Intense interest swept the Kentish district in 1928 when the sad news broke that a young, well-known ex-Kentish schoolteacher had died suddenly in Omeo, Victoria. It occurred on 3 Jan 1928, just three weeks short of her 22nd birthday and two weeks short of her baby daughter’s 1st birthday. Two days earlier, the young mother and her infant had returned to Omeo from a protracted visit to her parents in Railton, where she had tried to regain her health. But what caused every newspaper in the nation to publish this distressing event was the sensational announcement, a couple of weeks later, that her young clergyman husband had been charged with her murder. This is how the shock story unfolded.
Ethel Constance White was born 23 Jan 1906, the second daughter of Albert & Annie White of Railton. From an early age, Ethel was reciting, singing and playing the piano and winning prizes. Like her devout parents, Ethel became a dedicated worker at the Railton Methodist church. At 15, she became a pupil-teacher at Railton, then at 16 she began teaching at the small school at Lower Beulah. The following year, in Jan 1923, Miss Ethel White (17) was sent to take charge of the Lower Wilmot school to relieve Miss Weeding for six months while she spent half a year at the teachers’ college in Hobart.
Two months later, in April 1923, a young trainee Methodist minister, Ronald Griggs (23), arrived at Wilmot on a 12-month assignment as a home missionary working out of the Wilmot Methodist church. Born in 1900, Ronald Griggs was the eldest of five children belonging to a committed Wesleyan family in Southern Tasmania. Towards the end of WWI, when Ronald turned 18, he joined the AIF and was sent to France. It was in France that he had a deep religious experience beginning with a rebuke from a street girl in a wine shop. Later that evening, he knelt before a wayside cross and offered his life to God as a preacher. Upon returning to Australia, he began studying for the Methodist ministry at Queen College in North Melbourne. In April 1923, he was sent to the rural district of Wilmot for one year’s training as a ‘home missioner’. Both Ronald Griggs and Ethel White boarded at Brooklyn House, run by Mrs Harriet Ambrose, whose sons established Ambrose’s clothing stores along the coast.
Courtship and Engagement
When they first met, Ronald Griggs was 23 and Ethel White was 17. Ronald regularly preached and took charge of social events. Ethel played the organ and sang, sometimes with Harriet Ambrose’s daughter Etta. On Empire Day, celebrations were held at the Lower Wilmot school. Ethel assembled her schoolchildren in front of the flagpole, welcomed all parents and visitors, then invited the new home-missioner, Ronald Briggs, to speak. This was followed by games and sports. The young couple were soon attracted to each other, but only four months later, in July 1923, Miss Weeding returned from her training in Hobart, and Ethel White was transferred back to the Beulah school, where that December she sang a solo at the Beulah Methodist SS anniversary. That summer (1923/24), Ethel and Ronald became engaged. Ethel’s friends agreed Griggs was fortunate to have gained her as his life partner.
After completing his year at Wilmot, Griggs returned to Queen’s College, Melbourne, in March 1924 for his final two years of study to become a Methodist minister. He was a clever student, topping the class in Greek and gaining some scholarships. In April 1924, Ethel was transferred back to Wilmot School for the next 20 months till Dec 1925. So for Griggs’s winter vacation in 1925, he returned to Wilmot and stayed again with Ethel at Brooklyn House. But during these two years of study (1924–1926), Griggs only saw Ethel during three vacations. Ethel was a bright, retiring girl – her pleasant manner gaining her hosts of friends. Wilmot parents recall the kindness and tact she displayed as a schoolteacher and her willingness to assist with any charitable function.
Marriage and Move to Omeo
Their marriage was planned to take place at the completion of Griggs’s studies. In March 1926, Griggs received his Licentiate of Theology and was appointed minister of the Methodist church at Omeo, a town of 2000, 250 miles NE of Melbourne. On 7 April 1926, Rev Ronald Griggs (26) married Ethel White (20) in the Railton Methodist church. Following their wedding luncheon with 30 relatives and friends, the newlyweds left by the evening train for Devonport amid showers of confetti. Next day, they embarked on the SS Oonah for Melbourne enroute to Omeo, Victoria.
First year at Omeo – 1926
Ronald & Ethel rode the 250 miles from Melbourne to Omeo on Ronald’s motorcycle and sidecar and settled into the six-room parsonage next door to the weatherboard Methodist church. Ethel became pregnant immediately, for just nine months later, in January 1927, she gave birth to their only child. At first, they did a lot of visiting in his motorcycle and sidecar and soon became friendly with two church elders. One was wealthy sheep grazier John Condon, who had three young-adult daughters, and the other, farmer Henry Harmen. The Griggs frequently stayed overnight at both these homesteads, where they were given free run of their properties. Griggs began to regularly use Condon’s workshop to do maintenance work on his motorcycle.
But soon, Ethel became unwell. Marrying a Melbourne graduate she hardly knew, her immediate pregnancy, losing all her friends and moving interstate to take on the role of a minister’s wife were all a bit too much. She lost her cheerfulness, becoming moody and depressed. She stopped travelling in Ronald’s sidecar, leaving him to do the visiting alone. About six weeks before the baby was due, Ethel invited John Condon’s feisty second daughter, Lottie (20), to come and stay at the parsonage for a week. One day, Ethel came indoors to find Lottie lying on the couch with her husband stroking her hair. She strongly objected to this. It was the first time she suspected something could be amiss with her marriage. Then it dawned on her how many times her husband had visited the Condons’ homestead without her and stayed overnight. Shortly after this, Ethel was shopping in Mitchell’s store when her husband with Lottie in the sidecar pulled up outside. Griggs offered to take his heavily pregnant wife home in his sidecar. She refused, saying, ‘Go home with the one you already have in the sidecar.’ Half an hour later, Ethel arrived home, walked into the house without saying a word and shortly afterwards disappeared out the back door. Later, after searching the church and the neighbour’s house, Ethel was found down back by a creek, threatening suicide.
Birth of their Baby and Ethel’s death
The baby was born mid-January, 1927, and Ethel’s mother came over from Railton for the birth. Interestingly, at the same time Lottie Condon left Omeo for a two-month holiday in Wagga, NSW. On one occasion, Griggs rode the 400-mile journey up to see her. After six months, when Ethel’s mother was due to return to Tas, Griggs persuaded Ethel, with her baby, to go with her for an extended visit to get well. So on 16 July, 1927, Ethel, her mother and baby left Omeo and returned to Railton, where she stayed until Christmas. Ethel wrote every day to Ronald, who, after six months, sent her a fare to return. Two days after Christmas Day 1927, Ethel and the baby left on the boat for Melbourne, stayed one night at the Victoria Coffee Palace, then made an early start on the long and tiring coach journey back to Omeo.
Ethel and the baby reached the parsonage at 9pm on Saturday, Dec 31, 1927. Ronald was not in but arrived shortly afterwards, kissing his wife and the baby. While Ethel put the baby to bed, Ronald made her some cheese sandwiches and a cup of tea. She seemed well but exhausted from travelling. Immediately after drinking the tea, she took ill and began to vomit. Then Ethel developed stomach pains and continued vomiting all night. After Rev Griggs preached his Sunday sermon on New Year’s Day, 1927, he sent for Dr Matthews, who was relieving Omeo’s permanent doctor. On Monday, Ethel was no better, and the doctor was called twice – at 11am and 9pm. At his evening visit, Ethel was delirious, so Dr Matthews gave her something he told Griggs would make her sleep well until morning. But four hours later, at 1am on Tuesday morning, Jan 3, Ethel was dead. Dr Matthews came again, and from what Griggs told him about her history, her exhaustive return trip and the prolonged period of vomiting, the doctor concluded it was too much for her heart and signed her death certificate.
The Condon girls’ father, John Condon, still unaware that his daughter and Griggs were lovers, tried to comfort Griggs by inviting him to stay at his homestead until he recovered from the shock. Griggs wanted to take his wife’s burial service, but two fellow ministers – one Anglican & one Presbyterian – persuaded him to let them officiate. Griggs packed up Ethel’s Bible, hymnbook and other personal items and posted them home to his mother-in-law but gave the baby to his parents. This greatly upset Ethel’s mother, who had helped care for the infant all its life.
Two weeks after Ethel’s death, Rev Griggs and Lottie Condon were seen out horse-riding arm-in-arm. Rumours became rife that Rev Ronald Griggs had been romantically associated with Lottie Condon for months. Finally, the local Methodist leaders called him in, accused him of adultery and asked him to resign. Rev Griggs strongly proclaimed his innocence: ‘I swear there is nothing but friendship between us.’ While this meeting was taking place, a detective, brought in from Melbourne to investigate the Omeo rumours, was interviewing Lottie Condon at her home. When asked directly if she had been intimate with Griggs, she at first hesitated, and then, hanging her head, said ‘yes’. With surprising frankness, she detailed times and places, adding, ‘He promised to marry me when his wife left him.’ Armed with this evidence, the detective went straight to Griggs and caught him leaving the elders’ meeting. At the police station, Briggs again denied any impropriety with the girl, until the detective read extracts of Lottie’s statement and showed him her signature. Griggs was shattered. With trembling hands and a quavering voice, he confessed her report was true but denied there was any trouble with his wife.
The coroner ordered Ethel’s body be exhumed, which was done on 26 Jan in the presence of the undertaker, the Melbourne detective and Dr. Mollison, who removed her heart, kidneys, liver and spleen, placing them in sealed glass jars for testing. The analysis revealed that the deceased had been poisoned by at least two doses of arsenic. The coroner then found that Mrs Ethel Griggs died of heart failure as the result of arsenic administered by Ronald Griggs and committed him for trial in Sale in March. Griggs was refused bail.
Griggs’s Trials:
This astounding news of a clergyman poisoning his young wife was quickly picked up by every newspaper in the nation and was sensationally reported on throughout Griggs’s two murder trials. Divorce was never an option, as this would have ended his career as a clergyman. His first trial – Crown v Ronald Griggs – began in Sale, Gippsland, on 17 Mar 1928. Many witnesses were called. Griggs admitted his intimacy with Lottie, including misconduct two weeks after his wife’s death. But he denied the charge of murdering his wife. He claimed his wife was very moody, unstable and depressed, had become hysterical and on one occasion had threatened to take her own life – she must have taken her own life. The doctor described his visits and prescriptions. Lottie Condon said that she knew Griggs had studied chemistry; her father admitted he kept two packets of arsenic in his workshop. The question before the jury: Was Ethel murdered, or did she take her own life? Ten of the jury in the first trial were in favour of convicting him, but two were not. They were locked up overnight and when by morning they still couldn’t get a unanimous decision, the jury was dismissed.
The second trial was transferred to Melbourne on 21 April 1928. Two days later, Griggs stood to hear the foreman of the jury say, ‘Not guilty.’ Gasps were heard across the courtroom. Based on Griggs own testimony, Lottie’s father now realised he was a liar, adulterer and a murderer. Condon told his daughter if she married Griggs, he would disinherit her. Condon sold his property and moved to NSW. A year later, Lottie seemed to have forgotten Griggs and appeared happy without him. Meanwhile, Griggs turned up in South Australia as a minister of the Presbyterian Church preaching under an assumed name until found out and dismissed. A year later, he was delivering milk in an Adelaide suburb. When again identified, Griggs left Adelaide for an unknown destination. Ethel’s parents died over 70 years ago, and her two brothers, who left Railton as young men, and her two unmarried sisters are all deceased.
P.S. My mother, Marion (Slater) Dyer, was a year younger than Ethel White. They were both church organists and knew one another. Ethel’s shock death had a profound effect not only upon my mother, who was 21 years old, but on the entire Kentish community.