Captured: Portraits of Crime 1870-1930 - Flipbook - Page 109
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L O N G B AY
GAO L
B U T I L OV E D H E R
Harold Collins
MANSL AUGHTER
Harold Collins, a 29 year old sleeper cutter from Cooma, was photographed at the State
Penitentiary, Long Bay on 4 December 1925 the day after he was found guilty of the
manslaughter of his wife Mollie Lawrence.
War, deception and a complicated marriage underpinned the killing of Mollie
Lawrence. Harold Collins was a First World War veteran who served in Gallipoli. He was
wounded when a bullet broke his jaw, carried away half his nose and exited near his
ear. After a series of hospital stays in Malta and Cairo, Collins returned to Sydney
on 13 March 1916. He was discharged from the Australian Imperial Force in November and
required regular operations and monthly radium treatments for his war injuries. After
the War, Collins worked as an attendant at Randwick Military Hospital and later as a
nightwatchman on the City Railway.
Mollie Lawrence (nee Law) had married an Australian soldier, Albert Lawrence,
in Blackpool, UK, in 1918. She came to Sydney in early 1921 with another soldier,
William Draper, who pretended to be her husband in order to dupe military authorities.
Mollie and Collins met on a train in March 1921 and the pair wed a few months later.
In mid-1922, Mollie and her real husband, Albert Lawrence, reunited in Sydney.
Collins was unaware that Mollie was already married. Bigamy charges were laid against
Mollie and she faced the courts in March 1923. Collins paid for Mollie’s defence. She
was found guilty of bigamy and bound over to appear for sentence if called upon within
twelve months. Newspaper reports of Mollie’s trial remarked on how both husbands
chatted amicably in court.
By early August 1925 Mollie and Collins’ relationship was in trouble. Mollie,
now ‘Marcia Collins’ told her friends that Collins’ behaviour was becoming
threatening. Threats turned to violence and on 26 August 1925 in Palmer Street,
Woolloomooloo, Collins shot Mollie three times at close range. It was just after 7pm.
The injured woman ran into a nearby fruit shop and collapsed. Collins followed and
struck her three times on the head. Mollie died in Sydney Hospital two days later.
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