SHORTLY AFTER THE DEATHS OF HIS WIFE AND SON, Piggott employed a housekeeper, Alice Dora Aley, thirty-seven, to manage the upkeep of his St Kilda home. Piggott married Alice the day after his fiftieth birthday, 2 April 1924. The couple went to Gippsland for their honeymoon, travelling to picturesque Bruthen on the Great Alpine Road.
Some weeks earlier, sheep-stealer Arthur Henry Jackson was arrested in Melbourne while splurging the proceeds of a recent theft. He was remanded to appear at the City Court on 24 March and granted bail of £200, but he absconded. Country police stations were notified and Jackson’s photograph was circulated—it was known he had contacts in Gippsland. On 10 April, Constable Shaw of Bruthen learned that Jackson was hiding out in that town.
Shaw was aware that Piggott was in Bruthen, and conferred with him before approaching Jackson. The senior detective took charge of the case and the two police went together to the boarding house where Jackson was hiding. Shaw knocked on the door to the thief’s room, but there was no answer and the door was locked. ‘Open up! Police!’ Shaw demanded, but Jackson made no answer. Piggott declared that if the door were not opened they would force it.
A bang was heard. On breaking into the room, the two policemen found Jackson on the floor with a fatal wound to his head. He had shot himself through the mouth.
A week later, Piggott was back on duty at Russell Street. Autumn turned into a rainy winter, often challenging the hunt for clues in outdoor locations. Yet there were also times when nature collaborated, helping to preserve information at the scene of a mystery, and even offering up important clues. Clues which, as Piggott was soon to discover, would unravel the grim tale dubbed by newspapers ‘The Tragedy of the Skull’.