Six months after he arrived in Australia he met a waitress and proposed to her the same day. Three weeks later they were married but separated after 5 months.
Frederick met Sharon Skiffington at her mother’s house where he was boarding. Sharon was living with her grandmother in the South Island and had come up for a holiday. When she went home she wrote to Frederick and told him she had fallen hook line and sinker for him. He also seemed besotted with her and she moved back up to Auckland. He seemed to be stalling whenever marriage was mentioned and her mother suspected he was already married. When these suspicions were confirmed and they discovered he was still married to his wife in Australia, Sharon broke off the relationship.He did not like her seeing anyone else, but he had promised marriage to several other girls he had slept with.
He followed her to a milk bar in Queen Street on the 28th of March 1955 and produced a gun. The gun was old and unreliable and as a result Sharon was shot in the face. She died later that day in hospital and he was arrested for her murder the same day.
When he was asked why he had the gun with him he replied that he had taken it into town to shoot rabbits. When he was told "but there are no rabbits in Auckland", he grinned and said "Well what do you know?".
At his trial he was defended by Dr A M Findlay (later the honourable Dr Martin Findlay QC, Attorney General and Minister of Justice). The trial lasted 5 days but the jury took just 77 minutes to find him guilty.
On the 20th May 1955 he was sentenced to death. At his sentencing Foster leaned forward and grasped the front of the dock with a grip that whitened his knuckles. It was then that he made his appeal to the press bench and said “Sharon was a very good girl".
Petitions were organised and money was raised to bring his mother Alice, out from England. She arrived the day after his appeal was dismissed. She came to plead with the government for her son’s life, she met with the Minister of Justice and the Prime Minister. Clemency was denied. Foster last saw his mother on the day before he died when he gave her a letter and thanked her for her comfort. From his cell Frederick also wrote that he “looked forward to the day Sharon and I are together again.”
 |
| Photo: Cathy Currie - All rights reserved |
The Attorney General refused to show any executive mercy and the wound was still fresh as he was hanged on the 7th July 1955.
His last words on the gallows were "I am innocent, innocent".
He apparently refused to comply with the hangman’s instructions, as some say a prison guard poked two fingers into his eyes, forcing him to lift his head so a noose could be placed over it.
Ironically while in jail he was taken to Auckland Hospital where he underwent potentially lifesaving surgery to remove an inflamed appendix. The orderly who prepared him for surgery had no idea at the time who he was and while Foster was in surgery asked the guards with him what he was in jail for. He was told Foster was to be hanged for murder in the next few days. According to the orderly's wife he was dreadfully upset when he got home.
Frederick Foster was buried at Waikumete the day after he was hanged. His grave remained unmarked until 1998, when a regular visitor to the cemetery, but not connected to Foster or his victim, paid for his headstone.
Protestant Division A, Row 5, Plot 3: Frederick Foster – Labourer – Murderer
FREDERICK FOSTER
7.7.1955
aged 27
R.I.P.
Sources: https://www.truecrimelibrary.com/crimearticle/frederick-foster/https://nzhistory.govt.nz/culture/the-1950s/1955
Compiled by Lynnette Beesley - Discover Waikumete
No comments:
Post a Comment