THE MAUNGATAPU MURDERS

Dominion, Volume 15, Issue 2, 27 September 1921, Page 5

THE MAUNGATAPU MURDERS

Mr. P. J. O’Rogan writes: "In your iwue of Thursday last you .reprint a paragraph, from a contemporary to the. effect that Sullivan, one of tho gang concerned in the Maungatapu murders, is suppodfed to have' died recently in Auckland, where ho had been living in a public institution under an assumed name. To anyone acquainted with tho facts, tho story, to say ths least, will appear most improbable. It is just fifty-five years since tho murders. , To be accurate, Battle was killed on June 12, 1866, Mathieu, Kempthorne, Pontius, and Dudley on the following day, and Burfcpss, Kelly, and Lovy were hanged at. Nelson. on Friday, October 5. of the same year. Sullivan was tho eldest of the. gang, and his age was given as 42, whence he would now bo 97 years old. That ho left this country is certain; indeed,, he was pardoned in 1874, and was liberated from Dunedin gaol conditional on his leaving Now Zealand permanently. and he embarked from Auckland for England in a. vessel called tlm Hindustan. As a matter of fact, the British Government stipulated subsequently by the Royal Instructions to Colonial Governors, that tho prerogative of pardon was not agqin to bo exercised subject te the condition that the criminal should leave the country. Though I am unable to give the details of Sullivan’s subsequent movement’, there is no doubt that ho went to California from England. but being recognised there lie returned to Victoria, and I well remember that the Info Ml-. IT. Richardson Rao m11:1 i'-'llrd ■ rinry of an interview with th” murderer on Christmas Evo, 1880, ivlc-n ho w.as living a wTolclmd, lonely life in n but at Marvlmroueh. Moreover, T have -nlwni's nnder.'tcod. that Sullivnn’s <lo-fh in Victoria, ivas well authenticated."