A LIFE "RUINED BY AN UNJUST SENTENCE."

Kumara Times, Issue 3135, 20 November 1886, Page 3

A LIFE "RUINED BY AN UNJUST SENTENCE."

At Belfast, Victoria, in the beginning of this month, an incident happened which revives a singular histoiy. The deceased, who was known as "Billy Crayfish," had lived for the last twentyfive years hermit-like in a cave on the coast, and had obtained a living by catching fish and making brooms and mats. The evidence showed that his name was William Archer, and that he had a strange history. According to a witness who knew the deceased intimntely, it appears that forty-five years a»o he was sentenced to transportation for life from the Old Country to Tasmania, for the alleged crime of shooting i gamekeeper while poaching. He had been in the Western District for about thirty years. About thirteen years ago a man in England on his deathbed confessed that, he and not William Archer had shot the gamekeeper, and that Archer had been wrongly convicted. Archer's friends, who were in a good position, communicated with the authorities in England, with the result that Archer received a free pardon, and arrangements were made to pay his expenses to England. The old man, however, refused to go back, stating that his life had been ruined by an unjust sentence. A verdict was returned of death from old age and exposure.