Coogee Media

However, many spoke of a sinister cause. His friends thought that he knew the area where he walked well and would not have put himself in danger. He was also such a cheery soul who was always willing to rush into the political fray, or confront any adversity, and not the sort of person who would resort to suicide no matter what his problems. (1)

Hyman Goldstein

Who Was Hyman Goldstein
Goldstein was born in London on 1st January 1876 and arrived in New South Wales in 1888 with his parents, Solomon Goldstein, a tailor, and Hannah Cohen. He was educated at Crown Street public school, although he often described himself as 'self-taught'. He married Sarah Olivia Russell "Olive" Hopkins (1880 - 1951) in 1903 and they had two sons, (Russell in 1905, and Victor in 1913). During the 1920s and up until his death, Goldstein lived with his family at 102 Beach Street, Coogee.

He was an Alderman on Randwick Municipal Council from 1917 until his death in 1928 and then Mayor from 1918 until 1919. On 22 March 1922 he gained a seat in the New South Wales Parliament to the multi-member, proportionally elected seat of the Eastern Suburbs, which included Coogee. After a 1925 electoral loss to Labor and the reformation of the New South Wales Parliament into single-member electorates, he returned as the first Member for Coogee at the election of 8th October 1927, representing the conservative Nationalist Party.

Goldstein was a self-made man who started with £2 in his pocket. He went on to build a successful furniture, manufacturing, and warehousing businesses. He was wealthy and owned an entire Sydney City block.

He was also Grand Master of the United Ancient Order of Druids from 1914 until 1915; a Freemason, prominent member of Sydney's Jewish community, president of the Coogee Lifesaving Club, and a supporter of patriotic causes such as the Chairman of Eastern Suburbs Repatriation committee and Coogee branch of the Loan Chest Fund. (2)

Goldstein had the misfortune of becoming associated with Thomas John Ley, at first as a political ally. He later invested as a shareholder in Ley's Prickly Pear Company. The company was supposed to be producing a new wonder poison that would kill the out-of-control prickly pear weed which was causing havoc to farmers in New South Wales and Queensland. Trials proved the poison to be a dud, but not before Ley had sold off his own shares at a considerable profit and to the detriment of other shareholders. Hyman Goldstein was appointed as chairman of a shareholders' committee that threatened legal action against Ley. He also planned to tip the bucket onto Ley in State Parliament and to sponsor new legislation to prevent similar shady practices in the future. Ley would have had very good reason to see the end of Goldstein. (3)

Thomas John Ley
The Honourable Thomas John Ley (1888-1947) had been a conservative state member of Parliament since 1917 as well becoming Minister for Justice and, remarkably, Minister for Motherhood. Known as 'Lemonade' Ley for his prohibitionist stand, Ley constantly demonstrated an unremittingly righteous and harsh interpretation of criminal justice. But all was not as it seemed. Ley courted prohibitionist voters, but they felt betrayed when did not support legislation that would have restricted hotel trading hours, and anyway those who knew him, saw him as a habitual drunk seldom without a glass in his hand and in the pay of the brewery lobby. The unctous Ley was disliked by poltical allies and foes alike. Labor leader James McGirr (1890-1957), for instance, describing him as "beastial".

Shortly after he became Minister for Justice, Ley made an official visit to Western Australia and was introduced to Maggie Evelyn Brook, a magistrate's wife. Shortly afterwards the magistrate died and Maggie and her daughter found their way to Sydney to become Ley's long term mistress.

At the 1925 federal election Ley stood for the federal seat of Barton with his main rival being Frederick "Freddy" A. McDonald (1872 - 1926) for Labor. McDonald, though, claimed that Ley had attempted to bribe him to withdraw his nomination. Ley, nonetheless, still managed to narrowly defeat him. Ley served as the federal member for Barton from 1926 to 1928. McDonald had no intention of letting things rest and brought legal proceedings against Ley in relation to the alleged attempted bribery. He left his wife at the Hotel Sydney on March 30 , 1926 to keep an appointment with Ley. McDonald was never seen or heard of again.(4)

Ley, unrealisticly thinking popularity his stocks were high, thought he could eventually become Prime Minister. The rumour mill had it, despite nothing that implicated him officially, that he was repsonsible for McDonald's disappearance. Even his conservative federal leader, Prime Minister Stanley Melbourne Bruce, would have nothing to do with him and blocked his attempts to enter the federal ministry. By the time he entered federal Parliament, he was seen as an unlikable man with a shady reputation.

Thomas Ley

Other supporters felt aggrieved that he had involved them in some shady, speculative business ventures, such as the Prickly Pear Company. Goldstein's hostility to Ley, coupled with the unexplained disappearance of Frederick McDonald, threatened Ley's position in public life. Not for the first or last time in his life, the fate an opponent of Ley came to a unfortunate end.

Then a group of businessmen, concerned at Ley's reputation for dubious business dealings and Goldstein's demise, appointed Keith Greedor, a former Ley associate turned opponent, to investigate. Travelling to Newcastle by boat, Greedor fell overboard and drowned.

Fled to England
As the ring of suspicion tightened around Ley, the upright "gentlemanly" Ley, his reputation in tatters, left his wife (Emily Louisa "Lewie" nee Vernon) in Sydney and suddenly departed for Britain in the company of his mistress, Maggie Brook. Not much is known of Ley's activities in the UK, though it seems likely he continued to work on dubious business schemes solely to his own benefit. During World War II he was arrested and convicted for black marketeering. Later police reports described him as a "property developer". Remarkably, Ley's wife joined him again in London in 1942, and was present at his 1947 murder trial.

Thomas Ley (right) with Sir Hubert Gough (World War One Fifth Army commander), 1931.
After the war Gough became a businessman and company director.

Murder Proven
However, his murderous spree had not finished. Some years later, in 1946, Ley was living in London, and was arrested for arranging the murder of a James McBain Mudie, aged 35 and a barman, he believed was involved in an affair with his (now former) 66 year old mistress Maggie Brook. Ley was insanely jealous, but Mudie did know Maggie Brooks, having only stayed for a few days in the same boarding house. Because Ley arranged for the victim's body to be disposed of in a chalk-pit, the sensational case became known as the "Chalk-Pit Murder". With accomplice Lawrence Smith, he was tried for murder in the Old Bailey. The jury considered its verdict for all of 55 minutes and returned a verdict of "Guilty!" Sentenced to death, Ley was declared insane and escaped the hangman's noose to be committed instead to Braodmore Asylum for the Criminally Insane where he died in 1947. (5)

Journalist Dan Morgan published a biography of Thomas Ley in 1979 titled, appropriately, Minister for Murder that explored Ley's life in detail and presents a pretty convincing case that Ley was likely responsible for the things people had accused him of (including Goldstein's death), and more. (6)

National Library Reputed to Hold Thomas Ley's Ashes
Ley's wife returned to Australia and died in Bowral, NSW in 1956. Interestingly, in 1984 a man discovered a collection of papers relating to Ley and his family stashed in an old shed in Bowral, which was acquired by the National Library of Australia. The material relates mainly to Thomas Ley, his wife Lewie and son Keith. There is a small amount of material from the Vernon family (Lewie's family), and Thomas and Lewie's other sons, Russell and Clive. A large part of the collection consists of legal and official documents. There are also many photographs, letters and press cuttings. The collection includes a number of interesting objects, including an urn which is reputed to contain Thomas Ley's ashes, and a portrait, on china, of an unknown woman. (7)

Goldstein Remembered in Coogee
Hyman Goldstein was buried in the Jewish cemetery at Rookwood. Goldstein Reserve, the large piece of parkland directly fronting Coogee Beach, was named after him. Goldstein was followed as Member for Coogee by former Randwick Mayor John Dunningham who served for ten years from 1928 until 26th May 1938 when Dunningham collapsed and died of a heart attack in his office. The site where Goldstein met his end was part of a reserve which was named Dunningham Reserve. The spot where Goldstein fell was known locally for some time after his death as Goldstein's Leap - a newspaper article as late as 1952 referred to it as such. (8)

The superstitious say you can see Goldstein's ghostly pyjama-clad visage hovering above it on dark September nights.

References