Who was the 17-year-old boy from Broken Hill who dumped the suitcase with clothes and a rifle stock on Somerton Beach the weekend before the Somerton Man died there?
Commenter ‘Clive’ had had no luck with the Adelaide Court archives (in fact, Janey found out a few weeks ago that “all [Adelaide] Youth Court files prior to 1984 have been destroyed”), so decided to trawl through the Police Gazette. Luckily, what Clive found there was that “the youth, aged 17, was named as Frederick William Pruszinksi. He was fined 4 pounds and 10 pence for unlawful use of a car”.
Actually, it seems very likely to me that the youth’s name was Richard Frederick (“Freddie”) Arthur Pruszinski, of 247 Williams Street, Broken Hill: and we can trace many aspects of his (unfortunately) short life through Trove.
10 December 1945: Fred Pruszinski was in Class 2CP, and got “1st English (aeq.), 1st Technical Drawing (aeq.)”
29th November 1947: a relative (presumably?) was working on the mines but fell ill: “C. Pruszinski was taken to the Hospital and admitted after he had become ill at the Zinc Corporation. His condition last night was stated to be quite comfortable.” (He seems to have flown back from Melbourne on 4th January 1949.)
Despite his young age, Fred Pruszinski was a keen member of the Silver City Miniature Rifle Club: his first newspaper mention is from 8th March 1948, and by 20th August 1949 he was Honorary Secretary.
29th November 1949: his sister Eileen Patricia Pruszinski announced her engagement to “Harold, only son of Mr. and Mrs H. Payne, 608 Beryl Street”. They were married on 11th March 1950 at 9am:
Fine needlerun lace and misty tulle was chosen for the bride’s picturesque period gown, which she had made herself. Underlined with rich satin, the frock was made with a high round neckline and circular tulle yoke piped with satin and outlined with a soft frill, and the slender satin-piped waist line was met by a hooped crinoline skirt. The centre panel of soft tulle frills was edged each side with satin piped scallops caught with sprigs of orange blossom, and the skirt swept out into a graceful flowing train flnished with a deep tulle trill all around. A trail of orange blossom was caught across the back waistline above a shirred bustle of satin-lined lace, and her long peaked sleeves were buttoned to the elbow. A coronet of orange blossom backed with a frilled lace halo surmounted her frothy veil of six tiers of scalloped tulle, and she wore a double strand pearl necklace. […]
By 14th May 1951, Fred Pruszinski was shooting for West Broken Hill Rifle Club.
12th July 1951: “Failure to observe a halt sign at the intersection of Argent and Kaolin Streets cost Richard Pruszinski a fine of £2 and 10/ costs.” (Might have been Freddie or his father Dick, I don’t know).
8th January 1952: in an apparent change of direction, Fred Pruszinski passed an Engineman Driver’s Examination (“AC and DC”). By 1st July 1952, he had passed his Diesel examination too.
Yet sadly, he died suddenly at Morton Boolka creek on 7th March 1953, having shot a bird and tried to swim to get it, before falling into difficulties and drowning. (The Coroner subsequently ruled that his death was an accident, e.g. Barrier Miner, 31 Mar 1953.)
There were plenty of funeral notices: a typical description of Pruszinski’s funeral appeared in the Barrier Miner, 11th March 1953 edition:
The funeral of Mr. Richard Frederick Arthur Pruszinski took place yesterday afternoon. The cortege left his residence, 247 Williams Street, for the general cemetery. Envoy J. Crocker conducted a service at the grave. The bearers were: Messrs. D. Hargraves, K. Cook, P. Fitzgerald, D. Carlin, J. Heslop, and J. Hamilton. The following representatives were present: Mr. J. P. Fitzgerald <W.I.U. of A> Mr. L. Farrugia (Zinc Corporation Sickness Fund); Messrs. F. Anderson and J. Brownett (West Rifle Club).
He was buried in grave #214 at Broken Hill Cemetery, the same one as Richard Walter Pruszinski (1928-1934, presumably an older brother).
According to this, Pruszinski was born and educated in Broken Hill, and “was employed at the N.B.H.C. as a miner. He was a member of the W.I.U. of A., Zinc Sickness Fund, and the West Rifle Club”. This funeral notice lists his close friends: “DON PURCELL, DON HARGREAVES, DON CARLIN, KEVIN COOK, JOHN WINKLER and PAT FITZPATRICK”. (They were also his pallbearers). At the West Broken Hill Rifle Club, “the flags were flown at half-mast and members stood in silence in respect for late member F. Pruszinski.”
Just a small observation: “close friend” Pat Frizpatrick and pallbearer P. Fitzgerald don’t have quite the same last name, though as you say I bet they are the same person. One of them must be an error for the other.
Easy to make spelling errors kristopher; the press does it all the time and heaven forbid we do too (don’t I know it). However, not usually the the cops; especially those cops charged with puting out those all imortant Police Gazettes…And yet, “The youth aged 17, was William Frederick Pruszinski…”. Surely our lad, as identified later in the press stories was a Richard Frederick Arthur Pruszinski. Just imagine had his last name been Turner for instance and not Pruszinski; readers could be forgiven for thinking that with the two differing sets of given names, they surely must bet two different people. Think about that Christopher and thanks for bringing up the subject, its food for thought perhaps.
Not one single part of the ‘Fred’ Pruszinski related thread material seems consistent with even the wildest conceivable laws governing coincidence period. From early SM police investigators not having following up on the Somerton Beach suitcase find, then continuing right through to the sad case of a healthy young country youth, accompanied by a friend in a dingy and within reach of other duck shooter’s encampments, drowning in a shallow, still water billabong. Not to mention other related issues such as a 17 year old youth being named (it seems incorrectly) and shamed in a State Police Gazette, contrary to prescribed statutes prohibiting publication of juvenile offender’s personal particulars. Have we finished here or is the case for inconsistency worth pursuing for
Owner of the car stolen by Pruszinski was Max McCormack, a 27 year old former station hand from O’gary, a truck stop on the Barrier Hwy a little Sth West of Broken Hill. He appears to have been part Aboriginal though he claims “pure European ethnicity”. I note this only because in my earlier inquiries on the apparent name mix up, I heard mention of another Pruszinski mob living on an aboriginal mission across the SA border from The Hill. Had our young criminal been part ‘yalla pfalla’ (I’d pass for one), he would not have had name immunity under the young white offenders provisions, which would account for the Gazette entry being within those guidelines.
Olary or O’Leary is the place Max called home when signing on for his service in the RAAF. Even though he used Arthur St. Adelaide for his NOK’s domicile, it would have been of interest to ascertain where exactly Fred was spotted on his bike trip south. Could have been set up for the pair to meet over a car delivery back to the old place whatever, but the cops got wise and Fred had to take the heat.
john sanders: according to the newspaper report (in Trove), the car’s owner was “Maxwell John McCormack, second-hand dealer, of Stanley street North Adelaide”.
– https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/43793401
He died on 7th September 1954 in hospital, aged 33, “loved son of J. P. McCormack, formerly of Booborowie”. [Booborowie is close to the Barrier Highway, but much closer to Adelaide than to Broken Hill.]
– https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/47608500
But that’s about it for Trove, as far as I can see. Where did you get your information from?
john sanders: as a certain person posted here – http://ciphermysteries.com/2015/01/11/at-last-the-somerton-man-rifle-socks-scenario
“The bike was later seen by police passing through Mannahill (89 miles SW of Broken Hill), halfway down the Barrier Highway and heading in the direction of Adelaide.”
Nick: Looks like Olary is 25 to 30 miles north of Mannahill which must be the place next door, then its some good distance further south from Mannahill to Booborowie in the Flinders ranges, where Max folks were from. In 1940 he gave Kimbo Station, Booborowie then Gutulpa (sic) Station Gleary (sic) as his mailing addresses. 14A Stanley Street was his pre service discharge address, where wife Marjorie seems to have been installed for the duration of WW2. He had been serving as a guard in Darwin all through the Nip bombing campaign in 1942. How come all our star witnesses died on us so early? must have heard we were coming for em.
john sanders: it was Outalpa Station, Olary. His second tour was of New Guinea.
Nick: Yep, Max was no spelling bee champ, a bit like myself, and I note that he picked up his well deserved Pacific Star (New Guinea) for his medal rack, unlike Alf Boxall and John Dwyer, both of whom claimed credits they were not entitled to and were found wanting accordingly. Prosper, our fake AIF man who never saw a Jap, would have been familiar with all those way stops on the Barrier Hwy, where all sorts of work might be done to re-badge vehicles undetected, by backyard operators.
john sanders: as you know, McCormack was ‘good with engines’, so nearly all outcomes are possible from here. 😉
Nick: Yes, he wanted to be a mechanic and eventually qualified to some extent with the airforce I gather. If he lived in North Adelaide, how come Pruszinski got onto one of his autos down the beach at Noarlunga. We might also recall that Fred’s younger brother Don got into classic cars, same as Prosper and is still well known in the trade. We could go on if we wished with the curious bike owner Coffee? who left his wheels lying around unsecure more than once and never seemed to learn his lesson. All too late and all too long ago to do us much good attacking those angles, though fortunately there are still avenues of enquiry quite likely to give up some new leads if we maintain the initiative.
john sanders: I’ll put together a post on this, I suspect there’s an angle we’ve all missed…
Nick: While you’re about it, perhaps you might take into consideration that at the time, well before it and long afterwards, the South Australian Police, of all post Peeler modern organized law enforcement agencies in the world, would have had no equals as far as corruption goes. Their auto dealer squad was particularly envied by most other crooked outfits, mainly due to equally bent governing instrumentalities that made it easy for everyone to get a decent kick back from ‘grand theft auto’ (US terminology). Don’t believe me on my say so, the records are out there for all to see; Royal Commissions, internal inqiry cover ups, re orgs. and mass sackings, dismissals of honest Commissioners, leap frog promotion of scallywags and the rest goes on.
Willam Henry Coffey x 2 Snr & Jnr, formerly from Junee on the land. Jnr went to New Guinea as a driver and was court martialled 24 Dec. 42 in the field. May have done four months in the slammer then sent home for discharge 26 Apr. 43. I’m not pointing to race, though one of the pair was a tap dancer, as if that might help. The younger bn. 3/1/15, was 33 at the time of our event, so he sounds about right; dunno what transpired with NSW charges re the alleged bike theft, or if they were proceeded with.
l see that William Horace Coffey was a name given for the bike owner, so maybe William Henry might get a pass. No doubt about Bill Coffey having been a tap dancer from Broken Hill though.
There’s an awful lot of Coffeys interred in BH cemetery, but no William or Bill and no Patricia nee Thompson. Musta got fed up with the bike thefts and left.
john sanders: thank goodness, I thought for one horrible moment you were going to make a cremation joke, “Wake up and…” :-p
Nick: Pleased to report that only St. Pat’s consecrated grounds were deemed suitable for the Irish Coffeys of B’Hill.
Whilst we’re on the subject of Coffeys and McConnors etc., something seems a little off the grid in the manner of how the original thread was allowed to perc away unfiltered as if it had to be of a factual basis. Although it was all in the pot well before my time I must nevertheless voice concerns about some of the original bean counts. Who ever uncovered this Pruszinski pot boiler, it’s surely got to be the mother of all things weird; not even A.C. Doyle could have brewed up such a strong black blend of coincidencental happences in fiction.
I understand that the owner of the motorcycle stolen from Broken Hill and later found abandoned in the sand hills on Somerton beach at the time SM died was a certain William Horace Coffey (Coffee) who worked at the Broken Hill power house (electricity generation). My searches didn’t find any other records for a William Horace Coffey (Coffee) but I did find a Horace William Coffey, fitter and turner. Wife Hilda Kathleen Coffey in the 1949 Broken Hill electoral roll. Living at 37 Lane lane, Broken Hill. In the 1954 Broken Hill electoral roll the Coffey’s are listed with two daughters (?) living at the same address. Patricia Shirley Coffey, and Aileen Joy Mary Coffey, both shop assistants.
Hilda Mary Coffey died 9th June 1977 at the Broken Hill hospital. Sydney Morning Herald 15th June 1977. Horace Coffey died 7th October 2001 aged 91 at Queen Elizabeth hospital, Adelaide (late of Blair Athol?).
I find it a bit strange that there aren’t any other records for these people.
Horrace with no middle name and wife Maggie, both formerly of Blair Athol, are together in eternal rest at Enfield Cemetery Adelaide. Born in 1910, so 38 in 48; I guess that might have been bordering on unlikely for a bloke of that maturity to be leaving his bike unsecured. Beats my best to improve on Byron’s work.
There had to have been at least two related Pruszinski families living in Broken Hill right; we have our Richard Frederick Arthur born in ’31 and died by drowning in ’53, then we have Richard Walter born in ’29 and died in an auto accident ’34. So they can’t have been brothers in the general sense as someone suggested earlier. However if they shared the same sire then half brothers with a different mum is most likely. Seems we could be looking at a Pruszinski family on both sides of the proverbial tracks with, in all likelihood another half brother for ‘Fred’ named William Frederick of about the same age, albeit of a somewhat lower social class. Such a lad would more likely fit the bill for the long bike trip to the city than the other guy in stable employment and a respected junior leader to boot
Try this easy little puzzle if you will. We have our other young Pruszinsky dumping the contents of a suitcase on the forshore at Somerton as required, gaining access via the Bickford stairs. Perhaps he arrived a day earlier than instructed, priding himself in his ability to set a new course record from BH in doing so and feeling confident about doing something similar on his next assignment for Max McConnor. Of course Prosper couldn’t be on hand to pick up his Winchester 63 and the cops by chance? intervened to pick up the haul of saturated clothing and a rifle stock, weighted down by it’s unconventional integral, non floating all steel action sans magazine tube. This case scenario is more akin to something probably unrelated to our own SM matter and more likely connected to The Dude 747’s car racket deal if you ask me, but I’ve laid it out the way I see it, so take it for what it’s worth; jack shit most likely.
Can’t remember if I posted (can’t find the post if I did), but trawled through a lot of Pruzinski stuff wondering whether there might have been multiple families in the Hill. I did find another Fred Pruzinski (but not in the age range of our one), and I also found there seems to have been some spelling variety on the names…with Pruszinski, Pruzinski, Pruzinsky all appearing (it occurs to me other spellings might be possible too).
Pretty sure there was more than one Richard, but they appear to have generally gone by their middle names (a’la Fred). I think a couple of the girls shared first names too – though curiously not their mother’s. They seem to have been reasonably gifted both academically and athletically (and prominent enough in BH to be regularly mentioned in the papers (one of the sisters gets a 1/8th page write up in the paper). But there are interesting inconsistencies with them too (like one of the daughters seems to be omitted in a parent’s obituary – granted she was married by then, but it seems a touch odd).
When the diminutive Lord ‘Bobs’ Roberts of Kandahar put down rules and bylaws for his youth training concept known throughout the Empire as ‘minature rifle league’ in 1904, he obviously had in mind the need for future leaders who might then impart their knowledge of marksmanship learnt under the strictest of guidlines, to others under their command in battle. To say that the tough old campaigner was a stickler for accepting only the best possible class of applicant for his Royal chartered association, would be a understatement. As a well known wouser and upholder of all things lawful to the absolute extent of the British Justice system. So quite understandably, riff raff and undesireables such as convicted felons and the uncivil Irish did not pass muster for membership under any circumstances…We know of course that young Richard Frederick Arthur Pruszinski was not only holding down a good job, a former top student and well respected member of the West Broken Hill Minature Rifle Club, he was also an office bearer of that institution in the capacity of club secretary. That certainly doesn’t equate to our previous acceptance of his having been involved in conduct most predjudicial to both his accepted good social standing and capacity to attain high office. Let’s look back to the sort of high standards of moral behaviour expected, as promulgated in the orginal membership charter. I’ll leave it up to the punters to decide whether to go ahead and take Fred’s name off the club honour board right here and now, or whether to tarry on favour of a little further delving into the justification of our previously held conclusions, just in case one of our earlier research efforts went amiss somehow.
There’s a few Pruszinskis still floating around (both in Broken Hill and SA), and a couple seem to have quite prominent careers. There’s also one with some sort of ties to the Broken Hill Veteran and Vintage Car Club (possibly the President (or a past one?)
milongal: that’s a story for another day, I’m sorry to say.
Milongal: The vintage car man was Richard (Fred’s) younger brother Don. He is well known Australia wide, in the business. I have spoken of him and his son, also Don from memory, several times, as recently as two days ago. The Pruszinski’s have nothing to say about their long deceased relative as they have been quite inundated with indiscrete demands for information in recent years.
Not saying that this is neccessarilly pertinent to the case, but it is quite clear that Max was part Aboriginal as I initially twigged to (takes one to know one). I have just seen a pic of his sister Hilda who died in country S.A. recently, while he also had a brother Collin from further up the Barrier Hwy at Yunta and it seems that they were only ten months apart in age. I have not picked up any detail of his post military calling or what became of him though he served as on a tank crew it would seem.
Clive suggests Bill Coffey was married to Pat; Byron seems to think he prefered Hilda for his bride, Yet when he died he was happy to lie beside his beloved Maggie. No wonder he couldn’t afford a new Holden in 1948; either that or we need to go back and check the records…While we’re at it, lets no forget that there are still many uncertainties with those distorted Pruszinski names and uncertain relationships. We could take it a step further to back check on the Police Gazette entry to reaffirm their Frederick William Pruszinski entry; Meantime I’m chasing up on the McCormacks to see if I can fit anything for cross ties on some of the other Darker related issues with that tribe.