BRUTAL MURDER AT GUNDAGAI.

Globe, Volume V, Issue 591, 11 May 1876, Page 3

BRUTAL MURDER AT GUNDAGAI.

(Melbourne Age,) In the winter of 1872 a gentleman named Pilkington, who had resided at Gundegai for some time, mysteriously disappeared, and has never been heard of since. He lived with a woman who went by the name of Mrs Pilkington, who, we learn from the Border Post, was found brutally murdered at Spring Flat on the night of Saturday, the Bth ultimo. The night of Pilkington’s disappearance he was seen leading a publichouse at Gundagai on horseback, making for home, and taking along with him a bottle of brandy. In the mouth of September, 1872, the body of a man was found in the Murrumbigee at Mundarlo,

abont twenty miles below Gundagi, and it was supposed to be that of the missing gentleman, Pilkington. Such, however, was not the case, at the coroner’s inquest it transpired that the body found was that of some unfortunate fellow who was drowned during that season of flood. However, Mrs Pilkington, in order to be on the safe side, had the body so found encased in a costly coffin, and buried alter an expensive fashion in the cemetery at Gundagai. Since then Mrs Pilkington lived with another man, and last week they made up their minds to go to the Palmer diggings. That intention has been frustrated by some brutal murderer, for on Wednesday last the following facts transpired;—Mrs Pilkington, of Spring Flat, was found dead at half-past nine p.m. on Saturday, the Bth ultimo, near Mrs Burke’s public house, where she had left three hours previously in a state of intoxication, A skull fracture, apparently from a recent fall, was found on the back of the head. Some persons supposed she was murdered, but appearances are opposed to the theory. She had some silver in a handkerchief when she left Mrs Burke’s, which is missing. On Monday, the 10th, Mr Love, P.M., held a magisterial inquiry on the body of Mrs Pilkington, at Mrs Burke’s hotel, and a post mortem examination was made by Dr M'Killop, which goes to prove that the peceased was murdered. A man named Patrick Hennesy, alias Grattan, was arrested on suspicion of being the perpetrator of the foul deed, as well as of the robbery, and was brought before the bench of magistrates at Gundagai, and remanded for seven days. The finding of the magisterial inquiry is that the deceased was murdered for the sake of her money. The deceased lived with a man named Michael Deasy. The people of Gundagai are horrified at the brutal murder, and every effort will be made to bring the guilty party to justice.