1891: Arthur Cooley Hanged at Campbell Street Gaol for the Murder of Mary Camille Ogilvy
Mary Camille Ogilvy, wife of a magistrate of Inverquharity station near Richmond, Tasmania, was shot dead on the morning of 14 August 1891 while walking back from the gate after seeing her husband off to the Richmond Police Court.
Her body was found the following dawn, pinned beneath a willow in the Coal River, with part of her skull destroyed by a gunshot. Evidence suggested she had been shot some 50 yards from the water and her body dragged to the riverbank. A search party of nearly 100 people with lanterns had scoured the district through the night before she was found.
Arthur Cooley, a young man already on bail awaiting trial for an assault charge, was arrested as the prime suspect and faced a coroner’s inquest that same Saturday afternoon. Public anger in the district was described as approaching lynching point. Cooley was convicted of the murder and hanged at Campbell Street Gaol on 17 August 1891.
