Park Predators - The Station

Episode Date: May 28, 2024

When a beloved caretaker is murdered in the remote Australian bushland of Alpine National Park, authorities suspect another employee of the homestead is to blame... but when a second body turns up, a harrowing reality sets in. A vicious killer is on the loose. More than 100 years later, the identity of the perpetrator remains a mystery.View source material and photos for this episode at: parkpredators.com/the-station Park Predators is an audiochuck production. Connect with us on social media:Instagram: @audiochuckTwitter: @audiochuckFacebook: /audiochuckllcTikTok: @audiochuck

Hi, park enthusiasts. I'm your host, Delia D'Ambra, and the case I'm going to tell you about today is one that I stumbled upon while researching an episode last season titled The Pilot. The big difference between that story and this one is there are more than 100 years that separate the crimes. The murders from the Pilot episode happened just a few years ago, in 2020, but the deaths in today's episode happened sometime in 1917 or possibly 1918. Despite this huge gap in time, what the stories have in common is they're both double murders. They both happened in the exact same remote bushland in Australia, and they were both missing persons cases well before anyone knew foul play was involved. Whoever killed John Bamford and James Barclay at Wanangata Station in what is now Alpine National Park in Victoria got away with a heinous crime.

I think the killer or killers who took these men's lives were betting that the environment would cover up their crimes. And in a way, that's kind of what happened. The minimal clues that were left behind still vex law enforcement and historians to this day. The vast bushland of this part of the Victorian Alps unfortunately has many tales of misfortune, but I don't think any story is as wildly bizarre or puzzling as the deaths of John and James. This is Park Predators. Around 6 o'clock in the evening on Tuesday, January 22, 1918,

a man named Harry Smith walked up to a house on the main homestead of a remote property in Wanangutta Valley, Victoria, Australia, expecting to see his dear friend, James Barclay. James was the manager of Wanangutta Station, which meant he spent nearly all his time at the property. So Harry fully believed he would see James waiting on the other side of the rugged building's front door when he knocked. But Harry knocked and knocked and knocked, and no one answered.

Unsure what the issue was, Harry decided to make his way inside the house and check on his friend and another man who he knew worked as a cook there named John Bamford. But when Harry got inside and took a quick look around, he didn't see either man. The house was completely empty. According to Oren Gray's reporting for the lineup, Harry went further into the house to check the men's bedrooms, just in case they were sleeping. But he discovered the door to the hallway that led to John and James's rooms was locked. When he went into the kitchen, he felt relief wash over him because there, scribbled in chalk across the

kitchen door, were the words, home tonight. The handwritten message indicated the men were elsewhere on the large property, but would be back soon, and that was encouraging news to Harry. Looking outside, he also observed that most of the crops on the property appeared to have been cut. So maybe he figured James and John were busy prepping that harvest or something. You see, 48-year-old James Barclay had taken the job as manager of the station in 1915, though some sources say he was 45 years old and started there in 1916. But whichever it is, it's clear from historical records that he worked there for a while by himself until December 14, 1917. That's when he hired John Bamford, who was in his

50s, to work as a cook and a handyman. Before John took the job at Wanangata Station, he'd moved to Australia from England and lived for most of his life in a part of rural Victoria called Black Snake Creek. At the time, World War I was raging, so James was kind of lucky to even get a man like John to live and work at the remote station. Most men from Australia were off at war as volunteers. According to an article by State Library Victoria, conscription wasn't required by the Australian government in 1917, but the Prime Minister was trying to get it voted into law. And in fact, that very year, there was a public referendum on the issue. Both John and James were extremely familiar with the landscape they were

living and working in. And back in those days, I imagine it wasn't uncommon for employees like them to camp or take shelter on a far side of such a large property once it got dark, or if they had ongoing work to finish. So on January 22nd, when the hours crawled by and John and James failed to come back to the station's homestead, that didn't necessarily scream red flag to Harry. Now, I know some of you are probably asking the same question I asked when I first started looking into this case, which is, wait, if it was just James and John out there at the homestead, then why was John needed as a cook? Couldn't both men just cook for themselves? Well, according to Peter McCullough's reporting for Peninsula Essence, there were times during

the year where more men would come out to the station to run cattle, and in those instances, a cook was needed. Anyway, with nothing else to do on the evening of January 22nd except wait, Harry decided to make himself comfortable and hope James and John would return soon. He'd had a long trip out to the station from where he lived in Eaglevale to deliver the mail and he was in need of some rest and relaxation.

Back in those days, it could take days or even weeks for mail to make its way out to that part of the bushland. You could only access the property by foot unless you had a horse, and most folks weren't jumping at the opportunity to traverse all the way out there. But Harry knew the route to the cabin because he was the stepson of the person who'd first owned the station. He was also acquaintances with one of the property's current co-owners, a guy named Arthur Phillips.

According to an article by the Mail, Harry was also the closest neighbor to one who got a station at the time. So him delivering the mail to James made sense. Plus, like I mentioned earlier, he and James were good friends, so it was nice to visit when they could. The odd thing was, January 22nd passed,

and then January 23rd, and James and John never came back to the house at one and got a station. Harry spent those two nights alone inside the cabin, wondering where the men could be, and eventually, he grew impatient waiting for them to show up, so he decided on January 24th to just leave the station. The source material on this part of the story says Harry returned to his home in Eaglevale without alerting anyone that John and James were unaccounted for. Now, I'm not sure why he did this, but my best guess is that he just figured the men were busy and could take care of themselves. Like I said, this part of the story isn't really delved into,

but I think it's safe to say that Harry just didn't think anything was really wrong at that point. The next thing we know happened is that, according to reporting by Peninsula Essence, Harry traveled back to the station less than a month later and arrived at the homestead late in the afternoon on February 14th. And once again, he saw no one at the home. In fact, what he found pretty much proved

John and James had never come back since his visit in January. All the mail Harry had brought the first time was still sitting unopened inside on the men's kitchen table where he'd left it. And remember that hand-scribbled message on the kitchen door that said, home tonight?

Well, that was still there, too. There was also something else that felt off, which really got Harry's attention. James' pet dog, Baron, which Harry recognized, was running around the station, and it looked like he hadn't been fed in a long time. Oren Gray's article for the lineup and coverage by the Sydney Theatre Company describes the animal as appearing undernourished or neglected. So yeah, the unopened mail, the condition of the dog, the kitchen door message, it all made Harry think something was very, very wrong. At that point, he felt like he had to alert the station's co-owner, Arthur Phillips, about what was going on.

Arthur Phillips about what was going on. The lineup reported that after staying in the house for the night and doing his own small search of the grounds, Harry woke up on February 15th and left the station with Bear and the dog and delivered a message to a man he bumped into on his way to Eaglevale, who then contacted Arthur Phillips via telegram from the nearby town of Dargo. When Harry's message reached Arthur, things really kicked into high gear. Sources vary on when they arrived, but around 10 days later, a group of men led by Arthur met up at the remote homestead property to search for John and James. Among the searchers was a guy named Jack Jebb, who was a livestock keeper friend of Arthur's and Harry Smith.

Some source material says the other co-owner of the one and got a station property was in this group too, but either way, together all the men scoured the property around the house, but they didn't find anything. The next day, the group expanded their search, and within a short period of time, they made a gruesome discovery. Less than a quarter of a mile away from the house, in an area near the homestead called Conglomerate Creek, the men discovered a skull sticking out of a makeshift grave along the riverbank. They dug down about two to three feet through sand and pebbles and unearthed more remains. On the decomposing body were several items of clothing, which included trousers,

a singlet, vest, and boots. It appeared to be a man wrapped in a blanket, and he'd been there for several weeks. Arthur, Jack, and Harry all realized the person, whoever he was, had been dead for a while. With the body was a belt and a pouch for tobacco that Harry recognized as belonging to James. The blanket the remains were folded in was also something the group recognized as having come from. The blanket the remains were folded in was also something the group recognized as having come from the station's house. After discovering the remains, the men who were searching determined it was in fact James, and they reburied his body. Then Arthur journeyed back to his hometown of Mansfield, which was about 40 miles west of

Wanangata. There, he notified the police. A few days later, on March 2nd, a police detective and constable from Melbourne arrived at the station to begin investigating and collect James's remains so they could transport his body to Mansfield for an autopsy. One of the first things the police officers did when they arrived on scene was carefully comb through each room in the house. Once they got inside the bedrooms, they found a shotgun in James's room, which they determined had been shot recently because there was an empty cartridge on the floor. But missing from his personal belongings was James's razor, .32 caliber handgun, a suit, and 19 check butts. And really quick, a check butt is basically the

part of the checkbook where you record what the check was for. An article by Harry's Hut reported that the authorities also discovered what they believed were drag marks on the floor leading from James' room out of the house. The source material doesn't say how the authorities knew they were drag marks or if they were just boot scuffs or what, but in the yard, they noticed some wire on a fence had been cut and all of the shrubs and vegetation around that wire had been matted down, almost as

if a body had been dragged through the area. In general, John's room kind of looked like it had been ransacked, but there weren't any obvious signs that a struggle or fight had taken place. Peter McCullough's article for Peninsula Essence states that the one thing which felt very strange to the investigators was the fact that John's horse, Thelma, was missing. However, the animal's saddle and bridle were still at the house,

which forced the detective and constable to ask, why would John take his horse out without a saddle and reins? I have to mention, though, that articles for Harry's hut and the mail both stated the opposite, that the bridle and saddle, along with another cattle dog of James's, were missing from the house. So I'm not sure what reporting is accurate, but we do know for sure that Thelma, John's horse, was not at the homestead when Harry visited in January, February,

or when the police got there in early March. While the authorities mulled over possible scenarios of what had happened to John, James, and Thelma, they went through the men's food supplies because they wanted to cook themselves something while they worked. However, when the officers, quote, sprinkled the food with powder from a tin-marked pepper, and before they had a chance to eat anything, the eggs started to turn a funny color. The pepper was actually strychnine. Strychnine is a known poison, and people in the bush often used it to deter vermin and dingoes. The chemical being in some of James and John's food seasoning felt really sus. It undoubtedly wasn't merely intended to deter vermin. But at the time, police officers weren't sure what to make of the clue.

They were just glad they hadn't eaten any of it. To police, the recently fired shotgun they found in James's room with the one spent shell casing was slightly more interesting than the strychnine in the cupboard. But even that clue was boggling the strychnine in the cupboard. But even that clue was boggling because there was no blood in the house that indicated a shooting had occurred. The officers found zero evidence that anyone had bled or been injured inside James's room where the

gun, spent casing, and drag marks were all found. There was also no blood anywhere else in the house. Unable to make sense of what happened, the police focused on trying to get some answers from James himself. But while they were traveling to Mansfield to get his remains to a pathologist for an autopsy, they found John's horse, Thelma, running free out in the open in an area known as Howitt Plains. I'm not exactly sure how the authorities knew Thelma was John's horse

as compared to some other horse running around, but my best guess is that maybe she had a branding on her. I don't know. But still, all the source material says the loose horse was determined to be John's. However, because animals can't talk, finding Thelma wasn't really all that helpful to the investigators. They still didn't know where John was. So they kept going and eventually got to Mansfield to deliver James's body to a doctor who conducted an autopsy. That examination revealed that James

had died from a single gunshot wound to his back. Articles by the Mail and Sunday Times specifically say there were 15 or 16 shotgun pellets in his back. Thereicles by the Mail and Sunday Times specifically say there were 15 or 16 shotgun pellets in his back. There was no evidence from his remains that he'd suffered from strychnine poisoning, so any theory that a potential poisoning had been involved pretty much ended there. Based on everything I read in the source material, it seems the police chalked up the strychnine in the pantry at the house as something that was solely meant for deterring vermin and actually had no relevance to the murder. What police were confident in, though, was that James had been murdered.

The only thing they needed to find out was who had pulled the trigger. It was apparent from the state of his body that James had been dead for weeks, and that allowed investigators to narrow down the window of time in which they believed he'd been killed. They assumed that James was probably already dead when Harry first visited the station on January 22nd, which was why neither he nor John had answered the door. But for James to be as badly decomposed as he was when he was eventually found in late February, that meant he'd likely been killed sometime in late December or early January.

And the big question police knew they needed to answer was when was the last time anyone had seen James alive? To help with the timeline, investigators turned to a handful of men, a pair of brothers with the last name Gould who were traveling through Howatt High Plains, as well as a shopkeeper named Albert Stout, who lived in the small town of Talbotville,

about 20 miles away from Wollongatta Station. Strange Company reported that Albert said John and James had stayed with him on the night of December 20th, 1917, after traveling to Talbotville together to cast their votes in a public referendum election. Articles by Strange Company and the Sydney Theatre Company state that the referendum the men were voting on had to do with whether Australia could enact a draft during wartime. All of the source

material I read that mentioned this referendum election say both John and James voted the same way on the matter, but whether they were for or against conscription remains unknown. No one seems to have been able to gather that information. And I mean, I guess we're talking about these men's personal votes in an election, so I'm not even sure it matters. But my point is, regardless of how they voted on the issue, it's clear that they were both in agreement on the matter, which means it's unlikely they were bitter toward one another on the topic and would have gotten into an argument about it or whatever. Anyway, Albert Stout told police that after voting,

John and James stayed the night with him in Talbotville, and the next morning, December 21st, he saw them leave together, headed back in the direction of One Gotta Station. Before they left, James told Albert that the crops they were growing at the station wouldn't be ready to cut until at least mid-January. Now, that information about the crops being cut is an important detail when it comes to establishing a clearer timeline in the case. We know from Harry Smith's account on January 22nd

that he said when he arrived, he noticed the crops were cut. And if James told Albert when he saw him on December 21st that the crops wouldn't be ready until mid-January, that likely means James and John cut the crops sometime between January 1st and January 22nd. There's no way to know for sure, but I think it's probably unlikely they lied to Albert about the crops being ready because he very well could have been a potential buyer of their product. None of the source material says one way or the other whether the crops at the station could be harvested by one person, but I think it's safe to say that it would probably have taken the strength

and labor of both John and James to cut the crops. I personally think James was killed after the crops were cut, and because no one was around by January 22nd, that would put the window of James' murder sometime in early or mid-January 1918. One reason I'm convinced of this timeline is because of an article I read by Harry's Hut, which cites historical documents and personal diary entries. The piece explains that on December 28th, 1917, two men who are referred to as the Gould brothers traveled within five miles of Wanangutta Station.

These guys said as they passed by, they heard two men's voices in the distance mixed with a dog barking. At the time, the Goulds figured the sounds they were hearing were John, James, and with a dog barking. At the time, the Goulds figured the sounds they were hearing were John, James, and James' dog, Baron. The brothers said that when they eventually arrived at the front door of the homestead,

they didn't see anyone inside or hanging around. So they left a note to let James and John know they were passing through the property and were planning to camp nearby on the Wanagata River. The Gould brothers never went back to the station and eventually made their way downriver to Eaglevale, where Harry Smith lived. So based on the Gould brothers' diary entries, Albert Stout's story, and Harry Smith's information, police investigating James' murder realized that most likely James had been killed sometime in either late December

at the earliest or mid-January at the latest. Because authorities hadn't started working the case until March, though, that meant a lot of time had passed, time they could not get back. But surprisingly, the police didn't seem too worried about this fact. You see, the theory they'd been convinced of pretty much from the moment they learned James had been murdered was that someone who knew him, or at least was familiar with the area around Wanangata Station, had killed him.

The one person who checked all those boxes was John Bamford, and he was nowhere to be found, which meant he was suspect number one. According to multiple in-depth articles on John Bamford, as well as a detailed chapter in Keith Layden and Michael Ray's book, The One and Got a Mystery, John was rumored to be kind of a loner. Some people even described him as a, quote, surly and hot-tempered man that most folks avoided if they could. An article by Harry's Hut reported that people who heard of John thought of him as a man who'd get into fights easily, or who was just the kind of guy that sulked around,

plotting spiteful retaliation against those who challenged him. And something that contributed greatly to this characterization of John was an incident that happened years before James Barclay's murder. John's wife, a woman named Charlotte Blair, had died under, we'll call it sudden circumstances, while the couple was living in a hut in Black Snake Creek. According to that article by Harry's Hut I mentioned a second ago, which references historical indexes from professional historian Helen Doxford Harris,

Charlotte died from a violent epileptic fit in the middle of the night on November 5th, 1898, while sleeping next to John. A constable's report from the incident details how John and one of his neighbors tried for 15 minutes to revive Charlotte, but were unable to save her. At the time, John and Charlotte had both left their previous spouses and were living together. Most of the source material says they were married, but some historical documents don't specify if they were still married to their previous spouses when they got hitched, or if they sought formal divorces or what. Either way, married or not, they were together and were new parents to a seven-month-old daughter named

Violet. And if that wasn't tragic enough, Charlotte was just a few months pregnant with their second child when she passed away. John told the investigating constable that in the days leading up to Charlotte's death, he and their neighbors had overheard Charlotte saying she'd been having severe headaches, but hadn't taken any kind of medication for them. The constable indicated in his report that Charlotte's headaches may have had something to do

with her being pregnant, but what was truly causing them was never determined because no doctor ever performed an autopsy on Charlotte. Shortly after she died, authorities concluded nothing was amiss about her death. There were no signs of physical trauma on her body or blood inside her and John's residence. So the police labeled the whole thing as a freak health thing, and they didn't investigate her death any further. John buried her in Dargo, and life went on. Not long after that, though, rumors started to spread that maybe the police shouldn't have been so quick to close the case.

Authorities received a letter from a man named Oscar Messenger stating that John might have had something to do with Charlotte's untimely and sudden death, and detectives needed to probe the issue more. Now, it's important to note that in the constable's report, he wrote that Oscar was a well-known adversary of John's and was pretty much a busybody who'd been telling anyone who would listen that he thought John had murdered Charlotte,

despite there being zero proof that's what happened. Police investigators who were asked to look into the matter wanted nothing to do with this bad blood between Oscar and John. And according to the reporting by Harry's Hut, the investigating officers completely disregarded Oscar's accusations against John. But the damage Oscar's words did to John's reputation lingered long after their feud fizzled. Because Oscar had maligned John so

much, eventually people who didn't even know John started to believe some of the bad things that were being said about him. People who knew him or who had grown up with him tried to refute the terrible rumors, but by the start of the early 20th century, and definitely by 1918, the rough, hardened, angry guy description that had been preceding John just stuck. Which is why police investigating James's murder in 1918 were so quick to make John their prime suspect. I mean, for one thing, he was missing, which was kind of a strike against him. Plus, he was the only other person known to be at Wanangata Station at the same time as James. And again, he was allegedly known to be quick-tempered. Police theorized that perhaps the two men had argued over something,

and John snapped and killed James. Then he quickly buried his body and fled. John's room being in a state of disarray, and him possibly taking off on his horse without the presence of mind to saddle it, were two things that investigators at the time thought kind of pointed to this scenario. In fact, the authorities were so convinced at one point, this is what happened, they offered a reward worth 200 pounds for information that could lead to John's arrest. He was considered a fugitive, and law enforcement across Victoria was determined to find him. Unfortunately, the search for John dragged on. During that time,

James's family laid him to rest in a cemetery in March, but the manhunt for John continued and continued. The authorities spent months tracking down and investigating reported sightings of John throughout Victoria, but all of them were dead ends. It wasn't until November 7th, 1918, almost a year after James' murder, that the police got a major break. But it wasn't exactly the update they were expecting. According to Peter McCullough's article for Peninsula Essence and a piece published for Harry's Hood,

the police constable who was in charge of working James' case, along with Harry Smith and two other men named William Hearn and Jim Fry, were out searching in Howitt Plains when they came across a grisly scene. While combing the area, William stumbled upon something odd tucked beneath a pile of logs outside of a small abandoned hut. He'd seen a man's boot poking out from underneath the wood, and when he alerted the others,

they all began to dismantle the pile to see the rest of the body. When they pulled several logs aside, they realized the corpse was John Bamford. Not long after making the discovery, more police officers arrived and transported John's body to a doctor in Dargo, who performed an autopsy. That examination confirmed that John had been shot in the left side of his head with a revolver, and the bullet that killed him was still lodged in his skull. Coverage by the Mail indicates that the caliber of the slug may have been a match to James' missing handgun. However, that gun was not found anywhere around John's

body. It's also worth noting that no other research material except that article by the Mail mentions the detail that the bullet found in John could have been a ballistics match to James' missing gun. Finding John dead didn't clear him as a suspect in James' murder though, far from it. The police were still super convinced that James and John had gotten into a fight at the one in Goda Homestead, and John had overpowered James and shot him. They theorized that perhaps overwhelmed by guilt, John took off in a hurry after burying James' body,

and eventually died by suicide near the abandoned hut in Howitt Plains. But there were two big problems with that theory. The first is that there was no weapon found around John's body, and if you'll remember, he was buried beneath a pile of logs. Which in my mind screams that he had to have been killed by someone else and then put there. I mean, it's hard to imagine that John put himself under those logs after taking his own life. It just doesn't make sense.

And eventually, the police realized how unlikely the scenario was, too, and dropped the whole John died by suicide idea. The second issue with that theory is that John was a much smaller man than James. Most of the source material describes James as a tall, strong man. John was several years older and much shorter. So it was difficult for anyone, including the police, to really buy into the notion that John had been able to move James's body to his makeshift grave near the creek. Over the years, historians and writers have considered a variety of theories as to who could be responsible for the two men's murders. And the big questions that have surfaced are,

were James and John killed by mutual friends? Were they killed by a band of robbers? Was someone they knew involved? The answers are hard to come by. We're talking about more than a hundred years of history and clues, many of which have been lost to time. But even though I don't have enough time in this episode to do a complete deep dive into every theory that's been thrown out there over the past century, I'll at least go through a few of them that I think are worth considering and have been studied by historians and authors. And one of the scenarios paints the beloved figure of this entire story, James Barclay, in a completely different light. The first theory that most historians believe is plausible and explains why and how James and John died is that someone from their past or current social circle, when they were killed, had something to do with their murders. I've already told you a lot about John's history and how people had varying perceptions and opinions of him. He clearly had a few enemies and doubters about whether he might have killed his

wife, but it's important to note that none of the source material attributes any of those things as to why he was killed. Peter McCullough reported for Peninsula Essence that James, who most of the source material seems to herald as the better of the two men, was also a bit of a troublemaker. McCullough wrote that growing up, James frequently got into fights and interacted with the police. He was even busted for arson at one point when he was a teenager. Apparently his bouts of bad behavior created a lot of friction between him and his father, and it seems there were many years

James didn't contact or have much of a relationship with his family at all. As a young man, he spent a few years trying to strike it rich as a gold prospector, but ended up settling for more steady work, shearing sheep, performing manual labor, and trading cattle and horses. When James was about 40 or 41 years old, he married a 19-year-old woman named Lizzie,

who he'd gotten pregnant out of wedlock, and none of his family attended the wedding. Less than a year later, Lizzie gave birth to their son, James Jr., but then she died of tuberculosis shortly thereafter. McCullough reported that eventually James sent young Jim Jr. to live with one of his aunts so he could pursue a career working as a full-time cattle trader, which eventually led him to connect with Arthur Phillips and end up managing Wanangatta Station. What's important about James ending up in the position he held at the homestead is that it gave him access to a lot of land and information about who was successfully trading in the cattle business. Some

authors have speculated that maybe James's competitive nature and his desire to be as successful as one of his brothers, who was a wealthy orchardist, might have pushed him to begin stealing cattle from other rustlers. However, it should be noted that there is little to no evidence this took place. In fact, most people who spoke about James, including his boss, Arthur Phillips, said this kind of activity would have been completely out of character for him. Another theory about what might have happened to James and John has to do with two of the oldest motives in the book, love and jealousy. You see, according to several

articles, it was long believed that James Barclay had his fair share of relationships with women, some unmarried, some married. I already told you about his significantly younger wife, Lizzie, who was 19 when she married James when he was in his 40s. And I know age is just a number, and maybe back in the early 1900s, no one batted an eye at this kind of age gap. But still, it stood out to me. Well, it turns out that after Lizzie died, James was said to have gotten involved with another woman who was married. This woman's name was Annie Clingsporn, and according to Peter McCullough's reporting for Peninsula Essence and author Wallace Mortimer,

Annie's husband Robert was not too happy about the tryst his wife carried on with James and allegedly enlisted the help of one of his brothers to teach James a lesson. Not a lot of information is out there, though, about the details of how all of this was said to have gone down, so it's hard to pinpoint if there is really anything substantial to this theory. Some of the source material goes back and forth as to whether James and Annie were even romantically involved with one another, so I'm not sure what to think about this whole jealous husband murdered James scenario. Wallace Mortimer wrote in his book, Who Killed James Barclay?, that it's possible the entire thing was just a nasty rumor spread by someone who

wanted to ruin Annie's reputation. It's worth noting, though, that in a rare interview during the 1970s, Jim Jr., James' son, told novelist Wallace Mortimer, quote, it was all a long time ago, and both the murderers are long since dead. I can't see that anything can be gained now.

It's all best forgotten, end quote. To me, that statement would indicate that Jim Jr. had figured out at some point in his life who had murdered his dad. According to a conversation William Mortimer said he had with Jim Jr. before Jim Jr. died in 1987, Jim Jr. said that his father had been killed by a jealous husband and that jealous husband's brother, a fact which could never be proven or even investigated since everyone who

might have been culpable was long dead. Additional speculation with quite a bit of historical documentation to support it comes from an article published by Harry's Hood. It explains that James Barclay had grown increasingly worried that someone in the cattle business was after him. He'd been working in Wanagata Valley for several years prior to his death, and according to at least one letter he wrote to a friend, he claimed he'd received, quote, a threatening letter, end quote,

which caused him to be concerned about his safety. Apparently, this issue was so worrisome to James that he visited the town of Mansfield to buy a handgun, which I presume is the same gun that the police believed was stolen from his bedroom. Harry Smith would later tell people that before the murder, James always armed himself with his gun while working on the property. After James's death, Harry made sure to keep two guns in his house loaded when he slept at night. Now, I don't want to speculate too much about this next theory because other than what I've just mentioned,

there's pretty much no other documentation or evidence out there to support it. But where my mind goes is to those stolen receipts from his checkbook. That missing suit, the missing handgun, and the razor. Like, what is all of that about? I mean, if the motivation for this crime was personal or in some way targeting James, then why would the killer also steal a bunch of random stuff from him after killing him? I mean, if your intent is to eliminate him, then why do you also want to rob him of such trivial stuff?

According to all the articles that mention the stolen checks, the police determined that none of them ever resurfaced or were used. Which then of course forces me to ask, why even steal them in the first place? And then there's the fact that John was killed too. So I mean, was he murdered because he was a witness? Technically, we don't even really know which of the two men were murdered first. I think it's natural to assume James was killed first since his body was discovered first, but I mean, when it comes down

to it, both of their bodies were in varying states of decomposition when they were found. John's remains weren't found until 10 months after James, so who knows if the doctors who did their autopsies were even able to determine which one of them was killed first. I don't know, there are just so many unanswerable questions, and honestly, my mind could spin on this all day long, but let's move on. Another theory I've come across that's been batted around for years is that thieves who were dead set on stealing some of the cattle James oversaw at Wanangata Station committed the murders. The problem is, is that after the men's bodies were found,

the owners of the station determined that none of their cattle was missing from the property. Like I mentioned earlier, there were no signs of a shooting or struggle inside the house, which meant if thieves did come onto the property and an assault took place, it didn't happen inside the homestead. And a clue that doesn't make sense

in that scenario is how James's shotgun and the empty casing ended up in his bedroom. Like, if that's the suspected murder weapon in his murder or a weapon that he may have used to defend himself, then why was it in his bedroom? Why wasn't it wherever he got killed? None of it makes sense. The only bit of information I could find that points to a roaming thieves did it scenario was addressed by Wallace Mortimer in his book, Who Killed Jim Barclay? And in an article by the Mail,

which was published in 1950. Wallace wrote that there was another cattleman in the area named Jack Beveridge, who had a younger brother named James Beveridge. James Beveridge had a reputation for being a bit of an outlaw and as a way to avoid his troubles, decided to live in remote Wanangata Valley. He was said to be there in 1917.

At some point, it's believed that James Beveridge may have begun to steal cattle from James Barclay. And because James Barclay branded his animals with the initials JB, and James Beveridge's older brother Jack also branded his animals with the letters JB, it was really easy for James Beveridge to steal from one and got a station without anyone being the wiser. Wallace Mortimer wrote that he thinks it's likely that James Barclay found out about this switcheroo James Beveridge was pulling, and then James Beveridge decided to kill James Barclay

and John Bamford over it. Reporting by the Mail said that on two separate occasions in 1917, unknown cattle wrestlers had raided two herds that grazed next to Wanangata Station's cattle. So maybe this theory isn't that outrageous. A variation of this theory suggests maybe over a period of time, James Barclay discovered a different group of rogue cattlemen were stealing animals from his station. And so he looped in John to make sure he was aware of the situation

and he could be on the lookout for any unusual happenings. Historians have speculated that maybe whoever James Barclay suspected was behind the theft found out he was going to report them to the police and killed him before he had the chance. In that scenario, it's likely the killer's reason for slaying John Bamford, in addition to James, was because John was collateral damage. Like maybe he was a witness to them murdering James or because, as an employee of the station, he knew too much. The last and final theory that's been floated over the years suggests that Harry Smith might have been involved in these murders.

According to the Peninsula Essence article I've referenced a few times in this episode, which was written by Peter McCullough, Harry visited the station twice, once in January 1918 and again in February 1918. And each time, he said he never saw James or John. He was also part of the search parties who found both men's bodies. And perhaps most suspicious of all is that before John's body was even found, Harry claimed to have had a dream that John had been killed and buried in Howitt High Plains, right near the abandoned hut and log pile. Seems kind of convenient, right? I mean, if someone is claiming they've had a dream about where someone is killed and buried, and then that person they were talking about is actually found dead beneath a pile of logs at that exact location, that's gonna be a red flag to me. It's just odd.

And thankfully, this fact didn't go unnoticed by the authorities back in 1918. Following the discovery of John's body, the police took a hard look at Harry as a potential suspect in his murder. They wondered if maybe Harry found out that John Bamford had murdered James, and in retaliation for killing his friend, Harry had exacted revenge on John. What police doubted, though, was that Harry would have then left his friend James' body out in the elements in a shallow grave

to be ravaged by animals and the environment. That fact just didn't add up for investigators who were evaluating Harry as a suspect. In the end, Harry was cleared of any suspicion, and the authorities never charged him with anything related to these murders. He went on to employ James' son, Jim Jr., and after Harry died in 1945, he left all his property to Jim Jr. Did he leave this inheritance to Jim Jr. out of guilt? Sure, it's possible. Did he do it just to be a nice guy and provide for a young man who'd lost his mother to disease and his father to murder?

Of course, that's possible too. So I'll leave it to you all to decide for yourselves which theory makes the most sense. Because to be honest, any one of them could be what happened. But for me, I still can't land on a theory that feels super satisfying. I think there's just too many missing pieces to know for sure. Unfortunately, in 1957, people who were visiting the section of Alpine National Park where Wanangata Station House sat accidentally burned down the structure. Today, only a rugged patch of land and an old cemetery

exist where the former property once thrived. The only way to access the area is by four-wheel drive, horse, or if you walk. This remote and rugged land holds a lot of secrets, and to me, none is more interesting than the still unsolved murders of James Barclay and John Bamford. Park Predators is an Audiochuck original show. So, what do you think, Chuck? Do you approve? No!