Mirror 12 November 1949, page 12
TWO UP LURED HIM BACK TO WHERE
THE BLOOD OF THE VICTIM STAINED THE GROUND
A MACABRE CAMP SCENE
While the axe blades of Lakewood were chipping out a song of fuel for Kalgoorlie’s Golden Mile over 100 miles to the north, the thirsty red sand was soaking up the lifeblood of a slight, grey-haired labourer, Ante Brajkovich. A group of men stood nearby and played the traditional goldfields game of two-up. Among those invited to the game was a tallish, sparse-haired man called George Katich, known among his backblock, woodcutting mates as Gildo, who’d been responsible for that patch of bloodstained land earlier that morning.
Katich did not play. The two-up game was never intended to be as such, but, according to witnesses who testified in the Criminal Court this week when Katich was arraigned on a charge of wilful murder of Brajkovich, it was started to induce Katich to the scene so that he could be arrested, and the ruse worked!
Katich eagerly accepted the offer to participate in a game,
He told one of his friends that he had no money and asked him if he could borrow some. The friend readily agreed, and when Katich approached, he saw PC Peter William McGrath, who bounded up to greet him and held out his hand for a handshake. The PC grabbed the hand, others held Katich from behind, and he was handcuffed and arrested for the alleged wilful murder of Brajkovich.
This was the drama enacted, among the salmon gums in the Lakewood area last September 14, when the badly battered countenance of 54 year old Ante Brajkovich, who did odd jobs with the Lakewood Firewood Co which supplies Kalgoorlie mines with fuel, was seen on the cartrack about a mile from a railway siding somewhere round 10:30 that morning. It was discovered, according to his evidence to Chief Justice Sir John Dwyer, by wood-cutting contractor Ante Bilich, who, with Mick Vekich, Ivan Roso, and George Katich, formed a partnership, and who had taken a load of firewood into the siding that morning and waited there to pick up stores.
Bilich, who agreed with the other parties that Katich had pulled out of the partnership a couple of days before, and had been paid £200 for his share in the truck after he said he wanted to go and work with his father in a nearby camp. Bilich claimed that he couldn’t recognise Brajkovich when he came across him on the track because of his terrible facial injuries. He said, “Katich was walking toward me and said, ‘Hullo mate, I’ve fixed the ***** up.’ I saw a horse and dray further out toward my camp, about 80 yards from Katich, who had spoken in English. I drove away and told others what I’d seen, then went for the police.”
That was the first the world at large knew of the sudden demise of Ante Brajkovich. Subsequently, a party of woodcutters, including PC McGrath, searched for Katich and found him near the scene of the tragedy, singing and laughing in his own language and apparently in very good spirits.
The Mirror – Perth 12 November 1949, page 13
Blood-Smeared Boots Exhibited In Court
The Crown case, in the hands of Prosecutor Gerry Ruse, was that Katich wilfully murdered Brajkovich by severely battering him about the head and kicking and punching him, causing him multiple injuries, haemorrhage and shock which brought about his death. Katich’s bloodstained heavy boots were exhibited, and witnesses spoke of a stick Katich was seen carrying at the scene.
A dozen witnesses were called, including Katich’s former contractor partners, who described the gruesome injuries to the victim’s head, observing that obviously considerable force had been used to separate the bones of the skull. He believed that some heavy, roughened instrument had been used, and thought that perhaps heavy miners’ boots could have caused the fatal wounds.
KATICH’S VERSION OF THE STORY
Mirror 12 November 1949, page 12
‘ONLY MY FISTS’
In barely audible tones, accused George Katich, dressed in a grey striped suit, claimed that while he and Brajkovich were walking in front of the dray, Brajkovich upbraided him about not working with his father. They argued, and Brajkovich attacked him with a stick and his fists. He hit Brajkovich back about the head with his fists only several times and knocked him down. He said he didn’t remember running away into the bush. He denied he’d been affected by liquor at the time.
Katich said that he jumped away from Brajkovich when he attacked him with a stick, and then Brajkovich hit him a couple of times in the ribs, but didn’t hurt him. ‘I knocked him down and didn’t know what I was going to do, ‘Katich went on. I walked in the direction of No. 3 camp. I wasn’t carrying a stick, and I didn’t know Brajkovich was dead when they asked me to play two-up.
I did not say. ‘I killed him, now you can kill me’.
“I signed a statement for Woodley, but didn’t understand it when they read it to me. I did not kick Brajkovich; I only used my fists. I never said Brajkovich was a bad man and owed me money or that I kicked him. Brajkovich was good all the time with me.’
KATICH’S MENTAL STATE
Through an interpreter, Mrs. Mary Yakich said Katich was at her place having dinner one day not long before the event and suddenly jumped up and rushed into the bush. She said he kept running further away when she went out after him. She told her husband, who told the police. Dan Vranjes stated that one day, when with Katich, he also rushed out into the bush. Later, Vranjes continued, Katich told him the lady whose home they were going to have the drink in had a big carving knife and was trying to kill him.
The Mirror, 12 November 1949, page 12
‘Who’s That Sheila?’
Lodged in the cell beside George Katich in Kalgoorlie lockup, Emil Piskulich came along to court to tell of Katich’s strange behaviour. First night he was there, Piskulich said Katich asked him, ‘Who’s that Sheila with you?’ Piskulich, whose evidence brought a smile to all faces in court, said he replied, ‘What are you talking about? There’s no sheilas in this place.’ Katich, he said, then called out, ‘Be a sport – Let her come in’ with me.’ He never slept that night, and neither did I,” grinned Piskulich, ‘he was singing and dancing- and making a hell of a commotion. ‘Next day he wouldn’t speak much, and when he did he said, ‘Was that a sheila in with you last night?’ I said there was no such thing.
Woodcutter Gaoled For Ten Years
Woodcutter George Katich (29), who killed elderly labourer Ante Brajkovich at a Lakewood woodcutting camp in September, was today sentenced to 10 years’ imprisonment. Said the Chief Justice Sir John Dwyer in the Criminal Court: ‘In my opinion, you kicked the unfortunate man to death. If you have mental lapses, such as has been suggested, it is a pity I could not have gaoled you for life.” Katich was charged with wilful murder, but the jury found him guilty of manslaughter. It was said in evidence that when Braskovich’s battered body was found, Katich was about 50 yards away, singing and laughing.
Katich’s lawyer, David Walsh, pointed out that Katich was 29 years old, his mother was still in Yugoslavia, and his brother of 18, was killed on war service, while another brother of 14, had been killed in trouble in Yugoslavia. He assured that Katich had been in no trouble of any kind before.
Daily News, 9 Nov 1949, page 9
Gildo ‘George’ KATICH was born in Yugoslavia on 25 May 1913 to Jure Marta Jelas KATICH and Marija MIOCEVIC. He married Mary MIOCEVICH in Kalgoorlie in 1938. He died on the 14 Jun 1997 in Perth WA and is buried in then Karrakatta Cemetery.
Ante BRASKOVICH was born in January 1891 in Zivogosce, Croatia and died on 14 September 1949. He is buried in the Kalgoorlie Cemetery.
Grave of Ante Brajkovich – Kalgoorlie Cemetery – Photo Danelle Warnock
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Another fantastic article. Thank you Moya. ❤️