1866 - [Luckie, D. M.] Illustrated Narrative of the Dreadful Murders on the Maungatapu Mountain - APPENDIX. SKETCH OF THE LIFE OF RICHARD BURGESS, p 103-113

[Image of page 103]

APPENDIX.

SKETCH OF THE

LIFE OF RICHARD BURGESS,

FROM A HISTORY WRITTEN BY HIMSELF,

COMPILED AND PREPARED BY THE EDITOR OF TEE NELSON COLONIST.

FROM the subjoined sketch of the career, crimes, sufferings, and shameful death of Richard Burgess, a moralist could gather many opportunities of reading pregnant lessons of warning to the members of the dangerous classes. He could speak of the hard-earned wages of sin against society, bringing degradation and death; could point out how the "first downward step" produces a future of punishment, and condemns the erring one to the life of an outcast making war on society,--a life which is surrounded by the terrors of the law, and which demands a watchfulness, ingenuity, and invention, which, if applied to an honest calling with one half the assiduity required by the followers of evil courses, would ensure respectability, competence, and probably wealth.

No more forcible example of this fact could be found than is discovered in the story of Richard Burgess's life. He possessed evidently a readiness of invention and a power of application to fit him for the working out of any preconcerted plan of villany, a perseverance which would have proved invaluable in the paths of honest industry. The child of shame and sorrow, his birth and early life were but typical of his manhood and violent death;--and there are probably but few criminals in the calendar of prisons whose life has been more eventful, or who has endured more severe hardship and punishment at the hands of the law, which he so repeatedly outraged, than the subject of this sketch. Nothing could more clearly prove that "the way of transgressors is hard;" for, if Burgess was a great criminal--a fact of which there is no doubt--he underwent for years a course of punishment which, if not commensurate with his many crimes, must at least have exceeded the punishment of nine-tenths of the members of the desperate classes with whom he had leagued himself from boyhood, until his death on the scaffold; and that last dreadful fate which overtook him in the prime of manhood is the end of a life nearly one-half of which was spent in prisons; and much of the remainder was rendered miserable by police surveillance, by the feeling of being for ever under the eye of the law, hunted from place to place, and often in want of the common necessaries of life, as when he and his brethren in guilt were all but penniless at the time they left Canvastown, in June, 1866, to begin the speedy end of their career by the commission of their last and greatest deeds of blood. Never was there a truer exemplification of the folly and profitlessness of a life of crime; and never was a more salutary warning offered to dishonest men than is held out to them in the vile life and shameful and deserved death of Richard Burgess.

The autobiography of Burgess, which he wrote in prison after his confession, is replete with vain rhodomontade, pretentious declamation, and that highflown phraseology of which he showed himself so fond when speaking from the dock. There is in it much of useless repetition, winch renders its perusal tedious, and while he makes frequent use of Scripture, and blames himself for the murders and other offences he committed, yet there runs through the whole of the narrative much of that vain-glorious pride with which he seemed animated when reading his astounding confession before the Nelson Resident Magistrate. A great portion of what he wrote was occupied by a repetition of the statements made in that confession, and reiterated by Burgess at his trial. It is not proposed to load these pages with these thrice-told tales, nor to repeat here the strong denunciations of Sullivan in which Burgess once more indulged, in the, story of his life; but what follows shall simply be a carefully compiled narrative, of the many sad incidents which are therein described, free from the inflated language, the apparent boastfulness, and repeated Scriptural quotation which encumber the original manuscript.

[Image of page 104]

Richard Burgess was born at Hatton Gardens, London, on 14th February, 1829. His mother was a lady's maid, serving in the family of Lord Grosvenor, and his father was "some one connected with the Horse Guards." His birth was illegitimate, and he remembered seeing his father only once. This was when he was eight or nine years of age, when a man, says the late autobiographer, "came to see my mother, who told me it was my father. He took me up in his arms and kissed me, and told me to be a good boy to my mother; and this was the only paternal embrace I ever received." After reaching boyhood, he was sent to school, but was expelled from it for unruly conduct. This circumstance caused his mother to remove to Hoxton, New Town, and here young Burgess attended a Sunday school connected with the Baptist Chapel at Hoxton, New Town, and also went to a day academy in the same place, which was kept by a Mr. Fry. From this second school he was also expelled, for driving a sharp-pointed pencil up a school-fellow's nose with so much violence, that it was necessary to send for a surgeon to extract it. He was then aged about twelve years; and at this time his mother removed to the East end of London, to Milk-street, Commercial Road, where she became acquainted with a Mr. Weekes, a cabinet-maker, with a family of three girls and a boy, and with whom she went to live. Whether she was married to this man, Burgess did not know. He was sent to learn the trade of a cabinet-maker with Weekes; but, says Burgess, "I made little progress, as I disliked the trade, and especially the family, with the exception of the only daughter, Emma by name, for whom I entertained a great regard. I got tired of this work, and as soon as I attained the age of fourteen, I went over to the Surrey side of the river, and associated with pickpockets."

The way that young street thieves are perfected in pocket-picking is described by Burgess. The girls of their acquaintance used to put some article in their pockets and parade to and fro, and the beginner was deputcd to rob them without their detecting the loss. When they succeeded in this, they were considered proficient, and were allowed to operate on victims selected from the public at large. Burgess speedily attained considerable skill; and, with native self-confidence, he soon resolved to try his hand. His first essay as a street thief was singularly unfortunate. In attempting to pick the pocket of an old lady as she left the Olympic Theatre and made her way to her carriage, he was detected in the act by a policeman, and at once apprehended. On being tried, he was sentenced to six months' imprisonment. The sentence would have been much heavier, but for the fact that the old lady prosecuted very reluctantly, and compassionately interceded for Burgess, on account of his youth. In addition to the sentence of imprisonment, he was flogged on going in and on coming out of the prison. His experiences in gaol, and the lessons he there learned, confirmed him in wickedness; and if he went into gaol a beginner in crime, he left it well instructed and more proficient from his six months' probation. He was introduced to others much older than himself, and proved an apt and daring pupil, and soon added house-breaking to his other accomplishments. These burglaries were

chiefly carried on in the suburbs of London. When about sixteen years of age, he and some others robbed a gentleman's villa at Clapham of all the silver plate. Detection followed; he was apprehended, tried at the Old Bailey, and sentenced to fifteen years' transportation. This was in 1845. Burgess, with something like naivete, remarks on this burglary, that the burglars are very hardly dealt with by the receivers of stolen goods, and that professional thieves get a miserable return for the articles they obtain by theft or house-breaking; the average allowance being never more than about one-third of the value of the articles stolen, and often much less.

After receiving this long sentence, Burgess passed twenty months in the model prison of Pentonville, at the expiry of which time, in the month of May, 1847, he was shipped off to Australia, to the colony of Victoria, in the Joseph Soames, along with a batch of 300 other convicts, chiefly young men.

On reaching Melbourne, which he did in September of the same year, all the convicts obtained conditional pardons. He consorted with a young man who was a stone-cutter, and who came out on board the same vessel, also as a convict; and both of them worked for some time at the trade of stone-cutting, at which Burgess proved himself an adept. He soon got tired of the steady life of a working man, and by-and-by entered the service of Captain Grey, the District Magistrate of Geelong. Here he practised robbery at every opportunity, and the fact of his being the servant of the Magistrate tended, in no small degree, to keep him free from suspicion. He seduced a young woman in Geelong, and afterwards left for Adelaide, South Australia. Here, in the latter part of 1848, he was guilty of forgery, in connection with another young man. Both were tried, found guilty, and sentenced; Burgess getting off with only eighteen months' imprisonment, while his less fortunate companion was sentenced to six years.

At the expiration of his period of imprisonment, he left Adelaide, and returned to Melbourne; and there, about the beginning of the year 1850, he engaged, he declares, with a butcher, who now occupies a dignified station in society, to steal cattle wholesale for him. In this business he continued until he had stolen more than 500 head of cattle, and a much greater number of sheep; and it does not appear that he was ever suspected in these transactions.

He next associated with a young man named Keef, now dead, and went to the gold-diggings of Victoria. The pair lived by robbing gold diggers, "sticking them up," as the phrase is, and tying them to trees, murdering being rarely resorted to. It frequently happened that Burgess and his companion were "put up" to robberies--that is to say, were employed to commit them by one of the mates of the party robbed; the mate who acted so treacherously being himself ostensibly "stuck up," and a victim like the rest, but afterwards receiving his share of the plunder. Numerous cases of this kind occurred, where one or two of the party may have had a large amount of gold, while the informer had very little, which frequently happened.

Their movements about Australia were much more rapid than they could be in a place like New Zealand, where the land is mountainous and the bush

[Image of page 105]

heavy and thick, and without those extensive plains which are so numerous in Australia. The state of the country there allowed them to go swiftly from place to place: and their mode of travel was in keeping with their general character and career. They stole horses at all stations where they wanted them, riding them a distance of sixty miles, then turning them loose, and "changing horses" by stealing fresh ones at each available station.

Some time in the year 1851, while only twenty-two years of age, Burgess committed his first murder. This was the murder of a storekeeper named Hewit, whom he and Keef stopped on the Keiler Plains. He had a horse and dray with him, a large sum of money, and 43 lbs weight of gold, or about 500 ozs. They drove him to a deep creek off the track, shot him, and covered the body up in a deep dry water hole, put the cart into another hole some three miles distance, and let the horse wander away loose, just as was intended to be done with the horse of the men murdered on the Maungatapu, but which was prevented by the rough nature of the country. This Mr. Hewit fell a victim to his own incaution. Had he held his tongue his life would not have been taken. He had first been tied up, and Burgess and his mate had left him, to be released by the next traveller, who could hear him coo-eying, when Mr. Hewit, unhappily for himself, called after them, and said he would know them again. The men went on a little distance when Burgess's mate suggested that they should go back and finish him, as if they were recognised by him again it would not be safe. "He evidently knows us," said the man, "and we must shoot him." They accordingly went hack and shot him, disposing of the body in the way mentioned.

Burgess was now in possession of a large sum of money, and he soon spent it. He returned at once to Melbourne, and there went to live with a girl whom he took from the Port Phillip Club Hotel. When his money was all gone, he went to the Bendigo gold-diggings; and there his second murder was committed. This time he was alone,--at least there is no mention made of any companion. He stopped a German at Black Forest, shooting him and hiding the body: and robbing him of fourteen pounds weight of gold. He again went hack to Melbourne. This was in the very height of the gold-fever; at a time when men were robbed and murdered on the streets, and when it was not safe to go out after dark; at a time when a man kept the middle of the street if he had to be out after nightfall, carrying a loaded pistol in his hand, and suspecting every man he met of being a robber.

Burgess at this time saw frequent instances of street robbery by men with whom he had no connection, but who he knew belonged to the fraternity of professional thieves, and therefore he took care not to spoil their work, nor to inform against them. He had seen such men garotte passengers on the street, and he saw this once too often; for, on one occasion, he was apprehended on a charge of a robbery of this kind to which he was an eye-witness, but in which he took no part, neither did he share in the booty. For this offence he was tried and sentenced to ten years' imprisonment; the first three years of the term to be passed in heavy irons. Burgess had not been in prison for more than six weeks when he received fifty lashes for using threatening language to one of the prison officers. Before his back was healed from the effects of this flogging, he was given 100 lashes for aiding in the maltreatment of another prison official. This was in the stockade. The prisoners, smarting under some real or supposed grievance (Burgess says they were dreadfully ill-treated by some of the officers), resolved to attack one of the officers. They did so, severely maltreating him, and causing a great disturbance. They would have killed the man, and a body of soldiers had to come and rescue him. As the soldiers entered, out of the prisoners who had been looking on stepped forward, picked up the officer, who was lying nearly dead, and carried him out. This prisoner, had he attempted this two minutes before, would have been killed for interfering. Burgess declares he had no hand in maltreating this officer, and he could not have helped him, for so enraged were the prisoners that, if any of their number had attempted to assist the officer before the arrival of the soldiers, the compassionate man would himself have fallen a victim, to their fury. Nevertheless he received 100 lashes as punishment.

Shortly after this occurrence, in December, 1852, he was removed from prison, and placed on board the convict hulk President, where he was kept a close prisoner in his cell for the first three months, without once during that time being let out for exercise.

On 21st June, 1853, he was removed from the President to the Success, another convict hulk, when the discipline was less severe. About six weeks after his removal, he and eight others formed a determination to escape and carried it at once into execution. The prisoners were in the habit of working on the shore, where they employed at the wharf and other public works, always under the eyes of armed sentries. Burgess and eight other convicts rushed the sentries, and endeavored to overpower them. The attempt was a failure; four of the eight were shot in the legs, and Burgess had a portion of the collar of his prison coat carried away by a bullet. After this he was sent back to the former vigorous treatment on board the President, had over thirty pounds weight added to his irons, and altogether was encumbered by fully fifty pounds of irons. He had again three months of solitary cell confinement, debarred from exercise all the time.

In February, 1854, Mr. John Price, a man who was a terribly strict disciplinarian, was appointed Inspector-General of the Penal Department, and the prisoners severely treated. It is a fact well-known in the history of the penal settlements that Inspector Price was ultimately murdered by prisoners. Burgess was kept on board the President for two years, during the whole of which time he wore these heavy irons, for he was now considered a desperate prisoner, and was subjected to severe treatment under the orders of Price.

After the lapse of these two years, he was again sent on board the Success, and allowed to work on shore at stone-cutting. He continued to do this, and to do it well, for six months, when, one day, ten of them, including Burgess, seized a small boat which, belonged to the hulk, and was then on shore with two

[Image of page 106]

of the officers who belonged to the Success. This attempt was frustrated, as the previous one was; but it ended in murder. The manner of the attempted escape was this: While the boat was lying at the wharf with two officers in charge, one of whom was named Owen Owens, the ten prisoners suddenly leaped into her, overpowered the men, and launched off from the wharf. They threw the two officers overboard; but seeing that Owens could not swim, they took him on board again, he lay down or sat down in the boat, which, to get out, had to pass not far from the hulk, and a good way within gunshot distance. Those on board the hulk observed what was going on, and fired on the boat. Burgess, who was among the last to jump into the boat, had broken the tiller with his foot, so that, being in the stern, he was managing the rudder with his hands, stooping as much as possible to get out of the way of the bullets fired from the hulk. He was stretching out his arms, grasping the upper part of the rudder between his hands, when he heard one of the prisoners ordering Owen Owens to stand up in the boat, as they knew that if those on board the hulk saw Owens, they would cease firing for the sake of their own officer. Owens repeatedly refused to stand up. The other prisoner then asked Burgess to hand him a small stone-mason's hammer, which lay in the stern. He stretched out his hand and handed him the hammer. At this time he was shot in the back by a bullet from the ship, and the other man struck Owens in the head and scattered his brains about the boat, when Burgess recovered his consciousness, he found this murder committed; and the boat was soon after taken, and all the prisoners recaptured. They were all charged with murder, and Burgess, who was severely wounded, was brought into Court on his mattress. This happened in October, 1855. The men were all committed for murder; but, on the trial, owing to some informality in the law, which professed to discover that the men were not in proper legal custody at the time they attempted to escape, they were not convicted; otherwise, had a conviction been obtained, they would all no doubt have been hanged.

On being removed from Court, Burgess was again taken on board the hulk, where he was freed from his irons, and he lay in his cell for seven days in one position. At the end of that time, the officers, seeing that he might possibly recover, gave more attention to his wound and his wants. Five months after this Burgess said he was rejoiced to hear that John Price had been stoned to death by a body of convicts, who attacked him with stones and shovels, and killed him. This happened on 27th March, 1857; and for the murder, seven men were tried, condemned, and executed.

This event caused an enquiry into the system of convict management at the hulks; and it was found to be bad, and was proved that under it, as it was administered, men were made almost demons, for want of sound and wise discipline. The hulk system was soon after abandoned, and a prison system on the model of Pentonville in London, was inaugurated at Pentridge in Melbourne, where much better results in criminal punishment and control were obtained.

Burgess, notwithstanding his desperate character, did not complete his sentence of ten years' penal servitude; for, after seven years of the term had elapsed, he was in 1859 again turned loosed on society, on a ticket-of-leave. He joined one of his comrades, who was also liberated on similar terms at the same time as himself; and the two confederates immediately recommenced a career of robbery. They proceeded towards Sydney, stealing horses from the station of a Mr. Brookes, and, following the old plan, turned these loose when they were ridden out, and stole others. They stole two from Mr. Fox's station; and as they journeyed towards Sydney, they effected a great many robberies on the road, but without realising large booty, helping themselves to fresh horses all the way as they travelled through. Whilst employed in robbing a store Delinquin, both their horses broke their bridles and ran away, a circumstance which greatly impeded their progress. After "sticking up" many stations, they attempted that of Mr. Burgee, near Warren, and endeavored to get fresh horses there; but they were resisted, and obliged to flee, glad to escape with their lives. The number of robberies they had committed on the road, and particularly this last attempt, brought the police on their track; and the day following the unsuccessful attack on Burgee's station, they were apprehended, Burgess being courageously captured by a mounted trooper, who leaped from his horse right upon Burgess, as the latter was in the act of drawing his revolver. He was disarmed, and taken into custody. He and his companion were then tried for sticking up the Burgee station, but were acquitted because no one could be found who could swear positively to the men. They, were, however, sentenced to twelve months' imprisonment for carrying fire-arms; and Burgess was committed for trial for attempting the life of the trooper, and he and his mate were sent on to Bendigo.

His remarkably daring spirit, and the manner in which he watched all events that he might likely turn to account for escape, were speedily in play, and to some extent successful through the want of watchfulness on the part of the constables who had the men in charge. Burgess, on the road, had by some means possessed himself of the key of the handcuffs by which he was manacled, either through some careless neglect on the part of the troopers in charge, or of some others who allowed him the opportunity of stealing a key at the station. At a certain stage of the journey they went into a house kept by a Yankee to get some food and refreshment. The troopers placed Burgess and his mate, both handcuffed, on a bench before them, and laying their loaded revolvers on a table within their reach. Burgess, while the troopers were taking their meal, contrived unseen to unlock the handcuffs, and passed the key to his mate, who did the same to his. Watching his opportunity, Burgess snatched the revolvers from the table, threatened instant death to the guards if they followed, and ran off, with his companion. Burgess, again unfortunate, fell down a steep bank, and was stunned by the fall, and easily re-captured, His mate succeeded in escaping and Burgess never heard any more of him; but in his narration of the event, he calls him an ungrateful wretch, because he ran away, and did not attempt to assist him after he fell.

[Image of page 107]

He was taken on to Bendigo, and there tried for attempting the life of the trooper who first arrested him on the road; and, once more, points of law were in his favor, for the Judge before whom he was tried told the jury that the trooper had not sufficient warrant for arresting him; and that they could only convict him of a common assault. This the jury did, and for this offence he was sentenced to one month's imprisonment, he was then put on his trial for attempting to escape from custody on the journey down, and for this he received six months' imprisonment. These sentences he underwent in Pentridge Model Prison, near Melbourne. His time of imprisonment expired about New Year's Day of 1862; and the very first day he was at liberty he committed another robbery. This was at the Cricket Match of the All England Eleven on the first visit of these cricketers to Australia. The match began on 1st January, 1862; and Burgess went to the course to see the play. Here he marked out an elderly gentleman who was on the course, and from him he stole £60. This was his last crime in Melbourne. He had made himself too well known, and so determined to seek

in New Zealand; and, accordingly, with the money thus obtained, he came to Otago in the Asa Eldridge; having spent fourteen years in the Australian colonies, eleven of which were passed in gaol, all for crimes committed in these colonies, where, when he arrived, he was given the opportunity of living an honest life of industry.

THE CAREER OF BURGESS IN NEW ZEALAND.

From Melbourne, Burgess arrived in Dunedin in January, 1862; and soon after his arrival, he went to the gold-fields at Wetherstones, in company with several other thieves, among whom was Thomas Noon or Kelly, one of his companions on the scaffold. They very soon succeeded in getting funds, as they robbed a drunken man of £60.

Burgess and Kelly afterwards left the others, and associated more together, without any other confederates; and then, says Burgess, they agreed upon a wholesale system of murder combined with robbery. They saw, Burgess narrates, that the place was too small and too quiet for them to practice robbery alone without fear of detection, and so they made a compact that they would not let the men they robbed escape with their lives, but would choke them all: and this rule they carried into effect, adopting, in all its villany, the murderous maxim, "Dead men tell no tales." When this resolution was formed, they believed that they could pursue their career with far more safety and impunity, and they followed it with a vigor, which culminated in the quintuple murder on the Maungatapu.

On one of the digging townships in Otago, about the Wetherstones, a man was watched and laid wait for one night as he came down from his tent to draw water at a creek a short distance from the place where the tents were pitched. This man, whose name was John Levesey, was seized by Kelly, who did not perform his work of garrotting skilfully. "In choking Levesey," says Burgess, "my confrere, Kelly, did not catch him to rights, in that he emitted a stifled noise. This brought the people out of all the surrounding tents, and only that I fired a pistol off to cause them to keep back, we stood but a very bad chance of escaping." It is believed that this Levesey was not killed, though the narrative does not say exactly; but only a small sum of money, some £5 or £6 was got off his person.

They very soon made themselves notorious, and the police were shortly on their tracks. It was sometime after this affair of Leversey's that Sergeants Trimble and Bracken came upon Burgess and Kelly while they were sleeping together in a tent on a hillside at the Wetherstones. A day or two previous to this, the two sergeants had chased them up a mountain, and had exchanged many shots with Burgess and Kelly both, none of which took effect on either side. Trimble, with a shot or two in reserve in his revolver, pressed them very hard. On reaching the hill-top, Burgess turned round and fired a shot at Trimble, which missed him, and then he ran off down through the scrub on the other side, which was steep. When Trimble got to the summit, he saw Burgess at a very short distance below him. He called on him to halt. Burgess, of course, refused; and Trimble covered him, and drew the trigger. Unfortunately for society, in running up the hill the caps had been shaken off the nipples of the pistol, and it did not explode; "else," says Mr. Trimble, who describes this incident, "I would have shot him dead, for he was some fifty or sixty yards below me, and my aim was perfect."

A few days later Trimble and Bracken discovered the tent on a lonely situation well up a mountain on Wetherstones, and they resolved to look at it. So, early one morning they came to the spot, tethered their horses at the foot of the hill, and, approaching the tent, entered it while Burgess and Kelly were fast asleep. Burgess says that at the time they were captured, he had by his side a double and a single barreled gun, and three Colt's revolvers loaded with ball cartridge; and had they been awake three minutes earlier, they would have killed the two sergeants, seized their horses, and ridden away. They were secured, pinioned, and taken into Dunedin as prisoners. No charge of murder or robbery was preferred against them, at least, none was proved; but they each received a sentence of three years' imprisonment for shooting at the police, and six months' imprisonment for stealing a gun.

Once more, soon after sentence, Burgess made a fruitless attempt at escape from Dunedin Gaol, and was nearly successful. The wall of the gaol, he says, was of rubble stone-work two feet thick. He had made a large advance in the task, and had only a little more to do, when daylight came on him earlier than he had calculated, and put a stop to his efforts, for the officers found out his night's work. For this he was placed in heavy irons for twelve months, and received a long period of solitary confinement, but no addition was made to his period of imprisonment; although Burgess himself fully expected at least two years' additional punishment.

During the remainder of his incarceration in Dunedin, Burgess applied himself with great assiduity

[Image of page 108]

to study. His reading was very extensive, and he says embraced books on history, biography, science, and art. He taught himself plane and spherical trigonometry, and algebra; and he mastered the difficult problems of navigation. The learning of navigation was done with a purpose, and it was the basis of one of the most remarkable schemes of daring ever heard of. His study of this branch of learning was undertaken with a view to the capture of a steamer carrying gold. He saw the ease with which he could ally himself with a sufficient number of desperadoes to form a band strong enough to seize one of the gold-laden steamers on taking their departure from the West Coast, overpower the crew and kill all who were refractory, and sail away with the prize. Nor was the mere seizure of a West Coast gold steamer the only object Burgess sought after in thus perfecting himself in the art, which would enable him to direct the course of a vessel. Mere local sailing was not his sole aim. He was desirous of ranging the high seas, and appeared to have visions of rivalling, if, but for a short time, the career of pirates of a century and a-half ago. Such was his dream. He thought that with a smart steamer, calculating the date of a gold ship from Melbourne, he could lie in the path of homeward bound ships and succeed in seizing a prize worthy of capture, with the proceeds of which he and is coadjutors in crime might retire into that "dignified position" which he affirms his quondam associate in the cattle stealing exploits in Victoria now occupies. That an attempt of this kind might have been made by such a man as Burgess at the head of a body of scoundrels, such as he, with his long prison experience in the colonies could without difficulty have gathered around him, we readily believe; that it would have been ultimately successful is another question. Still the difficulty of disposing of the ship, and of landing the stolen prizes without detection, and the possible chances of failure, would weigh lightly in the balance against a scheme of the kind conceived in the fertile brain, and sanguine imagination of a great and clever criminal like Burgess. That he cherished this scheme is clear, for, in his cross-examination of Sullivan in the Court, he spoke of it as having been under consideration, and he subsequently stated in prison that he felt some such attempt would be necessary, as he had made so many places on land too hot for him that he knew he would some day be obliged, to try the water. He had been driven from place to place, and had become a marked man, and having done so much on the land, he had hopes of one great success on the sea, which he intended should terminate his career of crime, and he would then become an honest citizen! He, however, declined all opportunities of following an honest course, for, after completing his sentence in Dunedin, he was offered as much as a pound per day by a large contractor there, to work as a stone-cutter, as his skill in this trade, his taste, and the rapidity with which he worked, caused him to excel in the trade. He refused to undertake the employment.

Burgess and Kelly were liberated from Dunedin Gaol on the 11th. of September, 1865. They had taken a liking to each ether, and they resolved to stick together. Accordingly, seeing little chance of doing anything in Otago, for the police there knew them too well, and in fact, would not allow them to remain in the province, they determined to go at once to the West Coast, being well aware from experience of the opportunities that gold-fields afford for the exercise of their depredations. They were escorted out of the Province of Otago and crossed the borders of Canterbury under the surveillance of the Otago police. On reaching Hokitika, Burgess to deceive the police, got into a claim as a gold digger on the Kanieri diggings. Here he did not do much work, merely retaining for a short time his claim as a digger by way of a blind to the authorities.

His first robbery on the West Coast was committed on the premises of Mrs. M'Koy, who kept a dancing saloon at Hokitika. There was dancing going on; and Burgess engaged a young man to dance with her, and otherwise distract her attention from him. While this was being done he entered her bed-room and stole her cash-box.

Of the rest of his misdeeds he does not furnish particulars; but he says that during the last Christmas holidays he "robbed" as many as twenty different persons. He does not say that Kelly was concerned in these robberies, neither does he say that the victims were murdered; but taking into account the story that Sullivan told of their having been more than twenty murders committed on the West Coast,-- as narrated to him by Burgess and Kelly,--and the bodies for the most part buried in the sand; considering also the compact entered into in Otago betwen the two, that whoever they robbed they must also murder, lest they should know them again; remembering also the fate of poor Dobson, of Battle, and Kempthorne and his companions, the murder of the baker at Twelve-mile, and many others; the intended fate of Mr. Fox, Mr. Kerr, and others who escaped by providential good fortune, and finally from hints in conversation let fall by Burgess himself; the conclusion is inevitable that each of these twenty were murdered and disposed of after the manner to which they were accustomed to resort.

While on the West Coast, Burgess as on all other occasions where he had means and opportunity, took a girl to live with him. This one he spoke of as "poor Carry," and wrote of her as such; and from her he received a letter while he lay in gaol in Nelson.

According to what is set down in his manuscript, Burgess appears to have long had an eye upon Mr. Kerr, the banker or gold-buyer of Rosstown, who often passed down the river on horseback with a large quantity of gold in his possession. (Again he omits all mention of Kelly as associated with him in these crimes, but it is known he and Kelly were together.) On one occasion, he says he lay in wait for Mr. Kerr, as he was coming towards town, and was prepared to shoot him; but, fortunately for the intended victim, he was accompanied by two other men, one of whom, was a trooper. At the same time four packmen with packhorses passed in the opposite direction, and Mr. Kerr was saved. This happened on the Totara River, not far from the Swede's Accommodation-House. This is the latest incident of note recorded in the narrative, and the details of what took place on the West Coast are meagre, Burgess evidently being afraid to say much lest he might implicate others not

[Image of page 109]

yet under the eye of the law, or render the position of some of those now in custody more dangerous for themselves.

It is a singular fact, and one that shows how atrocious was the falsehood of Kelly's protestations that he was entirely innocent of the crime of murder, that Burgess never choked a man in his life until he met Kelly, in New Zealand. He had shot two men in Australia he said; but Kelly was the first to teach him that method of despatching those he robbed, and Kelly said that he had seen it well tried in Australia; and it was far better than either stabbing or shooting, because it was easy, and it caused no blood to flow and left no wound. That Burgess made this statement there is no doubt whatever, as it was made to Captain Clouston, the Acting-Governor of the gaol, to whom Burgess remarked, that but for Kelly he would never have thought of resorting to the choking or garroting method of murder.

One little incident is worthy of notice. It is another statement made by Burgess with reference to the strychnine which he said was brought over by Sullivan from Australia. There was lately discovered by the authorities in the possession of a woman, a coat in the collar of which was found carefully sewn up, a quantity of strychnine. Since his condemnation, one of the officials asked who it was who had the strychnine. "Sullivan brought it with him" was his reply. "How comes it then that you had strychnine sewed in the collar of the coat you wore while you were about the Kanieri, and long before Sullivan came to New Zealand?" "Oh, my God," said Burgess, "I hope nobody has got into trouble about that. I assure you no one knew anything about it." Further explanations he did not appear inclined to give.

As for the remainder of the career of Burgess, it is written in the chronicle of the trial and execution contained in the preceding pages, and the reader after the perusal of this painful story of a life, will agree with the remark at the outset, that it would be scarcely possible to find a more complete proof of the fact that crime is rarely profitable, and that if vengeance seems stayed for a while, it comes in the end in some shape, and with doubled force.

KELLY, LEVY, AND SULLIVAN.

LITTLE need be added respecting the other criminals. The following extract regarding Sullivan, is taken from the Nelson Colonist in which paper it appeared a few months ago:--

JOSEPH THOMAS SULLIVAN was born in Ireland, in the year 1811. He is an old convict who was sent out to Tasmania about five-and-twenty years ago. There he was an assigned servant to Mr. Crooks, of Launceston, to whom he acted as coachman; and where he was known by the soubriquet of "Flash Tom." He was never in New Zealand until this year, and is not the same Sullivan as was connected with Burgess and Kelly in Otago some years ago. The approver Sullivan, it appears, lived for 12 or 14. years at Mount Korong, one of the earliest of the Victorian gold-fields, 140 miles from Melbourne. Here he followed the occupation of a digger. He was known to have been a convict, but he bore a pretty good character for an "old hand." He was somewhat addicted to gambling, and occasionally got into a drunken row. The only time our informant remembers him being brought up for any charge at Mount Korong was some years ago, when he was fined £10 for striking a policeman. He has two sons, aged about eighteen and fifteen respectively; and his wife was always considered a decent respectably conducted woman, keeping a respectable looking house and orderly children. She was thought too good a wife for such a man. No one in Korong thought much of Sullivan; but no one believed he could have been concerned in atrocities such as those he has now confessed to being accessory to. He owned various building allotments in Wedderburne, the township of Mount Korong, and also a piece of land in the district. This land he sold before he left for New Zealand. For the past two or three years he had kept the half-way house between Inglewood and Korong; but he sold out of this about March last, and moved his wife and family into Wedderburne, where he rented a house for them, while he came over to Hokitika. He arrived at Hokitika in the Albion about three months before the murders; and the first place in the Hokitika diggings he went to was the Hau-hau Creek, about eight or ten miles up the country from Hokitika, where he remained a few days; but not liking the country, he returned to Hokitika, with the intention of going back to Melbourne. He secured a passage by the Star of the Evening, and went on board, taking his swag with him, on the day the steamer was advertised to sail; but the weather continuing bad, the steamer was unable to cross the bar, and was detained for several days. He then was heard to say that if he could get a chance of selling his ticket he should not go, after all. He did dispose of his ticket, and remained. He very soon afterwards met and fraternised with the evil associates, Burgess and his companions, who had been some time on the West Coast, and were looked upon as known bad characters. * * *

Sullivan several times objected to the murdering; but was laughed at and half threatened by Burgess, who is an overhearing and determined man, reckless of life as has been shown. Sullivan one day said that he did not like that work, and that it was horrible. Burgess made answer in this lame logic:-- that kings in quarreling sacrificed thousands of lives; and therefore what was the use of being squeamish over a few lives here whom nobody would miss? --or words to that effect. Sullivan declares his belief that after this Burgess resolved to kill him and put him out of the way, and he, Sullivan, had made up his mind to kill Burgess.

Thomas Kelly was born in London, in 1822. He was apprenticed to a tailor, and like Burgess practised street theft early. He was sentenced to seven years transportation for theft, having been several times previously convicted. He also was a gold-fields robber in the early days of the Victorian diggings, and he and his brother formed two of a gang of bushrangers who murdered a storekeeper, named

[Image of page 110]

Markis, on the Ovens gold-fields; and he had long been connected with characters of the worst class in Victoria. Kelly narrowly escaped conviction. His brother afterwards was hanged. Kelly like Burgess, became a marked man, and after the gold discoveries in Otago he came over to New Zealand. His history in this colony is much the same as the history of Richard Burgess. They robbed together in Dunedin; were confined together in Dunedin Gaol; were expelled from the Province of Otago together. Together they robbed and murdered in the provinces of Canterbury and Nelson; were tried and condemned together; and together they were executed, and both lie in a murderers' grave.

PHILLIP LEVY was also born in London, and was aged 45 years. Little is positively known of him; but there were many ugly stories afloat respecting his doings on the Dunstan, Province of Otago. Mr. Trimble when a police sergeant in Otago, knew Levy well. He described him as being a gambler, and an associate "on the sly" of pickpockets and thieves; the "spyer out of jobs" of robbery; and one who, while suspected by the police on his own account, was nevertheless frequently of great service to the force by giving secret information which led to the detection of criminals, whom the police would otherwise have had difficulty to convict. He dressed well and showily, and was thus able to put many off their guard.

Levy's protestations of innocence on the scaffold are not in keeping with the attempt to communicate secretly with Burgess, in order to make him acquainted with the versions given by Kelly and Levy separately to two different gentlemen who were interested by their repeated declarations of innocence. Certain questions were propounded to each, but they were trifling in their nature and did not produce a shadow of proof that could in any wise affect the verdict. Levy appeared to think otherwise, and he wished to communicate what had taken place to Burgess, and on Monday, the, 1st of October, four days before the execution, he attempted to convey a note to Burgess enclosed in a fish. One of the under assistants of the gaol had been attending on Levy at breakfast, when he asked him to take a small fish to Burgess for his breakfast. The man was proceeding to do so, when one of his seniors stopped him, and on opening the fish found a small billet artfully concealed within. It was couched partially in slang, but the main purport of it was to narrate to Burgess what had been asked and answered, in order that he might, in such particulars as suited, corroborate the story, and thus bear them out in their statements. The concluding part of the note stated, that he was puzzled how to account for £20 of the money he had about him when apprehended, and if he could do that it would be hopeful, or some expression of the like nature. There were a few slang words which were shown to Sullivan, but which he could not understand. Those towards the close were, "i c tout kant the money." When Levy learned that the note was discovered, he became greatly agitated, and implored the officer to return it to him, saying that he would not on any account that the Rabbi should know he had written it, as it would cause him to think worse of him. He was told that the note was already in the hands of the authorities, and that very likely the Rabbi would know its contents. Upon this he became pale as death, and trembled so violently, that he had to be supplied with restoratives, which he could not properly convey to his lips.

It ought to be stated here that the assertion of Levy, on the day of execution, that he saw his Honor the Superintendent pat the wretch Sullivan on the cheeK in his cell, and tell him to cheer up, that he would receive a free pardon, and so forth, is in every respect an unmitigated falsehood, as one might see at a glance, inasmuch as gentlemen are not in the habit of patting men on the cheek, still less felons, and least of all a felon who had taken part in such dreadful crimes. Neither did his Honor ever promise him a free pardon, or indicate to him that such would be granted; for he had neither the power to do so, nor the knowledge as to what course the General Government intended to pursue as to the ultimate disposal of a man who has no doubt been useful to the cause of justice, but who is nevertheless steeped in crime, and, but for the exigencies of society, should have shared the gallows with his three compeers.

LETTER FROM BURGESS TO CONSTABLE BRADCOCK.

"PRESENTED TO MR. BRADCOCK, FROM RICHARD BURGESS.

[Image of page 111]

LETTER BY LEVY TO HIS FRIENDS.

The following letter was pLaced at our disposal by Mr. Isaacs.

BALANCE SHEET OF THE MAUNGATAPU SEARCH COMMITTEE.

RECEIPTS.

(Signed)

G. WILLIAMS, Chairman.
J, THORNTON, M. LIGHTBAND, Treasurers.
WILLIAM AKERSTEN, Secretary.

[Image of page 112]

LIST OF SUBSCRIBERS TO THE MAUNGATAPU SEARCH FUND.

[Image of page 113]

STANZAS.

Nelson, N. Z. . .WILLIAM HOGG.

NELSON.

F. SEVERNE.

[Image of page 114]

[Image of page 115]

[Image of page 116]

[Image of page 117]

[Page 117 is blank]

[Image of page 118]

[Page 118 is blank]

[Image of page 119]

[Page 119 is blank]

[Image of page 120]

[Back cover]