Police charges over Bogle case possible

Press, Volume CXII, Issue 33060, 30 October 1972, Page 15

Police charges over Bogle case possible

(N.Z. Press Assn. —Copyright) SYDNEY, Oct. 29. A Melbourne convict told Sydney detectives that he saw a New Zealand-born scientist, Dr Gilbert Bogle, and Mrs Margaret Chandler drink poison before they died on a riverbank 10 years ago, the “Sunday Telegraph” newspaper reported today. In an unsourced front-page story about one of the most sensational death mysteries in local criminal history, the newspaper said the police now believed they knew who was responsible for the deaths. It said it understood two persons might be charged with murder and a third with administering a drug. The bodies of Dr Bogle, a Rhodes scholar, and Mrs Chandler were found seminaked and covered with beer cartons in Sydney’s Lane Cove national park on New Year's Day, 1963. Police have treated the case as murder, but have not charged anyone and have not discovered the cause of the deaths.

Their interview with the 30-year-old prisoner in Melbourne included descriptions of details he could not have known without being involved, the “Sunday Telegraph” said.

It included also an explanation of certain aspects that had puzzled even police scientists.

The newspaper said the police had been able to get corroboration, of some of the prisoner’s claims, but needed more evidence before being confident of a conviction.

Inquiries are centering now on identifying the poison. Investigations which followed discovery of the deaths was hampered because the bodies were not examined until several days later, when it was thought the poison could have dissipated. The “Sunday Telegraph” reported that Sydney detectives will not discuss the prisoner’s statement, but it was known he had been trying to obtain his freedom in exchange for evidence which would convict the killer.