Geoscience Reference
In-Depth Information
formingYatesthatshehadmarried BobTregenza whichonlyservedtodriveYatesinto
a more murderous rage, if that were possible. Terrified for their lives, the couple and
four children moved to Seaford, a suburb of Melbourne, and sought police protection.
The police informed them that they could not do anything until Yates showed his hand
in some way, which cannot have been any reassurance as Yates was searching nearby
Frankston for them at this point. Matters may have finally resolved themselves in the
family'sfavour,asinhiscrazedstateofmind,Yateshadgivenuptryingtofindthemin
their new location and attempted to commit suicide by gassing himself in Mornington.
Unfortunately for the family, Yates was saved by the police and he then renewed his
search for them with increased vigour. He eventually tracked the family down to their
newlocation.Onthenightof1December1960,Yatesdecidedonafinalshowdownand
just after midnight left his lodgings in Richmond with a loaded rifle and alcohol (four
bottles of beer and a bottle of wine) and arrived at the family's home, bizarrely dressed
in a red bow tie and dazzling white shirt. Yates had obviously spent the rest of the night
drinking outside the home, because at 6 a.m. on 2 December Rita came out to go to the
bakerytobuybreadwhenshewasconfrontedbyYateswithanemptybottleofwinely-
ing nearby. With a drunken Yates brandishing the rifle and demanding to see Tregenza,
the terrified Rita turned and ran back into the house. Yates followed her and went into
a bedroom to find Tregenza getting out of bed. Yates aimed the rifle at him and killed
Tregenza with a single shot to the head before walking back outside the house and then
shooting himself in the head. A terrified teenage girl who happened to be passing by
witnessed Yates killing himself.
Bob Tregenza was buried in Coburg Cemetery, Preston, a northern suburb of Mel-
bourne. It is a tragic story and, but for a couple of unfortunate turns, the outcome could
have been very different had Tregenza and Rita managed to find safety elsewhere and
if the police had not saved Yates from killing himself.
Suicides are another problem that can be associated with men who are confined for
long periods, as in the case of lengthy space travel mentioned earlier. There have been
very few lighthouse suicides, if only because the nature of the work and conditions is
well known before it is taken on as a career. Anybody who could not take that type of
life soon left of their own accord. The only known suicide in recent times, in North
Ronaldsay, Scotland, was less to do with depression brought on by the isolation of the
life of a lightkeeper, than the fact that he found out that his wife was involved with an-
other man. Though unfortunate, this incident could just as easily have taken place if the
lightkeeper had lived in the middle of a town and worked in a factory, though the isola-
tion of a lighthouse may not have helped the man's state of mind.
Coming back to the situation of James Ducat, Thomas Marshall and Donald Macar-
thur, none of the above scenarios of murder fit the situation that the three men found
