Demise of Smith's Weekly
On 5 April 1932 Francis Barndy Wilkinson and his girlfriend Dorothy Ruth Denzel, were victims of a callous double murder by William Cyril Moxley at Moorebank. In the issue dated 30 July 1932, Smith's Weekly published a barrage of ugly allegations against Wilkinson, including attempted extortion and being a police informant. These were quickly proven false, a fact that was seized on by the daily newspapers. Smith's Weekly never fully recovered from its loss of reputation.
Its fortunes revived somewhat during WWII, once again doggedly supporting the men at the front, but at war's end rising costs and lack of capital (new owners seeing its value as real estate rather than a business) accelerated its decline, and the last issue, dated 28 October 1950 was a tired tabloid of a mere 24 pages.
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