Go back

S09E19: Something in the Water (The Shark Arm Case)

from Unexplained

41m 44s

S09E19: Something in the Water (The Shark Arm Case)

This episode of the Unexplained podcast recounts one of Australia's most bizarre unsolved cases. In April 1935, a tiger shark captured near Coogee Beach in Sydney regurgitated a severed human arm bearing a distinctive tattoo of two boxers. Fingerprints identified the arm as belonging to James "Jim" Smith, a builder and amateur boxer who had been missing for weeks. Forensic analysis revealed the arm had been cleanly severed with a blade, proving Smith was murdered rather than killed by a shark. Investigations uncovered a tangled web of criminal activity. Smith had been involved with boat builder Reginald Holmes in an insurance fraud scheme to sink the yacht Pathfinder. After Smith became a police informant, he partnered with forger Patrick "Paddy" Brady, who allegedly murdered Smith and used the severed arm to blackmail Holmes. Holmes attempted suicide, survived a gunshot to the head, and was later found dead in his car before he could testify at the inquest. Brady was charged with murder but acquitted due to lack of a body. Two other suspects were also acquitted. The murders of Smith and Holmes remain unsolved, and how the arm ended up inside a shark remains unexplained.

Transcription

5637 Words, 32078 Characters

English
Speaker 1This is an iHeart Podcast.
Speaker 2Guaranteed Human. Hulu and Hulu on Disney Plus for bundle subscribers.
Speaker 3Terms apply. This is Matt Rogers from Lost Culture East. That's with Matt Rogers and Bowen Yang. This is Bowen Yang from Lost Culture East. You know when people try a new food and suddenly it's like, okay, hold on. I got a new favorite food. That's the reaction a lot of people are having when they first try Kewpie mayo. Yeah, it's the one with the red cap and the little baby on the bottle. You've probably seen it at the grocery store. And this mayo is different. Most mayonnaise uses whole eggs. Kewpie only. Kewpie only uses egg yolks, which gives it this rich umami flavor. It's smoother, deeper, almost buttery. Once people try it, they start putting it on everything. Egg sandwiches, fries, burgers. Chefs use it. Restaurants use it. People who really care about flavor use it. Put it on just about anything. Then you'll understand. Kewpie, the original Japanese mayonnaise.
Speaker 4Hey, it's Mario Lopez from the All Mario Lopez Daily Podcast. All right, quick question. You ever notice how some cars just steal the spotlight? Well, that's the 2026 Toyota RAV4. It's got bold standout style, intuitive tech inside, and now hybrid power standard, which means efficiency without the need to plug in. So whether you care about looks, smarts, or just everyday practicality, RAV4 brings all of it. If you've been holding out for the right SUV, this is your sign. Check out the 2026 Toyota RAV4 at your local Toyota dealer or visit toyota.com. See packages and options at toyota.com for feature availability.
Speaker 1I turned off news altogether. I hate to say it, but I don't trust much of anything.
Speaker 5It's the rage bait. It feels like it's trying to divide people.
Speaker 3We got clear facts. Maybe we can calm down a little. NBC News brings you clear reporting. Let's meet at the facts. Let's move forward from there. NBC News,
Speaker 2reporting
Speaker 3for America.
Speaker 2Now have a substack page. If you enjoy Unexplained and want to go deeper into the world of the show, I've created a new space for all the bits that don't quite fit into the podcast, including the Unexplained addendum, a weekly companion piece to each new episode. Expect essays that lean more academic and analytical, explorations of folklore, psychology, and the shadowy corners of history that have shaped the stories you hear on the show. But it's also a home for something more personal, my fiction, my strange amusings, and the odd fragments, that don't belong anywhere else. Search for Richard McLean-Smith on Substack or go to richardmcleansmith.substack.com to find out more and subscribe. If you'd like a little bit more of me and Unexplained in your week, join me on Substack and let's keep exploring the unknown together. New writing most Tuesdays. Substack It was a glorious autumn day in Sydney, Australia, as Narcisse Young leant on the rail overlooking the indoor saltwater swimming pool near Coogee Beach. Young worked at the Sydney Morning Herald, but on Anzac Day, April 25th, 1935, he was taking some time out to enjoy the busy public holiday. Earlier, the pool had been bustling with visitors, although no one was there to swim themselves. Now, as late afternoon sunshine slanted across the water, Young was one of only a few visitors left, staring at the reason why. A 14 and a half foot long tiger shark. There'd been eight shark attacks around Sydney in the past 12 months, six of them fatal. In one case, 17-year-old Frank Riley had his leg torn off at the hip by a shark that, as onlookers described, had shaken him back and forth like a dog shaking a rabbit. A beach inspector eventually managed to pull the horrifically injured Riley to shore, while fellow bathers beat the water to keep the shark at bay. But it was too late. The young man bled to death at the surf clubhouse, while a horrified public watched the shark cruising up and down the shallows in the bloodied water. Sydney's slaughterhouses and sewage system had been dumping their waste directly into the ocean, which seemed to be attracting tiger sharks as well as bull sharks. In the mid-1850s and mid-1850s, sharks were known to be the most popular swimming beaches of Manly, Bondi and Coogee. The public were equally terrified and fascinated, with many becoming increasingly eager to catch a glimpse of the so-called man-eating monsters. And so, with business being slow at Coogee's indoor swimming pool, its owner, Charlie Hobson, hatched a cunning plan to try and catch one and enlisted his brother Bert, an expert angler, to help. A week before Anzac Day, Bert and his son Ron put out baiting lines at Maroubra Point, a well-known shark hotspot just south of Coogee. The following morning, they found the head of a six-foot shark clenched onto one of the hooks. Tangled up alongside it was a much bigger tiger shark, which had evidently eaten most of the smaller shark but had itself been caught in the process. It was exactly what they were looking for, with the help of ropes and several other men, the shark offered no resistance as the Hobsons hauled it out of the water along the beach and finally lifted it into the swimming pool. After its 45-minute ordeal, the shark was barely alive. It remained that way for most of the day until a pump was brought in to aerate the water, at which point it seemed to perk up a little. But on top of the shock of being pulled out of the sea, and placed in the swimming pool, something clearly wasn't right with it. You're listening to Unexplained, and I'm Richard MacLean-Smith. A week after its capture, there'd been little improvement in the tiger shark's health. It was still despondent and barely eating, but it had certainly brought in the tourists. For Herald journalist, Narcisse Young, however, there was little to enjoy watching the thing edge listlessly from one side of the pool to the other. After watching it for 15 minutes, it was just about to leave when the shark suddenly began to swim frantically, bumping into the sides and thrashing its tail. After beating the water into a foam, the shark then suddenly swam around in a tight circle before sinking to the bottom of the pool. Young stared on enwrapped, as a cloudy plume of brown sludge rose up from the depths, then a terrible stench hit his nostrils. Emerging from out of the sludge, Young could see all manner of strange putrid things. Half a rat, chunks of fish, feathers even. But the strangest thing of all was the long, pale piece of meat that rose up in the centre of it all. A human arm. Sometimes called, sometimes called, the trash cans of the sea, tiger sharks have one of the most varied diets of all shark species. As well as eating a wide variety of marine creatures, thanks to the endless waste we produce, they've even been known to consume our rubbish. Thankfully, tiger sharks have a nifty way of dealing with anything their stomach doesn't quite agree with by pushing it out of its mouth to eject its contents in a feat known as gastric aversion. The stomachs of tiger sharks have on occasion been found to contain some very strange items. You might remember the scene in Jaws where a tiger shark is autopsied by a marine biologist played by Richard Dreyfuss. He finds a Louisiana State Vehicle license plate in its stomach. The scene is much closer to fact than fiction. Along with license plates, objects found in the stomach of tiger sharks have also included entire dogs with collars and legs. and leads still attached, fur coats, and even an entire suit of armour, including the helmet, according to one 16th century report. And of course, human body parts too have been found, much like the arm that appeared at the Coogee swimming pool on that strange day in April 1935. It had been a quiet Anzac day for detectives at the police station on the hill above Coogee Beach when the phone rang late in the afternoon. On being told what had just happened at the swimming pool, two officers were promptly dispatched to investigate. Arriving at the pool, they found Bert and Charlie Hobson attempting to clean up some of the stinking debris. With their help, the officers fished the arm out of the water. There were several striking things about it. It was deemed to have belonged to a man and was in a remarkably good state of preservation considering where it had come from, so good that the fingerprints were still clearly visible. It also bore a striking tattoo just below the forearm, two boxers facing each other, outlined in blue and wearing red boxing shorts. There was one other curious feature, a length of rope had been tied around the wrist. Once the detectives established unequivocally that the arm had come out of the shark and hadn't just been thrown into the tank at some other time, an officer was sent for from the fingerprint branch. He delicately cut the skin from the fingertips and took it away for identification. The following day, at the morgue down at Sydney's Circular Quay, the arm was examined in greater detail. A pungent blend of formaldehyde fumes and brotting flesh hung heavily in the air. Oblivious, or perhaps accustomed to the unpleasant odours, Dr Arthur Palmer, an experienced government medical officer, along with a shark bite specialist, bent over the severed arm and peered closely at its broken and mangled skin. It had been assumed that the unfortunate owner of the arm had fallen victim to yet another shark attack. There were numerous small puncture wounds, which had likely been made by the tiger shark when it ate the arm. But as Palmer and the bite expert pored over the wound where the arm had been torn from the body, both agreed there were none of the ragged tears or bite marks you'd expect to find from a shark attack. What they found instead was the arm had been sliced off cleanly with a single-bladed implement, meaning it had been removed before it ended up as chum. It was later discovered later speculated that the arm had likely been eaten first by the smaller shark that the Hobson brothers caught before that and its stomach contents were in turn eaten by the larger tiger shark. To help identify the man to whom the arm had once belonged, police put out a description of the distinctive tattoo in the press and ran the prints through their database. It didn't take long to get a result. Being a receptionist
Speaker 6is one of the hardest jobs out there. You have to be an expert for hundreds of people every day and you have to do a million things at once. No wonder more small businesses are saving costs by outsourcing their front desk. But replacing them with an AI answering service? That's one giant step in the wrong direction. We're Ruby and we believe in the lost art of the overachieving receptionist. We answer every call live. We schedule, take messages, call to confirm details, and so much more. Because only a human can connect with another human. And instead of turning our back on AI, we customized our own. Automating tasks, pulling up relevant information instantly, and so much more. So we can spend all of our time making connections. Experience Ruby for yourself right now. Call 866 GetRuby or visit ruby.com
Speaker 2The Hulu original series Phony is coming to Hulu and Hulu on Disney Plus October 20th. Sonny's life is pretty great until he wakes up from a car accident to a world that looks exactly like his with one exception, his mom. To everyone else, she's the same Ellen they've known their whole lives. But for Sonny, he knows something is off. As his relationship with his mother begins to crack in unsettling ways, he's forced to question what happens when the perfect mom becomes a perfect stranger. Is this all in his head? Or is there really an imposter in his house? Starring five-time Emmy nominee Carly Britton and Sam Nivola, this small town is hiding the mother of all mysteries just beneath the surface. Watch the Hulu original series Phony on October 20th. Streaming on Hulu and Hulu on Disney Plus for bundle subscribers.
Speaker 7Terms apply. Ryan Reynolds here from Mint Mobile with a message for everyone paying big wireless way too much. Please, for the love of everything good in this world, stop. With Mint, you can get premium wireless for just $15 a month. Of course, if you enjoy overpaying, no judgments, but that's weird. Okay, one judgment. Anyway, give it a try at mintmobile.com slash switch.
Speaker 8Upfront payment of $45 for three-month plan equivalent to $15 per month required. Intro rate first three months only, then full price plan options available. Taxes and fees extra. See full terms at mintmobile.com. Lisa, we should tell them about our new show. Oh my God, Lexi, we have a new podcast. It's called Don't Lie to Me. I'm Lexi Iwanu. We're two best friends, 22 years apart, but so close at heart.
Speaker 9And I'm Lisa DiGiulio, the old one, which means we have wildly different references, occasionally different opinions. And at this point in my 50s, I've lived it all. I'm not going to get anywhere fighting. That is wild. I learned that about you today.
Speaker 8Now in my 30s, being the founder of new shoes, good taste is my business. And I've always got something to say. I don't know what to say. And we're just honest about this.
Speaker 9There would be so much more peace in the world. We're going to talk about dating, relationships, beauty, getting older. And a little wiser. We're best friends, but we don't always agree. Because you told us how accommodating you are. Obviously, I would do what I think I could do to fight the fight, but there's only so much fight I can fight.
Speaker 8Don't lie to me. Don't lie to me. Don't lie to me. Liar. Listen on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. I don't really care.
Speaker 2In a modest cottage in a suburb in northern Sydney, a Mrs. Malloy recognised the description of the tattoo as one that her son-in-law also had. She rushed to tell her daughter Gladys, whose husband had been missing for three weeks. He'd supposedly gone to Cronulla, 15 miles south of Sydney, on a fishing trip with a friend, but had so far failed to return. At first, Gladys was in denial. Then her brother-in-law came to call. He'd already spoken to the investigators who'd shown him a photograph of the tattoo. He was adamant it was his brother. His and Gladys' worst fears were confirmed when the fingerprint check came back with a positive match too, because the arms owner had a police record. His name was James Smith, a 45-year-old from the suburb of Gladesville. Known to his family and acquaintances as Jim or Jimmy, the man had been a builder and a keen amateur boxer. More recently, he'd tried to invest in property, but had fallen on hard times. He'd been fingerprinted three years earlier after being charged with a minor offence. Those records also contained a description of the tattoo on his left arm. Two boxers, outlined in blue, wearing red boxing shorts. But this was no simple case of a man falling overboard while fishing, then being attacked and partly eaten by a shark. The events that had led to the arm being in the shark's stomach had begun many months earlier. In the early pre-dawn light, one April morning the previous year, a mile offshore from Terrigal, a small fishing town on the central coast of New South Wales, a small fishing town on the central coast of New South Wales, a man glanced around the beautiful yacht he was aboard. He took in the pathfinder's fine lines, polished walnut interiors, and bespoke furniture for one last time. Then, as the yacht bobbed gently in the water, he went below decks with a hammer and smashed the toilet's water pipes. A little while later, the pathfinder was low in the water and listing heavily to one side. Wishing that the yacht would sink a little faster, the man climbed into the dinghy he'd prepared when out of the dawn gloom, a ship loomed. It was a coal transporter bound for Sydney. When its skipper spotted the stricken yacht, he drew his ship closer and called out to the man in the small dinghy who seemed to be rowing away from it towards shore. He asked if he needed any help, but the man just kept rowing and didn't reply. Perplexed, the coal ship's captain continued on to Sydney, where later that day, he reported the incident to the police. As he tried to get away, the man in the dinghy cursed his bad luck. Being seen leaving the yacht was not part of his plan. As he rowed, his muscles flexed, rippling the skin which on his left arm bore a singular tear. Two boxers facing each other, outlined in blue and wearing red boxing shorts. The man was of course James Smith. Jim had fallen in with a shady Sydney-based boat builder and speedboat racer called Reginald Holmes. He'd become involved in criminal activities, including using boats to coordinate drug drops off the coast of Sydney. The plan for this latest venture that he'd undertaken for Holmes was to sink the Pathfinder and claim it was an accident in order to collect the insurance money for it, but things were not going to plan. As Smith continued to row, a strong wind from the southeast picked up, and with it came a heavy swell. It took all of Jim's strength and four exhausting hours to make it to shore. Staggering into Terrigal Police Station to report his concocted story of how the Pathfinder had sunk, Smith made a serious error. Perhaps because he was so tired, instead of concealing the name of the yacht's owner, he asked a policeman to dial the owner's number for him, then immediately called him Mr. Holmes when he picked up. A short time later, the police were alerted to the report made by the coal ship captain, along with an inquiry from a shipping insurance company about the suspicious sinking of a yacht they'd just received a claim on. Joining the dots, the police called Reginald Holmes and his business partner. Albert Stanart, who also had a boat building business on Sydney Harbour, in for questioning. Jim Smith was questioned too. Charges of attempting to defraud the insurance company were eventually dropped, but Smith's relationship with Holmes had soured. Determined to push on with his criminal activities, Smith turned to the man who seemed to be his one remaining friend, Patrick Paddy Brady, who he described to his wife as Australia's cleverest forger. Brady invited Smith to join him on his next criminal venture. A convoluted scheme that involved using the Pathfinder sinking scam to blackmail money from Reginald Holmes. Brady would forge cheques that appeared to have been issued by Holmes, and Holmes felt that he had no choice but allow them to be cashed, terrified that the investigation into his insurance scam would be reopened if he didn't comply. But Brady got greedy. As well as confronting Holmes directly to extort more money from him, Paddy Brady brought a third small-time crook into the mix, a man named Stanley Watson. Watson was soon caught and identified in a police line-up as the person cashing the forged cheques. Watson soon came to his senses, and he was told that he had been caught by a man named Stanley Watson. Watson soon came to suspect, with good reason, that he had been shopped. As it turned out, in exchange for immunity from prosecution in the scuttling of the Pathfinder, James Smith had become a police informant. The next few months were a dangerous time for Smith. When Watson was convicted of forgery and sentenced to three years hard labour, news of the botched Pathfinder job, along with rumours that Smith might now be a police informant, spread through Sydney's criminal underworld. One night, Smith came home drunk, bleeding from a head wound that was bad enough to need stitches. His wife Gladys asked what had happened, only for Smith to claim that he'd fallen and cut himself on a broken bottle. But Gladys wasn't convinced. A few days later, on April 7th, 1935, James Smith walked his wife down the street to where she caught the tram to work, he told her he was going to Cronulla, in South Sydney, for a week, to stay at a cottage that Paddy Brady had rented for them both. They planned to go fishing, he said. Then he and Gladys said their goodbyes, and waved to each other as Gladys' tram trundled away. It was the last time that Gladys would ever see her husband. Later that afternoon, Paddy and Jim were seen drinking in the bar at Cronulla Cecil Hotel. The next day, a taxi driver was hailed by a dishevelled-looking man, who seemed to be strangely on edge. The man asked the driver to wait for him outside a second-hand furniture store before emerging a few minutes later with a large metal trunk and a mattress. The driver was then instructed to deliver the man to the cottage where he was staying. A day or so later, the landlord of the cottage that Paddy Brady had rented for himself and James came to inspect the property. The driver said, and get it ready for his next set of guests. Weirdly, he found that the mattress had been replaced, and the walls scrubbed scrupulously clean. When James Smith's arm was found, Paddy Brady was immediately brought in for questioning.
Speaker 6Don't ask. Oh, boy, this is tight. I knew I shouldn't have had that extra helping of mashed potatoes last night. Now let's say your phone rings. Uh-oh. It could be a lead on a very big job. I better get that. Or it could just be a spam call. Oh. But thanks to Ruby's call screening and seamless integration with the CRM system you already use, by the time you come up for air, your next job will already be waiting. Oh. This is Ruby, the team of remote receptionists who answer all your calls live. We do everything a great receptionist does, only better. Experience the new Ruby for yourself. Visit ruby.com, or better yet, call us.
Speaker 2866-GET-RUBY. The Hulu original series, Phony, is coming to Hulu and Hulu on Disney+, October 20th. Sonny's life is pretty good. Pretty great. Until he wakes up from a car accident to a world that looks exactly like his. With one exception. His mum. As his relationship with his mother begins to crack in unsettling ways, he's forced to question what happens when the perfect mum becomes a perfect stranger. Watch the Hulu original series, Phony, on October 20th. Streaming on Hulu and Hulu on Disney+, for bundle subscribers.
Speaker 7Terms apply. Ryan Reynolds here for Mint Mobile. I don't know if you knew this, but anyone can get the same premium wireless for $15 a month plan that I've been enjoying. It's not just for celebrities. So do like I did and have one of your assistant's assistants switch you to Mint Mobile today. I'm told it's super easy to do. At mintmobile.com slash switch. Upfront payment of $45 for three-month plan, equivalent to $15 per month required. Intro rate first three months only. Then full price plan options available.
Speaker 8Oh my God, Lexi. We have a new podcast. I'm Lexi Iwanu.
Speaker 9And I'm Lisi DiGiulio, the old one. Which means we have. Wildly different references, occasionally different opinions. That is wild.
Speaker 8If men were just honest about this, there would be so much more peace in the world.
Speaker 9We're going to talk about dating, relationships, beauty, getting older, and a little wiser. We're best friends. But we don't always agree. Obviously, I would do what I think I could do to fight the fight. But there's only so much fight I can fight.
Speaker 8Don't lie to me. Don't lie to me. Don't lie to me. Liar. I don't really care.
Speaker 2Under police interrogation, Paddy Brady wove an elaborate story, which implicated Reginald Holmes in Smith's disappearance. Brady claimed that after dealings between the two men had turned sour, Holmes decided to do away with Smith. But having by then identified Brady as the man who Smith had stayed with in Cronulla, and who'd also taken a taxi to buy the replacement mattress, the police surmised that he had murdered Smith in the rental property, and had been forced, to replace the bed to cover his tracks. On May 19th, despite no sign of Smith's body, save for his arm, Paddy Brady was charged with his murder. But the police still wanted to speak to Reginald Holmes. Early the following day, a dense fog hung over Sydney Harbour. Around 7am, Reginald Holmes, dressed in an overcoat, went down to Stannard's Wharf, and borrowed a small speedboat from a man named Hart. Hart was on his way to the harbour, but he was told that Holmes was drunk, but was happy to let him take the boat. With that, Holmes gunned the engines and sped off into the harbour, before coming to a standstill, just offshore from a place called Piper Point. As the fog slowly lifted, with curls of it drifting across the water, Holmes cut the engine, then pulled a half-empty bottle of brandy from his overcoat pocket, and gulped down its remaining contents. Then he took a revolver out of another pocket, pointed it at his forehead, and pulled the trigger. The sharp crack of the trigger the gunshot resounded through the mist, followed by a loud splash as Holmes tumbled over the side. For a moment there was nothing but an eerie silence, then frantic splashing sounds came from beside the speedboat as Holmes is thrashing arms, then his head breached the water's surface. He had survived his suicide attempt. The gun had been loaded with cheap nickel-based bullets, and the shot hadn't been strong enough to penetrate bone. Instead, the bullet had become embedded in Holmes' forehead. Immersion in the freezing water had brought the stunned man back to consciousness. After hauling himself back into the boat, Reginald Holmes sat dazed, sopping wet and cold with a terrible headache. His acquaintance Hartz, who happened to be out in one of his workboats, noticed the speedboat bobbing on the water in the distance. Drawing closer, he was shocked to see Holmes hunched over the wheel, bleeding profusely from a head wound and only semi-conscious. Taking the speedboat in tow, Hartz returned to the wharf, where he jumped out and hurried to the local water police to get help. Holmes had remained throughout, slumped at the wheel of the speedboat, but when he saw the police approaching, he sprung into action and took off across the harbour at speed. The water police followed in hot pursuit. For four hours, the police chased Holmes around Sydney Harbour. Onlookers watched amazed as the fugitive crouched over the wheel with blood streaming from his head, twisted and turned his speedboat in and out of bays and coves, dodging buoys and jetties. Several times he made sharp u-turns and sped toward the police at the speedboat, full throttle, as if about to ram them, seemingly convinced that he could evade them with his superior skills. And perhaps he might have, had he not run out of fuel. When he was finally apprehended, Holmes was interrogated for three hours with the bullet still lodged in his head. His account of events over the previous weeks were very different to Paddy Brady's. According to Holmes, during that time that Brady had relentlessly blackmailed and threatened him, on the morning of April 9th, Holmes alleged that Brady turned up at his office with a canvas bag and told him to look inside it. When he did, he saw that it contained James Smith's severed arm. Claiming that he'd killed Smith, Brady made it fairly obvious that if Holmes was not careful, he might end up the same way. This seemed to explain to the police why Holmes had tried to kill himself, to avoid the misery. of being tortured to death by Brady. Weighing the evidence, the police decided that Brady was the murderer and Holmes was released, on the condition that he would testify at the inquest into Smith's death and Brady's subsequent murder trial. But Reginald Holmes would never see the inside of the courtroom. On the afternoon of June 11th, Reginald Holmes visited his bank, where he withdrew £500 in cash, roughly 50,000 Australian dollars in today's money. That evening, he went out in his car. The next morning, the same day he was due to testify at the inquest, he was found dead in his car, from a gunshot to the head, fired at close range. Was it suicide, or had someone done the job for him? His withdrawal of the cash, the money, and the money were all he had. The money was all he had. Successfully made the case that for someone to be charged with murder, there had to be a body, not just an arm, and so the inquest was quashed. Brady was tried for the murder in September that year, but with no body and only circumstantial evidence to go on, he was acquitted. Then in November, based on fresh evidence, two new suspects were put on trial for Smith's murder. One of them was Albert Stannard, the long-time businessman, associate of Reginald Holmes. Like Holmes, he too was a wealthy boatbuilder, rumoured to be involved in insurance fraud and drug smuggling. He was charged with the murder, alongside John Patrick Strong, a docker who worked for him. But again, with little but circumstantial evidence, and still no body, they were also acquitted. To this day, no conclusive evidence about who killed James Smith or Reginald Holmes has been found. The only evidence that has been found is they remain two of Australia's most intriguing and longest unsolved cases. And both they, and exactly how James Smith's tattooed severed arm ended up in the stomach of a shark, seem destined to remain forever, unexplained. This episode was written by Diane Hope and produced by Richard McLean Smith. Thanks ever for listening. Unexplained is an AV Club Productions podcast created by Richard McLean Smith. All other elements of the podcast, including the music, are also produced by me, Richard McLean Smith. Unexplained the book and audiobook is now available to buy worldwide. You can purchase from Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Waterstones and other bookstores. Please subscribe to and rate the show wherever you get your podcasts and feel free to get in touch with any thoughts or ideas in the comments below. If you enjoyed this episode, please give it a thumbs up and subscribe regarding the stories you've heard on the show. Perhaps you have an explanation or a story of your own you'd like to share. You can find out more at unexplainedpodcast.com and reach us online through X and Blue Sky at UnexplainedPod and Facebook at facebook.com forward slash unexplainedpodcast. We'll see you next time. Unexplained Podcasts Unexplained Podcasts
Speaker 10Unexplained Podcasts Unexplained Podcasts shaping you stay in control giving direction and choosing the final output. Put ChatGPT to work on your most ambitious ideas and projects. Get started at ChatGPT.com by selecting work mode. Available on Plus and Pro plans.
Speaker 1There are exciting things happening at your local CVS. Shop new extra big deals with ExtraCare every two weeks. No coupon needed. Plus, get access to exclusive sale prices, personalized deals, and more as a member. ExtraCare is the way to save at CVS. Join for free online or in-store and start saving. Visit your local CVS store or cvs.com slash extra big deals for this week's deals. We know kids don't hold
Speaker 11back, and I wouldn't want them to. Get in there, make a mess, slide for home, bring on the stains. I've got OxyClean Versatile Stain Remover. It works on over a hundred stains, and it's America's number one stain fighter additive brand. It's color safe and chlorine free. So, I use it on whites, colors, and skin. It's a great way to save at CVS. and dark fabrics. And OxyClean isn't just for laundry. Mix it with water for use all around the house, kitchens, bathrooms, and even floors. When my kids go all in, I say go for it, because I've got OxyClean to get the stains out. It's not clean unless it's OxyClean.
Speaker 5These days, everybody's searching for ways to save on insurance. Scrolling comparison sites, digging through tips, chasing deals. But Liberty Mutual makes it simple. Liberty Mutual customizes your car and home insurance to save you money. And when you bundle, those savings really start to come through. It's insurance built for real people with a team that helps you keep what matters most, money, no hassle, just confidence that your coverage is customized with savings in mind. Get a quote at libertymutual.com or with your local independent
Speaker 1agent. Guaranteed human.

Podcast Summary

Key Points:

  1. In 1935 Sydney, Australia, a captured tiger shark regurgitated a human arm bearing a distinctive tattoo of two boxers.
  2. The arm was identified through fingerprints as belonging to James "Jim" Smith, a 45-year-old builder and amateur boxer with a police record.
  3. Forensic examination revealed the arm had been cleanly severed with a single-bladed implement, indicating murder rather than a shark attack.
  4. Smith had become entangled in criminal schemes involving boat builder Reginald Holmes, including an insurance fraud plot to sink the yacht Pathfinder.
  5. Smith had turned police informant, and his associate Patrick "Paddy" Brady allegedly murdered him and used the severed arm to blackmail Holmes.
  6. Holmes attempted suicide by gunshot, survived, and was later found dead in his car from another gunshot before he could testify.
  7. Brady was charged with murder but acquitted because no body was found, and two other suspects were also acquitted.
  8. The murders of James Smith and Reginald Holmes remain unsolved, and how the arm ended up inside a shark is still unexplained.

Summary:

This episode of the Unexplained podcast recounts one of Australia's most bizarre unsolved cases. In April 1935, a tiger shark captured near Coogee Beach in Sydney regurgitated a severed human arm bearing a distinctive tattoo of two boxers. Fingerprints identified the arm as belonging to James "Jim" Smith, a builder and amateur boxer who had been missing for weeks. Forensic analysis revealed the arm had been cleanly severed with a blade, proving Smith was murdered rather than killed by a shark.

Investigations uncovered a tangled web of criminal activity. Smith had been involved with boat builder Reginald Holmes in an insurance fraud scheme to sink the yacht Pathfinder. After Smith became a police informant, he partnered with forger Patrick "Paddy" Brady, who allegedly murdered Smith and used the severed arm to blackmail Holmes. Holmes attempted suicide, survived a gunshot to the head, and was later found dead in his car before he could testify at the inquest. Brady was charged with murder but acquitted due to lack of a body. Two other suspects were also acquitted. The murders of Smith and Holmes remain unsolved, and how the arm ended up inside a shark remains unexplained.

FAQs

Kewpie mayo uses only egg yolks, while most mayonnaise uses whole eggs. This gives it a richer, more umami flavor that is smoother and almost buttery.

The 2026 RAV4 features bold standout style, intuitive tech inside, and now has hybrid power as standard. It offers efficiency without needing to plug in.

It is a weekly companion piece to each new episode of the Unexplained podcast. It includes more academic and analytical essays, explorations of folklore, psychology, and history, as well as personal fiction and strange amusings.

A captured tiger shark regurgitated a human arm in the pool. The arm had a distinctive tattoo of two boxers and was later identified as belonging to James Smith.

James Smith was a builder and amateur boxer involved in criminal activities, including insurance fraud. His arm was severed, likely by Patrick Brady, and then eaten by a smaller shark, which was in turn eaten by a larger tiger shark.

Reginald Holmes was a boat builder and associate of James Smith. He attempted suicide by shooting himself but survived, and was later found dead in his car from a gunshot to the head before he could testify at an inquest.

Chat with AI

Loading...

Pro features

Go deeper with this episode

Unlock creator-grade tools that turn any transcript into show notes and subtitle files.