Jessie Miller

Jessie Maude "Chubbie" Miller (1901 Western Australia – 1972, London, England) was a pioneering Australian aviator. In 1927, Miller became the first woman to complete an England-to-Australia flight the eldest of three children of Maude and Charles Beveridge, a bank manager. when she was 18. At the time it was one of the longest flights made in such a small aircraft, although they were overtaken en route by Bert Hinkler in another Avian. Bad weather forced them down in Sumatra, but they continued on, and after 159 days she finally arrived as the first woman to complete an England-to-Australia flight. Although 24 hours late, a huge crowd greeted them on arrival in Darwin, and on their subsequent tour around Australia.

In 1928, Lancaster and Miller moved to the United States on the promise of a Hollywood movie which was never made. Miller became an aviator in her own right, competing in the famous "Powder Puff Derby" of 1929, coming in third place in the light plan division.

Three years after Miller's pioneering flight, the first solo England – Australia flight by a woman was made in 1930 by Amy Johnson.

In 1930, she set the cross country East-West record for a flight by a woman from California to New York. The record was bested by Ruth Nichols Rye in December 1930. Miller, however, was able to force land on the Bahamian island of Andros.

Clarke murder In 1932, Lancaster was in Mexico looking for work. At the same time, Haden Clarke, a male American writer, was living in Lancaster and Miller's Florida home in order to assist Miller in writing her autobiography. Clarke and Miller developed a relationship in Lancaster's absence, and Clarke convinced Miller to leave Lancaster and marry him instead. Upon receipt of this news, Lancaster returned promptly to Florida.

On 20 April, Clarke was killed by a gunshot wound to the head. Despite the facts that the gun was Lancaster's, and that he admitted forging suicide notes found at the scene (one addressed to Lancaster and another to Miller), Lancaster was acquitted of murder after the prosecution's arguments and evidence failed to persuade the jury.