High and Naked

High and Naked 

By Roy Maloy 

On Thursday 1 March, 1929, Constables C. J. Chuck, of Clarence street police station, New South Wales wowed the Central Police Court with a story that stunned the court! He spoke with the even, deep and unanimated voice of a seasoned policeman. It was the professional style he’d come to own as a hardened beat cop. 

But as he told his story, it became apparent that his story wasn’t any ordinary story. As he read out the charges, a 36 year old lady named Ray Bibby, described as a domestic, sat perfectly still in the docks. She was charged with having supplied cocaine, and the man next to her; Thomas Marshall, 29, a laborer, was also being charged with having procured it to sell.

 Constable Chuck said that he and Sergeant Russell went to 82 O'Sullivan-street, Surry Hills, where “the defendant Bibby had very little clothing on, and appeared to be under the influence of something." he said. "She seemed stupefied, and Marshall was also under the influence… I don't know whether of drink or a drug. Three other men were in the same condition. 

When I told Bibby I was going to arrest her, and to get dressed, she went to another room and removed all her clothing, and was running about the room naked. While we were searching the premises, she was reading from a Bible. She refused to put her clothing on. and we had to dress her before we left the house, which was in a very filthy condition."

From the witness box, the French-born lady, calling herself Ray Bibby, said that another woman named "Hilda" had come to her place the day before, and said she knew her brother, Captain Bibby. She said that Hilda had been drinking heavily for some days, and when Hilda came to her place on March 1, she (Hilda) asked her for cocaine. 

Mr. McCarthy cross examined Bibby and asked her, “have you ever handled cocaine?”

“No. never. You get silly enough drinking beer, without that!,” she answered. 

Sergeant Dennis then proved that he’d done his homework though, as he asked her: “Is your name in fact Rachel Lorenzo?” 

“No,” she replied, “they christened me that in the convent In Melbourne.”

“Do you know that cocaine Is called snow?” Constable Chuck asked coldly. 

Playing dumb, Bibby answered sweetly, “No… I have never seen snow since I left Switzerland!”

Despite her best attempts to throw the court into believing that she was sweet and innocent; both were sentenced to seven months hard labor each.