Man’s tattooed arm was vomited up by tiger shark in family’s aquarium
A bloke's tattooed arm was coughed up by a 14-foot tiger shark residing in the aquarium of a family-owned swimming baths, sparking a murder inquiry.
The shark living in Sydney's Coogee Aquarium, Australia, vomited up the severed limb a week after it was caught and put on display at the family attraction.
Owner Bert Hobson had been in need of a new attraction for his fledging baths and a tiger shark which had been spotted in the nearby waters was targeted.
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Just a week into the exhibit the tiger shark coughed up an arm which was later identified thanks to fingerprint technology not available at the time in 1935.
The limb of Jimmy Smith, 45, was coughed up after the massive tiger shark also spat out a bird and a rat.
Witness Narcisse Leo Young told The Sydney Herald: "I was three or four meters from the shark and clearly saw come out of its mouth a copious brown froth which smelled really foul."
Police at the time believed the arm had been cut off, rather than bitten off, and soon tales of the mysterious killing had a firm grip on Australia.
Mr Smith had been an associate of local crime figure Reginald Holmes, a drug smuggler who used passing ships to transport his illegal goods.
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He and Smith had worked with one another before the latter began blackmailing Mr Holmes, with the 45-year-old's final moments said to be at a hotel with fellow crime associate Patrick Brady, an ex-serviceman.
Even Brady had pointed toward Holmes as the prime suspect in Smith's disappearance, with the drug-smuggler shooting himself in the head when questioned by police, a shot which he somehow survived.
He was later interrogated and admitted Brady had killed Smith, showing up at his property with the dismembered arm and rambling about dumping the remains in the harbour through a "Sydney send-off".
The grim name for the disposal of bodies was popular among crime gangs bumping off those no longer required during the 1920s and 1930s.
Smith's arm had been dumped in the sea and eaten by a smaller shark before the tiger shark swallowed the other ocean-going predator.
Ron Hobson caught the shark just nine days later while Holmes had ordered a hitman to take him out to secure a life insurance pay-out for his family, and was found dead in his car from three bullets to the chest.
No conviction was ever recorded as the only evidence was the severed arm following Holmes' death, and Smith's body was never found.
Both Port Hacking and Gunnamatta Bay were searched by the Australian Navy and Air Force but no remains were found.
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