it was a minor matter compared to a previous court case involving the family, one that shocked Altona in 1930 and led to a murder trial at the Melbourne Criminal Court.
On 6 August that year, a woman who called herself nurse Sylvia Cook, or Nurse Sylvia Koch – there seems to be some doubt as to which was her real name – paid a visit to Claude Mould’s wife, Margaret. Two days later, Mrs Mould, aged 38, was dead in her Pier Street residence. A death certificate was duly issued and the much-loved lady was believed to have died of heart failure.
Her funeral on 11 August 1930 was well attended, her civic spirit honoured by wreaths from The Altona Cycling Club, the Altona branches of the Girl Guides and Boy Scouts, the Australian Natives Association, the Altona Baseball Club and the Church of England Ladies’ Guild.
The mourning community accepted the cause of death as misfortune, but the police had a shrewd idea why Mrs Mould had died, and obtained an exhumation order. The post-mortem was carried out by government pathologist, Dr Crawford Mollison on 1 September.
Mrs Mould had not died of heart failure but blood poisoning, following, in the coy language of the times, “an illegal operation”. Senior Detective William Jones hurried to arrest Nurse Cook and seize certain surgical instruments from her premises. She was whisked to Williamstown Police Station, where she allegedly confessed to murder, though this she would later vigorously deny. The 44-year-old unregistered nurse was allowed bail of 500 pounds, with two sureties of 250 pounds each, an indication of the seriousness of the charge.
At the City Court, Sylvia Evelyn Cook, the name under which she was charged, was represented by none other than high profile solicitor, Naphthali Henry Sonnenberg, who had clocked up an impressive 29 homicide cases, the most infamous being the doomed Colin Campbell Ross, wrongly executed for the Gun Alley atrocity.
Sylvia Cook, manageress of the Waverley Private Hospital in Queen Street, Altona, was committed for trial by the coroner. Many of her patients were new mothers, who gladly gave her their 5 pound baby bonus in return for her care. Where and how she had gained midwifery knowledge is unknown, but she was never a registered nurse, and without a properly qualified person on the premises, her hospital could not be registered.
How she and Mrs Mould came to meet is unknown, and mystery surrounds the case to this day. There is no record of any of the Mould family having fore-knowledge of Margaret Mould’s intentions.
Contraception in the early thirties was limited, abortion unlawful unless warranted by extreme circumstances, the deceased at 38 was considered middle aged, the Depression was creating great hardships for Australians, she had previously suffered the tragedy of a stillborn son, and already had eight children.
Was it economic uncertainty which led her to take this dangerous step? We can speculate, but it seems very likely. She worked for the business, as well as being a home-maker. Was her husband anxious about the market when money was tight? Did the thought of yet another mouth to feed in such frightening times alarm her? Without the family’s words, we will never know. Like thousands of women who could not afford the outrageous fees demanded by society doctors, Margaret was forced to risk her life.
The woman charged with murder before Chief Justice Sir William Irvine, was in danger of losing her life on the gallows. The Crown alleged that Mrs Cook had admitted to police, “ I knew what I was doing. I knew the law and took the risk… but I didn’t make money out of it.”
This the accused flatly denied, claiming that Detective McGuffy had threatened to pull her tongue out until she confessed. Her feisty response to him had been, “I’ll go to the gallows but I won’t admit to anything.”
On Friday 31 October 1930, the jury took four hours to acquit Sylvia Evelyn Cook, alias Koch, of murder.
The following year, she was fined 5 pounds for being an unregistered proprietress of Altona’s Waverley Private Hospital. In 1945, she was served with a Bankruptcy Notice , after which this mysterious woman disappeared from headlines and died in 1962 at Pearcedale.
