According to news.com.au, there were two prevailing theories as to how and why Holmes was killed. While the truth was never determined, one of the explanations makes a lot of sense while the other seems so outlandish that calling it “ludicrous” is not quite a strong enough word. Let’s start with the latter.
The first theory was that Holmes had hired a hitman … to kill himself. It’s especially odd considering Holmes had already survived one suicide attempt, but perhaps he had been scarred by his initial attempt and thought having someone else pull the trigger would be easier. Still, most people would consider this fairly outlandish. The second theory — which while unproven, sounds far more plausible — was that Brady used his criminal connections to order Holmes’ murder from inside his prison cell. The knock-on effect here was that with Holmes dead and thereby unable to appear at the inquest, Brady was released.
As if those weren’t enough twists and turns, there was still one more to come: It eventually came out that Smith might have been a fizzer or fizgig, slang terms for a police informant, per Dictionary of Sydney. No one was ever charged with the murder of Jimmy Smith. The captive shark was cut open in a search for more evidence, but came up empty (of evidence, anyway). Until his death in 1965, Brady maintained that he had absolutely nothing to do with the bizarre, grisly crime.
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