1895: Eight Stab Wounds, One Final Act of Duty: a Thursday Island Constable Dragged His Attacker to Arrest
Frank Tiniala, a Manilla-born man living on Thursday Island, had accused his wife Amelia of infidelity and threatened her for days before he cornered her with a knife in a neighbour’s house on the night of 2 July 1895. Senior-Constable Conroy ran in at her screams and was stabbed eight times in the struggle that followed, yet he held on to Tiniala, dragged him through the house to the street and handed him to another officer, gasping, “Take him; he has killed me,” before collapsing. He died within hours.
Tiniala was tried for Conroy’s murder; his lawyers argued he had been running amuck and was not responsible for his actions, but the jury convicted him and he was sentenced to death. He was hanged in Brisbane on this day in 1895.
According to the attending clergy, Tiniala was deeply affected on the scaffold and went to his death contrite.
