02 | Florence | A murder still unsolved

In a shocking and brutal end to a colourful life, Australian wallpaper designer Florence Broadhurst was murdered in her Paddington studio on the 15th of October, 1977. So who was suspected of this crime and why is the case still unsolved to this day? Please listen with care - this episode contains graphic content. Guests: Tony Russell – Former NSW Police officer Helen O’Neill – Journalist and author, Florence Broadhurst: her secret and extraordinary lives Mark Whittaker – Journalist and author, Granny killer: the story of John Glover Babette Hayes OAM – Interior designer Vincent Jones – VP Sales & Licensing, Asia-Pacific, Centa IP David Lloyd-Lewis – Grandson of Florence Broadhurst Credits: Producer – Zoe Ferguson Engineer – Simon Branthwaite Executive Producer – Michelle Rayner

• 0:00Speaker 00

  ABC Listen, podcasts, radio, news, music and more.

• 0:10Speaker 01

  Online, it feels like the answer is always yes. Yes to cookies, yes to tracking, yes to data sharing. I'm Ray Johnston and in Opt Out, I find out what happens when you finally say no. Opt Out, a special series on Download This Show, ABC Radio National. To hear it, search for Download This Show wherever you get your podcasts or hear it on the ABC Listen app.

• 0:38Speaker 02

  In a shocking and brutal end to a colourful life, Australian wallpaper designer Florence Broadhurst was murdered in her Paddington studio on the 15th of October 1977. Florence was a force majeure. She lived many lives, but it was her wallpaper business she started in her 60s that left its indelible mark on Australian design history. Her designs are now global and they're on walls, rugs, fashion, the list goes on. But her murder is still unsolved to this day.

• 1:14Speaker 03

  I'm the guy that found her. It was a shock.

• 1:17Speaker 04

  I don't feel that the investigation was very thorough.

• 1:22Speaker 03

  All the evidence disappeared.

• 1:24Speaker 04

  It appeared that Florence had known her killer. Obviously was someone who felt a lot of hate and anger.

• 1:35Speaker 02

  Hi, I'm Zoe Ferguson and on Rewind Today, part two of the life and death of Florence Broadhurst. If you haven't heard part one, I highly recommend you stop here and go back and have a listen. In this episode, we meet Florence's grandson to talk about her legacy.

• 1:53Speaker 05

  The legacy of Florence Broadhurst, I think, is far beyond just design or just entrepreneurism.

• 2:00Speaker 02

  And a heads up that this episode contains some graphic content.

• 2:06Speaker 02

  Florence Broadhurst was charismatically fearless in everything she did. She was a cabaret performer during the roaring twenties. She opened a finishing school in Shanghai, became a French dressmaker in London, then an aristocratic English lady and entrepreneur back home in Australia. She lived many lives.

• 2:27Speaker 04

  Florence, this is a really unusual life story. You have this kaleidoscope of colour and energy. She saw life in a different light, I think.

• 2:35Speaker 02

  But it was Florence's final reinvention that really defined her. And that was her luxury, hand-printed wallpaper business that she started at the age of 60. Her company's output has been described as one of the most creative to ever come out of Australia, making over 500 designs, ranging from tapestries to geometric, psychedelics and florals.

• 2:58Speaker 04

  Because she was like a flame. It was as though nothing could extinguish her, but something did, and no one knows why.

• 3:07Speaker 06

  Police today said they were carrying out routine investigations.

• 3:10Speaker 07

  On October 15, 1977, Florence Broadhurst was murdered.

• 3:14Speaker 06

  Apparently, the assailant walked into the building through the open door. Mrs Broadhurst usually left the door open so clients could drop in.

• 3:23Speaker 02

  The morning after her murder, Paddington Police got a call from a concerned neighbour of Florence's.

• 3:30Speaker 03

  The neighbour had expressed concern for Florence Broadhurst in a factory as the front doors left open all night and the lights were on. He asked us to attend to check on her welfare. My name is Anthony Thomas Russell. My rank in 1977 was probationary constable in the New South Wales Police Force stationed at Paddington. We hopped in the truck and we drove down to Ralston Street. Sergeant Liam Brogan and I went inside. Inside the factory, it was decided I'll check downstairs, he will go upstairs. After I finished searching the factory, I was coming back around towards the staircase.

• 4:12Speaker 03

  And there's a back door that leads out into a laneway behind the factory. Now I noticed the back door's just a little bit open, but just inside the back door is a plastic bucket, about a 20 litre bucket, and in that bucket was a lump of four B two timber. It was something probably about half a metre long, but when I pulled the lump of timber out of the bucket, there was a red substance on the end of this timber. And I thought, okay, that looks a bit odd. I think to myself, I'll just leave that there for now, we'll come back to that.

• 4:45Speaker 03

  So I wandered upstairs to where Sergeant Lambrogan was. The sergeant said he'd checked around the office. And as you walk up the stairs, the desk was on the left hand side, and there was a kitchenette on the right hand side, and a little hallway on the right hand side that led down to the toilet. And in that hallway, there is a lot of windows. One of those windows had been left open overnight. And so we thought the wet carpet that was evident in the hallway was due to the rainfall overnight. Anyway, we looked around and we decided we'd go because there was nothing to see. And that's when I felt the urge to go on his to loop. So I said to him as I'm heading down the hallway, have you searched in the toilet? And he said, no. And so I've got the toilet at the end

• 5:30Speaker 03

  of the hallway, and the door's a bit stiff. And so I pushed on it, stuck my shoulder into it a little bit and give it a hit. And Florence's body, from her waist down, was behind the door at that stage. And she was slumped over the toilet. Her head was in the bowl. Her right arm was around the, like, around the top of the bowl. And I suppose the most memorable experience about that was Florence's hair was bright red. So with the water and the bright red hair, it looked like it was just a mass, a matter of blood.

• 6:12Speaker 02

  That would have been really confronting to walk in on?

• 6:15Speaker 03

  It was, it was a shock and that's an understatement. I quickly left, I basically walked out, I was in shock, I needed fresh air because I was going on the faint. And I walked out and Sergeant Liam Brogan seen my face and he said, "Are you all right?" And I said, "No, she's in the toilet, she's dead."

• 6:36Speaker 03

  From that point on, it was a matter of calling homicide detectives, so I know detectives from Paddington turned up. Homicide detectives turned up.

• 6:43Speaker 06

  Well, at this stage, we're appealing for any persons who may have been here on Saturday, purchasing goods, particularly in the afternoon hours, who may have seen somebody in the immediate vicinity.

• 7:00Speaker 03

  And they said, "Look, they're going to leave me out of the investigation because they didn't want me involved in coroner's court, the morgue and all that, and statements and all that stuff." So, from that time on, I was basically deleted from the whole picture. I wasn't interviewed, there was no statements taken. As far as the investigation went, I wasn't even involved.

• 7:22Speaker 02

  Why? What was your reaction to that?

• 7:25Speaker 03

  I suppose at the time when they came and told me what was going on, I was in shock. There have been things said in the media, in books and whatever, about the state of the scene. I remember one detective, he said he had a step over debris and everything from the results of the struggle between Florence Broadhurst and the murderer. I can tell you now, the office upstairs was completely clean, there was no evidence of any struggle. We looked around, we didn't see any hearing aids on the floor as other people have quoted. There was no blood on the wall, as other people have quoted. It was a completely clean scene. The only thing was, was a body in the toilet. So, why was I cut out of the picture?

• 8:11Speaker 03

  Why wasn't there any statements taken? Was there a poor investigation, I suspect you'd say? This is one of those murders that should have been solved years ago. And they had the suspects, there was evidence, and it's just all gone by the way.

• 8:26Speaker 02

  Tony just mentioned the evidence from the crime scene, and we'll come back to that. He was in his first month on the force when he discovered Florence's body. The shock and trauma of it, along with other crimes he worked on, made their mark. And he left the force after a couple of years.

• 8:42Speaker 03

  I do remember the smell of death from the morgue. It just stays with you, you know, it's just a horrible smell. I'm still in contact with a lot of ex-police. And I'm thinking one of the lucky ones because I got out early and I see a lot of guys who are suffering depression, PTSD of course. A lot of guys deal with it, a lot of guys can't. So I got out in time to stop me going down that path. And my wife's helped me turn my life around, so.

• 9:12Speaker 02

  A few decades later though, Tony was drawn back to Florence's case. He was put in touch with writer Catherine Thompson, who was gathering information on Florence's murder. And she sent him a copy of the coroner's summary into Florence's death.

• 9:27Speaker 03

  Which is probably two weeks later, after her death. And I go, that's a bit quick. The investigation, if it's still going, would have been still going. How can they do a coroner's report?

• 9:37Speaker 02

  Remember that piece of timber Tony found in the tub downstairs? At the time, he thought the red on it could be paint, but it was actually blood and was found to be the murder weapon.

• 9:48Speaker 06

  It appeared that the deceased had been battered about the head with a piece of timber and an attempt had apparently been made to drown her by plugging the toilet pan with clothing, filling it with water and forcing the deceased's head into that water. There was no trace of water in the lungs and the doctor formed the opinion that death was due to the fractured skull and brain injury.

• 10:13Speaker 03

  And she was dead by this time. They've pushed her head down the toilet and this is why it looked like a murder that was very personal. And that was where all the water in the hallway came from, the toilet.

• 10:24Speaker 02

  Then there's the matter of the stolen money and jewellery.

• 10:27Speaker 06

  Injuries have revealed that the deceased had been wearing a total of seven finger rings and that this jewellery was of very substantial value. It seems that the jewellery was taken from the deceased by her assailant and at this time, none of it has been recovered.

• 10:44Speaker 02

  But Tony Russell thinks that was done as an afterthought to make it look like a burglary gone wrong.

• 10:50Speaker 03

  Yeah, I don't believe it was a robbery. I believe it was just a murder by someone who knew her. And they would have had a hatred, they must have hated her so bad. But it was very personal, it was very personal.

• 11:02Speaker 02

  And in that sense, you're on the same page as her son, Robert. He believes it was someone, potentially an employee or a former employee, someone who worked there, who had this altercation with her.

• 11:14Speaker 03

  I believe that. There was a lot of conflict with some of the employees. They've had a motive. They've got the opportunity and they knew the layout of the factory, so that was it.

• 11:27Speaker 02

  There are a few details about the crime scene that suggest the murderer did know Florence. It was a Saturday and Florence was working upstairs while some of her designers were working in the factory downstairs. It's believed that after lunchtime, the employees left for the day while Florence stayed.

• 11:45Speaker 06

  The deceased was last seen alive around 3.40pm on the 15th of October, 1977, when she was seen pulling down the blinds of the office by a nearby resident. Around 4.15pm, some prospective customers entered the office showroom, but they could find no person present, either there or in the factory area. And it would seem that at this time, the deceased was probably lying mortally injured in the toilet area.

• 12:17Speaker 04

  When the perpetrator left, they seemed to know enough about where the keys were to let themselves out in a certain way.

• 12:27Speaker 02

  That's Helen O'Neill, journalist and author of Florence Broadhurst: Her Secret and Extraordinary Lives.

• 12:34Speaker 04

  It stood out as a very unusual killing for a number of reasons. It was very, very brutal. It appeared after this frenzy of violence on poor Florence that her small, broken body had been posed around the crime scene in a very unusual way. So it didn't make sense to the police that it was just a robbery gone wrong. There seemed to be something else at play. They really wanted to solve this case, but they never managed to do it.

• 13:12Speaker 02

  Around 18 months after Florence's murder, police offered a reward of $10,000 for information. That's about $56,000 in today's money.

• 13:22Speaker 06

  In addition, His Excellency the Governor will be advised to extend a free pardon to any accomplice not being the person who committed the crime who first gives such information.

• 13:33Speaker 02

  That free pardon for information from an accomplice seems pretty extraordinary to me and shows just how desperate the police were for information in 1979. But the years go by and the case starts to collect dust. Then between 1989 and 1990, a number of elderly women are found murdered on Sydney's North Shore.

• 13:57Speaker 04

  Mossman has always been a suburb for the wealthy and elderly, and they're frightened. Frankly, I'm terrified.

• 14:06Speaker 02

  Six women, five of them in their 80s, had been bludgeoned or strangled to death. Glover closely fitted the pattern of a serial pillar, who showed no remorse for his victims and was in control.

• 14:18Speaker 06

  Well, it was a bit of a slow burn in that the first murder passed without much comment. But then it wasn't until November 1989, the better part of a year since the first murders, that there were two women killed in the space of 24 hours. It was something that nobody had ever seen before.

• 14:40Speaker 06

  Hi, I'm Mark Kudica. I'm a writer. And in 1992, I co-wrote with Les Kennedy a book called Granny Killer, about the life of John Wayne Glover.

• 14:50Speaker 02

  John Glover became known as the Granny Killer because he targeted elderly women. He was said to be charming, asking to help with their groceries before attacking them closer to their home or even inside their home.

• 15:03Speaker 06

  Well, he looked like your average person from the street. I mean, I guess a description I could use like someone's uncle, snowy white hair, middle-aged man. The man accused of being Sydney's North Shore serial killer allegedly murdered six elderly women because they resembled his mother-in-law.

• 15:20Speaker 02

  And he often left a signature at the crime scene. He would position the body in an unusual way after killing them with a sharp blow to the head. In November 1991, John Wayne Glover was found guilty of six murders and was sentenced to life imprisonment. But detectives believed Glover had committed more than those six murders.

• 15:41Speaker 06

  From the time of his conviction, police made it pretty clear that two more women on the central coast were possibly Glover's victims.

• 15:51Speaker 02

  When detectives were questioning him in prison about other potential crimes, Glover played games with them, almost like cat and mouse. One day, he sketched a picture of a building surrounded by trees. He told the detectives to look carefully because the answer to his unsolved crimes was hidden amongst the trees. Upon closer inspection of the drawing, detectives noticed a numeral amongst the branches. It was the number nine.

• 16:18Speaker 06

  That was in answer to the question of how many more are there? Make of it what you will, but was he perhaps indicating that there was a total of nine victims? Or that there were nine victims more?

• 16:29Speaker 02

  If it was a total of nine victims, it would mean the six on the North Shore plus the two on the central coast in the mid 1980s, leaving one more.

• 16:40Speaker 04

  John Glover targeted quite matriarchal elderly women. Florence absolutely falls into that category. Florence's crime scene, there were many similarities with Glover's modus operandi. He had a particular way of targeting people and then creating a tableau with the bodies.

• 17:04Speaker 02

  Some people think John Glover did kill Florence, but that doesn't align with the theory that it was a crime fuelled by personal animosity. There's a clue from the crime scene at the Paddington studio that suggests it wasn't John Glover who took Florence's life.

• 17:20Speaker 03

  There was two coffee cups on the table, so she must have known them.

• 17:24Speaker 04

  It appeared that Florence had known her killer. Or there were indications that they had a cup of tea.

• 17:31Speaker 02

  So Florence wouldn't have made John Glover tea if he'd walked into her studio off the street that Saturday. Not if he was a complete stranger. But it turns out, he wasn't.

• 17:44Speaker 04

  Glover had known Florence. He had been introduced to Florence Broadhurst by one of her employees at a wedding. One of Florence's designers got married and Florence, being very happy about this, designed the wedding dress, or the material at least for the wedding dress, and attended the wedding.

• 18:07Speaker 02

  John Glover was the half-brother of the groom's mother at that wedding.

• 18:11Speaker 04

  I was told by someone who attended the wedding where she met Glover in the late 1970s that they were attracted to each other like magnets and they spent a lot of time talking. Who knows? Who knows?

• 18:28Speaker 06

  What are the odds that an elderly woman even knows Australia's only killer of elderly women? And what are the odds that that person then gets murdered in very similar circumstances? I mean, there's no strong evidence, not enough evidence to put to a court of law, but on the balance of probabilities, it seems far more likely that it was him than anyone else.

• 18:54Speaker 02

  Retired detective Dennis O'Toole interviewed John Glover in prison about his connection to Florence. O'Toole was the one who arrested Glover in March 1990 at the scene of his last killing. But despite O'Toole's questioning, Glover denied ever knowing Florence.

• 19:11Speaker 04

  And Glover never mentioned this until it's pointed out to him that he'd been there. "Oh, yes, I suppose." He denied that he'd ever been to Florence's studio. And the detective pointed out to him that he'd had curtains on his wall from Broadhurst's studio. And again Glover said, "Oh, yes, I suppose I did." Every little piece of information was being wrung out of him. And all the time, the detective was thinking, "Well, these are coincidences, but they're really interesting kinds of coincidences."

• 19:46Speaker 02

  But before detectives could get a clear answer from Glover, in 2005, it was all over. Glover died by suicide in jail, even though he was meant to be on suicide watch.

• 20:03Speaker 01

  One of Australia's most notorious serial killers has died in jail. Investigating officers still believe that Glover may have been involved in other killings. We do believe that there are other crimes that have not come to light.

• 20:17Speaker 02

  So with John Glover's death, another lead went cold, and the case was put to one side. In 2021, the New South Wales Unsolved Homicide Team reviewed Florence's case. New South Wales Police explained to me that this is done regularly to make sure no evidence was missed at the time. Tony Russell, Helen O'Neill, and some of Florence's family members who I spoke to believe evidence did go missing.

• 20:44Speaker 02

  I asked New South Wales Police if they could confirm or deny this, but they said they couldn't comment because the murder investigation is still open.

• 20:52Speaker 03

  There has to be evidence somewhere. What about the police occurrence pads? What about the detectives would have taken notes? There have to be notes somewhere in the police records.

• 21:01Speaker 02

  But Helen O'Neill says that in her dealings with former detectives, they confirmed they couldn't find materials from the scene.

• 21:09Speaker 04

  I was told that it was one of about 400 cases being reassessed, but there had been no progress because detectives couldn't find the physical evidence collected at the time. A detective inspector told me, "I can't categorically say we don't have it, but we don't know where it is." And he did also tell me that without an admission of guilt, there was nothing they could do.

• 21:36Speaker 02

  Remember those two teacups found in Florence's Paddington studio? They're two items of key evidence that could today be tested for DNA.

• 21:46Speaker 04

  And O'Toole told me that a commander in his wisdom had said, "Oh, we don't need all these old exhibits", and had destroyed the old exhibits, including two of them, which were murder scenes. If only we had those exhibits now, because there was DNA. It's heartbreaking if that is the case, if the evidence had been bagged and tagged properly and held safely, that today's forensic methods might tell us who the killer is.

• 22:15Speaker 02

  With the alleged missing evidence and dwindling list of surviving suspects, it looks like Florence's murder will remain a mystery.

• 22:27Speaker 02

  In the decades following her murder, as the dust settled over the case, the same seemed to be happening to her design archive, and the name Florence Broadhurst was largely forgotten.

• 22:38Speaker 04

  Why, after she died, she disappeared from view so completely?

• 22:44Speaker 02

  That was until one day in the late 1990s. Screen printer David Lenny received an unexpected guest at Signature Prints. It was acclaimed fashion designer Akira Isogawa. He was on the hunt for a special design for some costumes.

• 23:01Speaker 07

  At the time, Akira Isogawa had a contract to do garments for the Sydney Dance Company, and he was having a terrible trouble. He just could not get what he wanted. I showed him a pile of papers that we had printed on the back of wallpaper. It was the first time that Broadhurst had been archived. And he started flipping these papers and he said, "These designs are amazing. May I use some in my couture?" And so the first design he used was a design called Chelsea. Four-coloured design, absolutely opulent, beautiful, beautiful design. And he put that into a collection and it sold like wildfire.

• 23:40Speaker 02

  And since then, Florence's designs have stepped back onto the international stage.

• 23:45Speaker 06

  Well, in case you hadn't noticed, the 70s are back in fashion.

• 23:49Speaker 01

  While Florence Broadhurst is long gone, her artistry lives on.

• 23:54Speaker 06

  The wallpaper designs of Australian Florence Broadhurst are in vogue once again, nearly three decades after her death.

• 24:00Speaker 01

  The wallpaper patterns are back in fashion and highly prized by international designers.

• 24:06Speaker 06

  From salons of New York and London to the restaurants and nightclubs of Sydney, her art reflects a life enriched by travel and adventure across three continents.

• 24:15Speaker 02

  Her wallpaper designs are being used by brands around the world.

• 24:19Speaker 00

  We do interior design, we fashion jewellery and scarves. We've got rugs, health and body, soaps and diffusers, wines, bedding and ceramics, stationery and journals, curtains in Japan.

• 24:32Speaker 02

  You get the idea. That's Vincent Jones. He's the Vice President of Asia Pacific and the Americas for Centre IP.

• 24:40Speaker 00

  She's a global licensing firm that looks after Florence Broadhurst licensing.

• 24:46Speaker 02

  And last year, Customs House in Sydney was covered in Broadhurst designs during the Vivid Light Festival, which Florence's son, Robert, travelled from Queensland to see.

• 24:56Speaker 00

  So we had Robert down with his wife, Annie, at Circular Key. And he actually had tears in his eyes, so it was, you know, very emotional for him. And he said Florence would have been very happy to have seen her designs on Customs House.

• 25:10Speaker 02

  I remember seeing that too, and hearing passersby say how beautiful the designs were. It showed me how timeless they are, how they can reach new audiences more than half a century after they were created. How do you think people stumble across her story? Because some people you meet, they have no idea who she is.

• 25:27Speaker 00

  It's quite interesting of the people that we work with from the licensing partners, a lot of young people within their design departments know of Florence and they all go, oh, we studied Florence at design school.

• 25:42Speaker 02

  And that's how I learned about Florence, through my sister Laura when she was studying interior design. We fell in love with Florence's works. We've got prints on our walls. I even have one design inked on my arm. And it turns out, so does Florence's grandson, David Lloyd Lewis.

• 25:58Speaker 05

  From, I guess from my collarbone down to my elbow is, is covered in curly swirls. There was something about it that resonated with me. My name's David Lloyd Lewis. I am the second youngest grandchild of Florence Broadhurst. I think from a pretty early age, I recall being, you know, at my dad's house and seeing these kind of portraits on the wall of this really interesting looking lady with this fiery red hair. And there was always the curiosity there as to who this person was.

• 26:29Speaker 02

  I was thinking of an analogy for how she saw the world. And I know it sounds a bit naff, but I'd like your reaction to it. But it's almost like she saw life in colour. Because similar to her designs, you know, she said Australia was afraid of colour. She wanted to colour the nation. What do you think about that connection between her designs and her perspective on life?

• 26:51Speaker 05

  I think it's a great take. This is a colourful character. I mean, there's a reason that it continues to, you know, not only does the designs, but Florence's life story continued to resonate and connect with people, right? And it's because it's, it's anything but dull, it's anything but monotone. It's, you know, it's colourful and it's bold.

• 27:09Speaker 00

  You know, she was, I suppose you would consider today a bit eccentric, but she was an artist.

• 27:18Speaker 07

  You're sometimes regarded as eccentric. I wouldn't be surprised. Well, people may be thought eccentric simply because you don't happen to understand them. I think if they find you different, they put a name to it.

• 27:31Speaker 04

  A legacy that I feel she should have, that isn't quite there yet, is of a real female pioneer, of someone who was genuinely ahead of their time, who just didn't stop. Almost like a creative fury that she managed to control and turn into something that now everybody can enjoy.

• 27:52Speaker 02

  Despite her larger-than-life legacy and revitalised design archive, Florence's family still lives with the pain of her unsolved murder almost 50 years on.

• 28:03Speaker 05

  Our story is one that has been surrounded by trauma and grief. I often wonder whether or not my grandmother was aware of that fearlessness and courage that she portrayed, or whether that was actually bred out of survival. As I've grown to understand my grandmother's story from different perspectives, you've got a very deeply thoughtful and complex character at the heart of the story.

• 28:30Speaker 02

  This has been part two in our series about the life and death of acclaimed wallpaper designer Florence Broadhurst. If you didn't catch episode one, find it on the ABC Rewind podcast feed. Thanks to everyone who spoke with me for this series. It was written and produced by me, Zoe Ferguson. The sound engineer was Simon Branthwaite.

• 28:57Speaker 00

  You've been listening to an ABC Podcast. Discover more great ABC Podcasts, live radio and exclusives on the ABC Listen app.