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On the 30th December 1845, John Mitchell Christie was born in Clackmannan, Scotland. After growing up here, he finally leaves for Melbourne in 1863 where he joined the Detective Force a couple years later. It was on the 1st of June 1866, Christie started his first day, which wasn't going according to plan. He arrests a man for stealing two pairs of shoes from a stall near Paddy’s market, unfortunately, Christie takes the man back in the direction to what he thinks is the detective office, however he ends up walking in the opposite direction towards Fitzroy Gardens.

Christie was a part of various cases, those including being the Duke of Edinburgh’s body guard while touring Australia; arresting illegal coiners that made the counterfeits so well they weren't caught out until they were in the Bank of Victoria; getting to the bottom of the murder of Louey Brown in 1870; arresting robbers who stole jewels from a well known grand opera entrepreneur Mr William Saurin and his wife; and arresting Emily M Brown for knowingly evading duties of customs as she attempts to deceive the officers by dropping the stolen gold watch into the river and hiding the diamond ring in her clothes.

Christie became so well at catching out criminals as he would dress up in disguises, such as the Illicit  Distillation case; where he found himself as a Salvation Army Officer and council labourer to catch John Clayton and James Wilson. He would act out different characters, become someone who could fit into the environment easily, with him also gambling with Magsmen to catch them out in the very act. During his life as a detective, his appearances/disguises included: rouge paint - for ruggard skin, fuller’s earth - greasy, bushy eyebrows - brushes reversed/daren colour, enlarged nose, crape hair - affixed with gum, stubble - hair affixed with gum, removing to look rough, and wigs that fit close to the head.

Not only was Christie the Sherlock Holmes of Melbourne, he tried his hand at Boxing and Sculling where he was awarded a silver cup and won the Australasian Cup respectively. He later gave up boxing after he was sick and got defeated. It was the same year he joined the customs department and then he also became a revenue detective. It was here the story 'Widow’s Pram' takes place.

From being so successful in his detective roles, his private life also involved a wife, Emilie Ada Taylor Baker, who was the daughter of a bookseller at the time. She was 20 and Christie was 31 when they married. Throughout the years they had two children together, a son (who took Christie’s name) and a daughter. It was only eight years later when his wife, Emilie, passed away, and his daughter died also.


It was on the 1st of December 1910 that Christie was attacked on the docks that meant he could no longer work, so he retires after this brutality along with losing his hearing. On the 11th of January 1927, he passes away at Kilmany, Armadale, where his only son was left to take over his estate which at the time was worth 10,069 pounds.  


 

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