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Three months in Australia 9th April 1865
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Mad Dan Morgan and his white bulldog were Bushrangers. Preying on gold-diggers under the cover of his butchers shambles at Barkers Creek, Castlemaine, he and his mutt took the hard-earned gold from prospectors. Eventually he was arrested for the robbery of a hawker in 1854. The sentence of 12 years of hard labour, the first two spent in irons, didn't go down too well with Mad Dan. Upon release he went on the rampage against the police and anyone else who confronted him. The police eventually killed him on the 9th April 1865 at Peechelba Station on the Owens River. Just after this photo was taken of his body (complete with .50 cal 5 shot Dane, Adams & Dean Dragoon percussion double-action revolver), he was decapitated. His face and scalp were flayed from his head. The head went to Dr. Dobbin for "research", the face and scalp to Police Super-intendant Cobham to "peg it out and dry it like a possum skin". His scrotum was cut off and cured for use as a money pouch. |
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Home Page A plethora of unusual science & engineering |
Chronicles Victorian anarchic experimental science |
Book of Amusement Hundreds of entertaining experiments from 1854 |