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Barbeque, 115pm

Geoffrey Chandler

Geoffrey had been friends with Margaret Fowler for a number of years, whereas Bogle he knew only slightly. He had worked with Bogle on an experiment, but had met him socially only once or twice.

p.9. Chandler, G, 1969. So You Think I Did It?. Sun Books, Melbourne

Margaret Chandler

Margaret Chandler had spent much of the year (1962) at home, looking after her two young sons. Her husband Geoffrey was often absent, spending his leisure time drinking with friends from Sydney University's Libertarian Society. Geoffrey took Margaret to the CSIRO Christmas barbeque because he was feeling guilty about his neglect of her. He accepted Ken Nashes' party invitation for the same reason.

p.9. Chandler, G, 1969. So You Think I Did It?. Sun Books, Melbourne

Margaret Fowler

Margaret Fowler no longer worked at CSIRO, but she went to the Christmas barbeque to see her old work mates, in particular Gib Bogle. She had been having an affair with Gib on and off for three years. Gib had tried to call it off on several occasions, but she had told him "I will die if you do."
When a mutual friend told her that Bogle was leaving Australia. Margaret became hysterical and talked about killing herself with poison (she later described the poison as the medication Phenobarb).

pp.2 -3.Toohey, B, Wilkinsons, M, 1987. The Book of Leaks: Exposes in Defence of the Public's Right to Know. Angus & Roberston

Gib Bogle

Gib Bogle was the CSIRO's most 'brilliant' scientist. He had played a large part in the development of the maser, a precursor of the laser.

The CSIRO Christmas barbeque was also a farewell for Bogle. He was leaving in the new year to take up a research scholarship with Bell Laboratories in the US, an organisation working on US anti-satellite and anti-ballistic missile programs.

Barbeque, 230pm

Geoffrey Chandler

Chandler: I have heard Gib described as a 'fairly scintillating chap' and 'the life of any party'. He was an undoubted social success...When Gib and Margaret [Chandler] met there was instant rapport. They struck a spark, one off the other. In a way I was flattered... it is always gratifying to have one's choice in one's wife borne out by another man's attention to her.

p.10 & 11. Chandler, G, 1969. So You Think I Did It?. Sun Books, Melbourne

Margaret Fowler

Margaret Fowler later discussed the Murraybank party "ad nauseam" with her husband [Robert Fowler]...
He said she had gone on at great length about how Bogle and Margaret Chandler - who had met for the first time that day - had gone off into the bushes together and how her husband Geoffrey had not seemed to mind.
Fowler said to her husband, "I pity...Bogle if he's going to get mixed up with the Chandlers."

p.4 & 11. Toohey, B, Wilkinsons, M, 1987. The Book of Leaks: Exposes in Defence of the Public's Right to Know. Angus & Roberston

Bogle-Chandler: The Untold Story

One former senior detective, closely involved with the case, said, "I'm satisfied in my own mind that she [Margaret Fowler] did it. It never went out of my mind." He pointed to her affair with Bogle, and that "he'd wiped her" and to a report early in the case that said she was seen outside the Nashes' party on the morning of January 1

National Times, 1982

Barbeque, 330pm

Geoffrey Chandler

At the barbeque, Ken Nash gave the Chandlers an invitation to his New Year's Eve party.
Chandler: I knew...Ken Nash only slightly. He was in charge of photography at the CSIRO, worked just down the corridor from me... I have the impression that the Nashes liked to make rather elaborate plans for their parties, and the one that changed all our lives was not the first.

p.12. Chandler, G, 1969. So You Think I Did It?. Sun Books, Melbourne

Ken Nash

Gib was leaving for the United States in a few weeks, and Ken Nash said his party was "...a fitting occasion for him to bid adieu to his friends".

Ken invited the Chandlers for Gib's sake, as he hardly knew them. Ken told Geoffrey Chandler that each guest was "...expected to bring some 'artistic' object, and that, of course, men would be wearing jackets and ties".

p.6. The Sydney Morning Herald, May 8, 1963.

Barbeque, 415pm

Geoffrey Chandler

Chandler: As Margaret and I drove home...she was quiet but elated and I knew that some of this elation was caused by the fact that she had been admired by a man everyone regarded as especially charming and discriminating...
We talked about Gib, and how much Margaret liked him... I said, "If you want to have Gib as a lover, if it would make you happy, you do it."

p.12 - 13. Chandler, G, 1969. So You Think I Did It?. Sun Books, Melbourne

Margaret Chandler

Margaret Chandler told her husband that the thought of going to bed with Dr Bogle was attractive. According to Geoffrey, "...she put this in the same sort of way that one might describe a Rolls-Royce car".

p.1. The Sydney Morning Herald, May 23, 1963,

Bohemian Party

The Dr Bogle - Mrs Chandler case has drawn public attention to the existence of
'the push' - a large group of bohemian, libertarian, unorthodox, semi-beatnik people who have 'colonies' in various parts of Sydney.

Sunday Telegraph, 1963

Party, 9.30pm

Gib Bogle

Gib Bogle was the first guest to arrive at the party, at 9pm. He came alone to the party, as his wife Vivienne was at home caring for their sick baby.

Geoffrey Chandler

Margaret and Geoffrey were almost the last guests to arrive at the party at 9.20. Before arriving at the party they had dropped their children off at Margaret's parent's house in Granville.

p.14. Chandler, G, 1969. So You Think I Did It?. Sun Books, Melbourne

Leicester Cotton

Cotton: As guests came up the steps and into the hall bearing their exhibits... they were met by Ruth Nash. She promptly stuck a red paper star with a number on it to the exhibit and pinned a card in the shape of a pallette on the exhibitor's coat.
Kenneth Nash then helped in the task of hanging the exhibit in a suitable place.

p.10. Silk, S, 1963. The Bogle Mystery. Horwitz Publications Inc., Melbourne

WHO GAVE THE FATAL DOSE?

Bizarre setting for dancers at dawn party

The pre-death party was held in a colourful bohemian setting. Detectives said they were intrigued by the unusual decorations in the period-furnished lounge room of the Nash home, focal point of the party.

From one red-painted wire sculpture in the corner of the room dangled a fried egg and an alarm clock. The jaw of a sheep with a sponge clamped in it rested on the radiogram. A wire spiral topped with a small mirror stood on a bookshelf.

p.3. Sun Herald, January 6, 1963

Party, 10.00pm

Margaret Chandler

Mrs Joy Coleman, an assistant at a dress shop in Ashfield, sold Margaret her rose-covered party frock shortly before New Year's Eve.
Mrs Coleman: "She was full of life and just bubbling over at the prospect of going to the party...She told me her husband liked her to wear bright colours. I can still remember how well she looked, suntanned and beaming. She was radiant and full of joy."

p.1. The Sydney Morning Herald, Jan 21, 1963

Geoffrey Chandler

Chandler: Margaret had a pretty rose-patterned dress... and I put on slacks and a shirt and sandals. Mrs Nash later revealed that she had been affronted by my 'casual' clothes because she had asked that her male guests wear jackets and ties...At any rate I was wearing what I would normally wear to meet friends on any summer holiday night.

p.14. Chandler, G, 1969. So You Think I Did It?. Sun Books, Melbourne

Leicester Cotton

Cotton: Chandler stood out. For a start he is a tall man, well-built and reminiscent of a buccaneer of Elizabeth I's time with his dark, smouldering red beard and aquiline features. In an otherwise conservatively dressed assembly he sported an Hawaiian shirt... sandals, and casual slacks.

Margaret Chandler was obviously a very different personality... By nature she was shy and shrank from the limelight, an ironical fact when one considers the concentrated glare of publicity that was to be focused on her a few hours later.

p.13. Silk, S, 1963. The Bogle Mystery. Horwitz Publications Inc., Melbourne

Ken Nash

Nash: Margaret arrived in a floral frock, but Geoffrey had on sandals, casual slacks and some form of long shirt-like object that hung outside his trousers with an open-neck collar, although I had explained at great length that dress for the party was to be jackets and ties for the men.

p.6. The Sydney Morning Herald, May 8, 1963

Party, 10.30pm

Geoffrey Chandler

Chandler: I knew the moment we got there it was not our sort of party and that neither of us was going to enjoy it. We were among people mostly unknown to us, people to whom we did not warm... They tended to stand around in little groups, eyeing each other. Ruth Nash bustled about as hostess and Ken, as he said at the inquest, 'dispensed' drinks.The party itself was polite, the conversation routine, and there was no heavy drinking.

p.15 - 16. Chandler, G, 1969. So You Think I Did It?. Sun Books, Melbourne

Leicester Cotton

Cotton: They [the guests] ranged from a Macquarie Street specialist to a company director; from a musician to a journalist, and a physicist to an author. Introductions were informal.
There was none of the 'you-must-meet-so-and-so' and no fussing. Just a complete air of relaxation. No-one seemed at a loss for conversation with the others.

p. 12. Silk, S, 1963. The Bogle Mystery. Horwitz Publications Inc., Melbourne

Ken Nash

Nash: It was not a rowdy or riotous party but we thought it was quite animated. The Chandlers confined themselves to a small area of the room in which they were standing. They seemed a little retiring, but quite content.

p.6. The Sydney Morning Herald, May 8, 1963

Party, 11.30pm

Geoffrey Chandler

Chandler: ...I said something to someone about needing cigarettes, and slipped out from the party to the car and drove off. I did need cigarettes, but I think I also knew I was going to look in on the party at Balmain. Everywhere I went the shops were closed. So I kept going, right to Ken's house...
I walked in just after midnight and as I hoped and expected, Pam Logan, a friend, was there.Chandler spent three hours away from the Nashes' party, from around 11.00 pm to 2.00 am. His girlfriend, Pam Logan, testified that he spent this time with her, first at a Balmain party then at her flat in Darlington.

p.17. Chandler, G, 1969. So You Think I Did It?. Sun Books, Melbourne

Party, 12.00am

Leicester Cotton

Cotton: The spell of talk was broken by the 'midnight ritual of Auld Lang Syne'. The guests began 'careering around, arms linked'.

p.15. Silk, S, 1963. The Bogle Mystery. Horwitz Publications Inc., Melbourne

Ken Nash

Nash: I supervised the dispensing of drinks until midnight. At this time all the guests were completely sober.

Nash said that between 9.00 pm on December 31 and 7.30 am the next day, the 20 party guests had only consumed a dozen bottles of beer, two bottles of Scotch whisky, one bottle of gin and one bottle of vodka.

p.6. The Sydney Morning Herald, May 8, 1963

Weird Cults

Police have been told some people associated with Dr Gilbert Bogle and Mrs Margaret Chandler engaged in weird rites, including "Black Masses", a blasphemous parody of a religious service involving sexual deviations and practices in which sex drugs are often used

Sunday Telegraph, 1963

Party, 12.15am

Ken Nash

Nash: I saw Gib and Margaret standing together on the back lawn, in a pool of light. In a spirit of puckish fun, I turned off the light. They returned inside immediately.

Following this incident Nash left the party for a short time to pick up Nanna Day-Hakkar from Forrestville.

p.6. Sydney Morning Herald, May 8, 1963

Ruth Nash

Ruth Nash: Around midnight I noticed that Geoffrey Chandler had disappeared. I saw Margaret on the back lawn with Gib. I waved to her but she didn't wave back - she was a rather reserved girl.

p.7. Sydney Morning Herald, May 8, 1963

Party, 12.30am

Leicester Cotton

Cotton: Someone put a Spanish record on the record player - the Vaquero Fireballs playing "In a Little Spanish Town." Suddenly Bogle took on a slinky, hip-writhing stance, one arm akimbo, the other arched overhead. Ruth Nash, a mock frown on her face, stamped impetuously to the rhythm and the two slowly gyrated in what might well have been accepted as a flamenco. At a pause Mrs Nash broke away and came back, this time with a pair of castanets...
The guests, who had gathered around, applauded.

p.15. Silk, S, 1963. The Bogle Mystery. Horwitz Publications Inc., Melbourne

Society Party

The closely-knit group of friends were members of an intellectual avant garde, where sexual promiscuity, wife-swapping and experimentation with new-fangled drugs were the 'in things'

Sun Herald, 1963

Party, 2.45am

J.J.Loomes

J.J.Loomes: It was considered that it could have been something as rapid as food poisoning. We felt this was unlikely to be restricted to two persons of a group, and in any case both alimentary tracts were normal.

(This evidence was given at the inquest by Dr Laing, director of the division of forensic medicine in the Department of Public Health.)

p.6. Sydney Morning Herald, May 22, 1963

Ken Nash

Nash: I was seeing some guests off when I noticed that Geoffrey Chandler had reappeared. I offered him some hot food, but he refused and asked if he could mix himself a drink.

p.6. The Sydney Morning Herald, May 8, 1963

Ruth Nash

Ruth Nash: The guests had assembled in the dining room. We served supper through the servery: chicken salad with asparagus, followed by curry and rice. After came the black coffee.

*

Geoffrey Chandler

Chandler: ...when I got back supper was on the move. I got myself a drink and looked for Margaret. She wasn't annoyed, or upset, that I'd been away so long, though I was feeling rather guilty. I have been asked often enough if Margaret knew of my friendship with Pamela Logan. I don't think she did. She may have suspected but she never questioned me.

She mentioned that when I left the party previously, Gib, discovering that she had had no money with her and seemed likely to have no way of getting home, had very kindly offered to drive her there if I had not returned...

p.18. Chandler, G, 1969. So You Think I Did It?. Sun Books, Melbourne

Party, 3.45am

Geoffrey Chandler

Chandler: Later I saw Margaret and Gib seated on a lounge chair...I told Gib I did not think I would be staying much longer...Margaret made no move to join me and remained seated on the lounge.I said to Dr Bogle "Would you take Margaret home?" He looked intently at me. Then he said "Right".

p.1. Sydney Morning Herald, May 23, 1963

Margaret Chandler

Chandler: I could tell Margaret was somewhat disenchanted, that what had started as a half-joke, a possible experiment, had gone stale. She had been saying she was interested in Gib, but really all she wanted to do was to get in the car and go home with me. And I think Gib felt the same way. But he was a man and he had said he would take her home, and he certainly wasn't going to revert on this...I should have said to Margaret, 'Come on, we're going home.' But I didn't. So it was I who really forced the issue.

Chandler didn't say goodbye to the Nashes because he was a little embarrassed at leaving by himself.

p.18. Chandler, G, 1969. So You Think I Did It?. Sun Books, Melbourne

Party, 3.50am

Geoffrey Chandler

Chandler: I went to my car and smoked the last half of a cigarette. I looked back for Margaret, but did not see her or Dr Bogle. I thought Margaret may have wanted to change her mind, so I waited for a few minutes before I drove off.

On leaving the party, Chandler returned to Pam Logan's flat in Darlington. Pam Logan testified to this effect at the Inquest. Her story was backed up by a number of other witnesses who spotted his distinctive car, a vintage Vauxhall, in the area at the time.

At 5.30am Chandler went to his mother-in-law's house in Granville to pick up his two sons. At 6.30am he took the children back to Pam Logan's flat, then at 10.00am they returned home.

Chandler then slept until midday, when he was woken by the police who had found his wife's body.

p.6. The Sydney Morning Herald, May 17, 1963

Party, 4.00am

Ken Nash

Nash: I noticed nothing abnormal about Gib. He seemed completely sober. He asked me if he could take his drawing home to show his children. I took it down from the wall and gave it to him and he left.

About five minutes later, Ruth and I were saying goodbye to Margaret Beavis. I noticed Margaret Chandler at the end of the path. She turned and walked away, and that was the last I saw of her.

p.6. The Sydney Morning Herald, May 8, 1963

Ruth Nash

Ruth Nash: Neither Margaret nor Geoffrey thanked me for the evening before leaving.

Gib's wife Vivienne rang us later that morning. She apologised for having missed the party. Then she asked where Gib was. "Gib? Oh he left just a little while back," I said. I didn't think anything of it until midday when the police came by and told us that Gib and Margaret were dead.

p.7. The Sydney Morning Herald, May 8, 1963

Nanna Day-Hakkar

Nanna Day-Hakkar: I saw Margaret Chandler in the den. She was holding a glass in her hand and had a glassy look in her eyes. My impression at that moment was that she looked drunk.

p.6. Sydney Morning Herald, May 9, 1963

James Day-Hakkar

James Day-Hakkar: I was talking to Gib and Margaret Beavis, and I noticed Gib did not look as fit as he had an hour earlier. He was stooped over and looked sick and gave me the impression that he was really sick and could not care less whether he saw anyone or not at that stage.

p.6. Sydney Morning Herald, May 9, 1963

J.J.Loomes

J.J. Loomes: Tissues revealed no alcohol, sedatives or carbon monoxide from any of the substances that might normally be expected in this type of case.

*

Fullers Bridge, 4.30am

Gas Theory on Lover's Deaths

Could the Bogle-Chandler mystery, which has haunted the public imagination since New Year's Eve 1963, come down to a question of rotten eggs?Hydrogen sulfide, or "rotten egg gas", can be lethal in high concentration. It is now proposed as the cause of the mysterious deaths of the lovers Gilbert Bogle and Margaret Chandler.

The theory, screened last night on ABC-TV, postulates that the gas escaped in high concentration from a sewerage overflow vent into the Lane Cove River. Bogle and Chandler, seeking an amorous encounter, went to the riverbank in the early hours of January 1, 1963, and chose a hollow where the gas, heavier than air, lay concentrated.

Dr Milby said that unless a pathologist was looking for evidence of hydrogen sulfide poisoning, they would not find it.

Sydney Morning Herald, 2006

Margaret Chandler

Chandler: I have asked myself a thousand times what brought Margaret and Gib to this squalid, untidy, unappetising place, what weird events deposited them on the river bank forty-five feet apart, dead amid the evidence of their acute physical illness...Why did they stop?...The way the car was parked, as if deserted in a hurry, it could be that they suddenly felt violently sick. But they were only ten minutes' drive from the party. How could it have come on them so suddenly?

p.64-65. Chandler, G, 1969. So You Think I Did It?. Sun Books, Melbourne

Ken Challis

Challis had parked his car and gone for a walk on the dirt track that ran along the river bank. He then walked back past his car and along Lady Game Drive.Challis: A car pulled up beside me. The car was a Ford Prefect. I looked directly at the driver, I thought he was going to speak to me, but he didn't. There was a woman with him, but I couldn't see her. The man looked white, paler than a normal man. I thought that with parties and one thing and another, he might have had something to drink.

p.6. Sydney Morning Herald, May 11, 1963

Fullers Bridge, 5.00am

Ken Challis

When he returned about half an hour later Challis saw the car parked in another position. Challis then decided to return home so he got in his car, which was parked . He found it difficult to reverse his car because he had no left hand. So he continued driving his car along the river track to a clearing beside the golf course where he could more easily turn his car around.

p.6. Sydney Morning Herald, May 11, 1963

Riverbank, 5.00am

Ken Challis

Ken Challis: A chap appeared on the side of the road. He was a fairly well-built man. He was tall with yellow blondy hair, long at the back.
He was wearing a dark t-shirt and trousers. I did not see his face. He more or less went straight across the track and slid down the bank.
I didn't give it much thought for two or three days, until I heard about the murders.

p.6. Sydney Morning Herald, May 11, 1963

Margaret Chandler

Chandler: I believe that the agent used to kill Gib and Margaret was from the extensive armory of CBW (chemical-biological warfare) ... An agent of this type kills in minutes and leaves no trace...

...mixtures which come in aerosol cans can be sprayed on the person or inside the car...

Had a professional applied CBW he would have known exactly how long the stuff would take to work.

It appears to me that when illness overtook Margaret and Gib they were persuaded to leave the car and walk down the track.

p.71. Chandler, G, 1969. So You Think I Did It?. Sun Books, Melbourne

Nuclear Murders Theory

Dr Bogle was working in a realm of fantastic science at the time of his death. He was involved in basic research which might lead to the most hideous weapon conceived - the death ray. Such a weapon might one day rip open buildings 500 miles away or melt nuclear missiles and satellites in flight. Is it possible that this is the weapon that killed the couple, a supersonic death ray gun that left no trace?

Sunday Mirror, 1963

Gib Bogle

Chandler: I can only believe that Gib's life holds the key to the mystery: that somewhere in his history lies the clue to his death. I cannot conceive that anyone could want to kill Margaret.

I believe that the reason for his murder is hidden in his life as a scientist.

p.71 & 72. Chandler, G, 1969. So You Think I Did It?. Sun Books, Melbourne

J.J.Loomes

The coroner concluded that Bogle probably died shortly after he was last seen alive at about 5 a.m. on 1 January.

p.6. Sydney Morning Herald, May 22, 1963

Riverbank, 7.30am

J.J.Loomes

The coroner concluded that Margaret could have died an hour or two after Dr Bogle, at around 7.30am.

p.6. Sydney Morning Herald, May 22, 1963

Riverbank, 8.00am

Michael McCormick

McCormick: I glanced down towards the river and I saw a man lying on his belly. I stopped on the track about four feet away. I thought he was a hobo who had been drinking and was sleeping it off.

I left him and continued along the track up towards the sixth tee.

p.11. Sydney Morning Herald, May 10, 1963

Riverbank, 8.45am

Dennis Wheway

Wheway: Michael said "There is a man down there. He has no clothes on. He is purple in the face and I think he is drunk."
I looked closely and I noticed that his nose was purple and there was a small trickle of blood from his nose and mouth. I said to Michael "I think this man is dead. We better tell the man at the kiosk to ring the police"

p.11. Sydney Morning Herald, May 10, 1963

Michael McCormick

McCormick: An hour later the man was exactly in the same position as I first saw him. We stopped and looked and I saw his face had gone a bit darker.

p.6. Sydney Morning Herald, May 11, 1963

Fullers Bridge, 9.00am

Dennis Wheway

Wheway: We didn't hurry. We stopped on the bridge and looked at the fish.

p.6. Sydney Morning Herald, May 11, 1963

Fullers Bridge, 9.15am

Dennis Wheway

Wheway: When we got over to the shop I said to the man "It looks like someone is dead." He said he would walk back with us to the place.

p.6. Sydney Morning Herald, May 11, 1963

Geoffrey Little

Geoffrey Little: Some time before 10 am two youths walked into the kiosk. One of them asked me,
"What does it mean when a man's face turns blue?"
I walked with them about 60 or 70 yards along the track to where they had seen the man.

p.6. Sydney Morning Herald, May 11, 1963

Riverbank, 10.00am

Geoffrey Little

Geoffrey Little: There was no sign of breathing and I decided the man was dead. There was an unusual purple discolouration which seemed to stretch from the region of the upper lip to the forehead. It was like a band.

p.6. Sydney Morning Herald, May 11, 1963

Sergeant Andrews

Sgt. Andrews: At 10.10am I took a call from Little, the kiosk proprietor, who said that 'two young chaps' had found a man they thought was dead.
I drove to Fuller's Bridge and followed the boys along the track to the body.

p.6. Sydney Morning Herald, May 15, 1963

Riverbank, 10.20am

Sergeant Andrews

Sgt. Andrews: I removed the coat from the body and saw that the body was clothed in a white shirt on top of which lay a piece of old brown carpet. (Investigators later found that this dirty old piece of carpet came from the boot of Bogle's car.) When I removed the carpet and the trousers I saw the body wasn't wearing underpants.

The body was very rigid - rigor mortis was well advanced.

In the clothing I found 3 five pound notes, a drivers licence and a red-bound pocket diary with the name Dr Gilbert Stanley Bogle written on it.

p.6. Sydney Morning Herald, May 15, 1963

Riverbank, 10.30am

Sergeant Andrews

Sgt. Andrews: There was a small amount of vomit about 12 inches from the head and human excreta on and below the riverbank. Underneath a mangrove tree nearby was a pair of woman's brown shoes and a pair of woman's cotton interlock panties...I looked all around for pill, powder or liquid containers but found nothing.

p.6. Sydney Morning Herald, May 15, 1963

D.S. Parsons

D.S. Parsons: I closely examined the area around the body and saw no signs of struggle or violence. He had mud on his shoes which appeared to be the same as the mud on the riverbank.

p.6. Sydney Morning Herald, May 16 1963

DID THEY BUNGLE THE BOGLE CASE?

Did the police who examined the bodies on the day they were found believe that the matter was one of a simple double suicide, and so fail to treat the case with sufficient urgency?

Sunday Mirror, 1963

Riverbank, 11.00am

Sergeant Andrews

Sergeant Andrews: I saw a depression in the ground covered by a number of flattened out beer cartons...
I lifted a piece of cardboard and saw the head and shoulders of a woman...
I felt the body and it was warm. Rigor mortis had not set in but there was no sign of breathing...
The body was clad in a floral dress of red and white, bunched up around the hips...
There was mud on the knees, and the feet were smeared with mud from the river bed...
Between the ankles were a pair of men's underpants.

p.6. Sydney Morning Herald, May 15, 1963

D.S. Parsons

D.S. Parsons: I walked close to the riverbank. I saw cardboard containers under thick scrub, looked through the scrub and saw what appeared to be a leg.

N.B. this statement was actually made by Constable Wright.

p.6. Sydney Morning Herald, May 16, 1963

J.J. Loomes

J.J. Loomes: Blood tests showed no funnel web venom...
Careful and repeated search revealed no marks of hypodermic needles...
There were no signs in or on the neck, in either case, to suggest or support strangulation...

The bodies were tested for residual radio-activity and none was found...
Tests were also made for injury by the high-frequency sound waves or supersonic waves. Injuries from those causes could be expected to cause ruptured ear-drums, but the ear drums were intact.

(This evidence was given at the inquest by Dr Laing, director of the division of forensic medicine in the Department of Public Health.)

p.6. Sydney Morning Herald, May 22, 1963

Fullers Bridge, 11.30am

Sergeant Andrews

Sergeant Andrews: We found Bogle's car near Fuller's bridge. The doors of the car were unlocked and both windows were wound down.

p.6. Sydney Morning Herald, May 15, 1963

D.S.Parsons

D.S. Parsons: There was no strange smell associated with the boot. I made a very close examination of the car and the surrounding area and I found nothing of significance. I'm sure I would have noticed if there were any tiny particles of glass under the accelerator.

Sydney Morning Herald, May 17 1963 p.6

Poison Gas Used?

It was about 5am and there was a heavy dew. It was likely that a pellet of gas the size of a pea was crushed under the accelerator, the floor mat or the chassis. They began to vomit. They would have bizarre hallucinations as effects of the gas increased. They died of shortness of breath brought about by neuro-paralysis. The police will find it difficult if not impossible, to trace poison in their bodies

Sunday Mirror, 1963

New Theory

At the International Conference of Forensic Sciences in London, a leading criminologist presented a new theory on the deaths. He said that blocks of dry ice could have been hidden in the boot of Bogle's car. The dry ice would release clouds of deadly gas which could kill without leaving a trace. Interpol is said to be sending details of similar killings in Britain to the Sydney police

Sunday Mirror, 1966

Fullers Bridge, 11.40am

Sergeant Andrews

Sergeant Andrews: On the floor of the front part of the car was a case containing a clarinet. On the back seat was a piece of thin cardboard with a sketch of a woman's profile. This was the drawing from the party that the papers made such a thing about.

p.6. Sydney Morning Herald, May 15, 1963

LSD Suspected in Riverside Deaths

The weird paintings which many of the guests brought to the party were drawn under the influence of LSD. Bogle and some of his fellow scientists had been making LSD at their laboratory

Sun Herald, 1989

Post Mortem, 1963

Geoffrey Chandler

Geoffrey Chandler was the most popular suspect during the inquest, and he received little public sympathy. He was hounded by the press and went to elaborate lengths to avoid them. His scandalous views on marriage made people think he could well be a killer. Even his beard was seen as sinister, and he was often referred to in the press as 'the bearded Dr Chandler'. However, given that he had virtually arranged for his wife to have an affair with Bogle, he did not have a convincing motive for murdering the pair.

Margaret Fowler

The Fowlers had an alibi for the night of the murders - they were at another party, several suburbs away in Turramurra, where they stayed until 3.45am. Evidence of Margaret Fowler's three year affair with Bogle was suppressed by the Coroner to protect Bogle's reputation.
Margaret told police that she and Bogle had intended to share a flat together in London, although this seems largely her own fantasy.
Soon after the inquest, Margaret left Australia for London. In 1965, her husband Robert filed for divorce.

Toohey, B, Wilkinsons, M, 1987. The Book of Leaks: Exposes in Defence of the Public's Right to Know. Angus & Roberston

Ken Nash

A popular theory at the time was that the murder was the result of a practical joke gone wrong. The prime suspects according to this theory were the Nashes. Every kind of drinking vessel was collected from their house, along with the contents of the garbage bins. No poisons were found.

SMH May 18 1963 p6

J.J. Loomes

At the inquest, one of Bogle's colleagues, Arthur Harper, denied that Bogle had worked on a "death ray". He claimed that Bogle's research at CSIRO was peaceful and had no international security implications.

J.J. Loomes: It gives me no satisfaction to say that all we know about this is that these two people died from acute circulatory failure, the cause of which is still unknown. Nothing more can be done to determine the cause of death.

*

BOGLE CHANDLER INQUEST

The public is entitled to find the negative result of the Bogle-Chandler inquest unsatisfactory and disturbing...There can surely be no doubt that the deaths were caused by some toxic substance which is either undetectable, or so rare as to escape suspicion.

p.2. Sydney Morning Herald, May 30,1963

Post Mortem, 1969

Geoffrey Chandler

Chandler: I have often wondered if it would have been better for me to be charged with murder and acquitted, as I would have been because I was not guilty... The effect, so far as I am concerned, has been to convict me without a trial.

Following the inquest and the scandal of the case, Geoffrey Chandler was forced to give up his work with the CSIRO. In the years that followed he found it difficult to get work. In 1969 he wrote a book about the murders titled 'So You Think I Did It?'.

p.58. Chandler, G, 1969. So You Think I Did It?. Sun Books, Melbourne

BOGLE KILLER UK SPY

Dr Geoffrey Chandler said today that new revelations concerning British intelligence supported his theory that either MI5 or CIA assassins had murdered his wife and Dr Gilbert Bogle ... He said claims by Mr Peter Wright, a former top MI5 British Intelligence agent now living in Tasmania, supported his theory that Dr Bogle was eliminated after he became a Russian agent working inside Australia's security service, ASIO.

Daily Mirror, 1984

Post Mortem, 1974

Ken Nash

After the inquest, Ken and Ruth Nash retired from the public eye. They never hosted another party. On 1 January 1974, exactly eleven years after the Bogle-Chandler murders, Ruth Nash died of breast cancer.

Post Mortem, 1976

Ken Nash

After Ruth's death, Ken Nash became a recluse. On one occasion he invited his neighbor in for a drink. They talked all night - mostly about the Bogle-Chandler case. Nash seemed obsessed by the affair, and showed him a pile of news clippings.On January 1, 1976, thirteen years to the day after the Bogle-Chandler murders, Ken Nash committed suicide. He shot himself with an 0.22 calibre semi-automatic rifle.

Post Mortem, 1976

It Was Not Murder!'

A CIB detective believes it was a practical joke that badly misfired: "I'm convinced that the prankster, knowing
the couple was going to have a liaison, brought dog worming tablets to the party and dropped them into the coffees."
"While Dr Bogle and Mrs Chandler were enjoying their sexual interlude, the tablets would cause stomach pain, bowel looseness,
wind spasms, vomiting and other romance-shattering symptoms. They were tablets that were easily bought over the counter, but the joker was ignorant of their potential to kill."

Daily Mirror, 1963

Post Mortem, 1977

Margaret Fowler

Fourteen years after the murders, Margaret Fowler died during an operation at a London hospital.

Toohey, B, Wilkinsons, M, 1987. The Book of Leaks: Exposes in Defence of the Public's Right to Know. Angus & Roberston

Bogle-Chandler: The Untold Story

Some weeks after the deaths of Bogle and Chandler, Graham Carlton, a market researcher with IBM, was sitting in his car outside a friend's house in Turramurra.He noticed a woman walking down the street. It was the librarian from his building, Margaret Fowler. He noticed she was very upset, so he got out and went over to her.
Carlton said he persuaded her to sit in the car but she continued to cry. She kept on repeating one phrase again and again -
"It's all going to come out." When he asked her what was wrong she said, "You'll soon know."
She began talking about the Bogle-Chandler deaths and raised the subject of chemical warfare research which she had discussed on earlier occasions with Carlton. She also told Carlton that she'd been having an affair with Bogle...
Carlton's recollection is that she implied she was involved in the deaths. He remembers her saying, "They were going to cop it."

National Times, 1982