1861: Hanged Where They Killed: Two Men Executed for the Murder of a Shepherd in Colonial South Australia
In September 1861, two men were tried and executed for the murder of a shepherd, Theodore Gustavus Burggoist, near Fowler’s Bay in South Australia.
Before their execution, the two men acknowledged their guilt. Officials erected the gallows on the exact spot where the killing had taken place, guided there by the two men themselves, who calmly pointed out the bush where the shepherd had been sitting, the place where he was attacked as he tried to flee, and the spot where he later died of his wound.
Members of the community gathered to witness the execution, alongside the local station owner, the ship’s captain who had carried the official party, and several station hands. When it came time to take the bodies down, onlookers fled in evident terror, refusing to help remove them. The two men were buried at the site of the execution, laid to rest beneath the very ground where the shepherd had died.
