1854: "Crankie Gunn": Hanged in the Only Public Execution Geelong Ever Held, for a Sword-Cane Murder
John Gunn, known locally as Crankie Gunn for his foul and reckless temper, was drinking with a woman named Charlotte Newman at her Warrnambool home when Samuel Harris, known as Dirty Sam, walked in and a jealous quarrel erupted. Gunn stormed off, returned armed with a sword-cane, a pistol and a dirk, and smashed her windows. When Harris went outside to calm him down, Gunn stabbed him through the stomach. Harris managed only to gasp "I am a dead man" before he collapsed and died.
Convicted of wilful murder at Geelong that October, Gunn was shown no mercy despite the jury's recommendation on account of provocation. He was hanged on this day in 1854 alongside another condemned man, before a crowd of 2,000 in the only public execution ever held in Geelong, at the notorious Gallows Flat.
On the scaffold Gunn asked to address the crowd and declare himself an innocent man, but was persuaded against it and went to his death in silence.
