Brisbane's arcade murder

For their 19 year old daughter's epitaph William and Vanda Armstrong decided that the following words be inscribed upon the small bronze-plated niche that would contain her ashes; - “ Death chosen before dishonour ”. When making the necessary arrangements following the murder of his daughter, Bronia Mary Armstrong, William Armstrong Snr could not possibly have foreseen that over two thousand strangers would line the streets of Brisbane between K.M. Smith's Funeral Parlour and the Mount Thompson Crematorium overlooking the city, or anticipate the multitude of women who would stand in silent support outside the Brisbane District Court during the proceedings of the man who would stand trial for her willful murder.

Those who knew Bronia described her as vivacious, with a happy disposition. She was certainly an attractive girl; blue eyed with honeyed hair and an hourglass figure. What is also evident by how vigorously she fought for her life is that above all Bronia was courageous.

Brisbane in 1947, the year of Bronia's murder, was often described as a big country town, particularly in contrast to the Southern capitals of Sydney and Melbourne. In the aftermath of World War II, industry was burgeoning despite strife within the labour force, primarily involving miners and wharfie's. Trams and buses crisscrossed the city, spilling commuters into Fortitude Valley and the CBD. It was such, that on the humid summer morning of Friday the 10th of January, Bronia and her childhood friend Norma Dopson caught the bus into town, agreeing before they parted to meet for lunch later that day, neither knowing that it would be the last time they would spend in one another's company.