1894: A Jockey Hanged at Ballarat Asked One Last Question: Who Won the Melbourne Cup?
Elijah Cockroft was a young jockey besotted with his half-sister Fanny Mott, who was engaged to marry his own brother. One night near Stawell, he lured her into a paddock with a tale of stray horses, struck her with a stick, and cut her throat. Arrested days later, he confessed readily, telling police he dearly loved her, though he insisted he had never meant anything improper.
Tried for murder, Cockroft's defence argued a childhood head injury had left him unbalanced, but the jury took just 35 minutes to convict. He was hanged at Ballarat on 12 November 1894, and in his final hours, with unsettling calm, he asked the warders which horse had won the Melbourne Cup, Australia's most popular annual horse race.
Cockroft first protested his innocence to the guards, then reversed himself, expressing sorrow for what he had done and declaring, as he was led to the scaffold, that he had put his trust in Jesus.
