Chapter 148: The Crime That Changed Brisbane-The Murder of Betty Shanks

0:01 Every story has a beginning, but not everyone has an ending. In the shadows of headlines and buried police reports lay the voices of the missing, the murdered, and the forgotten, waiting to be heard and have their stories told. This is the Book of the Dead, a true crime podcast where we remember forgotten victims of heinous crimes, reopen cold cases, re visit haunting disappearances, and uncover the truths buried beneath the years of silence. I'm your host, Courtney Liso, and every week we turn to another chapter, one victim, one mystery, one step closer to justice. Brought to you by Darkast Network in Deep Podcasts with the twist.

1:11 First came love, then came lies, control and Murder. I'm kai host of Love and Murder Heartbreak to Homicide, the true crime podcast where I tell real stories of relationships that were doomed bonds from the start, reacting with raw honesty, passionate rants, and unfiltered frustration when justice isn't served. I give you new full episodes every Monday, with many cases every Wednesday and Friday. Go to Murderanlove dot Com. That's Love and Murder backwards. Murderanlove dot com where you'll uncover the twisted side of relationships that led to homicide.

1:54 Hello, Hello, Welcome to the next chapter in the Book of the Dead. Almost seventy five years ago, in September of nineteen fifty two, the brutal murder of a young woman devastated the community of Brisbane in Queensland, Australia. It was a quiet evening just before ten pm when two screams rang out in the quiet suburb of Wilston. As lights went on, Curious neighbors peered out their windows, but assuming it was some rowdy children, the residents of Thomas Street drew their curtains and headed to bed. Hours later, after the young woman is reported missing, an off duty police constable opened his front door to get the morning paper and he walked right into a crime scene. As the police exhausted all avenues to find her killer, the question on everyone's mind was who would commit such a horrific crime and why this is the murdyr of Betty Shanks.

2:57 Before we get into the case, its important to acknowledge that the murder of Betty Shanks was pivotal in altering how Brisbane was perceived after decades of being considered a city more akin to a quote big country town than anything else. Heading towards the tail end of the Korean War, which ended in nineteen fifty three, you must remember that this was a different time. Brisbane had very few violent crimes to speak of, and it was an era where women could safely walk around at night alone. However, nineteen fifty two was the beginning of a change in Brisbane. While Betty Shanks's murder shattered the idea that nothing bad ever happened in Brisbane, her case was not the first that year, though it was the most violent. Three months before the murder, a taxi driver was killed in South Brisbane, and during the police's investigation, they also uncovered a report of a seventeen year old girl who had been lured into a vehicle by a soldier driving an army car.

4:02 According to an article for The Brisbane Times, Ken Blanche, a former police reporter, said of the incident, quote, a girl complained that a soldier driving an army car inveigals her into the car and told her that he would drive her home because he knew a friend of hers, and proceeded to drive her in the opposite direction. She escaped from the car and reported it to the police. Investigators tracked the soldier down at his platoon on Peel Street, South Brisbane, and they questioned him about what happened. However, according to ken Blanche, there were discrepancies around the time and date of the incident, so they let the man go quote but in their report they suggested that a copy of their investigation be filed with the Modus apperandi section of the CIB or the Criminal Investigation Branch, because they believed this soldier would commit a sex offense using an army vehicle at some time in the future. I'm telling you about this particular incident because it's relevant later.

5:00 But while these two cases, the attempted louring of the teenage girl and the murder of the taxi driver, while serious and scary for the community to reckon with, nothing compared to the brutality of Betty's murder. When someone perceived as an overall good person is killed in such a way, it changes the way a community sees itself. In this case, in an area that for the most part was considered safe, residents realized that they were not immune to the violence and dangers seen in other places. Betty Thompson Shanks was born on October two, nineteen twenty nine, to Ivy and David Shanks in Brisbane, Australia. The family lived in a home on Montpellier Street in Wilston, and she was the first of two children. A little brother named Alan would be born a few years later. Growing up, Betty was very close with her family. Her mother told The Sunday Truth quote, she was all every mother could wish for a daughter. We were a real team. Everything we did we did together. I know of no enemies of Betty's.

6:06 She was the type of girl everybody loved. Betty growing up, enjoyed going to the movies with her friends, and she was described as very bright as well as beautiful. She also loved the arts. Her father told the Brisbane Telegraph quote, Betty loved painting and classical music. Her favorite pictures were classical ballet scenes. Her favorite composition was the Joy's piece of music, Beethoven's six Symphony. Nothing gave her greater pleasure than to sit around her radiogram with her mother and myself and play records. Her other great love in life was literature. While the family was very happy and spent a lot of time together, they did suffer hardships. David Schank served in the First World War and was gravely injured, losing a leg as a result. While he would recover, reports of the time implied that this injury prevented him from being able to work. So as Betty got older, she looked at ways she could help support her family.

7:01 She attended school at the Brisbane Girls Grammar School, where after finishing high school, she went on to attend the University of Queensland, where she earned her Bachelor of Arts degree. Upon finishing her schooling, she graduated early after three years. She started as a research student in experimental psychology. However, according to the Brisbane Telegraph, she felt that the class wasn't taught very well and she disagreed with her professor, which she told him, and only completed one of the required two years after, she took some time off of school before applying for work, and she got a job as a clerk working for the Commonwealth Department of Interior. Even though she had disagreed with her former professor, she was very serious about furthering her studies and she decided to again attend classes and lectures in the evenings as a research fellow in psychology. Given the time period, this drive to learn and her admirable work ethic was a bit of an anomaly. Many women Betty's age, while working, not the sole breadwinners of the family like she was, and many women her age in their early twenties were beginning to think about marriage and starting families. According to ABC, no one in Betty's life at the time recalled her dating anyone. She was more than content focusing her energy at that point in her work and her studies. Nineteen fifty two was shaping up to be a very good year for Betty Shanks. That April and Betty won first prize in a lottery drawing, receiving three thousand pounds or

8:32 around a quarter of a million dollars in today's money, and her name even appeared in the paper. According to ABC, she used the money not on herself, but to improve the family home and help out her parents, as was her nature. She had the house repainted, purchased new furniture for her mother, and contributed to the mortgage. On the morning of September nineteenth, nineteen fifty two, Ivy Shanks said goodbye to her twenty two year old daughter, as Betty headed off to work at her usual time. After her work was finished, Betty headed to a university lecture being held at the Commercial High School, being given by night school teacher Edwin Millikan. Mister Millikan, at the conclusion of the lecture, drove Betty and two other students, Raymond Fredericks and Neil McCrystal, to the Grange tram line turnoff on Litwich Road, Windsor, just before nine pm. According to an article for The Sunday Mail, Edwin said that he had driven Betty and other students home twice a week for the last eighteen months. Betty got on the tram that would take her to her neighborhood, and when she got off at nine thirty two, she headed down Thomas Street, just four blocks away from her home on Montpellier Street.

9:46 At one thirty am, when his daughter still had not returned home from her lesson, David Shanks called Edwin Millikan and asked where she was. Confused, Edwin explained that he had dropped Betty off at the tram hours ago, shortly she should have made it back by Now. Alarmed, David called the police and reported Betty missing. In the early dawn hours of Saturday, September twentieth. Police searched for any sign of Betty for four hours with no luck, but answers were much closer than they would believe. As investigators passed through Thomas Street traffic, Constable Alex Stewart was getting up to start his day. The evening before had been a bit strange. He had heard what sounded like screams coming from outside at around nine forty pm, but when he stepped outside, he hadn't seen anything suspicious, neither had others on the street who had heard similar sounds. At five thirty am, Alex Stewart opened his front door to collect the morning paper and spotted just twenty feet away on his neighbor's lawn the body of a young woman.

10:52 She was almost fully clothed, wearing a red coat, a white blouse, a dark skirt with stockings, and dark shoes, and she had a pair of gloves with her. Some of her undergarments were found beside her, and the contents of her purse had been scattered on the lawn. Though covered in countless wounds along her face, the identity of the woman was very quickly figured out as investigators walked down Thomas Street looking for her, Betty was just out of sight, only five hundred yards from her front steps. Betty's murder was particularly horrifying for the police to investigate due to the evidence of sheer brutality present on her body.

11:33 At the news of the body being discovered, Brisbane CIB Chief Inspector J. E. Donovan gathered all available resources to investigate the murder, and according to the Sunday Mail, more than twenty detectives were summoned to the scene to collect all evidence to help find Betty's killer. As they combed through the scene, a picture quickly started to come together. A bloody tram ticket was found near the body, and police were able to trace her movements from the train to where the initial attack was thought to have occurred, on a darkened patch of sidewalk under a flowering bohemia tree. Horrifyingly enough, this spot was within sight of Betty's home, and there was blood spattered on the pavement as well as the fence and lawn where Betty was found, leading investigators to believe that while the initial attack had occurred under the tree, Betty had been dragged to the lawn likely in an attempt for the killer to conceal what was happening. According to an article for The Sunday Mail, the cause of death was strangulation and she had all sustained extensive injuries to her face, head and body, causing a broken jaw. These injuries were believed to have come from being repeatedly kicked as shoe polished, and would seem to be a shoe's tried pattern had been found in the body. One of the first police reporters on the scene, Ken Blanche, would later tell The Brisbane Times that police theorized Betty had died at or around nine fifty two pm, twenty one minutes after leaving the tram, as that was when her goldwatch had stopped. Police canvassed the area in

13:04 an intensive manhunt for twenty hours, attempting to find the person responsible. Leave for police was canceled and officers patrolled the city certain that they would find their killers. Some were covered in blood. They questioned anyone they thought to be suspicious, including those in homeless camps or sleeping in railway cars, but no one was arrested or detained at any point. Men at the nearby races were also questioned, and they even tracked on a former patient of the nearby Goodnmntal institution who apparently lived in the area. Though countless people were stopped and spoken to, and those that heard Betty's screams had their statements taken, nothing abuse came from any of it. Adding another layer of frustration for police was the fact that a motive wasn't clearly obvious.

13:54 Though the undergarments being found near Betty's body suggested a sexual motivation for the crime, medical exacts found no evidence of sexual assault, and while her wallet seemed to be missing, it was unknown how much money she had with her and if robbery was a possible motive or something the killer had taken advantage of in the moment. None of Betty's jewelry had been taken either. According to Betty's friends and family, she had no enemies, she was well legged in her classes and at work, and she had no boyfriend to speak of. Police couldn't tell if this was a crime of opportunity or if the killer was known to her. All they knew was that it was possible that she had met her killer coming off the train, since it should have taken Betty just minutes to walk down Thomas Street, and it was confirmed that she hadn't gone into any shops nearby. According to an article for The Sunday Mail, an unknown mail believed to be in his thirties or forties, had been seen near the tram at the time Betty got off, but no one saw them together nor could they identify him. Additionally, another woman who rode the tram with Betty had walked away on harm and told police she never heard Betty walk behind her as she should have, so why was Betty the one who was attacked. Two days into the investigation, the police appeals to the public to come forward with any information they had about Betty's murder and warned about a possible sex maniac on the loose. They were specifically looking for information on six different points, according to an article

15:26 for The Courier Mail. They were looking for anyone that had seen Betty on the tram on the night of the murder, any taxi drivers who were idling near the tram line in Grange or who picked up any fares from the area after nine thirty pm. Witnesses who may have seen anyone at or near the murder site at around nine forty five pm anyone who may have seen two men who were reportedly spotted nearby walking on Thomas Street away from the playground at Wilston School seconds before the attack. Investigators also wanted any information on a man senior the Grange terminus who had been offered a ride. This man allegedly said, quote, I've waited for two trams and I'll wait for another. And they also wanted information on a man that had been seen reportedly acting very strange on Montpellier Street at around eight pm on the night of the murder, near the Shanks home. The man was allegedly heard making animal like noises in the area.

16:25 Even though it seemed like the police had some sort of direction to head in, they felt as if they were quote searching in the dark. The only concrete lead they had to go on was a report from a taxi driver about a moon faced man seen hopping the fence near the sight of Betty's murder at around ten thirty pm. This same man was spotted three hours later, three quarters of a mile away on a bridge in Newmarket. The man was described as being between five foot eight and five foot ten, over twenty years old, with a medium build a moonface, short hair, and he was wearing jeans and a bluish colored shirt. Police had also checked out a potential lead when a friend of Betty's alleged that she was in love with a married man, but in speaking with him, investigators learned that they had not spoken in six months or more and he clearly had nothing to do with Betty's murder. As hundreds more tips poured in and the police worked to verify them, they also urged the public to be safe until the killer had been caught, as he could very well strike again.

17:33 Investigators said to not panic, though they suggested taking precautions, such as arranging to be escorted home from work or any outings if a bride was not secured, or if one that would take you as close as possible to home was not available. They also urged that the public immediately report any suspicious activity, no matter how small, to the CIB and police would be patrolling the city around the clock to promptly respond to any call with the utmost urgency. As the investigation reached two weeks, the police were frustrated with the lack of progress, and they were doing what they could to allay the public spheres. The media started reporting that if the taxpayers were assisting and funding the police at more than two million pounds a year, then they could rightfully ask questions and demand proper training to keep them safe. This crime was so out of the ordinary and something that Brisbane had never seen before, and the police, at least in the public s view, weren't as equipped as they should have been to handle it.

18:36 The public was crying for them to be trained more and be able to use more advanced resources to solve these types of crimes that were likely to happen again as populations grew. A month into the investigation and investigators were sure that while they may not be as close as they wanted to be, they were closing in on a suspect. According to the Courier Mail, investigators were moving far with the door to door check convinced that the killer lived somewhere close where Betty had been killed. An officer with the CIB said quote, we are nearly sure the killer at least knew the victim by sight and probably lives less than a mile from Thomas Street. We think he formed an attachment for her, possibly even without her knowledge. We think we are getting geographically close to him in our investigations. Now, while police weren't sure if the suspect lived alone or not, they were hopeful that if he didn't, whoever he lived with had suspicions and would come forward, even if they did so anonymously. Unfortunately, though, it seemed as if many of the possible suspects they looked into were false leads. According to the Courier Mail, while many men ultimately had confessed to the murder, investigators found that these were false confessions and none of these men had been anywhere near the site of the murder at the time Betty was killed. As the police navigated public school as well as an investigation that seemed to be going nowhere, the Shank's family was grappling with the loss of Betty and the sheer lack of answers that

20:08 were coming their way. While the Shanks were receiving endless support from their friends and family, Betty's murder had taken a devastating toll on her parents, especially David, whose health was more fragile even prior to her death. Ivy said quote, for the first couple of weeks, we were numb with shock. According to an article for the Truth, who had kindly given to the Shanks a full color framed portrait of Betty. Ivy said that her husband had collapsed after the news of their daughter's death. By mid November, fifty seven days after the murder, David had spent half of that time bedridden and completely unable to sleep, even after countless medications being prescribed to help him rest. Finally, Ivy said, quote, one night, I realized that throughout his illness, he had been waking at the same time every night. It was then I knew that he was subconsciously waiting for Betty's footsteps.

21:03 It was about the same time on the night she was murdered that he became anxious when she did not return from college. Two and a half months into the investigation, it seemed as if police had finally gotten a solid lead when it was announced in the Brisbane Telegraph that both Brisbane and Sydney police were searching for a man attempting to leave the country. He was wanted for questioning in Betty's death, as he was reportedly in the area when Betty was killed, and he had been to the hospital just two days later to have unknown injuries treated. The man was believed to have known Betty and was possibly a former resident of the Goodna Mental Institution. However, if this man was found, he was no longer considered a suspect. Then, tragedies struck again weeks later. Early on Christmas morning, as the Shanks family prepared to share the holiday with family in an effort to ease some of their heartache, another family in Sydney was waking up to an identical nightmare. Seventy five yards from her home, the body of twenty one year old Shirley Butler was found.

22:10 Like Betty, she had been strangled and beaten to death after catching a tram at eleven fifty seven pm the night before. It was believed that she was alone when she got on, and she would have gone off at North Sydney station. As reports of this murder made its way to Brisbane, investigators were alarmed at the similarities and theorized that the two crimes were committed by the same person. In investigating Shirley's death, they learned that she had made friends with many of the sailors that had stopped in the area Brisbane. A police sent over a list of ships for Sydney investigators to look into for any crewmen that were in Sydney that had been in the area at the time at Betty's murder. One man in particular was wanted for questioning, a sailor by the name of Richard, who was known for sleight of hand tricks and drinking heavily.

23:00 He was well built and told people he was of Russian descent, and police wanted to speak with him in the hopes that he would quote be able to provide invaluable assistance in locating the sex maniac who killed Shirley Butler, according to an article for The Sun. Then according to the Warwick Daily News, they announced days later that this same man was suspected of the assaults of four women that occurred between the twenty third and the twenty fifth of December and the Waverton area. Now, while they continuously mentioned looking for this man, to my knowledge, he was never found. In February of nineteen fifty three, an inquest was held and the man scene of the tram was the focus of it. But though he was described by two different witnesses that had gotten a good look at him and even spoke to him, he was not identified.

23:52 A taxi driver also came forward during the inquest and told how he picked up a fair forty seven minutes after Betty's established time of death, just two miles from the crime scene. The man was in his thirties and well dressed, wearing either a gray suitor trousers and a sport coat with a tie but no hat. What was particularly unusual about this pickup, though, was that, according to the Courier mail, the man had blood on his face and down the front of his shirt. And while most men that grabbed a taxi sat in the front with the driver, this one opted to sit in the back the taxi driver and Murray Templeton said quote, he gave me the impression he had been enough fight and wanted to get away from that particular spot as quickly as possible.

24:34 Also at the inquest, investigators explained how extensive checks had been done on all recently released patients from the institution, as well as all registered sex offenders in the area for possible suspects, but no flax were raised. They had also made inquiries into all Army, Navy and Air Force camps, as well as any sailors who had docked in Brisbane at the time, but they were satisfied that these avenues were clear. Things were quiet regarding the investigations into Betty and Shirley's murder for months after the inquest, with the suspect they were looking for seemingly in the wind. Then, just over a year after Betty's death, the CIB believed they might have a possible suspect after a family of three was murdered at the end of September in Sydney.

25:22 According to the Sunday Mail, a man named Peter Harpstead, his wife, and their five year old were brutally beaten to death with what police believed was a hammer in a ferocious attack. They believed the family's killer was a twenty five year old Norwegian man named Carl Gruse, who died the next night after crashing his car into a tree while being pursued by an officer, and his car was a bloody hammer. During their investigation, they found no evidence to suggest that Carl had been in the area when either woman was killed, but they had heard reports from his friends that prior to the Harpstead's murders he had been acting very soon Strangely. Police believed that if he was responsible for the other deaths he may have been experiencing some sort of episode. Though they followed this trail in the hopes it would lead to solving Betty's martyr, they found nothing to support their theory. As the decades passed, Betty's case, though still unsolved, was still a painful memory for many who lived in Brisbane. Countless theories and false confessions were made as tips trickled in and a reward sat on claim for information that would lead to her killer and for Shirley's as well as her case also remained unsolved. Betty's supervisor, John Doocy said that Betty had received a call two days before her death that seemed to have upset her, Though she never mentioned anyone who the caller was or what they had said. This was the only mention of possible upset in her life. Can

26:54 Blanche was sured that the army driver who attempted to lure the teenager into his car prior to Betty's murder was responsible. He even wrote a book published in two thousand and six about this theory, though this driver was never questioned in connection to Betty's death. According to ABC author Ted DU's believed the local locksmith and former soldier named Eric Sterry was the killer, a theory supported by the woman on the tram with Betty on the night of her death, who saw the mystery manlordering outside, as well as Eric's daughter. She believed that her father took an obsessive interest in Betty after allegedly changing the locks on the Shanks' home. She also claimed to have seen her father burning clothing on the night of the murder, and that the mark found on Betty's forehead matched a pair of boots he had been wearing. Teddu said that in his research, Sterry's medical records indicated that he was prone to violence, and he had been diagnosed by two different psychiatrists as quote a potential psycho with anxiety hysteria.

28:00 After his death in nineteen ninety seven, Sterry's daughter found a photo of Betty in the family album that she believed was kept as a memento. Unfortunately, while a good suspect to look into, it's difficult to determine if he was responsible. By the sheer amount of time that has passed. Though not very likely, there is still a chance that Betty's killer is alive, even after over seventy years, and though very little evidence that could point to her killer was found at the scene. It's also possible that, if in good condition, advancements in forensic technology could help get answers. David and Ivy Shanks may be long gone, having lived the rest of their lives without knowing who killed their daughter, but it might still be possible to bring justice to Betty and her family. She was never forgotten by those who loved her, and the community has remembered the vibrant and intelligent young woman decades after her death. If there's anyone out there that could have any information regarding the murder of Betty Shanks, you can contact crime Stoppers at one eight hundred three three three zero zero zero. Thank you so much for listening, and I hope you have a wonderful week and as always, I will see you in the next chapter of the Book of the Dead.

29:26 Bye guys. Another page closed. But the story isn't over for the families left behind. The pain doesn't end when the headline's fade, and for the victims, we owe them more than silence for our on solved cases. If you have any information, please reach out to local authorities or visit our show notes for links and resources. Someone out there knows something. Maybe it's you. Thank you for listening to the Book of the Dead. If this story moved or spoke to you in some way, talk about it, share it, keep their names alive. Until next time, I'm Courtney Liso. Stay safe, stay curious, and stay vigilant. And remember the dead may be gone, but their stories will not be forgotten.