John Hogan, a 55-year-old man with a criminal past, met Martin Rooney at Duke’s Flat, Bullock Creek, and the two shared a tent. Rooney had recently arrived from New Zealand carrying deposit receipts worth around 200 pounds. While Rooney slept, Hogan beat him to death with a stonebreaker’s hammer and a tomahawk, fracturing his skull in several places. One of the receipts and Rooney’s purse were found on Hogan when he was arrested.
At the inquest, around 400 miners gathered outside and had to be warned against lynching by the coroner. Evidence placed Hogan selling his watch for tucker money just hours after the killing, while telling a storekeeper he had a mate with plenty of money he intended to rob. Hogan was tried, convicted, and hanged at Castlemaine on 14 August 1868.
