Inquest

Confession of the Murderess

Excecution

Mercury 19 February 1862

We would like to thank Leanne Clark for copies of convict record, inquest, “Mercury” articles etc. relating to the trial and execution of Margaret Coghlan.

 MURDER IN GOULBURN STREET

“The Mercury” 7^th January 1862

Yesterday morning a rumor prevailed in the city that an old man named John Coghlan, a lodging house keeper and milkman, had been found murdered in his house which is situated in Goulburn Street at the rear of the Baptist Chapel in Harrington Street .  The rumor turned out to be too true.  The following are some of the particulars connected with this frightful affair.

The deceased and his wife were both of dissipated habits and were drinking the whole of Sunday.  About half past three o’clock yesterday morning the wife of the deceased came out into the street, and shouting to the constable on duty, said that her husband was lying in bed with his throat cut.  On entering the house Coghlan was found lying in bed, undressed, with his throat frightfully gashed, and his head battered about. The bedclothes were saturated with blood, and there was also blood on the floor of the room.  A constable was at once placed in charge of the premises and deceased’s wife, Margaret Coghlan, whose clothes were stained with blood, and another woman, named Catherine Lowe, who was residing in the house, were taken into custody, and were brought up at the Police Office before the Right Worshipful the Mayor yesterday morning charged with the murder.  Detective Vickers stated that he had no evidence to offer against Lowe, for although there was blood on her clothes, yet she had satisfactorily accounted for its being there, and he therefore prayed that she might be discharged and she was discharged accordingly.  She is a native of the colony.  The other prisoner, Margaret Coghlan, is a grey headed old woman.  She said “I hope I shall be allowed to call witnesses for the purpose of showing how the blood came on my clothes.  God Almighty knows that I am an innocent woman, my husband used to sleep out every night.”  The Mayor said that she need not make any statement then as she was not upon her trial.  She was then remanded to the 13^th instant, awaiting the result of the coroner’s inquest.  As she was removed from the house to the watchouse she said “they have taken away the innocent one this time.” 

On the 25^th April 1862, Charles Flanders entered New’s public house at Bagdad.  He asked Thomas Riley to join him in a fencing job and Riley agreed.  After drinking for a time, they left for Riley’s hut.  About 100 metres from the hut, Riley’s two children met them.  Despite the fact that Riley was very drunk and fell down several times, he did not reach the hut until between 10 and 11pm that night.

When Riley had first collapsed, Flanders had gone on with the 10 year old Mary Ann. However, when Riley eventually reached the hut, neither Mary Ann or Flanders were there, so he went out looking for his daughter.

He searched until 8am the following day, and then went into Green Ponds (Kempton) to report her missing.

Four days later, her body was found in a gully among ferns.

Dr. Oldmeadow, who examined the body, found that she had been strangled and sexually molested.

Flanders was arrested on the 7^th May in Hamilton.

He appeared in the Supreme Court, Hobart on the 4^th June. He was dressed in grey prison clothing as his own clothes were tattered and torn.

The case ran for two days, the jury being accommodated overnight in Mr. Allen’s Royal Exchange Hotel in Campbell Street.

Flanders was found guilty and sentenced to death with his body to be dissected at the General Hospital.

He had come to Van Diemans Land in 1846 from Norfolk Island after having been convicted in Sydney.  He had originally been transported 1in 1827 and was sent to New South Wales.

In 1855, he had been sentenced for robbery and was sent to Port Arthur.

Flanders was executed on the 24^th June 1862.  He was converted to Roman Catholicism in prison and died very penitent.

William and Johanna Harbach were German settlers who lived on Captain Chalmer’s farm at Bagdad.  Mr. Harbach was away from home on business when William Mulligan called at the Harbach’s house.  He was armed with a pistol and a stone wrapped in a handkerchief, “in such a manner as to constitute a most formidable weapon”.

Mulligan raped Mrs. Harbach and then stole money and other items.

He was duly arrested and appeared in the Supreme Court, Hobart on the 30^th October 1862, charged with rape and a second charge of felonious and violent assault of Johanna Harbach.  He was found guilty and sentenced to death.

Mulligan was a former penal settlement convict, who had spent half his life in prison.

Convict Indulgencies 1860 tell us that Hendrick (or Frederick) Witnalder had been involved in the Mutiny of the Cape Rifles in South Africa and arrived in Sydney on the “Pekoe”.  He had also been sentenced to death in the Sydney Criminal Courts for raping his mistress.  He arrived in Tasmania on the “Louisa” and was well known in the Colony as a drunkard and disturber of the peace.

In 1863 he was arrested for sodomy, tried and found guilty of this offence and sentenced to hang being the last person in Tasmania to pay the penalty for this crime.

Because of his prior history, it seems unlikely this was a way of life for him

 On the day of the execution he had weights attached to his legs in an effort to shorten his suffering.

More research to be added  

Robert McKavor was arrested, tried and sentenced to hang for “Robbery under Arms”.

Apparently a shepherd by the name of Edward Conningsby was driving sheep towards Oatlands when he came across McKavor.  Conningsby invited him to share his tea with him which they did.  McKavor returned later in the night and finding Conningsby asleep he attacked him with a stick in order to steal his money.

On the day of the trial, the judge told McKavor he would probably hang for such an ungrateful act.  After he was found guilty, the jury petitioned the court for him not to hang.

He was executed in 1864

More research to be added

18^th October 1838-2^nd.December 1865                

William Griffiths was born in the town of Denbigh in North Wales in 1833.  His parents held a very comfortable position in life, his father being well known and respected as a tradesman of the town and several other relations on the paternal side being well to do.

Griffiths received a good education at one of the Denbigh schools and was brought up as a member of the Church of England.  At any early age, however, he displayed symptoms of a restless disposition, and soon broke beyond the bounds of parental control, associating himself with vicious and dissolute companions.  He grew indolent, and as is generally the case, turned to alcohol.  He was led into petty crime to gratify his need for alcohol and found himself on the 16^th October 1849 a prisoner on trial for stealing a pair of boots.  On this charge he was found guilty and sentenced to seven years transportation.  He arrived in Tasmania on the “Pestongee Bomangee 1V” 31^st July 1852 and was 20 years of age on his arrival.  During the period of his confinement Griffiths appears to have behaved tolerably well and the gaol reports in reference to him are more favourable than ordinary.  Soon after his arrival he was assigned to Mr. Turnley of Broadmarsh and he resided in that district until 1859.  While in his assigned service he frequently manifested habits of intemperance, and was often suspected of being involved in cases of larcency which occurred in the district.  He was once arrested on a charge of stealing a pair of boots and a handkerchief , and on a subsequent occasion he was convicted of stealing a coat and received a sentence of six months imprisonment.  After undergoing his punishment Griffiths seems to have once more endeavored to mend his ways.

He received his Ticket of Leave on 14^th February 1864.  A good workman, he continued to give satisfaction to his master and on the 19^th December in the same year he received his conditional pardon.  Comparatively a free man it wasn’t long before he relapsed into his old habits receiving frequent reprimands for drunkenness.  In the year 1859 he moved from Broadmarsh to Glenorchy where he obtained employment as a farm servant with Dr. Butler, then Mr. R. Shoobridge and finally Mr. J.P. Lester where he remained for about three and a half years before being asked to leave on account of his unsteady habits.  Turned away from the service of Mr. Lester, Griffiths appears to have supported himself by hiring himself out to one small farmer after the other and always losing his employment because of his drinking and a growing suspicion of his dishonesty.

His last service was in the employment of Thomas Smith a small farmer residing in a cottage at O’Briens Bridge and it was from here he started on the path to his final crime, the murder of the two Johnson children, Sarah and George which led him to the ultimate punishment – death by hanging.  This was carried out on the 2^nd. December 1865.  

See The Glenorchy Murders

This case was one of the biggest arguments against capital punishment.

Margaret Ayres was the servant of the Reverend R. Hayward at Port Arthur and one day was out looking for a cow that was lost in the bush was accosted and assaulted.

 Suspicion fell on Job Smith (Convict).  He was put in a line up with two other men (supposedly he was the only one with handcuffs on) and identified by the girl.

It was noted at the time she had no marks of violence on her and said she had never seen the prisoner before which afterwards turned out to be a lie.

He was found guilty of the crime and executed.

1878  Richard Copping – Murder

This is a case based solely on jealousy.  Richard Copping’s girlfriend at the time told him she had found someone else and in a fit of rage he rushed out and found an axe.  He told people

“She deceived me and I’ll be hanged for her like a man’

He was defended by Lawyer Andrew Inglis Clarke who put forward the plea of insanity which was not accepted by the court.

Unfortunately, he didn’t act like the man he said he was when it was time for his execution.  Apparently, as he was led to the gallows, he sobbed and sobbed.  He was ministered to by the Reverend John Gray who was attending his first execution and even he, upset by the cries of Richard Copping, couldn’t continue.

The following notes are taken from “The Tasmanian Gallows” By Richard P Davis

A little over two years after Ned Kelly had been hanged at Melbourne gaol, two young Tasmanians, James Sutherland aged 18 and his friend James Ogden, only two years older, determined to emulate his deeds.  Both were small and insignificant looking but Sutherland was of a distinctly more aggressive disposition than Ogden .

Tired of their aimless existence Sutherland and Ogden decided to go bushranging.

They picked on James Wilson, whom Ogden believed to have turned against him a girl he had hoped to marry.

Armed with a shotgun, the young men attacked Wilson ’s house in Epping, occupied not only be the Wilson family, but also by a female guest and her children, as their first victim.  Calling themselves ‘James Kelly’ and ‘Dan Riley’, though well known to the Wilson’s Ogden and Sutherland stormed the cottage, shot Wilson dead, seriously wounding his female guest, and, after taking money from Mrs. Wilson, burnt the building to the ground.  Soon afterwards they bailed up Alfred Holman, a thirty five year old married man with three children, who was driving a lemonade cart.  Holman was not only shot but scalped.  His lemonade cart was pulled off the road into the bush.  The murderers were easily traced into the bush were they were found carousing with lemonade.

After arrest, Sutherland was immensely proud of himself.  He boasted that it was much better fun to shoot men than rabbits.  He taunted Ogden with cowardice ‘go and cry for your mother’.  In the lockup however, both shouted and sang songs of praise of Ned Kelly.  After their trial and sentence they still laughed and joked.

Public opinion was so strong it became almost impossible to ensure a fair trial.  Hearing that Sutherland and Ogden were arriving at Hobart by train, a mob, shouting for their blood, besieged the railway station.  The authorities prevented a possible lynching by bringing the suspects on a different train.

The actions of Sutherland and Ogden were not those of normal men.  Apparently Ogden , described by witnesses as feeble minded, had a fit which lasted for an hour and a half in the condemned cell.  He eventually walked to the gallows with a bunch of flowers clutched in his trembling hands.

They were both executed on the 4^th. January 1883.

Henry Stock was only 20 years old when he married 17 year old Elizabeth …..

who already had a daughter by another man.  This little girl was the cause of many arguments between husband and wife.  Eventually, Elizabeth took the child and left the family home.

 After a struggle to bring up the child alone, Henry said he would take her back on the condition she came alone and found another home for the baby.

Elizabeth eventually returned but brought the baby with her.

It wasn’t long before their bullet marked bodies were found outside the family hut.

He was found guilty and sentenced to death and was hung 13^th. October 1884.

On the day of his execution, it was reported that Henry Stock ate well, then sang and danced, finally waving farewell to the prison muster bell.

Nowadays, showing behaviour like this he would have been taken for a mental

Assessment and probably be held in a prison hospital.

(More to be added)

Elizabeth Woods was living with her aunt, Harriet Hurley and a Benjamin Hampton, in Barrack Street, Deloraine in December 1886.

Timothy Walker lived in Morgans Row, Deloraine.  He and Woods had lived together until she had left him in late October after a quarrel.

About 6.30pm on the 2^nd December, Woods saw Walker in Barrack Street and he asked her if they were still friends.  When she replied they were not, Walker lifted his double-barrelled gun and said he would knock her brains out.  Hampton came out of the house and asked Walker to leave quietly.  Walker shot Hampton in the left arm and fired the second barrel into Hampton’s left side.

Walker then went to his son-in-law’s house and gave the gun to his daughter.  He asked her to take care of his 6-year-old son as he expected to be arrested.

He appeared in the Supreme Court, Hobart on the 15^th December 1886, on a charge of having “feloniously, wilfully and of malice aforethought, killed Benjamin Hampton”.  Walker attempted to argue that the gun had gone off during a struggle but witnesses agreed that no struggle took place.  Walker was sentenced to death.

He had been transported to Van Diemans Land and had committed a number of offences there between 1833 and 1837.

At the time of his trial, he was 76 years of age.  He was executed on the 10^th January 1887.  Death was instantaneous.

Arthur Cooley was born 7^th July 1872 the son of Jeremiah and Christina White.

He was a rabbiter by profession and apparently had a good physique and had above average intelligence.

In 1891 he was arrested for the murder of Mary Ogilvy who was the wife of the Magistrate for the Richmond District.

She was on a picnic with friends when she got separated from them and was later found shot.  Motive for the crime was possibly rape.

Arthur Cooley confessed to the crime blaming his downfall on alcohol and his early imprisonment with hardened criminals.

He was sentenced to death and it was reported he was brave and composed on the day of his execution.

He was 19 years old when he was executed.

More research to be added

Joseph Belbin was 19 years old and a ferreter when he was convicted of the murder of 16 year old Margaret Ledwell who in late 1913 had been found with her head nearly shot away and her clothing rearranged.

His defence was that he had tried to kiss her and she had kicked the gun and it exploded in her face.  However, medical evidence showed the gun could not have been fired when she was standing.  The judge directed the jury to find him guilty if he accidently killed the girl while attempting rape.

He was tried and his defence was that many of his relatives on both sides of the family were prone to taking fits (maybe epilepsy) however he was convicted and found guilty.

Belbin eventually confessed he shot her because she refused him.

For his execution, a hangman had been sent from Sydney .  It was reported that death was instantaneous.

More research to be added

THE SWANSEA TRAGEDIES

George Carpenter, age 27 married, who had previously been convicted of robbery committed 3 murders at Swansea, was convicted and sentenced to death.  He remained brazen to the end, ate and slept well.  He showed little interest in talks with the prison chaplain and walked silently to his execution.

 The Mercury Dec 28, 1922

So terrible were the crimes committed by the Swansea murderer, George Carpenter, that even the maudlin opponents of capital punishment, did not even raise their voices to save him from the scaffold.  He began with a murder for robbery, then followed a murder of hatred and vengeance, and finally a murder to escape arrest.  The cool deliberation of the acts is what astonishes.  He shot Duncombe as he sat at his table, his object apparently being robbery, as it was known that the old fellow kept money on his place. Next he shot his cousin, Thomas Carpenter in the same cowardly fashion. What happened between them will never be known, but it is clear that the victim was at his work of wattle bark stripping when the murderer shot him in the back of the head. Tom Carpenter’s dog must have sensed the tragedy and protested, for it too was shot. The tale was not yet complete.  Two murders had been committed, and the murderer in neither had gained his object.  He wanted money, and to get it returned to the hut of his first victim, Duncombe, to make another search.  There he was met by Trooper Henderson, who attempted an arrest, and became the third victim.

Like all criminals George Carpenter doubtless thought that he was hiding all traces of his dreadful acts and that the murders would remain a mystery, just as many others had done.  Fortunately for the community, there is something in human nature that blinds or weakens the criminals, even the most callous and expert in the very act, and causes him to drop clues which the Sherlock Holmes’ pick up and follow.  In this case George Carpenter forgot about his footprints.  When he fled from the scene of the murder of Trooper Henderson he left behind his bag clutched by that brave officer.  He must have known that he was the ‘wanted’ man and prepared himself to fight it out.  But for that lucky shot that found a crevice in the hut in which he had sheltered and shattered his arm, it is quite possible he would have taken another life as, according to his own statement, he was seeking a chance to shoot a man named Johns when he was shot.  He had taken the lives of three good men and it seemed fitting that he too should die.

 Dreadful deeds like those of George Carpenter prove once again that civilization cannot dispense with capital punishment.  Life is the thing beyond price.  The man that takes life from base motives has only one dread-the scaffold.  Imprisonment means life under restraint but it is still life and not the end of all things.  It is something therefore that cannot be tolerated.

1946 Frederick Henry Thompson – Murder

Frederick Henry Thompson, the last man to be executed in Tasmania was convicted and sentenced to death for the murder of Evelyn Maughan, a child of seven who had disappeared after attending Sunday mass.  Her body was later discovered by a visitor from Sydney who was looking for his father’s grave in the disused Queenborough Cemetery .  

Two women had given a statement saying they had seen a man pushing an old pram towards the cemetery.  Enquiries led to Thompson, a married man of 32 who was brought to trial before Mr. Justice Clark, convicted and sentenced to death.

It was later revealed that Thompson had two previous convictions for indecent exposure and had also been an inmate at the Lachlan Park mental hospital  

The Mercury 15^th February 1940 stated  

THOMPSON TO BE HANGED TODAY

Frederick Henry Thompson (32) who on Dec. 17 last was found guilty of murdering Evelyn Mary Maughan (8) will be hanged at Hobart Gaol this morning

The Executive Council yesterday gave lengthy consideration to the case.  All Cabinet members were present.

A statement issued after the meeting said “The Council did not see fit to recommend to His Excellency the Governor to exercise the Royal Prerogative of mercy.  The sentence of death will, therefore, be carried out, in accordance with the requirements of the Criminal Code.  No official statement on the time of the execution was made, but it is believed the hanging will be carried out at 6.30 a.m.

The question of Thompson’s mentality was not raised by the defence.  An appeal against the conviction on the grounds that his previous criminal record was wrongfully admitted failed.

Since his conviction Thompson has been in the condemned cell under close guard.

He had shown no outward signs of strain before the Executive Council’s decision not to interfere with the court’s penalty.

He has passed much of his time reading travel literature, particularly the “National Geographic” magazine.  

The next day it was reported that Thompson had gone calmly to his death which was followed by an inquest held by the Coroner (Mr H.R Dobbie) at the Hobart Police Court .  Det-Inspector Fleming appeared for the Police Department.

Dr. W.J Freeman, medical officer to the gaol said that at 6.9 a.m. he examined the body of Frederick Henry Thompson.  The cause of death was dislocation of the cervical vertebrae inflicting fatal injuries on the spinal cord through the hanging.  In his opinion death was instantaneous.

The Coroner recorded a finding of death by hanging in accordance with the warrant of sentence of death.  

Thompson was later buried at Cornelian Bay