1860: Edward Fenlow Hanged at Melbourne Gaol for a Prospecting Partner’s Murder
Edward Fenlow, a small, mild-mannered man known also as Reynolds, stood trial at the Castlemaine Circuit Court in August 1860 for the murder of his prospecting mate George Plummer Gardner at Inglewood on 27 March that year. The two men had been working together when Fenlow persuaded Gardner to descend into a mining hole, then struck him on the head with a shovel. Gardner was found the next day with a hole in his skull the size of a crown-piece. Fenlow robbed the body and evaded capture for several weeks before witnesses, including a refreshment tent keeper who recognised him on sight, placed him with the victim in the days before the killing.
Convicted on the evidence of multiple witnesses, Fenlow was sentenced to death and hanged at Melbourne Gaol on 20 August 1860.
