1864: Alexander Ritchie Hanged at Toowoomba Gaol for the Murder of Mr Owen at Yandilla
On the evening of 29 April 1864, Mr Owen was shot and killed while travelling by buggy between Leyburn and Yandilla in Queensland, accompanied by the Reverend Mr Thackery. Alexander Ritchie, a convict, was tried, convicted by jury, and sentenced to death. The execution, the first to take place at Toowoomba Gaol, was carried out on 1 August 1864. A scaffold enclosed with glazed calico had been erected in the western yard of the new gaol, with the High Sheriff, E. H. Halloran, overseeing preparations.
Ritchie maintained his innocence to the end, supported in his final days by the Reverend Mr Hart and Dr Nelson. He ascended the scaffold with calm and resolve, addressing the assembled witnesses with striking words: “Gentlemen, I am innocent of this charge in the sight of God, but not of men. God has put this punishment upon me for other sins of which I have been guilty, but of this I am innocent.”
