1853: A Hanged Bushranger’s Corpse Put on Display in a Melbourne Shop Window
Within hours of his execution, the body of bushranger George Melville was handed to his widow, decorated with ribbons and laid out in the window of their oyster shop in Little Bourke Street. The Argus called it a disgusting and inhuman act, presuming it was staged simply to draw in customers.
Melville had been hanged at Melbourne Gaol alongside William Atkins and George Wilson for the Private Escort gold robbery near Kalkallo, an ambush that left four mounted troopers shot, one of them fired on again as he lay wounded on the road. All three had been identified after an accomplice turned informer to the police before taking his own life with a razor.
None of the condemned made a clear confession. Wilson used his final moments on the scaffold to forgive the witnesses who had convicted him, while Melville, claiming the crowd could not hear him, simply said he could not make himself heard and wished them all a very good morning.
