09/10/2026
On 5 February 1935, nightwatchman Edgar Arthur Whitfield was found dead inside Caris Bros Jewellers on Hay Street Mall. £5000 in diamonds had disappeared with him, worth more than half a million dollars today.
Police had been alerted by an anonymous phone call, and the investigation soon led them to four men. Two were accused of breaking into the store and later claimed they had only intended to tie Whitfield up, but during the struggle a large mirror fell and shattered on top of him.
The stolen diamonds were hidden near the Perth Children’s Court before one of the men fled to Melbourne, where his spending quickly attracted police attention.
What followed was a sensational trial involving more than 40 witnesses, bloodstained clothes, secret relationships, suspicious telegrams and a parcel of jewels sent across the country under a false name.
A small piece of that story is held in the WA Museum State Collection: A letter addressed to Caris Bros Jewellers dated 15 April 1935, the very day the inquest into Whitfield’s death and the robbery formally opened.
This letter forms part of the Hanekamp Postal Collection, which tells more than a century of postal history through over 30,000 stamps, marks and covers – and can be visited virtually on our website!
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Image 1: The Caris Bros’ windows on Hay Street Mall, 1935. Credit: Image courtesy of the State Library of Western Australia, 018384PD.
Image 2: Registration Label/Envelope. H2020.1913. WA Museum.
Image 3: "Law's Long Arm Dramatically Seizes Four Men!", 1935, The Mirror, Perth, courtesy of the National Library of Australia, Trove, article identifier 7372635.
