© Copyright 2011 Julianne Dodds
Speedboat and hydroplane Championships
1921 - 1925
Reg Holmes and The Shark Arm Murder
Behind the history of Mac’s involvement with hydroplanes, there lies a mystery of murder and intrigue
– a notorious, gruesome crime that has never been solved.
In 1935 the aforementioned Reg Holmes, builder of Mac’s speedboats Miss Brisbane and Miss
Coorparoo, became one of the subjects in a notorious, unsolved mystery – ‘The Shark Arm Murder’.
Holmes tested his fast speedboats by running them out to sea and back. In 1933 he had bought the
powerful, seagoing yacht Pathfinder, built by Norman Wright in Brisbane.
For more than 20 years a big Australian smuggling organization had had its headquarters in Sydney.
The smugglers' boats cruised up and down the coast north of Sydney and picked up contraband and
narcotics dumped from ships. James Smith was a Sydney billiards saloon marker, SP bookmaker and
ex-employee of a Reg Holmes. He sported a distinctive tattoo on his left arm and was associated with
well-known Sydney waterfront identities.
A huge shark was captured and taken to Coogee Aquarium in April 1935. As a reporter was leaning
over the rail watching the shark, the monster began to thresh the water. When the water cleared, the
man saw the human arm with about a yard of rope tied to the wrist. Police came to a grisly conclusion;
the tattooed arm had not been bitten off. It was the work of a knife or a scalpel carried out with extreme
violence. After the arm had been identified, Reg Holmes came forward and told detectives that a man
named John Patrick Brady had murdered Smith, cut up his body and dumped the remains, in a
weighted tin trunk, off Port Hacking. Brady had threatened Holmes' life if he 'dobbed' him in.
In May 1939, police were notified that a lunatic was careering around the harbour in a speed boat,
his face covered in blood. They found Reg Holmes with blood pouring from a wound on his forehead.
He said that a man in another boat had shot him. Holmes survived this ordeal but was found dead,
three weeks later, under Sydney Harbour Bridge. He had been shot three times. With their chief
witness now dead, police were never able to solve the case of .....
Speedboat and hydroplane Championships
1921 - 1925
Reg Holmes and The Shark Arm Murder
Behind the history of Mac’s involvement with hydroplanes, there lies a mystery of murder and intrigue
– a notorious, gruesome crime that has never been solved.
In 1935 the aforementioned Reg Holmes, builder of Mac’s speedboats Miss Brisbane and Miss
Coorparoo, became one of the subjects in a notorious, unsolved mystery – ‘The Shark Arm Murder’.
Holmes tested his fast speedboats by running them out to sea and back. In 1933 he had bought the
powerful, seagoing yacht Pathfinder, built by Norman Wright in Brisbane.
For more than 20 years a big Australian smuggling organization had had its headquarters in Sydney.
The smugglers' boats cruised up and down the coast north of Sydney and picked up contraband and
narcotics dumped from ships. James Smith was a Sydney billiards saloon marker, SP bookmaker and
ex-employee of a Reg Holmes. He sported a distinctive tattoo on his left arm and was associated with
well-known Sydney waterfront identities.
A huge shark was captured and taken to Coogee Aquarium in April 1935. As a reporter was leaning
over the rail watching the shark, the monster began to thresh the water. When the water cleared, the
man saw the human arm with about a yard of rope tied to the wrist. Police came to a grisly conclusion;
the tattooed arm had not been bitten off. It was the work of a knife or a scalpel carried out with extreme
violence. After the arm had been identified, Reg Holmes came forward and told detectives that a man
named John Patrick Brady had murdered Smith, cut up his body and dumped the remains, in a
weighted tin trunk, off Port Hacking. Brady had threatened Holmes' life if he 'dobbed' him in.
In May 1939, police were notified that a lunatic was careering around the harbour in a speed boat,
his face covered in blood. They found Reg Holmes with blood pouring from a wound on his forehead.
He said that a man in another boat had shot him. Holmes survived this ordeal but was found dead,
three weeks later, under Sydney Harbour Bridge. He had been shot three times. With their chief
witness now dead, police were never able to solve the case of .....