Colonial Crime - Dark Stories True Crime Tours

1816: Betrayed by the Same Informer Twice: Hugh McLarie Hanged in Sydney for Highway Robbery

Hugh McLarie and his gang lay in wait on the Parramatta Road one morning in July 1816, ambushing a line of carts before dawn, knocking the drivers to the ground and making off with a keg of spirits, bolts of cloth and a haul of clothing from the cart of John Andrews. The robbery unravelled when Edward Dempsey, one of the raiders, turned King's evidence and gave the court a detailed account of the ambush.

It was not the first time Dempsey's testimony had put McLarie in the dock. Weeks earlier the same informer had helped convict him over a break in at a Sydney shop, naming him as one of the men who carried off baskets of tobacco, coin and clothing hidden in the bush beyond the town.

McLarie was hanged in Sydney on 1 November 1816 for the Parramatta Road robbery.

He confessed his crime before the scaffold and, the record states, died penitent.

Horse-drawn omnibuses on Parramatta Road, Sydney, c. 1870–1875. Mitchell Library, State Library of NSW.

⬅ See all events from 1 November

Australia Burglary Colonial Crime Execution NSW Robbery Sydney Trial

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1818: A Dream Diary Written in Kangaroo Blood: the Death of Bushranger Michael Howe

Michael Howe styled himself the Governor of the Ranges and spent years terrorising colonial Tasmania at the head of a bushranging gang, turning on his own allies whenever it suited his hold on command. When two kangaroo hunters, Worrall and Pugh, finally cornered and killed him on 21 October 1818, his knapsack was found to hold a crude journal bound in kangaroo skin and written in kangaroo blood.

The little book revealed a man haunted by his own crimes: dreams of being murdered, of dead comrades, of narrowly escaping capture, and, in one unexpected line, of the sister he had left behind. Alongside the dreams were long lists of seeds and flowers, the quiet fantasy of a killer who always meant to vanish into the bush and farm it in peace. Howe never got the chance; after Pugh clubbed him to death, his head was carried to Hobart to claim the reward on his life.

The reign of terror by the king of the ranges newspaper article 1954

⬅ See all events from 21 October

Australia Bushranger Colonial Crime Gang Manhunt Murder Tasmania

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1859: The First White Man Hanged in Perth for Killing an Aboriginal Man

Richard Bibby was a hutkeeper at a station in the Victoria district when he decided to kill Billamarra, an Aboriginal man camped near his own hut, so near that he was said to be under Bibby's protection. He announced his intention the night before, loaded his pistol, and before dawn woke his sleeping victim only to shoot him dead. Bibby claimed Billamarra had stolen lambs, but witnesses showed the missing lambs had simply been mauled by native dogs; another man watching in secret saw the whole killing.

Tried and condemned at the Quarter Sessions, Bibby became the first white man executed in Perth, and in the colony, for murdering an Aboriginal person. Strong appeals were made for mercy, but his cold, premeditated planning and a past conviction for robbery with violence counted against him. The hanging itself was botched, the rope poorly adjusted, and he struggled visibly on the rope before dying.

Bibby privately confessed his guilt to the prison chaplain, yet on the scaffold, asked if his sentence was just, he answered that if the truth had been told he would not have been there.

Disused shed with kiln and chimney stack in dry Australian bush

⬅ See all events from 17 October

Australia Colonial Crime Execution Murder Perth Trial WA

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1794: The First Free Settler Murdered in the Colony: Hanged at Sydney for a Parramatta Stabbing

John Hill, a butcher, had spent the day drinking with Simon Burn at Parramatta on 5 October 1794 when he turned on the woman he lived with, beating her until Burn stepped in to stop him. Hill stabbed Burn through the heart; dying within the hour, Burn had just enough strength left to name his killer before witnesses, declaring that the butcher had done it. Burn, a First Fleet convict who had earned his freedom and settled his own farm, was reportedly the first free man in the colony to be murdered by another colonist.

Hill tried to set up an alibi at his trial, but the wound and Burn's own dying words undid him. He was hanged at Sydney on 16 October 1794, his body handed over for dissection as his sentence required.

Bloody Halloween killer dressed as butcher on dark blue background — Butcher and butcherer

⬅ See all events from 16 October

Australia Colonial Crime Execution Murder NSW Parramatta Sydney Trial

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