Chapter 1: What bizarre event occurred at the Sydney aquarium in 1935?
On a national holiday in 1935, crowds gathered at a Sydney aquarium to marvel at a newly captured tiger shark. All quickly turned to horror when the predator regurgitated a human arm, perfectly preserved and bearing a distinct tattoo. Forensics would reveal the limb wasn't bitten off but rather removed by a sharp tool. Further clues led police into a tangled web of fraud, murder, and conspiracy.
So today, we explore the puzzling Shark Arm case. This is Red Web. Welcome back, Task Force, to another episode of Red Web, the podcast all about unsolved mysteries, true crime, and the unknown. I'm your resident mystery enthusiast, Trevor Collins, and joining me hearing this case for the very first time, Alfredo Diaz. Dude, I'm all in. We're talking about sharks? I love animals.
I love sharks specifically. One of my goals is to go cage diving with great whites. Woo! But OK, you said regurgitated an arm. So I was thinking like, oh, did they toss the body in with the shark? Even then, the shark isn't necessarily going to go for it. And then you said, OK, cleanly sawed off. I'm like, oh, so they were really just trying to get rid of the evidence.
Chapter 2: How did forensics reveal the nature of the severed arm?
mm-hmm but then also how did they get in oh i see you're running with some assumptions that i can't wait to blow your mind on okay because this case oh did it did it did the shark eat it and then get because the shark just got it was newly put in you're cooking now oh my god what yeah dude well how do you track that down then if it was like it happened in the ocean This is a wild one.
This is probably one of my new favorite cases. Just from that standpoint alone, I don't know how we missed this one. So thank you Task Force member Piplup Cola for submitting this one. The next couple of weeks will be sprinkled heavily with Task Force submitted episodes. It's been a while.
We've accrued over the last year or so all of the forum submissions of topics, movies, and mysteries, and everything. And so this one has made it into the list finally. It's wild, Fredo. You're totally on the right track.
Chapter 3: What led investigators to suspect foul play in the Shark Arm Case?
Because not only did a shark regurgitate an arm, that arm was perfectly preserved, but also the shark had just been put into the tank and the shark was out in the wild. What's going on? And this arm is cleanly sawed off. Wild. Yeah, because I got questions. Yes, sir. I got a lot of questions now. It's like what would have been a perfect crime in theory.
completely exposed by this this shark this shark's just like tatling on whoever did this deed it really did and like how unfortunate for someone like okay you feed to a shark outside or maybe you didn't even try to feed to the shark at all you just wanted to you know bury it in the ocean and the shark just snitched on you so hard
I would even be mad and be like, what are the chances that they captured the shark and the shark ate the body and then they regurgitated it, didn't even like take it all down. And then I'm just like, wow. Yeah, I know it's meant to happen. I was about to get caught. Yeah, dude, you're totally right. This was somehow meant to happen. It's like you've heard of star-crossed lovers.
This is like a star-crossed crime. But of course, before we dive in, Fredo, lots going on in the Red Web universe. Just a few things in the immediate future to talk about this Wednesday. We have another poll at redwebpod.com. These are opportunities, task force, for you to choose our movie club, our mysteries that we're going to talk about in this podcast.
Sometimes locations that we're going to go. Sometimes we just want your opinion when it's an all-out brawl between cryptids. All sorts of things to gather your insights on today. And then Friday, this Friday, is a movie club as voted by you and submitted by you. So it will be VHS. Classic horror movie compilation. I'm very excited because I haven't seen it yet.
We haven't recorded it yet, to be totally honest. That's how things work. So I'm very excited to watch that one. So come hang out with us as Fredo breaks down the plot and our thoughts and everything. Also, since it is live next Wednesday, I want you to mark this on your calendars. Break room will be at 5 p.m. Central Time. So come hang out with us as we record live.
Be part of the conversation as we record that. And also, again, I want to shout out Sinners was our movie club from earlier this month. It is still free and will be free for anybody on our Patreon. So head to redwebpod.com if you want to listen to Sinners as movie club. It is literally one of my favorite movies now of all time.
And that way you can get a little taste as to what movie club is every other week. Future Trevor here, butting in once more because March is super busy. Red Web Scary Stories launched last Friday the 13th. That's right. It's out right now. So no matter where you listen to Red Web, it's going to be tucked right up cozy next to it.
Thank you all so much for supporting us as we launched the pilot last year. Now we will be launching it every other Thursday moving forward. So make sure to mark your calendars or just follow us. You'll see it here. And then another surprise development since recording this episode, Red Web Radio 2 is coming this Thursday. We are so stoked about it. What is Red Web Radio?
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Chapter 4: Who were the main suspects in the investigation of Jim Smith's disappearance?
Like you even said, there's just a really interesting fascination with sharks. They are apex predators in the water, and we're just, you know, we're just little creatures from the trees. And when we get in the water, well, pardon the pun, we're out of our depth. Yeah. Yeah. As much as we're like, oh, we're the dominant species.
You stick a human, just kick it in the water and you go, there's a shark in there. They're terrified. They're scared. Instantly, they realize the food chain. Yup. Yup. There is something primordial about that terror there. Now, what's also interesting is that around this time period, you know, 1930s Sydney, Australia.
shark attacks had become relatively common during this time period which is also why people had this morbid fascination with them as an apex predator so they wanted to come to this aquarium where they could see this danger up close and personal without obviously the danger side so like i said through the 20s and 30s this time period has often been referred to as the shark era because of this high frequency of attacks
And when looking into that, the reason why is because I believe it was the late 1800s or at least a few decades prior to this moment, Sydney Harbor had opened up and became legal to go swimming and bathing in. Prior to that, you just weren't allowed.
and there was no real protection if you've ever been to a resort or on a beach you might see this commonly now you'll see like nets just maybe a hundred feet out and this dulls the waves but it also prevents wildlife from coming in and stinging biting or otherwise harming people tourists in the waters
And what happened here, all of these attacks did eventually lead to a 1937 implementation of Sharknets. So it all kind of died down in the later parts of the decade. But there were several decades where people were like, it was like Jaws out there. You said it. It looks like it. And it was like that. Well, I mean, you know, as the centuries go by, as the years go by,
Humans are entroaching more and more on this planet. We're taking up more space. I mean, look at cities, right? Any city you've seen a plot of land that's like, oh, that's a lot of free open space. Boom, there's an apartment building on it now or what? You know what I mean? High rise. Yep, you're totally right.
Like, because there's just people just looking at every little inch, just going like, what can I put there? What can I build there? How can I make money off of that piece of land if I bought it, etc? Gotta make the money. And so, yeah, you're going to get some like some tension with the wildlife. But then also what happens for the most part is you also push off a lot of the wildlife.
Yeah, usually wildlife runs off. And in this case, wildlife kind of pushes back. I don't want to paint the picture as if it's so horrifying. For decades, people are getting mauled and killed. But it was, in fact, called the shark era because there was a definite increase in prevalence of attack. So, okay, it wasn't like Jaws, but... You're right.
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Chapter 5: What evidence linked Jim Smith's arm to a possible murder?
Now, if you've ever heard about sharks in captivity, you will know that they don't do well. Their behavior kind of shifts to the negative. Sharks are just not meant to be in captivity. A lot of them die from starvation because their appetite dulls down very quickly. They get very desensitized because there's no stimulus for this single soul hunter. And so that's kind of what was observed here.
Despite the large crowds gathering, excited to see this massive tiger shark, the shark seemed to be irritable, listless, it was refusing to eat, and it was kind of lethargic, had low energy, which on one hand matches what you would see of a normal shark in captivity, depending on the species of shark. But in this case, there might be something more and we'll talk about that.
But before we do, per a few articles, we couldn't for sure fact check it, but a lot of articles point to this image that I'm showing you here as an actual photo of the shark itself in the tank. The only one we could find of it. Damn, that's a cool silhouette of a shark. That's a shark right there. That's a shark. Oh, beautiful silhouette. Mm hmm. I guess what is the top of the tank?
Yeah, it does look like you're just looking down into a pool. It does look like it. Initially, I was like, oh, it looks like a pool, like a shark in a pool. Yeah. And so when they say hybrid aquarium pool, think more pool that sometimes has sharks in it. Okay, interesting. Did it have the like the tradition of what we know today where like you can go and see it behind glass underwater?
That's a very good question. I didn't see that anywhere, but that doesn't mean that that's not part of it. You know, even pools sometimes have those little windows, but It's just interesting. It was like, oh, you can see all the beautiful sea creatures from the top looking down. Right, right. And also it's behind a very chintzy chain. There's just one single chain. It really is. Yeah.
Like a child's going to fall in. A lot of faith in the human being not being stupid here. Right. Let's just say Osha wouldn't be too happy. Yeah, you can take a half step over that chain and get going. Oh, yeah. Let's jump forward now.
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Chapter 6: How did the police connect the suspects to Jim Smith's case?
It's still 1935, still April, but now it's April 25th. And the aquarium actually sees record numbers. Tourists are super impressed by the fact that they have this enormous tiger shark. They're all flocking to come see it. Again, shark mania is going wild. The numbers rapidly dwindle, though, as the day goes on.
And by the end of the day, reportedly there's only about 14 people present to see the shark. And it was around this time, around 4.30 p.m., that the shark suddenly shifted in mood, right? It was listless before, not eating, but now it seems to become a little agitated. It's throwing itself seemingly against the side of the aquarium, the side of the pool here.
It's swimming erratically from the deep end to the shallow end and back and forth. And finally, and maybe this was also explaining some of its before behaviors, but finally it seems to retch and it vomits. At first, only a few things like bile, birds and rats, whatever it maybe could get a hold of in the tank, but then shockingly, onlookers saw as it vomited out an almost pristine human arm.
i have a photo of it it isn't grotesque or anything right it's cropped so you don't see any of the gnarly edges of it but we do have a photo of that arm and fredo tell me what you think this was an eaten arm uh it's got a tattoo on it it's got a tattoo on it the guy boxing or something yeah yeah absolutely yeah i can't really show he's boxing because it's the right half of it there's some shadowing and it's a black and white photo so you can't really tell but
i mean that can help identify a person absolutely that's a that's an arm it doesn't look all like torn up from the angle that i'm looking at here no no you can see a little bit of arm hair on the left side you can see freckles yeah gnarly how intact that is absolutely And just so you know, it is two men boxing one another on the right side. It is a little hard to see. Yeah. Got it.
So when it's too cold to swim, these guys are chucking some sharks in there. It's a pool is what I'm kind of gathering. Yeah, it's a pool. And they're like, hey, take a look. You got some sharks. Yeah. I was picturing, you know, when you're a kid and you're walking through those tunnels of glass and sharks, turtles and all sorts of fish are swimming around you. It's not like that. No, not at all.
No, it's not like that. It's like the neighborhood pool, you know, concrete, tiled edges, and there's a shark in there, which was my absolute nightmare. Yep. Go underwater, close your eyes, immediately you envision a shark in the deep end. Well, now there is. Yeah. Task Force, I want to talk to you guys for a second. Don't skip.
I know this is the gap in the episode, but while you're here, if you don't mind, I want to say that this episode is sponsored by you guys. That's right. Everybody in the Task Force HQ over at redwebpod.com supports this and every other episode of Red Web that we've ever done. Supporting us on Patreon is the number one way to keep us stable. And, you know, I talk about it at the top of every show.
I try to keep it snappy. But while we're here, let me expand. What do you get with a membership at redwebpod.com? In no particular order, of course, you get this podcast completely ad-free. You know we love to talk about Movie Club. That is in there as well. Every first and third Friday of the month, we put out a new episode of Movie Club, digesting our favorite horror movies.
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Chapter 7: What were the outcomes of the investigation and subsequent trial?
All right, so a human arm comes up out of this shark. And from here, an investigation unfurls. Investigators want to know, how did a full human arm end up inside of the shark that was so publicly on display? And most importantly, was this the result of a horrible accident or some sort of foul play, right?
I teased you a little bit of the path that lie ahead, but that's exactly the questions that everyone's asking in this moment. Because as I'll come to discuss, this tank was under supervision from tourists, owners and the like pretty much nonstop. And so it almost seemed like there wouldn't be an opportunity for someone to enter the tank like that. Yeah, it doesn't seem so at all. Yeah.
So before we get there, though, I want to wind back a little bit right to the time that the arm comes out of the shark, because as luck would have it, somebody runs off to phone the police. But somebody else, another person of these 14 guests that witnessed this was a person named Narcisse Leo Young, who was a proofreader at the Sydney Morning Herald newspaper.
And so you also have somebody running off to immediately inform the presses. He's calling his boss, letting him know, hey, I don't know what's going on, but there's a story down at the aquarium, and I think let's get the team on this one. So what's interesting then is this left no gaps in the knowledge. Nothing could be sacred because...
Police and press arrived at essentially the same time to all figure out what was going on. And I want to quote an excerpt from a police report. This is Detective Constable Frank Heade who had this to say. Quote, which had apparently been wrenched from the body at the shoulder joint.
We retrieved the arm from the water and on examining it, found that it had two large incised wounds on the upper and lower parts respectively. We also found that the inside forearm there was a tattoo mark of two men in the fighting attitude. There was tied around the wrist in a half hitch knot, a piece of cheap manila three quarters inch rope.
The arm is in a fair state of preservation, except that the skin on the heel and palm of the hand has crumpled and become detached. So that would be kind of the lower part of your palm. Yeah, maybe like it's getting peely or something. Yeah, that's the part that seemed to have all of the damage, whereas everything else seemed to be perfectly preserved.
By all reports, we have a perfectly preserved arm, considering that it had been inside of a shark for over a week. A week? I mean, it does take a while for a shark to digest. Sure. But you think you'd see a lot of signs of it starting to get broken down. Right, right. Okay, wow, a week. A week.
Yeah, I feel like if I ate a grape whole, I don't know if that's lasting till dinner time before it's looking a little worse for wear. Yeah, it's torn. It shreds. Hey, it might even be out the other end by then. Hey, you know what? It might be right out the other end.
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Chapter 8: Why does the Shark Arm Case remain one of Australia's most famous unsolved crimes?
We don't know. How much fiber I've had. Yeah. I know I'm not made out of grapes, but I digress. But here's the thing. Here's what's so mind boggling. You know, we showed the arm, you see the tattoo, the skin, the hair. Investigators noted that the fingerprints are still largely intact.
So the palm is kind of disintegrating, but the fingerprints on the pad of each of the finger are still primarily there. Constable John Lindsay was sent to the scene to delicately take samples of those fingerprints for testing. and he was able to pull some positive prints on those, and we'll talk about that in a second, but- Wild. Wild indeed. Already I'm wildly blown away. It just keeps going.
So initially detectives interviewed the Hobson brothers, Young, and several other witnesses who were present at the time of the incident.
From this, they were able to determine that the aquarium had been under constant observation, meaning that there was no chance that someone could have fed the arm to the shark while it was in captivity, which immediately opens up the opportunity of like, well, now this goes to the entire city, right? Yeah.
If this shark ate an arm at sea, whose arm, first of all, thankfully we have tattoos, we can talk about that. But like... There's so many vectors to explore now. It's almost bottomless. It could literally be as simple as a shark attack. And then, you know, then it just wound up being, I mean, it's a great story. Yeah. No matter what. Yeah. Someone's missing an arm.
Hell, they could still be alive. That's true. You really think about it. There it is. That's my arm. Oh, damn, that's my arm. That's my lucky rope I tie around my wrist sometimes. There is so much. I thought it was like, okay, murder case. Try and feed it to a shark to hide the evidence. Boom, we're in that lane. No, this is wide open. Again, the person could still be alive.
It could be out there, eaten, With one hand. Who knows at this point. It's interesting because of the fact that so many cases we cover lack of evidence here or whatnot. And then you come to realize we're just like, oh, we have so much evidence here. It's an arm that's mostly intact. And then we're pulling fingerprints off of it. There's an abundance of evidence here.
And the tattoo, it's just... Yeah, and the tattoo. These are pretty unique tattoos to be talking about. It really is. People can go, oh, I know those. Huck Johnson, my drinking buddy down at the bar. He loves to go swimming one arm at a time. Good old... Yeah, he lost his arm to a shark, and he's still doing one-arm swims. He's still doing it. Here's the thing.
The fact that the aquarium was under constant supervision basically led investigators to believe that, as wild as it may seem, the shark must have eaten this arm before it was captured and brought into the aquarium. Mm-hmm. So the following day, government medical officer Arthur Palmer and shark attack expert Victor Copelson, they come to the aquarium and examine this arm.
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