Murder of Phyllis Reiger

Phyllis Muriel Frances Reiger was born on 24 March 1912 in Mount Morgan, Queensland, the only child of Peter and Elizabeth Reiger. After a childhood illness, her family moved to Rockhampton and later to a property near Kalapa. Reiger later worked at the Excelsior Hotel in Rockhampton, run by relatives.

In early 1934, Reiger began a relationship with Jack McQuade, a 42-year-old prison warder who had previously worked at Boggo Road Gaol in Brisbane and was then employed at Rockhampton Gaol. The couple discussed marriage but separated for a period between October and December 1934 before reconciling. In early January 1935, McQuade told Reiger he was prepared to marry another woman if she did not decide on marrying him. He married May Ballinger on 14 January 1935 and spent that night in Yeppoon.

The night after his wedding, McQuade drove Reiger to a doctor's appointment and later to her workplace and home, before driving her, at her request, to an isolated spot at Port Curtis. According to McQuade's trial testimony, Reiger produced a flask and both drank from it; he said he then felt unwell and could not recall what followed until waking in hospital. Senior Sergeant Julius Henry Albeitz testified that McQuade had told him at the hospital that he grabbed Reiger's throat during an argument in which she said she was pregnant and blamed him. Analysis found no poison in McQuade's stomach contents but detected a small amount of strychnine in Reiger's stomach.

Reiger's body was found in the back of McQuade's car at a Campbell Street boarding house at around 4:30am on 16 January 1935. A government medical officer testified she had fingernail marks on her throat, congested lungs, and was approximately six weeks pregnant; he listed choking as the cause of death, estimating death had occurred a few hours earlier.

McQuade was charged with wilful murder and, after a series of remand hearings, was committed to stand trial. His two-day trial began on 15 May 1935 at the Rockhampton Supreme Court before Justice Brennan. Evidence included testimony from police, medical witnesses, and a defence witness who recalled Reiger saying she would "poison him first" rather than see McQuade marry someone else. On 16 May 1935, a jury found McQuade guilty of murder after more than two hours of deliberation, and Brennan sentenced him to life imprisonment with hard labour. During sentencing remarks, Brennan strongly criticised spectators in the public gallery.

McQuade's applications for leave to appeal were refused in 1935 and again in 1936. He served his sentence at Stewart's Creek Gaol and the Numinbah Prison Farm, and was released in the 1950s. He died on 10 January 1964. Reiger was buried at North Rockhampton Cemetery; her father Peter Reiger was later buried beside her.