It's just an interesting part of the story because it was this ship that these Bushrangers were attempting to escape on and it did disappear, so maybe some people want to believe that other men were on there and they did get away with the gold.
I'm Jen Kelly from The Herald's Son and this is in Black and White, a podcast about some of Australia's forgotten characters. We're back for part two of the story of bushranger George Melville, who was part of an audacious robbery of a gold escort heading from the Goldfield to Melbourne in the eighteen fifties. Make sure you listen to part one first, we're talking again with Damian Beard, a tour guide at Penridge Prison Tours. As Damien told us in part one, police were closing in on the Gang
of Bushrangers after finding a startling clue. A revolver had been stolen from a man's tent on the gold Fields and a map of the ship Madagascar had been left behind with the incriminating words Jay Francis cabin passenger written on it. And just a warning. This episode contains discussion about self harm. If you or anyone you know needs help. You can contact Lifeline on one three double one one four and you can find more helplines in the show
notes to this episode. This is so mysterious. Why would somebody steal a revolverly behind a map?
It seems so obvious that it's like a hacky detective novel, like a young adult novel, you know, So that's what led some people suggest No, maybe they knew something else than this was a ruse or something like that.
And it's possible that often the truth is just so much stupid of a that, you know, I just told you about Frank Christy who escaped from pantries by climbing over the one meets a wall of a prison. So often he's just those little things like that. But back in Melbourne, the men are either staying in Collingwood, the city or Melville went to his house in Little Burke Street. The Francis brothers, with their wives and George Wilson had
booked passage to England on the Madagascar. The Atkins were intending to head to Sydney, Joe Gray was allegedly intending to head to Adelaide, and George and Alfonsine were on board the Colooney which was heading to Mauritius. They speak French, why not get out of the English colonies altogether? The English and the French still not particularly great friends after
the Napoleonic Wars. So on the tenth of August eighteen fifty three, Detective Constable Thompson and Constable Eason bought the Madagascar with a warrant to arrest John and George Francis on suspicion of theft of the revolver and a bowie knife. Now, some people have suggested that this is a ruse, that they already suspected these men of the Mackaivy robbery. Not really sure that it's a long effort to travel from Maciva to Melbourne just for a stolen revolver, So maybe,
but we're really not sure. George isn't on board, but John is, and he's apprehended. His rooms were searched, but he had enough time to get word to George Wilson, who's also on board, to hide the stolen gold in George Francis's room, because George Francis's room has already been searched, so they figure they're not going to go back and
have another look. John Francis is arrested on suspicion of the theft of the revolver and the knife, and he is being rowed to shore with his wife, and as he does, he asks permission to pull up to the colooney so that his wife could be looked after by the Melvilles, and this possibly implicates the Melvilles in police's mind. From here, George and Olfuonseine now George Francis is later found and arrested on shore and John and George are
brought before the courts. They're immediately discharged for lack of evidence the theft of the pistol and the knife, but then walking out the door of the court immediately re arrested on suspicion of being taking part in the Mackai for Gold escort robbin. On August eleventh, the Madagascar and
the Colooney was searched. Gold is found on the colooney and twenty three pounds of sovereigns as well as various other banknotes cash this kind of thing, and then George Wilson is arrested on the Madagascar when three hundred and fifty eight pounds in gold sovereigns is found in his room, but Why did they go search the whole ship and
a whole other ship is the big question. Possibly because when John Francis is dropping his wife off with the Melvilles, this raises suspicion in police's mind, but quite probably it's because of what happens with George Francis. On eleventh of August, Captain McMahon of the Police sends for George Francis at the City locker and he points out the notice on the gate five hundred pounds reward and passage out of the colony. Does George turn what they call approver an informant?
Absolutely yes, he does. Remember he's already done this once before back in Van Demon's Land as well. On the same day, George Melville is arrested by Detective Ashley at the north Star Hotel and he is found with more money and a revolver on him. Not sure if that's a missing revolver or not. Also, William and Agnes Atkins are arrested at their house in Little Burk Street. Now no one had implicated these people so far, they absolutely had to have been informed on by George Francis. In
in fact, he comes with police to their house. Detective Ashley and George Francis entered the house and Francis identified Atkins as one of the bushrangers. They found money in bank drafts and pans, and then the detective if you know, asks Agnes Atkins do you have any money? And she's very indignant, but finally she is searched and they find banknotes and money hidden in the hem of one of
her dresses, sewn in there. On August thirteen, detectives Ashley and Murray and a Sergeant Simcock take George Francis to mc ivor with warrants to arrest more men Robert Harding, Edward McAvoy, George Shepard, and George Elston more Georges.
We don't need any more Georges.
More George's more Georges.
And who were these men, Damien?
Good question, We don't know. An author has suggested that Francis was trying to muddy the waters. He already feels guilty about informing on people, especially his brother, so figures if I just implicate a whole bunch of other dudes, put them all on trial, there's going to be this. You know, he was here, he was and blah blah blah, it's going to get thrown out. Possibly the troopers swore blind that they were attacked by at least fifteen to twenty men, So maybe there were men more men involved
in the robbery than we actually know. Because again, the troopers, when they've all been caught unawares and you know, ambushed, and haven't even managed to get a shot off in return, they're going to say it wasn't six guys, you know, it was fifty guys, and they're all with machine guns and they were invented back then or anything like that. But still you get the idea they were embarrassed. Yeah.
So Harding, McAvoy, Shepherd, and Elston had already moved on to Golben from Mackaiva, So on seventeenth of August they show up at the Golden Diggings. But the policemen are like, we're not going to go into the camp because we'll be recognized as tramps, as traps immediately. It will give the game away. So instead they send George Francis in to look for them, and he does a runner instead
of finding them. Now all four men, Harding, McAvoy, Shepherd and Elston are caught the next day as was George Francis. He was caught near Mackiva Goldfields. They're taken back to Melbourne to go before the courts, and then they take a few days to make their way down there. By the twenty first of August they've reached what's now cal Calo. Francis in handcuffs for extra security and to isolate him from the other four who were obviously not feeling particularly
well disposed to him by this point. He's actually taken to the house of the manager of the lock up, Robert Small. At nine am the next morning, Francis asked to go to the bathroom and he's escorted by Trooper Thomas Cox. He says, you know, can you take my chains off so I can actually do my business in the outhouse and Cox says, no probs. He takes him in, and after a few moments, Cox hears an absolutely horrible
noise from inside the authouse. He pushes open the door to find George Francis with his throat cut.
What is that possible?
Again? Another author has alleged that someone snuck into the outhouse and was waiting for him with a razor and somehow murdered him. I don't know if you've seen the average size of a privy closet back then, but they call it a closet for a reason. It's small. What was found was a razor in his hand, belonging to the keeper of the lock up, Robert Small, and that raisor had allegedly been in the room where Francis had been kept overnight. He'd pocketed and he'd ended his own life.
We'll be back soon to hear what happened next, so stay with us.
On August twenty fifth, they're brought before the court for examination Melville Wilson Atkins, his wife, Agnes Atkins, Elston Harding and McAvoy. No word of what's happened to Shephard from here. They're all in handcuffs, which the defense lay kicked up a bit of fuss about as this was unconstitutional, and John Francis appears in place of his brother and gives evidence.
John has now turned approver. Elston Harding and McAvoy, the men who were implicated by John's brother George Francis, were remanded, but then there's no further record a found of them, same with Agnes Actkins, so they were quite obviously discharged without convictions, so no evidence was found to implicate them in being involved in this robbery, which kind of lends a bit of theory to the credits that it was just those you know, six or seven guys, amongst whom
George Melville Atkins and George Wilson. They're not so lucky. They're amanded to a higher court to hear charges, and on seventeen they appear in the Supreme Court before Justice Williams and placed on trial for the robbery of the gold escort, specifically three charges, one of which is wounding the driver Fooks and putting him in fear of his life.
Some of the charges were also for stealing gold of one thousand ouncers or more belonging to certain individuals, And this actually sort of causes a bit of illegal wrangling because what happens is there's no proof that's alleged by the defense that some of the gold was held by those people who are then being put forward in the trial as the owners of that gold and things like that. We'll get to that in a moment. It's a pretty
quick trial. It goes from twelve pm to about eight pm, but trials work quick back in those days, and ned Kelly famously two day trial. Justice Williams still says he regrets the time taken on the trial, the whole eight hours. What he reminded the jury before they deliver their verdict that the result of the verdict was not their worry and in effect that the blood would be on his hands as a representative of the justice system, not theirs.
If they find guilty, that's not going to be leading them to be directly the cause of the death of these men. Which is interesting because Justice Williams he seems to be he knows that the crime is being committed. I don't know if he was someone who was privately opposed to the death penalty things like that, but he has a bit of an interesting attitude to the prisoners. There's a forty minute for guilty verdict on the first count, which included the assault on folks and making him in
fear of his life. But then there's a bit of legal wrangling over the defense allegend. You know, we can't prove that this gold belonged to these people because the certificates saying such and such a person owned this amount of gold were lost in the robbery, and in fact Williams defers the sentencing after this because he confers with Sir Edmund Barry to decide what it's going to you know, is this actually a thing that's going to cause a bit of a legal hiccup or anything like that, But
Redmond Barry, being Redmond Barry, is like, no, it's fine, and so there's nothing worth delaying the sentencing. They are then appear in court next day to be sentenced. To Melville asks to speak. He's reminded that he you know, the verdict has already been placed. You can't say anything right now that will change the verdict. And George Melville said no, I don't care about that. He says, I want the truth to be out. I know where I'm going.
I know that I am going to peer before a higher court who's tribunal judges themselves would be judged before. He knows that, you know, he's going to heaven, and he wants to go to heaven with a clean slate. So he says, you know, several witnesses bore false evidence against him. He knew the time to change the verdict was gone, but he wanted to confess with a clean slate and say this is what really happened. And Justice
Williams is really very impressed by this. He says words to the effect that, you know, he commends him for his stoicism in accepting his fate and saying, I wish that everyone who appear before this court approached these things with such a value set of values, in an attitude that you did. And he uses the time to get a few shots in at John Francis as well, being you know, this wicked man who bore witness against you and stuff like that.
Oh interesting, Yeah, so John Francis did get that huge reward he did.
What happens is all three men on trial, Melville, Atkins and Wilson, are sentenced to death. They are taken to the old Melbourne Jail. Melville Natkins' wives visited them quite frequently. Poor Agnes Atkins, she was only like eighteen or nineteen at this point in time, and she was pregnant, and she was now left destitute. And in fact, I believe I've never been able to prove this, but I read somewhere that collections were raised to give her some money
to live on. All three of them spent time with the priests, but they never confessed to the robbery. At six am on the third of October eighteen fifty three, they woke and they dressed for their execution. At eight o'clock the sheriff announced the hour had arrived, and then Melville, then Wilson, then Natkins left. Their cells were pinioned and taken to the gallows outside. At this point in time, the gallows was still outside in what's now the yard
of old Melbourne Jail. They were public at that point in time. The gallows were tall enough that you could see if you were standing outside, you could see over the top of the wall and see the men on the gallows. They dropped through the trap door. They disappeared from sight. They were later moved inside because of what
happens afterwards. There is a crowd outside waiting. It's allegedly the largest crowd to witness an execution at that point, and Melville attempted to address the crowd, but he gave up when he realized they couldn't hear him, and he just wished them a good morning. Wilson spoke and he again mentioned false evidence against them, and he also said that there is a man in jail at the time who had been convicted of a robbery and sekilled a
road who was innocent. Now, Wilson was alleged to be part of this robbery, and he is apparently taking his time on the go as to say, no, this guy wasn't involved. Oh no, this is just a footnote in the story and I know nothing more about it. It's very frustrating. But hangman Walsh descends the stairs and pulls the bot. Atkins died immediately, but the other two died hard, with Walsh having to run below the trap door and pull on their legs to pull them against the noose
so quickly. Yeah, there is the aftermath. Alfonsine applies for George's Melville's body, takes a tour oyster shop and you know what happens next from there. This is so controversial that legislation is amended. Government moves slowly. It takes them till eighteen sixty five. But all people executed at Old Melbourne Jail from eighteen sixty five on, including Ned they move the gallows inside Old Melbourne Jail. The gallows are still there. Parts of it are original, parts of it
are not. You can come to a tour and see it. The beam is definitely original. And then once they are executed there I think it's about forty four people are executed inside. They are then buried on site where the basketball court is at r MIT. Now that is where they are buried to prevent exactly what happened with George ever happening again.
Now there's another interesting PostScript to this story, isn't there?
There is the Madagascar, the ship that the Francis brothers and Wilson were wanting to escape on. It left Melbourne on Friday the twelfth of August, left Port Phillips Heads and was never ever seen again.
Ye, any thoughts about what happened?
There are stories. It was apparently quite a famous maritime mystery at the time. So it was carrying a huge cargo of wolves. So some people thought that the walls spontaneously combusted and it was lost at sea with all hands in that manner, That's the one I tend to believe. Interesting fact, about thirty years later, most of the sort of sailing ship trade was being done by ships ferrying coal, and I know in the eighteen eighties about thirty percent of all ships lost at sea were lost to coal
fires coal explosions, so that's more prosaic reason. But there is alleged that there were possibly other members of the gang who were never convicted, who were on board that ship, and allegedly they mutinied, murdered all the other passengers and disappeared with the gold. This story is backed up by an apparent deathbed confession from someone who was either a passenger who survived or a mutineer. That's just a story, you know, there's never anything written down. Just there was
a deathbed confession. We have no proof, Honestly, I don't know. It's just an interesting part of the story because it was this ship that these Bushrangers were attempting to escape on and it did disappear. So maybe some people want to believe that other men were on there and they did get away.
With the gold and Damien what happened to Melville's body.
So the authority has got the back. I have read in one place that he was then interred at Old Melbourne Jail. One hundred percent sure about that. But we do know that there were anywhere from thirty four to fifty something bodies buried. Now we don't know because most of those bodies were found in no teen twenty eight twenty nine. In nineteen twenty four, Old Melbourne Gel closes. In nineteen twenty eight they start knocking it down, making way for what becomes r MIT. What's left up on
Rossell Street. It's only about twenty percent of the whole site. It took up the whole city block. As they do this, they uncover all the bodies in the graveyard. It's not a graveyard like you'd think it was. What you have is there are bodies buried, and if you're lucky, the presents who buried the bodies might scratch initials into a wall and you can still see some of these stones because when they knock down those walls, they use the stones to build the sea walls of Brighton and bo
Morris Beach. So if you go to Brighton Beach in front of the sea wall, you dig down about a meter or so, you will find scratched into one of the stones there MN which is Martha Needles. She was the originally poisoner executed in the eighteen nineties. There. That's the only one I found. Because if you go to a beach and dig holes, you know a meter deep, telling people you're looking for graves people look at your
book him Brighton. But most of the bodies are removed, taken up to Pantridge, buried in three mass graves up there, not all of them. In two thousand and two, during the construction of the r MIT Alumni Courtyard which is there now, a body was found in a corner over near the wall, so that was not where the graveyard was. And they also found some leg bones of some other people, and I think some bones of a dog, So there may be people there, we just don't know. But most
of them were moved up to Pentridge. There are still some of them buried up there, including the woman I spoke to you about last time, Jean Lee, still at Penridge.
Since we spoke a couple of months ago, you've actually found out some more fascinating information about jean Lee. What did you find out?
I did, Literally while we were recording the podcast, some documents arrived in the mail. So you asked me last time details about Jeane's daughter, and I said I just didn't know, and whether that information had been suppressed or not in any way formally or informally. I did find out her name, Jill. That's all I found out reading a book where some people did some quite significant research about the case. It does appear you asked me if gene mum and her daughter visited her while she was
effectively on death row at Penridge. I don't believe they did. They couldn't find absolutely no evidence of it. It seems like Jean's daughter just went on to live her life when her mum wasn't a part of her life from when she was a young kid. I also have to correct myself. I did say that they were Lee Andrews and Clayton granted a retrial. They were not.
They were.
The trial was essentially reviewed, would they be given a retrial? And the higher courts decided no, they actually didn't need to, and their conviction was reinstated that way. Now, there were appeals that went all the way to the Privy Council.
And what is really interesting about this is the Privy Council obviously did not overturn their sentence, but they were executed before formal notice that that sentence had not been overturned was received in Australia to be delivered by mail, and they are executed some few days before that actual letter saying their sentence has not been overturned and they
will hang was received by the government. So people have argued since then that that bill was actually a bit of a miscarriage of justice because the government didn't officially know that they were allowed to hang these.
People and Damien. Where and how can listeners hear more stories like these?
So you can come to either of our big bluestone museums of sadness and oppression. You can come to Old Melbourne Jail where if you do the Escape Artist's Tour, you can be taken down to where that graveyard is or was, I should say, hear all the stories about this and particularly what happened to what they thought was ned skeleton in nineteen twenty eight, twenty nine. That's too complicated. It's very very darkly funny though, so I love telling
that story on that On that tour. Part of the tour, you can come and see George Melville's death mask here as well and read some of his story. Old Melwyn Jale is open seven days a week. You don't have to do a tour. You can just come in and see all this stuff for yourself as well. We also have the City Watchhouse, which is where I'm sitting recording this right now absolutely freezing and it is. You can also pay a little bit extra money, and occasionally we
do historical tours of this place. Come in and see the old city watchhouse where people were taken after they had been arrested, but before they were put before a judge, from nineteen o six all the way up until nineteen ninety four, I think, and we do quite regularly the watchhouse experience, where you can have someone pretending to be a police sergeant arrest you and lock you up in the cell if that's your idea of fun, a little bit too much of being a teenager, but anyway, up
at Pentridge Prison we also do a lot of the stories of this kind of stuff. Now Penridge is much more than modern history because Penridge was in operation for a lot longer Penridge, same kind of prison colonially or at prison, but in operation all the way up until nineteen ninety seven. At Pendrich we do tours that are
a lot longer. You Basically you get thirty forty minutes with a guide like me telling you stories about either B Division or the notorious H Division, and then time inside one of those buildings exploring cells, listening to audio content that's the stories of surviving inmates and wardens in their own words. Essentially, we also do night tours up there six thirty and eight thirty every Thursday, Friday, Saturday night. Those tours are essentially the similar to the H Division.
The content is a bit darker and you get the added bonus you know, you're exploring an abandoned jail in the middle of the night. It's pretty cool. And we finally we also do a kid's tour, which might sound a bit shocking, but it is. You know, look, I am a history teacher, I'm a primary school teacher. I believe that kids can handle way more than we think they can, and it is a way to just introduce kids to the idea of you know, jail's worth these
horrible things. Not everyone necessarily deserve to be there all the time. And so every Sunday morning at ten thirty, they come in, they get a little bit of a history about the place why H Division was created. Then they get to go into H Division do this really cool fun activity where you solve a bunch of clues to prevent an escape and stuff like that.
Amazing. Well, thank you so much for coming in and sharing another story with us.
Yeah. No, absolutely, Thank you so much for having me absolute pleasure.
As always, Thanks Damien, thank you, thanks for listening. This has been In Black and White, a podcast about some of Australia's forgotten characters, written and hosted by me Jen Kelly, edited by Harry Hughes, and produced by John ti Berton. You can find all the stories and photos associated with our episodes at Heroldsun dot com dot au slash ibaw. If you've enjoyed this podcast, we'd love you to leave a five star rating on Apple Podcasts. Even better, leave
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