In Coolgardie in 1894, there was an influx of British nobility and for a time there were more Lords, Dukes, Baronets and hangers on in Coolgardie than had, or ever has been, in any one Australian town at the same time.
Some of them did well. One, with no knowledge of gold-finding, backed a couple of prospectors at the rate of £3 a week. In a fortnight they turned him in a property which was sold off for £50,000 — cut up between the three. These Britishers packed more guns than any Yankee film hero and regular revolver practice was one of their past times, having been told by Carr-Boyd and David Lindsay that when they had to use a gun the need would be urgent and straight shooting would be called for.
At one of these shooting practice sessions, when most were already loaded with Charlie Sommer’s whiskey, they used an empty case in a stack in the backyard of Kennedy’s hotel on which a ring had been made with billiard chalk.
The marker was a ticket-of-leave man, and on one occasion after a few shots had been fired without any announcement from the marker, they investigated and found him lying across an empty box with a little round hole in his forehead.
A coronial enquiry was immediately convened. The medical evidence surprisingly stated, the unfortunate man had died of a heart failure and the bullet in his skull in no way contributed to his death! No blame was attached to anyone one. The Coroners jury returned the convenient verdict ‘Found Dead’.
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