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1939: The Last Judicial Execution in New South Wales History

John Trevor Kelly, 24, was hanged at Long Bay Gaol near Botany Bay, Sydney, shortly after eight in the morning of 24 August 1939. He had been convicted of the axe murder of Marjorie Constance Sommerlad at Hillcrest farm near Tenterfield, where he had been working alongside her and her brother Eric. During the attack, Kelly also struck Eric Sommerlad with the same axe, though Eric survived. Appeals to the Court of Criminal Appeals and the High Court both failed.

Kelly became the last person judicially executed in New South Wales. His father, a well-known figure in Lismore and northern New South Wales, mounted a public appeal arguing that other killers had received commuted sentences, and that his son had no control of himself when drinking. Authorities refused to intervene.

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Australia Execution Malabar Murder NSW Sydney Tenterfield Trial

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1853: John Smith Hanged at Melbourne Gaol for the Murder of a Miner at Fryer's Creek

In 1853, John Smith and Henry Turner forced their way into the hut of John Warren at Fryer’s Creek, demanding gold. When Warren could not produce it, the pair shot him in the eye with a revolver at close range. Warren was found blind and bleeding, groping through the bush. He died shortly after, the bullet having shattered a fragment of his temporal bone into the brain.

Both men were tried, convicted, and hanged at Melbourne Gaol on 23 August 1853, before a large crowd assembled outside the walls.

Smith, attended by Catholic priests in his final days, was brought to acknowledge that the sentence he was about to suffer was just and merited.

View from below of historical gallows in Tombstone Arizona

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Australia Execution Fryers Creek Gold Rush Crime Melbourne Murder Robbery VIC

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1853: Henry Turner Hanged at Melbourne Gaol for Robbery and Murder

At Melbourne Gaol on 23 August 1853, Henry Turner and his accomplice John Smith were hanged for the murder of John Warren at Fryer’s Creek. The two men had entered Warren’s hut demanding gold, and when he could not produce it, they shot him in the eye with a revolver at close range. Warren was found blind and bleeding in the bush, groping through the scrub; he died shortly after from a bone splinter that had penetrated his brain.

Turner was attended in his final days by the Reverend Mr Studdert of St. James’ Church, while Smith received the Catholic priests Fathers Shiel, Cunningham, and Hayes. Both men were executed before a considerable crowd, and neither had entertained any hope of reprieve.

Turner acknowledged the justice of his sentence before his death, as did Smith, who was brought to admit that the punishment he was about to suffer was just and merited.

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Australia Execution Melbourne Murder Organised Crime Robbery VIC

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1895: The Wild Scotchman: Death of Queensland Bushranger James Macpherson

James Alpin Macpherson, known as the Wild Scotchman, was one of Queensland’s most notorious bushrangers before his capture and imprisonment. Released from prison in 1874, he lived out the remainder of his days quietly, working as a stockman and station overseer far from his outlaw past.

Macpherson died on 23 August 1895 at Burketown, Queensland, aged 53, after falling from a horse. The man who had once terrorised the bush met his end not in a blaze of gunfire, but in an ordinary accident on the land he had spent his later years working.

Portrait of bushranger James MacPherson 1866: The Wild Scotchman

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Accident Australia Burketown Bushranger Death QLD

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