WILL the shocked memory of a four-year-old boy help the police to clear up the mystery of the amazing disappear once of Harry Jacobsen master mariner, who ...
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WI3ERE IS HARRY JACOBSEN?
MYSTERY OF HAWKESBURY RIVER
Child of Four Tells Sensational Story
of Vicious Attack, and of "Where
Daddy's Body Lies in
the Water"
none Help
'That's where daddy is,' toys little Tommy Jacobsen **Daddy out there' -jnJ— Help
"That's where daddy is,"
says little Tommy Jacobsen
"Daddy out there, " and-
none Help
none Help
— Tommy point* his finger ilutayi to the one spot where he tayt his daddy n TOMMY JACOBSEN , who tc/U the grim story to lucidly that il has created the sensation oj the year. Help
Tommy points his finger
always to the one spot where
he says his daddy is
TOMMY JACOBSEN , who tells the grim story so lucidly that it has created the
sensation of the year.
WILL the shocked memory of a four
year-old boy help the police to clear
up the mystery of the amazing disappear-
ance of Harry Jacobsen, master mariner, who
suddenly and unaccountably vanished with
his iaunch on the Hawkesbury River oun the
night of Friday, August 2?
Closest questioning by "truth" and by
residents of Brooklyn, a tiny village on the
Hawkesbury, has failed to pierce the cohesion ,
of four-year-old Tommy Jacobsen's story of
what he says happened on the night that
his father vanished so strangely from human
ken.
Police investigators have listened to the child's
vivid description of alleged happenings on that
fateful Friday night, and have been astounded
by the graphic picture drawn by the shy,
babbled words of Jacobsen's Infant son.
Gruesome and terrible is the picture conjured
by the child's utterances, which are so tellingly
definite in detail thai they could not possibly
emanate from babyish imagination.
Accepting the child's story as true, it follows that
a vicious and ugly murder was perpetrated on or
near Dangar Island on the night of August 2.
And the murder, by the same acceptance of be-
lief, was followed by cunning and painstaking
efforts to ensure the destruction of all evidence of
the manner in which Harry Jacobsen departed this
life.
No trace of Jacobsen has been found. Nor has
his launch or any of its wreckage been washed up
on the river or coastal shores.
If the story of Harry Jacobsen's little son is not
to be believed, then what is the explanation of the
retired mariner's disappearance? And could
a child mind invent such abhorrent details of a foul
deed?
Jacobsen, say his friends and relatives, was not
the sort of man to suicide. Assuming that he de-
cided to take his own life, why is it that no trace
of the launch has since been found?
And if Jacobsen accidentally fell overboard from his launch, the question of
the missing boat again presents Itself. But Jacobsen, who had sailed the seas
for 30 years, was not likely to have been drowned in the calm waters of the
Hawkesbury.
They Were Always Very Happy
So far as police can ascertain, the ? leading up to Jacobsen's disappear-
ance yield no suggestion of his intention to commit suicide.
At that particular time he was very happy, and had made it known that he
was delighted with the addition of a baby girl to his small family circle.
At the time he vanished into nothingness his wife was still in a pri-
vate hospital at Hornsby, and Jacobsen called there to see her , as he did
nearly every day.
"We got on very well together, my husband and I." Mrs. Jacobsen told
"Truth." "Although he was a man who did not like much company, he was
always very happy in his l.ome and was fond of the children.
"He was not a man given to drinking, but be would have his bottle of beer
a day, and might have a little more than that it he went to Sydney and met a
few friends.
Mrs Jacobsen added that she had married her husband In Sydney nearly six
years, ago, and had gone with him to the Solomon Islands, where he had been
a trader and plantation owner.
Jacobsen had followed the sea from
the age of fourteen, and there is no
question about his ability to handle
boats. Thus, the launch which he
knew so well could
not have placed him
In any difficulty on
the day he vanished
As to whether he
was drunk or sober
on that day police,
gathered conflicting
statements during
their inquiries, but
"Truth" spoke to
Mr. Forbes, store-
keeper, of Brook-
lyn, who was the
last man to speak
to Jacobsen before
the latter left
Brooklyn in his
launch for his home
on Dangar Island.
"I have known
Harry Jacobsen for
the past three
years," said Mr.
Forbes, definitely,
"and although he
may have had a drink or. two, he was
not drunk — very far from it, in fact.
"He was most pleased about his wife's
last child being a little girl. I can't
DISTRAUGHT, not knowing what to believe, Mrs. Jacobsen hei asked 'Truth' to help to banish ber doubt. Help
DISTRAUGHT, not knowing what
to believe, Mrs. Jacobsen has asked
"Truth" to help to banish her doubt.
understand how he just disappeared
and was never heard of again.
And Brooklyn residents endorse those
remarks. So far as that township can
understand, Harry
Jacobsen left Forbes
and Martin's store
near the railway
station and walked
down the pretty av-
enue of stately palm
trees to Furlong's
boathouse, where he
took his launch and
started for Dangar
Island.
The walk down
the avenue would
have taken him
less than three min-
utes, and the launch
run to his own jetty
on Dangar Island
could have been
covered in ten min-
utes.
And in that small
space of time Harry
Jacobsen disappear-
ed ... . with no voice but that of his
four-year-old son to tell the manner
of his passing.
And the boy's voice was passed over
unheeded for three weeks. His mother
distressed and broken with worry and un-
certainty concerning her husband's fate
afterwards recalled that little Tommy had
talked strangely to her sister's children
but her state of mind at that time wai
such that she took but a listless interest
in him.
In the first fortnight of her anxiety
she had her sister and her her sister's chil-
dren for company, and the babbling
references Tommy made to his missing
daddy went unheeded by his mother.
When these two weeks drifted by her sister
left, but Mrs. Jacobsen's father came to keep
her company during her period of dread and
doubt, and still the little boy's words concerning
his daddy passed unnoticed among his inconse-
quent, childish prattling.
Then, one night, Mrs. Jacobsen's mind re-
ceived the full force of the dreadful suggestlon
contained in her small son's references to his
vanished father.
The shock almost stunned the grief-distracted
mother.
She had been sitting at the table in the front
room of the cottage, crying silently, and In her
loneliness she had delayed putting Tommy to
bed. Small as he is, he was comfort to her.
"What are you crying for, mummy?" he
asked, his steadyj brown eyes fixed on her
face wonderingly.
Mrs. Jacobsen told him she was crying be-
cause sbe did not know where daddy was, and
her heart stood still when for the first time she
gave heed to words that she dimly remembered
having heard the little chap repeat before.
What the woman suffered as her infant sor
prattled of a scene of ghastly tragedy can scarecly
be imagined, but it left her brain almost numb
with shock and horror.
Like blows upon bare flesh each word made the. stricken woman shrink fur-
ther from the picture that was drawn for her by a child too near babyhood to
comprehend the stark terror of it.
"Daddy Hit on Head with an Axe"
Fascinated, bereft of movement, the woman sat and listened while the tears
dried on her startled eyes.
Her statement that she was crying tor his daddy who did not come bark had
touched the flood gates of his memory, and Tommy told of what he saw.
"Daddy no come back again, mummy, . . . Dadny's head all bad
Daddy have to get a new head. . . Daddy's head sore . . . got big
lump, mummy. . .
Hit tiny hand touched hts small head, and he rattled on.
"Daddy no come back, mummy. Fish eat daddy. Man kicked
daddy in stomach. , ."
Tommy told her how. his father was struck heavily on the head by a strange
unknown man with an axe, and then kicked in the stomach.
Without pausing, he related how his father's face was covered with blood,
and how, after the kick in the stomach, he had become terribly sick.
Without help from Mrs Jacobsen, he went on to tell of how the strange man
picked his father up and , tried to revive him with water, later carrying him to
the water's edge.
. (Continued on page 13)
Continued on Page 13
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HAWKESBURY RIVER MYSTERY
Child's Poignant Recollections
BABY'S ARMS AROUND "SICK DADDY"
(CONTINUED FROM PAGE 1.)
THERE is something queerly pathetic in the story of this infant recounting
what it calls the "sickness" of its father. He said the man pushed his
daddy into the water, but after his daddy had gone under he came to the sur-
face again three times.
THEN, he continued, the other
man had pulled his daddy
out of the water and tied him to
the stern of .the launch with a
rope, first weighting the body with
stones.
FROM the child's narrative it seemed
that the stones were placed in Jacob-
sen's clothing, and that the arms and
legs were tied together with thin rope
from the launch.
Graphically, the little boy continued
that the anchor of the launch was tied
to his father's body as well, and that the
launch was then taken out with the
dinghy into the river, his father's body,
he said, dragging behind.
While the struggle was on between his
daddy and the stranger, he said; his baby
brother had cried all the time and he
had put his arms round him and loved
him."
While the little fellow was talking, Mrs.
lacobsen sat frozen to ber chair, incap-
able of movement,, scarcely able to
breathe. , Several times she thought she
would swoon into unconsciousness.
Incredulous, unable to believe what she
considered the child could not have
imagined, Mrs. Jacobsen was unable to
sleep that night. Next day she repeated
his terrible story to a friend in Brooklyn,
and was advised to communicate with the
police.
She did so without further delay, and
Tommy Jacobsen, aged only four years,
found himself aasked all sorts of patent
questions by big strange men whom he
had never seen before.
He was too little to understand that
they were police and that his answers to
their questions were vitally essential to
them.
But, although he was restless and
fidgety as any other boy his age would
be in similar circumstances, he repeated
the story he had told his mother, even to
the disposal of the body.
Asked to point out the spot where the
taunch had stopped, he unhesitatingly
indicated a part of the broad river.
At different times after that the little
chap was asked again to indicate the
spot where he said his father's body and
launch had been sunk, and suggestions
of other places failed to divert hlm from
the spot he originally pointed out
THE MISSING MAN, Harry Jacob sen, whose disappearance has set the police a mystery yet unsolved. Help
THE MISSING MAN, Harry Jacob-
sen, whose disappearance has set the
police a mystery yet unsolved.
It was a baffling problem for the police.
Though the river had been dragged by
the authorities, the local residents, who
were keenly interested, were not reward-
ed with any news of either Harry Jacob-
sen or the launch.
Concerning this phase, Mrs. Jacobsen
informed 'Truth' that the spot where
the launch and her husband's body would
most likely be, providing they had been
sunk at the place Indicated by little
Tommy, was very deep.
Local residents who know the river
well also state that the depth in the
channel would be about 80 feet, and at
that depth grappling irons would not be
serviceable.
Opinions differ as to whether the
channel was thoroughly dragged, and
Brooklyn people decided to do the job
themselves after dragging operations had
been carried out here and there by po-
lice.
Last weak the residents organised
a party, and three launches went out
to the channel and commenced drag-
ging work, but the weather was un-
propitious, and the operations were
abandoned.
Another attempt is to be made later;
and these two efforts by Brooklyn people
to clear up the mystery reveal the in-
tense Interest being taken in the affair
in the river villages.
Still shaken with doubt and worry.
Mrs. Jacobsen does not know what to
think. Two things she clings to as being
concrete and unassailable facts:
One— her husband had no intention of
committing suicide, and was unlikely to
have been drowned by accident.
Two — that her son Tommy is too young
to have been capable of merely imagin-
ing the dreadful story he has told her.
"Tommy has always jbeen a bright
child." she says "but be is too small to
concoct such a story as that without as-
sistance He knows all about the launch
because he has often been fishing with;
his father.
"He has even fished himself. He knows
which is the stern and which is the bow
of the boat, and It was terrible to hear
him say. 'Mummy, the fish will eat,
daddy now.'
"1 can't understand it. It Is too ter-
rible to hear him talk about his daddy
getting hit with the axe."
Mrs. Jacobsen shuddered at the me-
mory, and while "Truth" waited sympa-
thetically for her to resume speaking,
Tommy's big brown eyes lit up behind
their long, dark lashes.
"The axe, mummy! he tilt daddy
with the. axe and carried him down
like this-—"
The child put his small arms about
his mother's knees and demonstrated
how the man had carried his human
burden to the water's edge.
"You see, it seems so terribly real and
true," said Mrs Jacobsen pathetically,
calming the child, who seemed to have
become excited momentarily.
"Tommy knows the river well enough.
He has often sat with us on the veran-
dah of the cottage, and tlie stars and the
moonlight would have helped him to no-
tice the place.
'It Is a terrible strain. I don't know
what to do; I don't think the pollce are
doing anything else in the matter now,
but something more should be done."
Owing to the depth of water, dragging
appears to be impracticable as a decid-
ing factor in the question of whether
Jacobsen and his launch are resting on
the bottom of the Hawkesbury River.
Mrs. Jacobsen left the hospital the
following day and returned to her home
to learn of her husband's disappearance
in Brooklyn, before she got to her cot-
tage on Dangar Island.
"When Tommy told me first about the
affair," she said, "I was too stricken to
remember all he said, and later on as
time passed I picked up several other
things.
Still distracted with grief and doubt,
Mrs. Jacobsen's position is an unenviable
one.
Her husband was in receipt of an in-
come for life of £400 a year. It ceased
at his death.
The Dangar Island cottage is worth
somewhere In the vicinity of £800 or
more, and he also had two oyster leases
and had recently purchased 15,000 oyster
sticks.
He also owned his own launch, and the
neat cottage and strong jetty were in-
sured, as was the boat.
Just before he disappeared he was due
for his quarterly instalment of £200. This
is being paid to Mrs. Jacobsen at the
rate of £4 per week, and when that is
exhausted «he does not know from whence
her Income will be derived.
With three small children, one less than
two months old, and the added burden of
doubt concerning her husband, the public
must sympathise with Mrs. Jacobsen's
plight.
The heaviness of her mental load could,
perhaps, be eased almost at once if a
diver were set to the task of thoroughly
exploring the bed of the channel in which
she now believes her husband Is lying.
The child's story must be followed
up in a practicable way.
A diver and equipment should be
requisitioned to explore the depths of
the channel and decide the matter be-
yond all question .... and that wit-
out delay!
In the unravelling of crime, or sus-
pected crime, the State has not hesitated
to spend money, and rightly so. In this
case of Harry Jacobsen's mysterious dis-
appearance the Police Department should
not scruple over the expense of a diver
when anxiety and doubt can be settled
definitely.
And. If a diver should be unsuccessful,
a trawler could be employed in a final
search.
What does it matter if the police have
only the evidence of a child that Jacob-
sen and his launch are moored with
stones to the river bed?
It may be that Harry Jacobsen, retired
mariner and island trader, has been
neither murdered nor drowned, but one
section of the doubt can be quickly
cleared up.
There must be no further delay.
"Truth" demands that the Police De-
partment at once set itself the task of
finally and definitely clearing up the mys-
tery.
It Is a matter of public moment, ex-
pense should not be considered.
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