THE TASMANIAN MURDERER, J. OGDEN.

Daily Telegraph (Napier), Issue 3678, 28 April 1883, Page 4

THE TASMANIAN MURDERER, J. OGDEN.

The following account of the life of the monster Ogden is taken from the Mercury. It is certainly a sensational biography :— Jim Ogden, the murderer of the ganger Wilson, is identical with a former inmate ot the Boys' Home, and was then known as Robert Ogden. From inquiries made amongst people who knew him in his boyhood, it appears that he evinced signs of a brutal disposition at an early period of hi* life. Robert Ogden is the youngest son ot Thomas and Ann, who, from all accounts, always bore a bad character. Both mother and father were natives of Ireland. The former arrived in this colony in the ship Elizabeth and Henry, and the latter in the Moff att. Soon after setting foot iuTasmaina the Ogdons started to earn a livelihood by travelling through the country, and disposiii"- of small articles of dress, lace, ko. The father was a man of weak intellect, and the mother had the name of being halfwitted. Ogden had five children, whom he seems, according to the records at the City Police office, to have brought up in a very careless manner, making them beg in the streets for alms to support him. Between the years 1860 and 18,2 O<'den senior served six .sentences in the Campbell street gaol, amounting to two years one month and seven days, for suffering his children to go begging._ Mrs O,"-den was sentenced to seven days' imprisonment in 1868 for disturbing the peace. Mary Jane Ogden, nine years old, 1872 was charged with begging alms, and also, ten years later, with a similar offence ; but the charges were withdrawn. Robert Ogden, the murderer, was brought up in February, 1880, before the Police Magistrate (the late Mr A. B. Jones) for begging alms. The charge was withdrawn by the police. In 1572 Ogden, senior, was admitted into the Lunatic Asylum at New Norfolk. He remained an inmate of that institution till his death, which is said to have taken place during the latter part of the year 1879. His wife is well known throughout thc_ rural districts under the sobriquet of the " Gipsy." On the Kith of February, 1575, the governors of the Boys' Home—Sir J. M. Wilson, Mr A. 11. Boyd, and Mr J. Foster—apprenticed the subject of this notice to James Hull, boatman, of Battery Point, for a term of four years, to learn the business of a boatman." He remained with the Hull family about twelve months. From the clay he became their servant till his abrupt leaving he showed himself possessessed of a brutish temper, and was in the habit of flying into a passion without provocation." As a boy lie was very bad in eyery conceivable respect, and is described as a thorough low blackguard. lie was small for his years, of fair complexion, with light hair. In temper lie was extremely violent; in character perfectly untrustworthy, and irrcatly addicted to robhery and thieving." To the Hulls he proved a very dangerous servant, and was constantly placing the whole family in terror by Ins wilclucss of disposition. It was a common practice for him, when told to perform some little work in connection with the household, to pick up a brick and shy it straight at the person speaking to him. On several occasions he was sent up the town with money to purchase articles of food for his master, but never came back except in the custody of a police officer. Once bythe merest accident, Hull saved his little daughter from being hit on the head by a brick which Ogden had hurled at her. Whilst Avitli the Hulls, young Ogden frequently told them that his father killed one of his own children, and, after tying it up in a bag, concealed it in a waterholc at Bream Creek, some fifteen years since. Four years since he went mad, and died in the Asylum whilst his son was living with the Hulls. On the 18th of August, 1870. Robert Ogden bolted from the Hulls and went to Launceston, where he changed his Christian name to James. About a year and a half ago the young rowdy returned to Mr Hull, and requested to be allowed to resume his former work, but this his old employer would not consent to. As a youngster, when travelling with his parents over the island, he was in the common habit of perpetrating robberies on people. The police arrested him for sleeping out in the sheds in the country, and he was sent to the Boys' Reformatory for four years. Robert "Ogdcu is now about twenty-two years of age. Mr Witt, registrar of the Benevolent Society, has informed us that he specially knew the Ogden family, though he had lost .sight of them for many years. He has referred to the carefully-kept registry of the Benevolent Society, and found the pages full of the criminal history of the parents of the now notorious murderer between the years ISGS and-1868. They were amongst the worst and vilest of the cases which were brought under his notice. The father was, he says bad enough ; but the mother looked, if possible, more fiendish still, and upon her ■visage was stamped the- very impress of crime. They first came nuclei , the registrar's notice on April 21th, 18(15, when they lived on the Old Wharf. They were a little over thirty years of age, with five children, four boys and one girl, and the man, at any rate, having a reputation, given him by Mr Matches, a neighbouring publican, of being :t drunkard. He was then working at Mr Cook's, in Canrpbcll-strect, and expecting to be put on by the Corporation. The next entry was in January of the following year, when the mother was living - in Lower Collins-street, and the husband Avas in gaol serving a term of three years.