Very confused journalist

[sparrett]

Hi PatLac,
A very good read, thanks.

An account which makes clear the semi-facts and red herrings of the case of the Pyjama Girl.

Leaves the question of true identity in the QLD death of Jean Morris. Perhaps she was Anna Morgan.  Perhaps not.

Sue

[PatLac]

I think Jean Morris was Anna Philomena Morgan based on some tiny things, like the fact that she used to say her husband was Mick (Michael) Guidice and her name was Jeanette Guidice.

Jeanette is the same alias of her mother Jeanette Constance Routledge, whose real name was Johanna Marthina Brits, daughter of Adriaan Brits and Anna Grobbelaar.

Her wealthy mother, who was the reason Jeanette Constance was so eager to have a death certificate for her daughter, was Anna Aletta Susanna Grobbelaar, who married at least 4 times, one in NSW and 3 in South Africa.

Anna married Adriaan Brits in Boshof, South Africa on 18 January 1892. Johanna was born on 7 Feb 1893. I haven't found a death record for Adriaan yet.

In 1908 Anna met John James Morgan in South Africa. They married in 1909 in NSW after they returned from South Africa. She gave the maiden name Alice Hannah Morgan on her marriage certificate (maybe Adriaan was still alive?) and later on (1911) her granddaughter Anna Philomena was registered Morgan although she wasn't related to John James.

John James said during the police inquiry that he sent money for Anna's children to be brought to Australia (one daughter and two sons). One of the sons was Johannes Nicolaas. I haven't been able to find the other one yet. The newspapers wrote her name Anna Britzz.

He also said that Jeanette Constance's real name was Johanna and that she was with a man (Sidney George Tiplady) around the time she got pregnant, and that her daughter born in 1911 lived with him (John James) and Anna on and off for some time.

Johanna registered her daughter Anna Philomena Morgan and the name she gave on the birth certificate was Jeanette Morgan. During the Pyjama Girl inquiry she said her mother Anna registered Anna Philomena.

John James started divorce proceedings against Alice Hannah Morgan (aka Anna) in 1920 (decree absolute in 1922) on grounds of desertion. Apparently she had returned to South Africa. He married again and died in 1945 soon after the reopening of the Pyjama Girl inquiry.

Anna/Alice married another NSW man in 'Community of Property' in South Africa, Seargent Colin Jones of Mudgee. He died in 1927 in South Africa and she married John Pressley in Hamburg, Germany according to her death certificate.

John Pressley died on 22-23 August 1943 under suspicious circumstances ("death from fractured skull caused in an assault by some person not yet found"). The Australian newspapers referred to Anna as Mrs. Prestley.

Alice Pressley died on 31 August 1949 in Boksburg, South Africa and left a considerable sum of money, around £2000, to her granddaughter Anna Philomena. The money was split between Jeanette's two sons and one daughter.  (Jeanette died on 20 June 1947).

She had used the maiden names Porcheron and Owen on her marriages in South Africa as can be seen on her death and probate certificates available on FamilySearch.

I think this story could be one hell of a film!

[David Mo]

I would look at the original inquest evidence (on the teeth) on the Pyjama Girl.

I analysed it and deduced:

https://medium.com/@binreminded/why-the-pyjama-girl-is-not-linda-agostini-dc619e12e72e

It comes down to whether you believe the dentist in 1934 who first examined the body or the one in 1944.

It does not prove Anna was the body but it disproves Linda was the Pyjama Girl. Tony Agostini had no clue about where the body was or method of death of the Pyjama Girl but was responsible for the death of Linda - hence why he accepted the light sentence gladly otherwise a murder sentence.

Radio sports announcer Leo Keane wrote a Pajama Girl song wanting to hang Agostini. Tony He chose the better option of manslaughter.

You need to search the evidence of Mrs Mabel Blackett on trove who ran an employment agency. She said Anna was desperate to go to Albury and applied for a job in Henty which she had no intention of fulfilling she just wanted the trainfare to get there. She said she would walk to Albury.

Mrs Blackett spent over 1 hour trying to help her so she knew what she looked like and said she would never change her opinion that the body was Anna Philomena Morgan - the woman who entered her job agency.

Also there is the Mrs Coutts identity story - where the child said it's Mrs Coutts in the newspaper. She had told her mother she was really Anna Philomena Morgan.

So two strong identifications of her over a long period of time. Also we know the bust size of the body was wrong and the eye colour for Linda.

People should read Lezli-an Barrett's PHD thesis on the Pyjama Girl - it is far from boring as it is a film script but throroughly researched. I would estimate 95% factual accuracy and obviously she added some things to make it more interesting/romantic.

https://api.research-repository.uwa.edu.au/ws/portalfiles/portal/21716246/THESIS_DOCTOR_OF_PHILOSOPHY_BARRETT_Lezli_An_2017.pdf

One fact for example is she names Meg Griffith's horse as Mecano - where she has Mrs Blackett reading the newspaper the day she met Anna Philomena and guess what was in the newspaper that day...Meg Griffiths and Mecano in Albury ...amazing research. She could easily have invented a newspaper story for a film script even for a PHD.

[sparrett]

Hi PatLac

You have carried out a great piece of research there. Very extensive and thorough. Possibly more so than the authorities at the time of Jean Morgan's death!

I do agree that there are very clear pointers to Jean being the daughter of Jeanette Routledge (nee Britz).

Mrs Routledge certainly went to no ends to claim the 1934 murdered Pyjama Girl as hers, while it looks as if her daughter was actually killed under the name Jean Morgan in 1932.

Yes, a scriptwriter would be pushed to invent a more twisty complex plot.

 Sue

[David Mo]

This is an average image of Linda Agostini (when young) and Jean Morris.

https://files.fm/u/5wyr62bdwu

The source is the Jean Morris image - same as used for the gravestone and the young Linda Agostini image here:

https://unidentified-awareness.fandom.com/wiki/File:Agostini4.jpeg

When you combine the image of the same person to make an average image professor Frowd (forensic psychologist) in his book on Criminology says they look more like the person.

[David Mo]

I used Mrs Coutts (not Coots as typed by newspapers) for the name used by Philomena because no such name as Coots existed in Australia in 1934. What was interesting was Jack Coutts was a jockey described by one newspaper as "gay pretender" [in the 1930s sense] and "pseudo-jockey"

https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/169307305?searchTerm=%22coutts%22%2C%20%22pseudo%22

He seems to be in the right locations for Anna Philomena. For example in October 1934 he was in front of a racing tribunal inquiry in Albury trying to work out whether he was cheating. This was a common theme for Jack Coutts. Yet he always seemed to get off without punishment.

There was also a J. Coutts playing golf for Albury in August 1934. But perhaps a James not Jack.

https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/271695643?searchTerm=%22coutts%22%2C%20%22albury%22

Stewards inquiry:

https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/271716818?searchTerm=%22coutts%22%2C%20%22albury%22


He was in trouble even in 1944.

https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/168764163?searchTerm=%22coutts%22%2C%20%22jockey%22