Bogle-Chandler murders: Australia’s most baffling deaths may have been prank gone wrong

From lurid tales of drug and sex parties, to shadowy claims of assassins, the Bogle-Chandler murder case had it all. But a prank gone wrong is now believed to have led to one of Australia’s most baffling deaths.

Exclusive: A drug derived from the bark of an African tree is believed to have killed Gilbert Bogle and Margaret Chandler in 1963 according to a toxicology report never made public that could finally solve one of Australia’s most famous baffling mysteries.

A Rhodes Scholar and a senior physicist at the CSIRO, father-of-four Dr Bogle at 38 was considered a brilliant scientist when his partially naked body was found alongside that of his 28-year-old lover Margaret Chandler on the banks of Lane Cove River in Sydney on New Year’s Day 1963.

The case had it all, high-class wife swapping, lurid tales of drug and sex parties and the shadowy claims of assassins sent from afar to execute the Cold War scientist working on a secret project involving maser electromagnetic technology.

Several investigations and coronial inquiries over the years have failed to rule how they died despite theories it may have been from an LSD overdose or hydrogen sulfide toxic gas from the then polluted Lane Cove river.

But one of Australia’s most experienced forensic toxicologists Dr William Allender has now revealed he tested blood samples from both victims and found traces of Yohimbine, an alkaloid derived from the Central African Yohimbe tree and now used widely to treat erectile dysfunction.

While no tissue of the pair was kept pre their burial and cremations NSW Health kept blood samples.

A drug derived from the bark of an African tree is believed to have killed Gilbert Bogle and Margaret Chandler in 1963 according to a toxicology report never made public.

Despite the apparent breakthrough discovery he made in 1981, Dr Allender’s findings were never fully tested or revealed as his then employers at the Department of Health Division of Analytical Laboratories was in transition and the Bogle-Chandler case considered shelved.

MORE NEWS:

Why my bank dropped my interest rate further

Aussie grandparents do 20 hours of free childcare

Fears grow as Turkey-backed rebels seize town

Aussie finds ‘saddest lion’ as world told to act

Dr Allender went onto a distinguished career as a forensic expert dealing with some of the highest profile death cases, ending his career with the NSW Police forensic unit last year with his final expert evidence in a murder trial.

“The lab was in turmoil at the time and a lot of people were being transferred, we were all in a bit of a turmoil and they were circulating us around various laboratories so I didn’t actually get to finalise the case as I moved to blood-alcohol (division); I was busy and I would have liked to have taken it up further but that’s just how things turn out in life I’m afraid,” he told News Corp Australia yesterday.

Dr William Allender, one of Australia’s most experienced forensic toxicologists, as now revealed he tested blood samples from both victims and found traces of Yohimbine, Picture: Sue Graham

“It was in 1981 and I was actually loading up screen human tissue, blood liver extracts and various other substances and I put them on a gas chromatograph and I was loading up the instrument for an overnight run and I had some vacant space in the carousel and I went into the cool room where they kept the samples and I noticed the two samples of (Bogle-Chandler) blood and decided to screen them.

“I took a small sample of each and decided to screen them and the peak that emerged from the actual chromatograms indicated it was Yohimbine.”

Critically, Dr Allender scotched theories the pair died from LSD or hydrogen sulfide, known as rotten egg gas.

Dr Allender pictured speculated the pair could have used the erectile dysfunction drug as a prank or used for sexual tryst as an aphrodisiac. Picture: Sue Graham

“It certainly wasn’t LSD,” he said.

“Some samples were sent overseas and checked for LSD and initially they got a positive result and when they checked again they found it wasn’t the case and I knew darn well it couldn’t possibly be LSD because the symptoms just didn’t fit, LSD has a very large margin of safety certainly hallucinogenic and quite potent but as for deaths itself that is extremely unlikely.

Police at scene in Lane Cove National Park, where the bodies of Margaret Chandler & Doctor Gilbert Bogle were found in 1963.

The case had it all, high-class wife swapping, lurid tales of drug and sex parties and the shadowy claims of assassins sent from afar to execute the Cold War scientist.

“There was one theory that it was hydrogen sulfide, rotten egg gas, that resulted in the deaths but I find this pretty unlikely, there was no dead animals found around the bodies and I would have expected dead rabbits or the occasional fox maybe a possum or two which would have been dead from the river.”

As to why they took Yohimbine, Dr Allender speculated it could have been a prank or used for sexual tryst as an aphrodisiac but noted there was overseas evidence of a man dying from taking it in a sexual situation.

Michael McCormick and Dennis Wheway, the two teenagers who discovered the body of Doctor Gilbert Bogle, at the Lane Cove National Park in 1963 seen at the inquest.

Bogle was known to have multiple lovers and often took them to parks for sex. Chandler was a married mother of two but had told her husband she was going to have an affair with Bogle. The Chandlers and Bogle had attended the same NYE party in Chatswood, before the pair left at 4am, their bodies reported to police the next morning by two boys in the area collecting lost golf balls.

“I think people fascinated by the case, like the Lindy Chamberlain Azaria matter it seems to have an enduring appeal for some reason,” Dr Allender said.

NSW Police said the case was not active but the cold case unit would look at any new developments.

“Our investigators are always keen to receive information relevant to cases under their responsibility and Unsolved Homicide matters are no different,” a spokeswoman said.

“If new evidence comes to light, the information will be reviewed.”

Originally published as Bogle-Chandler murders: Australia’s most baffling deaths may have been prank gone wrong