1
00:00:02,400 --> 00:00:05,880
Speaker 1: Happy Saturday, everybody. As we promised last Saturday, today we

2
00:00:05,960 --> 00:00:09,640
Speaker 1: have another episode on bush Rangers from previous hosts Sarah

3
00:00:09,640 --> 00:00:11,720
Speaker 1: and debilin in Him and this first came out on

4
00:00:11,760 --> 00:00:16,640
Speaker 1: September and it covers the early years of bushrangers in Australia.

5
00:00:16,960 --> 00:00:19,400
Speaker 1: And as a note, similar lease last time this episode,

6
00:00:19,400 --> 00:00:21,120
Speaker 1: it's eight years old at this point and if we

7
00:00:21,120 --> 00:00:23,480
Speaker 1: were recording it today, we'd probably update some of the

8
00:00:23,560 --> 00:00:31,120
Speaker 1: language about things like incarceration and criminal justice. Otherwise, enjoy,

9
00:00:31,760 --> 00:00:34,519
Speaker 1: Welcome to stuff you missed in history class, the production

10
00:00:34,600 --> 00:00:43,360
Speaker 1: of I Heart Radios How Stuff Works. Hello, and welcome

11
00:00:43,400 --> 00:00:45,640
Speaker 1: to the podcast. I'm Debling a chalk Rewarding and I'm

12
00:00:45,640 --> 00:00:48,640
Speaker 1: Sarah Dowdy. And over the summer we did a podcast

13
00:00:48,680 --> 00:00:51,680
Speaker 1: on Ned Kelly and we talked about this mystery of

14
00:00:51,720 --> 00:00:54,480
Speaker 1: a skull that was turned in by It was turned

15
00:00:54,520 --> 00:00:57,480
Speaker 1: into Australian authorities by a farmer named Tom Baxer in

16
00:00:57,480 --> 00:01:00,840
Speaker 1: two thousand nine, and Boxer wouldn't say how he came

17
00:01:00,880 --> 00:01:02,680
Speaker 1: to have it, but he claimed that it was the

18
00:01:02,720 --> 00:01:06,440
Speaker 1: skull of Ned Kelly, a notorious bush ranger who was captured,

19
00:01:06,520 --> 00:01:10,240
Speaker 1: convicted and hanged back in the eighteen hundreds after getting

20
00:01:10,280 --> 00:01:13,560
Speaker 1: into a now famous shootout with the police, which we

21
00:01:13,640 --> 00:01:16,240
Speaker 1: covered in our episode Ned Kelly's Last Stand. We also

22
00:01:16,319 --> 00:01:20,160
Speaker 1: speculated it's a little shady to not mention how you

23
00:01:20,319 --> 00:01:24,080
Speaker 1: come across the head. I don't know that sounds it

24
00:01:24,200 --> 00:01:27,520
Speaker 1: was suspicious. Yeah, there's still more to know. They're especially

25
00:01:27,560 --> 00:01:30,039
Speaker 1: in light of recent news. But the skull had been

26
00:01:30,040 --> 00:01:32,960
Speaker 1: stolen from Melbourne jail in ninety eight, so there was

27
00:01:33,000 --> 00:01:35,440
Speaker 1: a chance that the one Backs returned in could have

28
00:01:35,560 --> 00:01:39,160
Speaker 1: been authentic. But experts at the Victorian Institute of Forensic

29
00:01:39,240 --> 00:01:42,000
Speaker 1: Medicine had trouble I deing it, and so by the

30
00:01:42,000 --> 00:01:44,640
Speaker 1: time of that last podcast we did, the story had

31
00:01:44,680 --> 00:01:47,760
Speaker 1: kind of gone cold. But then just the other day,

32
00:01:48,120 --> 00:01:51,920
Speaker 1: September one, another Ned Kelly story broke and we heard

33
00:01:51,920 --> 00:01:54,640
Speaker 1: from listeners all over the world about this. Immediately, we

34
00:01:54,800 --> 00:01:57,680
Speaker 1: had so many emails. Anyway, I feel like I arrived

35
00:01:57,720 --> 00:02:01,360
Speaker 1: at work and I my entire inbox was filled with

36
00:02:01,520 --> 00:02:04,320
Speaker 1: Ned Kelly related emails. It was really a he was

37
00:02:04,360 --> 00:02:07,560
Speaker 1: a shining moment for stuff you missed in history class. Listeners.

38
00:02:07,600 --> 00:02:11,240
Speaker 1: Clearly everyone was on alert for Ned Kelly news and

39
00:02:11,280 --> 00:02:14,400
Speaker 1: I was. I was touched that everybody thought of us too,

40
00:02:14,480 --> 00:02:18,200
Speaker 1: so that news wasn't about the skull, but the rest

41
00:02:18,240 --> 00:02:21,520
Speaker 1: of ned Kelly's remains had been identified. His body had

42
00:02:21,560 --> 00:02:25,920
Speaker 1: been moved from Melbourne Jail to Penridge Prison back in

43
00:02:26,040 --> 00:02:30,080
Speaker 1: nine and buried there in a mass grave with thirty

44
00:02:30,080 --> 00:02:33,680
Speaker 1: three other prisoners, So after the skull surface, the remains

45
00:02:33,720 --> 00:02:37,040
Speaker 1: had been exhumed in two thousand nine and the v

46
00:02:37,160 --> 00:02:40,600
Speaker 1: i f M was able to identify those remains thanks

47
00:02:40,680 --> 00:02:43,520
Speaker 1: largely to a DNA sample that was taken from a

48
00:02:43,560 --> 00:02:48,200
Speaker 1: Melbourne school teacher named Lee Oliver, who is the great

49
00:02:48,240 --> 00:02:52,119
Speaker 1: grandson of Kelly's sister. So a little modern science coming

50
00:02:52,120 --> 00:02:54,120
Speaker 1: into play here, yea. And how cool is that? I mean,

51
00:02:54,160 --> 00:02:56,320
Speaker 1: he must be like the most famous person in Australia

52
00:02:56,360 --> 00:02:58,560
Speaker 1: at the moment. Can you imagine being one of his students.

53
00:02:59,160 --> 00:03:03,320
Speaker 1: But any the remains, they're an almost complete skeleton with

54
00:03:03,480 --> 00:03:05,760
Speaker 1: a lot of wear and tear, as you might imagine

55
00:03:05,760 --> 00:03:07,959
Speaker 1: if you know anything about the Ned Kelly story, and

56
00:03:08,120 --> 00:03:11,320
Speaker 1: it's missing most of a skull. So there's definitely more

57
00:03:11,360 --> 00:03:13,200
Speaker 1: to come on the story, and we'll pick up with

58
00:03:13,240 --> 00:03:15,919
Speaker 1: that a little more later on. But of course hearing

59
00:03:15,960 --> 00:03:19,320
Speaker 1: about this exciting discovery reminded us how fascinated we are

60
00:03:19,400 --> 00:03:22,120
Speaker 1: by the stories of bush rangers, who are of course

61
00:03:22,160 --> 00:03:26,400
Speaker 1: Australian outlaws or bandits who robbed stage coaches, banks and

62
00:03:26,440 --> 00:03:29,640
Speaker 1: small settlements for about one hundred years, starting in the

63
00:03:29,720 --> 00:03:32,640
Speaker 1: late seventeen hundreds. And in our last podcast we talked

64
00:03:32,680 --> 00:03:35,200
Speaker 1: a little bit about bush rangers, and there were a

65
00:03:35,200 --> 00:03:37,560
Speaker 1: lot of them, thousands in fact, during the time that

66
00:03:37,600 --> 00:03:41,040
Speaker 1: we talked about they even outnumbered the number of Wild

67
00:03:41,080 --> 00:03:43,200
Speaker 1: West outlaws in America, just to give you kind of

68
00:03:43,200 --> 00:03:46,200
Speaker 1: an idea for comparison's sake, But we also mentioned that

69
00:03:46,240 --> 00:03:49,400
Speaker 1: there are two distinct sub periods of bush ranging, right,

70
00:03:49,400 --> 00:03:52,760
Speaker 1: Sarah YEA. So there's one from about seventeen eighty nine

71
00:03:52,880 --> 00:03:57,120
Speaker 1: to the eighteen fifties, and those bush rangers were mostly

72
00:03:57,280 --> 00:04:00,280
Speaker 1: escaped convicts, and that's the group that for the most

73
00:04:00,320 --> 00:04:03,080
Speaker 1: part we're going to be talking about today, that first

74
00:04:03,680 --> 00:04:07,600
Speaker 1: wave of bush rangers. But we've got to discuss the

75
00:04:07,640 --> 00:04:10,760
Speaker 1: convict situation a little bit too, because, in case some

76
00:04:10,840 --> 00:04:14,160
Speaker 1: of you don't know, there was a very strange prisoner

77
00:04:14,240 --> 00:04:17,800
Speaker 1: deal going on in Australia during the eighteen hundreds or

78
00:04:17,839 --> 00:04:20,680
Speaker 1: even the seventeen hundreds. So just some background information for

79
00:04:20,800 --> 00:04:24,200
Speaker 1: you here Australia was settled by Britain in the late

80
00:04:24,240 --> 00:04:27,960
Speaker 1: eighteenth century, and most of the first settlers who came

81
00:04:28,000 --> 00:04:32,599
Speaker 1: over in seventeen seven were convicted British felons, and some

82
00:04:32,760 --> 00:04:36,200
Speaker 1: of them had been stuck on prison ships for years

83
00:04:36,200 --> 00:04:39,800
Speaker 1: and years because after the American Revolution that had put

84
00:04:39,880 --> 00:04:43,200
Speaker 1: a stop to the practice of dumping criminals in the

85
00:04:43,240 --> 00:04:47,000
Speaker 1: American colonies to work as indentured servants. So the first

86
00:04:47,040 --> 00:04:52,719
Speaker 1: bushrangers were convict bolters who were transported felons who escaped

87
00:04:52,839 --> 00:04:57,240
Speaker 1: prison or the settlements and turned to crime, turned to

88
00:04:57,279 --> 00:05:00,200
Speaker 1: bush rangering, and and like I said, that's the group

89
00:05:00,240 --> 00:05:02,680
Speaker 1: that we're going to mostly talk about today. Yes, But

90
00:05:02,760 --> 00:05:06,160
Speaker 1: then fast forward to eighteen fifty three when British Parliament

91
00:05:06,200 --> 00:05:10,000
Speaker 1: passes the Penal Servitude Act and this ends almost all

92
00:05:10,080 --> 00:05:14,080
Speaker 1: transportation sentences, and that really changes things. Many bush rangers

93
00:05:14,160 --> 00:05:17,320
Speaker 1: after that are native born or at least free settlers

94
00:05:17,360 --> 00:05:20,920
Speaker 1: who had broken the law. So very distinct difference in

95
00:05:21,000 --> 00:05:24,320
Speaker 1: these bush rangers that we're going to be talking about today. Consequently,

96
00:05:24,600 --> 00:05:28,160
Speaker 1: two distinct podcasts, Yes, which are very excited about because

97
00:05:28,200 --> 00:05:30,760
Speaker 1: we love this topic. We really hope that you guys

98
00:05:30,760 --> 00:05:32,440
Speaker 1: do too, because we're gonna be talking about it for

99
00:05:32,480 --> 00:05:35,680
Speaker 1: a couple episodes. Judging by the volume of emails, I'm

100
00:05:35,720 --> 00:05:40,680
Speaker 1: pretty sure most of these folks like bush rangers Australian history.

101
00:05:40,920 --> 00:05:43,440
Speaker 1: So fingers crossed, hope you all liked us. Yeah, I mean,

102
00:05:43,440 --> 00:05:45,640
Speaker 1: if you like the Ned Kelly story, then you should

103
00:05:45,800 --> 00:05:48,200
Speaker 1: like something about these two, because it wasn't just about Ned.

104
00:05:48,240 --> 00:05:51,400
Speaker 1: It started way before him. And the man who's actually

105
00:05:51,440 --> 00:05:54,919
Speaker 1: believed to be Australia's first bush Ranger was one of

106
00:05:54,960 --> 00:05:58,320
Speaker 1: those transported convicts that Sarah just talked about. His name

107
00:05:58,360 --> 00:06:01,200
Speaker 1: was John Caesar, but he was are known as Black Caesar,

108
00:06:01,600 --> 00:06:04,360
Speaker 1: and he was of African descent and was probably born

109
00:06:04,400 --> 00:06:06,880
Speaker 1: in either the West Indies or in Madagascar. It's kind

110
00:06:06,880 --> 00:06:09,040
Speaker 1: of uncertain. Yeah, we're going to pick up with him

111
00:06:09,040 --> 00:06:12,080
Speaker 1: about seventeen eighty six when he was living as a

112
00:06:12,200 --> 00:06:15,400
Speaker 1: servant in England and in March of that year he

113
00:06:15,480 --> 00:06:19,560
Speaker 1: was charged with stealing twelve pounds from a dwelling house

114
00:06:19,960 --> 00:06:23,320
Speaker 1: and was sentenced to transportation for seven years. So he

115
00:06:23,440 --> 00:06:27,200
Speaker 1: arrived in Australia in January of seventeen eighty eight and

116
00:06:27,320 --> 00:06:30,560
Speaker 1: he set about working as a laborer in the colony.

117
00:06:30,600 --> 00:06:34,400
Speaker 1: Because It wasn't just like you were transported to Australia

118
00:06:34,400 --> 00:06:36,800
Speaker 1: and then you could remake your life. It was hard

119
00:06:36,839 --> 00:06:39,720
Speaker 1: work waiting on the other side exactly. And from what

120
00:06:39,800 --> 00:06:42,760
Speaker 1: we know of Black Caesar, he was no criminal mastermind.

121
00:06:42,839 --> 00:06:44,680
Speaker 1: He was actually thought of I think is kind of

122
00:06:44,720 --> 00:06:47,040
Speaker 1: a hard worker. But he was definitely someone that you

123
00:06:47,080 --> 00:06:49,640
Speaker 1: wouldn't want to mess with. He was very tall, some

124
00:06:49,680 --> 00:06:52,559
Speaker 1: sources say maybe as much as seven feet where although

125
00:06:52,600 --> 00:06:55,080
Speaker 1: that maybe an exaggeration, We're not sure, but he was

126
00:06:55,200 --> 00:06:57,680
Speaker 1: very muscular and he was known to be a fierce fighter.

127
00:06:58,040 --> 00:07:01,440
Speaker 1: He was also known, and this interesting, for his big appetite.

128
00:07:01,480 --> 00:07:03,760
Speaker 1: All sources seemed to mention that what gets him in

129
00:07:03,800 --> 00:07:06,800
Speaker 1: trouble here because in the colony there was often a

130
00:07:06,839 --> 00:07:09,600
Speaker 1: shortage of food and all of the convicts were on

131
00:07:09,680 --> 00:07:13,400
Speaker 1: really strict rations, and it was said that Caesar could

132
00:07:13,480 --> 00:07:17,760
Speaker 1: often polish off two days worth of rations in one day.

133
00:07:17,960 --> 00:07:21,640
Speaker 1: And yeah, like I said, this gets him into trouble eventually. Yeah,

134
00:07:21,640 --> 00:07:23,480
Speaker 1: I mean, it could be part of the reason that

135
00:07:23,600 --> 00:07:27,280
Speaker 1: led him into what comes later. Some sources suggest that

136
00:07:27,320 --> 00:07:29,560
Speaker 1: at least because I mean, we joke about a little bit.

137
00:07:29,560 --> 00:07:32,160
Speaker 1: It's a funny thing to bring up about somebody in Huy.

138
00:07:32,440 --> 00:07:34,800
Speaker 1: Historical sources, Yeah, that he was a hungry guy, but

139
00:07:35,400 --> 00:07:38,080
Speaker 1: with as we said, the shortage of food, it could

140
00:07:38,080 --> 00:07:40,800
Speaker 1: have been a serious situation. Actually, there's another later bush

141
00:07:40,880 --> 00:07:43,760
Speaker 1: ranger called Matt Gambit. He came around in around eighteen

142
00:07:43,800 --> 00:07:45,880
Speaker 1: twenty two, and we're not going to talk about him

143
00:07:45,920 --> 00:07:48,400
Speaker 1: in depth, but he was known as the cannibal bush

144
00:07:48,480 --> 00:07:52,440
Speaker 1: ranger because when he went off with his gang and

145
00:07:52,520 --> 00:07:55,680
Speaker 1: there weren't enough settlers to steal from and they ran

146
00:07:55,720 --> 00:07:58,840
Speaker 1: out of food, he would actually eat his gang members.

147
00:07:59,360 --> 00:08:01,880
Speaker 1: Oh God, and yet he continued to be able to

148
00:08:01,880 --> 00:08:04,880
Speaker 1: recruit them. No, I don't think he was after that.

149
00:08:05,120 --> 00:08:07,160
Speaker 1: I think he kind of ate up his entire gang,

150
00:08:07,640 --> 00:08:19,680
Speaker 1: put an end to his bush rangering. Getting back to

151
00:08:19,720 --> 00:08:22,120
Speaker 1: Black Caesar, that was just sort of an aside um.

152
00:08:22,120 --> 00:08:24,880
Speaker 1: But he got caught stealing again in seventeen eighty nine,

153
00:08:24,960 --> 00:08:28,119
Speaker 1: which earned him a life sentence, this time of transportation.

154
00:08:28,480 --> 00:08:30,800
Speaker 1: But of course he didn't just sit around and accept

155
00:08:30,800 --> 00:08:34,160
Speaker 1: that fate. In seventeen ninety he escaped to the countryside

156
00:08:34,160 --> 00:08:36,960
Speaker 1: outside of Sydney with a stolen musket and this was

157
00:08:37,120 --> 00:08:39,560
Speaker 1: just the first in a series of escapes that Caesar

158
00:08:39,600 --> 00:08:42,040
Speaker 1: would pull off over the next few years, from about

159
00:08:42,040 --> 00:08:45,560
Speaker 1: seventeen ninety to seventeen ninety six. While he was on

160
00:08:45,600 --> 00:08:48,280
Speaker 1: the lamb, he would survive by stealing from the settlement

161
00:08:48,440 --> 00:08:51,640
Speaker 1: and from government garden still had food on his mind, definitely,

162
00:08:51,720 --> 00:08:54,400
Speaker 1: But it was after his final escape in seventeen ninety

163
00:08:54,440 --> 00:08:57,760
Speaker 1: five that his bush ranging activities really commenced. At that

164
00:08:57,800 --> 00:09:00,640
Speaker 1: point he led a gang of absconders and aagabonds in

165
00:09:00,679 --> 00:09:03,600
Speaker 1: the Port Jackson area and they'd raid settlers and rob

166
00:09:03,679 --> 00:09:07,160
Speaker 1: lone travelers. Yeah, and it's funny, we've talked about criminals

167
00:09:07,200 --> 00:09:09,840
Speaker 1: like this before. Everything seems to be blamed on but

168
00:09:09,880 --> 00:09:12,760
Speaker 1: it was said that Caesar was blamed for pretty much

169
00:09:12,760 --> 00:09:16,400
Speaker 1: every crime that was committed around that time. The seven

170
00:09:16,440 --> 00:09:21,080
Speaker 1: foot top, potentially striking man just seemed to be a

171
00:09:21,160 --> 00:09:24,240
Speaker 1: person who captured the public's imagination even then. Yeah, So,

172
00:09:24,280 --> 00:09:26,440
Speaker 1: as you want to imagine, the governor wanted him caught,

173
00:09:26,760 --> 00:09:30,120
Speaker 1: and so he offered five gallons of rum for his capture,

174
00:09:30,520 --> 00:09:33,640
Speaker 1: and Caesar was shot dead consequently by a man named

175
00:09:33,720 --> 00:09:37,560
Speaker 1: John Wimbo at Liberty Planes in seventeen nine six. Just

176
00:09:37,640 --> 00:09:39,920
Speaker 1: a little side note on rum too. It must have

177
00:09:40,000 --> 00:09:42,520
Speaker 1: been a pretty big motivator at the time for act

178
00:09:42,600 --> 00:09:46,320
Speaker 1: much like food these criminals. Yeah, twenty gallons of rum

179
00:09:46,440 --> 00:09:49,280
Speaker 1: was offered as a reward for the capture of another

180
00:09:49,320 --> 00:09:53,439
Speaker 1: bush ranger named Matthew Brady in the eighteen ten So yeah,

181
00:09:53,920 --> 00:09:56,760
Speaker 1: we're gonna talk maybe in the next episode about the

182
00:09:57,480 --> 00:10:01,280
Speaker 1: legal options of capturing these bush rangers. But I like

183
00:10:01,440 --> 00:10:04,640
Speaker 1: that rum was a prime motivator in the early years

184
00:10:04,640 --> 00:10:09,760
Speaker 1: at least, so our next bush ranger pushes us into

185
00:10:09,840 --> 00:10:13,320
Speaker 1: the nineteenth century. His name is buld Jack Donna who

186
00:10:13,440 --> 00:10:17,360
Speaker 1: and sometimes he's known as the Wild Colonial Boy. More

187
00:10:17,400 --> 00:10:21,200
Speaker 1: on that later, but he was born in Dublin, John

188
00:10:21,240 --> 00:10:25,480
Speaker 1: Donna who probably around eighteen oh six, but by April

189
00:10:26,240 --> 00:10:29,080
Speaker 1: three he had already run afoul of the law in

190
00:10:29,200 --> 00:10:33,079
Speaker 1: his home country for something described as intent to commit

191
00:10:33,160 --> 00:10:37,439
Speaker 1: a felony, and for that he was sentenced to transportation

192
00:10:37,480 --> 00:10:40,240
Speaker 1: for life, which of course meant going to Australia. And

193
00:10:40,240 --> 00:10:44,240
Speaker 1: as we mentioned in Black Caesar section there, it didn't

194
00:10:44,280 --> 00:10:46,880
Speaker 1: mean just a free ticket to Australia. It meant a

195
00:10:46,920 --> 00:10:49,960
Speaker 1: lot of hard work. And Donna, who was first assigned

196
00:10:50,000 --> 00:10:52,840
Speaker 1: to work for a man named John Pagan and then

197
00:10:53,160 --> 00:10:55,520
Speaker 1: work on a road gang, and then finally for a

198
00:10:55,559 --> 00:11:00,080
Speaker 1: guy named Major West who was a surgeon. Consequently, he

199
00:11:00,160 --> 00:11:04,760
Speaker 1: started running into some fellow convicts. Yeah, so they started

200
00:11:04,800 --> 00:11:08,600
Speaker 1: hanging out together and they began robbing wagons traveling west

201
00:11:08,600 --> 00:11:11,160
Speaker 1: of Sydney. And when he and two of his buddies,

202
00:11:11,240 --> 00:11:15,120
Speaker 1: men named Smith and Kilroy or maybe Gilroy, got caught

203
00:11:15,200 --> 00:11:18,520
Speaker 1: finally in eight they were found guilty of two counts

204
00:11:18,559 --> 00:11:21,880
Speaker 1: of robbery each and sentenced to die two times each,

205
00:11:22,280 --> 00:11:25,400
Speaker 1: two death sentences just to be sure. So Kilroy and

206
00:11:25,440 --> 00:11:27,960
Speaker 1: Smith met their ends at the noose. But Donna, who

207
00:11:28,120 --> 00:11:31,280
Speaker 1: somehow escaped between the courthouse and the jail and he

208
00:11:31,360 --> 00:11:34,200
Speaker 1: didn't sulk off into hiding. After that though, he rounded

209
00:11:34,280 --> 00:11:37,000
Speaker 1: up a gang of English and Irish convicts and just

210
00:11:37,120 --> 00:11:39,800
Speaker 1: expanded his range. So he kind of doubled his efforts

211
00:11:39,840 --> 00:11:42,800
Speaker 1: there across the countryside. So Donna, who is a real

212
00:11:43,200 --> 00:11:46,520
Speaker 1: ballad type of guy, a robin Hood type bush ranger

213
00:11:46,600 --> 00:11:50,880
Speaker 1: who people like to romanticize. Later, he would distribute stolen

214
00:11:50,920 --> 00:11:53,800
Speaker 1: items to the poor. He would let some people go,

215
00:11:54,040 --> 00:11:57,280
Speaker 1: and to go along with this, he had an appropriately

216
00:11:57,679 --> 00:12:02,439
Speaker 1: robin Hood like Rakish style also made him sort of popular,

217
00:12:02,520 --> 00:12:05,120
Speaker 1: made settlers like him. He'd wear a black hat. He'd

218
00:12:05,120 --> 00:12:08,800
Speaker 1: wear this fine blue coat lined in silk and lace

219
00:12:08,880 --> 00:12:11,480
Speaker 1: up boots. So he really must have cut quite a

220
00:12:11,520 --> 00:12:15,680
Speaker 1: figure out among all of these rough and tumble looking men. Yeah.

221
00:12:15,720 --> 00:12:18,319
Speaker 1: I don't know, though, he sounds more button cute than

222
00:12:18,400 --> 00:12:22,240
Speaker 1: rakish to me. Posters announcing the twenty pound reward on

223
00:12:22,280 --> 00:12:25,480
Speaker 1: his head described him as twenty two years old, five

224
00:12:25,520 --> 00:12:29,880
Speaker 1: ft four, with freckles, flaxen hair, blue eyes, and a

225
00:12:29,960 --> 00:12:33,000
Speaker 1: scar under the left nostril. Yeah, he sounds like you

226
00:12:33,080 --> 00:12:38,360
Speaker 1: might mistake him for a teenager, but well, you know,

227
00:12:38,480 --> 00:12:41,640
Speaker 1: he's coming at a disadvantage right after Black Caesar. Probably

228
00:12:41,800 --> 00:12:43,360
Speaker 1: that's true, And he does have the scar, which is

229
00:12:43,400 --> 00:12:45,920
Speaker 1: kind of scary. He does have the scar. Finally, though,

230
00:12:46,080 --> 00:12:50,480
Speaker 1: on September first, eight thirty, a group of soldiers employees

231
00:12:50,600 --> 00:12:55,880
Speaker 1: found the gang hiding in scrub near Campbellstown and Donna,

232
00:12:55,880 --> 00:12:57,920
Speaker 1: who was said to have urged them on with some

233
00:12:58,040 --> 00:13:01,600
Speaker 1: real fighting words, but he was soon struck down by

234
00:13:01,800 --> 00:13:07,120
Speaker 1: a guy named Trooper Muggleston. We'll just let that let

235
00:13:07,160 --> 00:13:10,320
Speaker 1: that name slide up. He lived on though, even even

236
00:13:10,360 --> 00:13:13,880
Speaker 1: after death quite obviously. Yeah, so first, unlike many of

237
00:13:13,920 --> 00:13:18,199
Speaker 1: our later Bush Rangers, who's surviving images are usually heavily

238
00:13:18,320 --> 00:13:22,480
Speaker 1: bearded post mortem photographs. Donna, who had a rather elegant

239
00:13:22,520 --> 00:13:25,480
Speaker 1: death drawing done by Sir Thomas Mitchell, who added some

240
00:13:25,559 --> 00:13:29,000
Speaker 1: Byron lines at the end to complete the effect. They

241
00:13:29,000 --> 00:13:32,520
Speaker 1: were no matter I have bared my brow fair and

242
00:13:32,679 --> 00:13:37,480
Speaker 1: death's face before and now. He also has something maybe

243
00:13:37,520 --> 00:13:40,680
Speaker 1: a little more appropriate than romantic poetry, though. He was

244
00:13:41,120 --> 00:13:44,800
Speaker 1: likely the inspiration for a very famous outlaw anthem, The

245
00:13:44,840 --> 00:13:48,880
Speaker 1: Wild Colonial Boy, which was popular in Australia until it

246
00:13:49,000 --> 00:13:52,319
Speaker 1: was banned finally as being seditious, and it stayed popular

247
00:13:52,360 --> 00:13:55,679
Speaker 1: after that. That probably only helped its reputation. The song

248
00:13:55,880 --> 00:13:59,840
Speaker 1: is about a fictitious bush ranger who goes by different

249
00:14:00,000 --> 00:14:02,200
Speaker 1: games in different versions of the song, it is, after

250
00:14:02,240 --> 00:14:06,480
Speaker 1: all a ballad. Sometimes it's Jim Douelan, sometimes Jack Dubbins,

251
00:14:06,559 --> 00:14:10,640
Speaker 1: sometimes John Dowling, but it always sticks to those j

252
00:14:10,800 --> 00:14:15,280
Speaker 1: D initials, just like Jack Donahue. So the next bush

253
00:14:15,360 --> 00:14:17,600
Speaker 1: ranger on our list wasn't a convict, but he was

254
00:14:17,679 --> 00:14:21,400
Speaker 1: born abroad in Scotland. His name was originally Francis or

255
00:14:21,400 --> 00:14:24,560
Speaker 1: Frank Christie, and he moved to Sydney with his parents

256
00:14:24,560 --> 00:14:27,280
Speaker 1: in eighteen thirty four when he was about four years old.

257
00:14:27,720 --> 00:14:30,320
Speaker 1: He started his life of crime fairly young and got

258
00:14:30,360 --> 00:14:33,200
Speaker 1: caught stealing horses in eighteen fifty when he was around

259
00:14:33,200 --> 00:14:35,920
Speaker 1: twenty years old. He was sentenced to five years of

260
00:14:35,960 --> 00:14:38,160
Speaker 1: hard labor for this, but he escaped to New South

261
00:14:38,200 --> 00:14:41,280
Speaker 1: Wales after only serving about six months, and he went

262
00:14:41,400 --> 00:14:44,640
Speaker 1: right back to stealing horses. So in eighteen fifty four

263
00:14:44,680 --> 00:14:47,680
Speaker 1: he was caught again and convicted again under this name

264
00:14:47,760 --> 00:14:50,880
Speaker 1: Francis Clark this time, and this time he was sentenced

265
00:14:50,880 --> 00:14:53,280
Speaker 1: to seven years, but he was given a ticket of leaves,

266
00:14:53,280 --> 00:14:56,720
Speaker 1: so basically released in eighteen fifty nine. He didn't play

267
00:14:56,800 --> 00:14:59,760
Speaker 1: by the rules after that though, he broke parole and

268
00:14:59,800 --> 00:15:02,720
Speaker 1: went south where he opened a butchery as Frank Gardner,

269
00:15:02,800 --> 00:15:05,640
Speaker 1: which is how most people know him today, and Landing Flat,

270
00:15:05,920 --> 00:15:08,280
Speaker 1: and he was probably trading and stolen meat there, so

271
00:15:08,320 --> 00:15:09,960
Speaker 1: not even that was on the up and up sounds

272
00:15:09,960 --> 00:15:13,560
Speaker 1: so gross to me. I'm sure it's like legitimate, but

273
00:15:14,240 --> 00:15:17,200
Speaker 1: stolen meat for sale, you know, buy it here at

274
00:15:17,200 --> 00:15:20,360
Speaker 1: my store. I don't know. Anyway, a warrant was issued

275
00:15:20,440 --> 00:15:24,720
Speaker 1: for Gardener's arrest, and rather than face yet another trial

276
00:15:24,920 --> 00:15:29,120
Speaker 1: and possibly more jail time, Frank took to the Bush

277
00:15:29,200 --> 00:15:32,000
Speaker 1: and there he teamed up with a couple other outlaws

278
00:15:32,040 --> 00:15:34,000
Speaker 1: when named Ben Hall, we're going to talk about him

279
00:15:34,120 --> 00:15:38,040
Speaker 1: in the next episode, and another guy named John Gilbert,

280
00:15:38,160 --> 00:15:41,800
Speaker 1: and he became known and feared for his highway robberies

281
00:15:41,800 --> 00:15:44,760
Speaker 1: in particular along the trade routes of New South Wales,

282
00:15:44,800 --> 00:15:47,560
Speaker 1: and the police couldn't catch his gang because they just

283
00:15:47,680 --> 00:15:50,800
Speaker 1: moved so quickly and they used a kind of bush

284
00:15:50,920 --> 00:16:02,600
Speaker 1: telegraph system to help them get along. Frank was actually

285
00:16:02,680 --> 00:16:04,480
Speaker 1: called King of the Road around this time for his

286
00:16:04,560 --> 00:16:09,360
Speaker 1: highway robber reputation. But on June fifteenth, eighteen sixty two,

287
00:16:09,440 --> 00:16:12,560
Speaker 1: Frank's gang pulled off their biggest robbery yet, and it's

288
00:16:12,560 --> 00:16:15,640
Speaker 1: actually what's said to be the biggest bush ranger robbery ever.

289
00:16:16,280 --> 00:16:19,240
Speaker 1: And this crime was when they bailed up or held up,

290
00:16:19,600 --> 00:16:22,040
Speaker 1: that's what that that's what bailed up means. They held

291
00:16:22,120 --> 00:16:24,800
Speaker 1: up the Lachland gold Escort and made off with fourteen

292
00:16:24,800 --> 00:16:28,040
Speaker 1: thousand pounds worth of gold in cash, which is worth

293
00:16:28,120 --> 00:16:31,480
Speaker 1: about one and a quarter million U S. Dollars today.

294
00:16:31,560 --> 00:16:33,880
Speaker 1: And after this, Frank took off with his mistress Kate

295
00:16:33,920 --> 00:16:36,280
Speaker 1: and they opened a little store in Shanty in Queensland

296
00:16:36,320 --> 00:16:39,240
Speaker 1: and as Mr and Mrs Christie, so he had kind

297
00:16:39,240 --> 00:16:42,640
Speaker 1: of a business streak to him and they lived there

298
00:16:42,800 --> 00:16:45,240
Speaker 1: until the New South Wales police finally tracked him down

299
00:16:45,280 --> 00:16:48,480
Speaker 1: in February eighteen sixty four. So Frank was sentenced to

300
00:16:48,560 --> 00:16:51,840
Speaker 1: thirty two years hard labor, which was considered a pretty

301
00:16:51,920 --> 00:16:54,840
Speaker 1: harsh sentence at this time. Fortunately, though, he had a

302
00:16:54,880 --> 00:16:59,120
Speaker 1: good attorney, William Daley, who petitioned the governor to use

303
00:16:59,200 --> 00:17:02,960
Speaker 1: his prerogative of mercy, and the governor really did release

304
00:17:03,080 --> 00:17:06,320
Speaker 1: Frank in eighteen seventy four under the condition that he

305
00:17:06,520 --> 00:17:10,760
Speaker 1: leave the country. There was some controversy over this decision,

306
00:17:10,840 --> 00:17:15,520
Speaker 1: but ultimately Frank Gardner left Australia in July eighteen seventy four,

307
00:17:15,640 --> 00:17:18,159
Speaker 1: and by the beginning of eighteen seventy five he was

308
00:17:18,560 --> 00:17:21,560
Speaker 1: in San Francisco. I mean, just the perfect place for

309
00:17:21,560 --> 00:17:23,639
Speaker 1: for this guy. He opened a saloon there, it was

310
00:17:23,680 --> 00:17:28,040
Speaker 1: called the Twilight Saloon on the waterfront, and by all accounts,

311
00:17:28,080 --> 00:17:30,159
Speaker 1: he avoided trouble for the rest of his life. He

312
00:17:30,200 --> 00:17:32,920
Speaker 1: really did have a business streak, like you mentioned, even

313
00:17:32,960 --> 00:17:36,040
Speaker 1: though he was pretty open about his past. He'd like

314
00:17:36,160 --> 00:17:38,880
Speaker 1: to tell tales about his time as an outlaw, which

315
00:17:38,920 --> 00:17:42,480
Speaker 1: I would imagine that would make you a successful saloon owner.

316
00:17:42,560 --> 00:17:45,199
Speaker 1: People loved here stories. I feel like that's almost a

317
00:17:45,240 --> 00:17:48,000
Speaker 1: requirement to have a good storytelling streak, if not at

318
00:17:48,080 --> 00:17:51,040
Speaker 1: least good stories to tell. But Frank was also just

319
00:17:51,119 --> 00:17:53,679
Speaker 1: a really rare case among bush Rangers and that he

320
00:17:53,760 --> 00:17:56,560
Speaker 1: lived to a ripe old age, and he's since been

321
00:17:56,600 --> 00:17:59,879
Speaker 1: called the father of bush ranging. So Frank seems like

322
00:17:59,880 --> 00:18:02,439
Speaker 1: the perfect guy to leave off on, at least for

323
00:18:02,520 --> 00:18:05,359
Speaker 1: this first part of our bush Rangers series. And I

324
00:18:05,359 --> 00:18:07,720
Speaker 1: feel like he's kind of a good transition between those

325
00:18:07,840 --> 00:18:11,600
Speaker 1: convict vultures we talked about and then the later Bushrangers

326
00:18:11,720 --> 00:18:15,560
Speaker 1: generation second generation. Yeah, so while we're going to leave

327
00:18:15,640 --> 00:18:18,399
Speaker 1: that generation behind, we do have one more piece of

328
00:18:18,480 --> 00:18:22,520
Speaker 1: information about that mystery ned Kelly head. And this came

329
00:18:22,520 --> 00:18:25,520
Speaker 1: out just the other day, September seven, and again it's

330
00:18:25,560 --> 00:18:29,680
Speaker 1: from the Victorian Institute of Forensic Medicine. So well, they

331
00:18:29,760 --> 00:18:34,520
Speaker 1: did identify the body. They also recently said that that

332
00:18:34,680 --> 00:18:39,439
Speaker 1: mystery head might be that of a notorious serial killer

333
00:18:39,520 --> 00:18:43,520
Speaker 1: named Frederick Deeming. So Deeming was born in England. He

334
00:18:43,600 --> 00:18:47,520
Speaker 1: was a thief, a serial big amis, and he set

335
00:18:47,520 --> 00:18:50,040
Speaker 1: out on this wandering sort of life and he was

336
00:18:50,119 --> 00:18:53,919
Speaker 1: also a murderer. He was supposed to have buried his

337
00:18:54,040 --> 00:18:57,080
Speaker 1: first wife and four children beneath the floor of their

338
00:18:57,119 --> 00:19:00,840
Speaker 1: rented home and then murdered a second wife Melbourne. So

339
00:19:01,400 --> 00:19:05,520
Speaker 1: what a weird connection here, a very strange twist to

340
00:19:05,520 --> 00:19:07,760
Speaker 1: the story. And I think it's interesting that it's the

341
00:19:07,760 --> 00:19:10,199
Speaker 1: head of another criminal, but someone who has just a

342
00:19:10,320 --> 00:19:13,879
Speaker 1: very different connotation to them than Ned Kelly. You know,

343
00:19:13,960 --> 00:19:15,640
Speaker 1: you say Ned Kelly and he's kind of a folk

344
00:19:15,680 --> 00:19:18,879
Speaker 1: hero and this guy was definitely the opposite. And I

345
00:19:18,960 --> 00:19:21,280
Speaker 1: encourage you guys to look up this story and read

346
00:19:21,320 --> 00:19:24,120
Speaker 1: a little bit more about Frederick Deeming because he had

347
00:19:24,200 --> 00:19:27,520
Speaker 1: a very controversial trial and and like you mentioned, it

348
00:19:27,560 --> 00:19:30,720
Speaker 1: was partly because there was nothing redeeming about him. He

349
00:19:30,800 --> 00:19:33,400
Speaker 1: was not a folk hero. He was a serial killer.

350
00:19:33,560 --> 00:19:35,440
Speaker 1: The public did not like him. And I think it's

351
00:19:35,440 --> 00:19:38,200
Speaker 1: an interesting story for people outside of Australia too, because

352
00:19:38,240 --> 00:19:40,320
Speaker 1: he was kind of all over the place. He lived

353
00:19:40,320 --> 00:19:43,240
Speaker 1: in England before and I think that's where he murdered

354
00:19:43,240 --> 00:19:47,440
Speaker 1: his original family. He has some South America, all kinds

355
00:19:47,480 --> 00:19:50,040
Speaker 1: of places, um, but I mean, of all of all

356
00:19:50,080 --> 00:19:53,520
Speaker 1: the people's heads, it could be a random serial killer

357
00:19:53,800 --> 00:20:01,440
Speaker 1: go figure. Thank you so much for joining us today

358
00:20:01,480 --> 00:20:04,400
Speaker 1: for this Saturday classic. If you have heard any kind

359
00:20:04,400 --> 00:20:06,600
Speaker 1: of email address or maybe a Facebook you are l

360
00:20:06,720 --> 00:20:09,040
Speaker 1: during the course of the episode, that might be obsolete.

361
00:20:09,080 --> 00:20:11,480
Speaker 1: It might be doubly obsolete because we have changed our

362
00:20:11,520 --> 00:20:15,000
Speaker 1: email address again. You can now reach us at History

363
00:20:15,040 --> 00:20:18,120
Speaker 1: podcast at i heart radio dot com, and we're all

364
00:20:18,160 --> 00:20:21,000
Speaker 1: over social media at missed in History, and you can

365
00:20:21,040 --> 00:20:24,679
Speaker 1: subscribe to our show on Apple podcasts, Google podcasts, the

366
00:20:24,720 --> 00:20:28,000
Speaker 1: I Heart Radio app, and wherever else you listen to podcasts.

367
00:20:31,119 --> 00:20:33,240
Speaker 1: Stuff You Missed the District Class is a production of

368
00:20:33,280 --> 00:20:36,320
Speaker 1: I Heart Radios How Stuff Works. For more podcasts. For

369
00:20:36,440 --> 00:20:39,560
Speaker 1: my Heart Radio, visit the I Heart Radio app, Apple podcasts,

370
00:20:39,720 --> 00:20:41,679
Speaker 1: or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.