1871: "I Blame My Wife for All That Has Come to Me": James Quinn Hanged at Beechworth for the Myrtleford Murder
When the wounded survivor of a bloody attack on two Chinese men near Myrtleford was brought to the Beechworth lock-up to identify his attacker, he stared at James Quinn for five minutes, edged to within a yard of him, then wavered. "The beard was too long, and the cheek bones not high enough," he said, concluding he did not think it was the man.
Police held Quinn regardless, certain he had been near the crime scene at the right hour and unable to account for his movements since. Weeks later a jury returned a guilty verdict amid what one reporter called a "deathlike silence," and he was sentenced to death.
Quinn went to the gallows at Beechworth on 10 November 1871 insisting he was innocent, telling onlookers his wife had lured him from Tasmania to Victoria and helped rob him of 50 pounds. His last words, as the cap was drawn over his face, were: "Lord help me! I am an innocent man."
