In July 1798, the court of criminal judicature convened in Sydney specifically to try John Raynor, described by contemporaries as an incorrigible offender whose fate had long been predicted. Convicted of house-breaking, Raynor was hanged at Sydney Cove on 31 July 1798.
Before his execution, Raynor left a written letter enumerating the many offences he had committed over his criminal career, while also denying several charges that had been laid against him.
William Henry Terry, known under a string of aliases including Hopkins, Williams, and Mitchell, was convicted at the Castlemaine Circuit Court before Chief Justice Sir William Stawell of the wilful murder of his mate Peter Reddick at the Coliban on 14 July 1862. The case rested on bones and other remains found at the scene, surveyed and mapped for the court. Terry had listened to the prosecution with apparent indifference throughout the trial.
On 31 July 1867, Terry was hanged at Castlemaine Gaol before around 100 witnesses. The execution was badly botched: too thick a rope and an improperly adjusted noose left him convulsing for eleven minutes, with the hangman pressing down on his shoulders to hasten death. Standing on the scaffold, Terry forgave those he blamed for his conviction, naming two detectives, Hockey and his daughter, and a man called Dring, accusing them of perjury.
Terry made no confession of the murder itself, though he had told the attending Wesleyan minister that he deserved to die for his many crimes.
On 29 July 2023, Erin Patterson invited four relatives to her home in Leongatha, Victoria, and served them beef Wellington laced with toxic death cap mushrooms. All four were hospitalised within 24 hours, diagnosed with severe liver failure. Three died within six days, one despite receiving a liver transplant. Ian Wilkinson was the sole survivor, recovering seven weeks later.
Patterson was arrested in November 2023 and charged with three counts of murder and five counts of attempted murder. After charges relating to her estranged husband Simon were dropped, she faced trial before a jury in the Supreme Court of Victoria at Morwell. On 7 July 2025, the jury convicted her on all remaining charges. Justice Christopher Beale sentenced her to life imprisonment with a non-parole period of 33 years, in the first sentencing hearing in Victoria to be broadcast live.
James Chapman arrived in New South Wales in June 1790 aboard a Second Fleet vessel, already a convicted burglar who had stolen fowls from a Hampshire farm in 1787 and been reprieved from death in exchange for transportation for life. Working as a labourer at Parramatta, he lasted barely a year before again crossing into crime, breaking and entering the home of John Petrie in July 1791 and stealing clothing and other goods, with additional charges relating to property belonging to John Medcalf.
Chapman pleaded guilty before the Court of Criminal Jurisdiction on 19 July 1791 and was sentenced to death. He was hanged in Sydney the following day, aged around 29. A man named Joseph Hatton, charged with receiving the stolen goods, was sentenced to 500 or 800 lashes.
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