UNKNOWN

Grey River Argus, Issue 75, 5 July 1866, Page 3

UNKNOWN

" and" * t w 6 J at: c' ar e y. j l§4* LEVY, BURGEES, AND. KELLY CONCERNED IN THE MURDERS OF AOUG, DOBSON AND A |i§ STOREKEEPER AT THE GREY. e t Binding of the bodies at i?/ " , MAUNGATAPU. v (From the Colonist.) . V^Sfttot-Joseph Sullivan, the Hard-featured the "firm mouth," has con'J^M^^Sßbeing an, accomplice concerned in HSUjB^P 8 of Mathietf, Kempthorne, Dudon the Maungatapu, on v^HMaty, 13th ' June- irist. ;•' and also ; tb' ; theHuder of a fifth man, an old whaler, *• whpmrney shot, and on .whose person they * found the sum' of three pounds. Sullivan confessed to Sergeant-Major Shallcrfts& It was he who killed the horse, and jfe^froin t'-js' information we can gather, the four aflßfeen were "stuck-up" at. the rock we men9BHfoned in our last, and which henceforward i|l|||ll be called "^Murderers' Rock." W&tssskJThe facts of the cAse are simply these, as W&mjtt as we can find from information that 'Ip*^ ||| been permitted to transpire, or which 4jj£3 jjjaotherwise been obtained : — 'JPvi 1111^ van ' w^o we , believe is. the. softest :^s| iptirfeed of the gang— as Levy is " the most # . irimanan, and the planner of all the bloody $ /icts — has made.a clean breast. He/says .the f_ men were stopped at a place on the road, m which from the description is the rock we t- have referred to. But before this occurred a Jr preliminary murder was committed by the % party. A man, an old whaler, passed,; and -01 the four murderers thought from the bulky ?0:- appearance of his pocket, that he had money. If 1 They werej we" undersiancl,' in ambush,' 1 and M; Sullivan was sent after him. He made up ft with him, and entered into conversation. The •Ife man told him that he was an old whaler, ■S that he had been doing no good here, and Up was now going to Nelson to get a ship, as he ||| was tired working in the district, and making |||r = nothing. Sullivan then left him, and went IH back and told the others that he had nothing fflt whatever, and was not worth stopping, and W : that he should be allowed to go on. Levy |% opposed this, and said that they should not '&■- allow a single man to pass along the road s||K alive that day, but should stop and shoot, [p; ;jevery one ! The two. others, Burgess and "^V Kelly, agreed to this ; and Sullivan was again - r sonji. after the man, whose hands he tied, and ; \:. :!: bri><~ht him back to his confederates, who Z - ft«t tliW Mffl^° f all Hhad, only three '?"' pounds, and thenlfep* him and buried him. When the four Dec^Cr eek men Cftme U P» of the murderers pr^SSJ^g^th^nselves &fe : ~on the pathway. On ' seeing them, doomed men ran back, b\it were stoppedsby the other two of the assailants, who were |w concealed in the bush behind them. They $m' were De *> ween * w0 re 3» were unarmed and defenceless, in the presence arid' at the mercy fiwt.tfi- four cold-blooded murderers. Their hands | f ; fewere tied, and they were led off the road, ifpßurgess, Kelly, and Levy, taking charge of men, while" Sullivan followed the horse, jf searched the "Bwags" and portmanteaus,' \\ and then shot the animal. He heard pistol • % shots while he had charge of the horse, and V,V he states that the bodies of the men are p -within half-a-mile of where the ; horse was *'' found. He did not see the men "killed, he only heard the shots, and it has been stated tluvb he was told by his accomplices that of the men were shot,' and one of them One man was, it appears, slow' r'#to die, and had three bullets in his body ?-'' - s :before he was killed. This shortened their ammunition, and the fourth and last man . ;;.,they strangled with a scarf belonging to Sul■''fifttpn. '*,''■... ' '■• '.' gold stolen from the murdered men "'■wiui sold in different parcels to ail the banks in town. . ' Not only has Sullivan confessed with respect to the five murders on the Maungatapu, but he has also told circumstances ■ which implicate Burgess, Levy, and Kelly,. / in conjunction .''with two mother men, as the murderers of Mr George Dobson, at the Grey ; and also of a storekeeper on that river, killed by ; the:Bame.parsyv.i The names of the two accomplices in the murders of Mr ' Dobson and the storekeeper we have not learned; but from what fell from Sullivani it is surmised that the party killed one of 'their mates lest he should turn informer. Thus there .have been eight mukdebs com- " . mittedc within . the past month; ;by/thiB;atrocious gang of villians. . , Levy it is known ,ia a ifew, and it is a historical and statistical fact that ; Jews are averse from the shedding of man's blood ; and' it was l^Heved tbat -tiws loan would, therefore most likely be he who was appointed to " kill ttie r fibrse|' whUehia'campamons "murder edthejjjfc. 1 : If ao, it was supposed that he WQula^H^e first to divulge the fact, < th^|^^H^nnuch desired to know. With ; this, ; some' mem--faith sent for a Rabbi, WvlSßmg^'?^ Levy- ; To this Jewish, priest by the most sacred oaths knownk^^^^R>rews, by the " Lord" God of Hostsi by J^^Jpther and his mother, thathe; never coin.^■K|l a murder, and, that he knew nothing !^^h v atever of the murder of these mien. : ' A^^^^%-^ c^ nes^ a y* ' Yesterday 'a^6ut noon, - H^|j||jtovaia laid bare the whole.: dreadful cir•jj^Jßjßtances., ;Jt is known that Levy was; B — or ;B even y^ lB a B° in Ciastlemaine for the murder of a woman ; ljut 1 " want of- evidence he escaped .convic* flp 77 appears was the schemer of the. !^Hby, the discoverer of men with money,. H^B the planner of all attacks. In this.

.charaeW he went -up to Deep Creek; and 'in this character, as looking to consequences, he made, the diabolical suggestion that no man should that day be" allowed to pass the ; road alive/ ~ • . '' We have said that Sullivan is the softest- ; hearted/ or rather 1 the least stony-hearted of ! this blood thirsty gang- > A story is told of his having'^ot drunk in Otago, and taking a iphotqgraph' of „a female, from, his pocket, weeping bitterly over it, declaring that she '■ was the;cause. of all his misfortunes by deserting and taking to a loose, course of life. Sullivan's position in. the gang was that :of forerunner j that is, he kept the road, went on before his party armed, and if any danger was likely to arise to them from the I inopportune 1 appearance of a ; traveller^ it was his diity to shoot him like a' dog. r A narrow escape for their lives was made by Mr Bowen and the man Muller, who followed his four ■ friends from Deep Greek to . take back the horses; both of whom Sullivan states he heard meet on the road side and Bpeak to each other, while he was concealed in the brushwood belpw^ not far from the spot where lay the body of the horse he had shot. : The murderers had^with them two revolvers, !'and two double-barrelied guns. The two guns Sullivan had with him in advance of .the others, and .the gun found at the foot o the tree, not far from the horse, was one of those. When the others of his .party came up, he got so excited thirt he'threw" the other ; gun away into the bush, when Levy said to him *?.You are mad to throw that away there," and went into tKebush, and took it »v : . i ..;:^lfV::;::;:; " ■