Arthur Brennan was born on March 2nd, 1881, in Abbotsford, Victoria, Australia, to William and Mary Brennan. He was one of eleven children, with eight sisters and two brothers, both of whom shared his passion for Australian rules football.
Brennan’s football career was notable, if not extensive, in the Victorian Football League (VFL) and Victorian Football Association (VFA). He played a single senior game for St. Kilda in the 1901 VFL season, a match against Fitzroy at Junction Oval where St. Kilda suffered a 72-point defeat. Despite his brief VFL stint, Brennan made a name for himself in the VFA, playing for Richmond, Port Melbourne, and Footscray. He was regarded as one of Richmond’s finest players in their pre-VFL era, showcasing his skill and dedication to the sport.
Beyond football, Brennan’s personal life was complex. He was married twice, first to Catherine Prout in 1902 and later to Alice Mary Patton in 1910, an act that led to a charge of bigamy, as his first marriage was still legally binding.
At the time of his death, Brennan was fifty years old and lived with five of his sisters at 26 Rowe Street, North Fitzroy, in a close-knit household that maintained a strong sense of community. Their neighbor, Norah Power, relied on the Brennan family for support, with an arrangement where she would knock on the dividing wall if she needed assistance while alone.
The events leading to Brennan’s death began on the evening of September 12th, 1931, when Norah Power heard suspicious noises outside her home, suggesting an attempted break-in. Following their agreed-upon signal, she knocked on the wall to alert the Brennan household. Arthur, who was in the kitchen, responded immediately, crossing his garden to confront the intruder on Power’s verandah.
The man, described by witnesses as aged between twenty-five and thirty, approximately five feet nine inches tall, and of thin to medium build, attempted to deflect suspicion by claiming he was visiting a friend. Unconvinced, Brennan blocked the intruder’s path at the garden gate as the man tried to flee. A struggle ensued, during which the intruder drew a .25 automatic Colt pistol from his overcoat and shot Brennan in the chest. Brennan collapsed on the footpath and died within minutes, as his sisters and neighbors looked on in horror. The gunman fled, pursued briefly by two bystanders, but managed to escape into the night.
The murder sparked an intensive police investigation, but the killer’s identity remained elusive. For nearly three months, authorities pursued leads without success. On December 8th, 1931, the City Coroner concluded the inquest with a finding that Brennan had been murdered by a “person unknown,” reflecting the lack of concrete evidence at the time.
Suspicion initially fell on John Gepp (also known by aliases such as John Vernon Pinkus, Raymond Brennan, and John D’Arcy), a known criminal. When Gepp was shot dead by police on January 18th, 1932, while attempting to evade arrest in Clifton Hill, authorities briefly believed he was Brennan’s killer. However, forensic analysis later disproved this theory, as the bullet recovered from Brennan’s chest did not match Gepp’s firearm.
On April 15th, 1932, Victoria Police Chief Commissioner Thomas Blamey announced a new suspect: Reginald James Barker, a seventeen-year-old criminal who had been killed on February 27th, 1932, while attempting to escape from Pentridge Prison. Barker, who wounded two warders during his escape attempt, was in possession of a .25 automatic Colt pistol, stolen from Donald Mackintosh’s gun shop in Bourke Street. Forensic experts determined that this weapon matched the bullet that killed Brennan. Additionally, fellow inmates at Pentridge informed detectives that Barker had confessed to the shooting.
However, Barker’s mother challenged this conclusion. On April 18th, 1932, she visited The Herald newspaper office, presenting medical records from St Vincent’s Hospital. These records, verified by Dr. Edward James Grieve, showed that Barker had suffered a severe ankle injury, with X-rays taken on September 11th, 1931, revealing a weeks-old fracture of both ankle bones. By September 14th, his leg was in a cast, and he required crutches. His mother argued that Barker’s condition made it impossible for him to have been the agile intruder who fled the scene after shooting Brennan. Furthermore, Barker’s physical description—6 feet tall and well-built—did not match the witnesses’ accounts of the suspect.
Despite the police’s confidence in Barker as the culprit, no definitive evidence was ever presented in court, and the case remains officially unsolved. The conflicting accounts, combined with the lack of a living suspect to interrogate, left the investigation at a standstill. The murder of Arthur Brennan became one of Victoria’s enduring cold cases, joining the list of approximately 200 unsolved homicides in the state as of this writing.
Crime Immemorial 