A new book argues two members of a gold robbing gang were wrongly hanged. Photo / Nelson Provincial Museum
A new book argues two members of a gold robbing gang were wrongly hanged. Photo / Nelson Provincial Museum
On a winters afternoon, Felix Mathieu and his three companions were ambushed on a steep hill track by men with guns and knives.
Richard Burgess and his gang forced their victims up a creek, and on a hillside they were tied up and variously strangled, stabbed and shot.
After killing the travellers packhorse the gang made for Nelson with their victims gold and cash, where they spent freely - and made plans to rob a bank.
The Maungatapu murders, by New Zealands most notorious goldfields gang, was in June 1866. The colony was gripped by the crime for weeks.
The Burgess gang, all Londoners, were New Zealands version of Australian bush ranger Ned Kelly. All but one of the foursome had been transported to Tasmania as convicts.
Burgess, Thomas Kelly and Philip Levy were convicted and hanged in Nelson. Joseph Sullivan turned against his gang, giving evidence against them, and was not charged.
He was later convicted of a separate murder committed one day earlier but the sentence was commuted to life imprisonment.
Now a Christchurch author says his research indicates the Supreme Court jury got it wrong.
It seems clear that two innocent men were executed, says John Rosanowski, who has published his historical novel on the case, Treachery Road.
Kelly and Levy arrived back in Nelson unaware of the murders. Kelly thought robbery had taken place. Even on the gallows, Kelly said he was being executed for the murder of people he hadnt even seen.
Mathieu owned Cafe de Paris at the Deep Creek goldfield in Marlboroughs Wakamarina Valley, where the output of gold had fallen.
Levy had visited Deep Creek and heard of Mathieus plans to go to the West Coast to set up a new store, so would have known the businessman would be carrying a substantial amount of money.
Mathieu set out with storekeepers John Kempthorne and James Dudley, and gold miner James de Pontius.
The gang, who had been staying at Canvastown, left ahead of the Mathieu party. On their way to their trap at what is now called Murderers Rock, they caught up with solo traveller James Battle, 54, a labourer and former whaler. Near the Pelorus River, they partially strangled Battle, robbed him of his 3 17 shillings, and left him to die in a shallow grave.
Photo / Nelson Provincial Museum
Only gradually did the Nelson police become convinced that Mathieus group was missing.
Eventually a huge search got going and one by one the gang were arrested after the first, Philip Levy, was recognised in the Wakatu Hotel by a Deep Creek gold miner.
But the victims werent found until Sullivan confessed, taking the police offer of a pardon to any informer other than the actual murderers.
Incensed, Burgess penned a 50,000-word counter confession, in which he stated he and Sullivan were the killers and sought to clear Levy and Thomas Kelly.
Other authors have pointed to the unreliability of parts of Sullivans story, but Rosanowski says his research of British and Australian convict records found Sullivan was even more of a liar than had been thought.
He said Sullivans bloodied shirt, found under a log beside the track, was proof positive of his role.
The blood-stained shirt and the fact he hid it should have destroyed his credibility as a witness.
Wayne Martin, author of Murder on the Maungatapu, a narrative history of the Burgess gang and their greatest crime, says it is more than likely Sullivan took part in all five murders - and the killing of the surveyor-engineer George Dobson in May 1866.
Martin has no doubt Kelly was an active participant in most of the murders but says Levy probably wasnt.
Their claims to have gone ahead while the other two were doing the murders were not credible.
They were in fact identified on the track after Battles murder with the other two by the Havelock Magistrate Pilliet as he rode past.
Their journey to Nelson would have taken five hours or so at the most, but some 27 hours or so later they still hadnt made it, as they allege the other two came upon them on their night journey back to Nelson after committing the main murders.
Kellys excuse that it took so long because he ... drank too much water is laughable. At trial he continually tried to get witnesses who were on the track to say that they had seen evidence of their camp etc., but no witness out of the several who were on the track over the relevant period corroborated their claim.
Nelsonians perched themselves on Church Hill and other high points for a glimpse of the hangings, which ran late owing to long speeches by Kelly and Levy, who proclaimed their innocence to the last.
