Bogle & Chandler
Introduction
This website is dedicated to what is known as the Bogle-Chandler case -- the deaths of Dr Gilbert Bogle and Mrs Margaret Chandler on a Sydney riverbank, in 1963.
The Bogle-Chandler case was one of the most baffling criminal cases in Australian history. Millions of newspapers were sold on the back of a story which seemed to contain all the right ingredients -- sex, romance, murder, a high-society party, an exotic and unidentified poison, and the shadowy world of international espionage.
In Brief
On the morning of 1 January 1963, two youths went hunting for golf balls near Fuller's Bridge, on the Lane Cove River in suburban Sydney. They found a body, later identified as that of Dr Gilbert Bogle, beside a dirt track running beside the river. When the police arrived, they also discovered the body of Mrs Margaret Chandler, lying some metres away.
Both Dr Bogle and Mrs Chandler had been at a New Year's Eve party, the latter with her husband, Geoffrey Chandler. The party had been at the home of Ken and Ruth Nash in Chatswood, several kilometres from the Lane Cove River.
Mr Chandler had gone with his wife to the party, but had left to visit another party and to meet up with a girlfriend. He returned to the Chatswood party but then left again, on the understanding that his wife would be taken home by Dr Bogle.
When the bodies were discovered, it was apparent that Dr Bogle and Mrs Chandler had been poisoned. Forensic testing could find no trace of poison, however, and speculation about the nature of Bogle’s work led many to believe that he had been assassinated.
However in 2006 the documentary film-maker Peter Butt presented a plausible alternative theory. He suggested that Dr Bogle and Mrs Chandler had been killed accidentally when hydrogen sulfide gas leaked from the nearby Lane Cove River.
So what actually happened, and how? This website attempts to explain both the facts and the speculation. Please use the links below to find out more.
The PartyMr Chandler's Movements At Fuller's Bridge
The Investigation
Speculation
The People Involved
Bibliography and References
The Beaumont Children Page
Site created on Tuesday, 7 July 1998, at 0750 GMT
Site modified on Monday, 10 March 2008, at 1838 GMT
If you have any comments, criticisms or any other feedback you would like to give, the author of this site is Russell Brown and you are welcome to contact me.
http://www.boglechandler.com