John Lynch

John Lynch (c. 1812 – 22 April 1842) was an Irish-born Australian serial killer who confessed to the killing of ten people between 1836 and 1842. He is possibly the most prolific individual serial killer in Australian history. Lynch arrived in Australia as a convict, assigned to a farm in the Berrima district. He murdered a fellow assigned convict in 1836 but was acquitted of the charge. After a period in a convict gang he absconded, and by July 1841 he had made his way back to the Berrima district. On two occasions Lynch murdered carriers along the road between Berrima and Camden, stealing their drays and teams. In the latter half of 1841 Lynch murdered the farmer John Mulligan and his family, and took possession of their farm in the Berrima district using the name John Dunleavy. He was convicted in March 1842 of the murder of Kearns Landregan, sentenced to death and executed by hanging in April 1842.

Early life and transportation

John Lynch was born in about 1812 in Cavan, county Cavan, Ireland, the son of Owen Lynch.

Lynch's older brother Patrick was tried and convicted at Cavan in July 1831 for sheep-stealing, sentenced to transportation for life. He was transported to Sydney aboard the Captain Cook, arriving in April 1832.

John Lynch and his father Owen were both tried and convicted at Cavan in October 1831. John Lynch, aged 19 years, was convicted of “obtaining goods under false pretences”, for which he received a life sentence; his father, a widower aged 55 years, was convicted of “having stolen goods in possession”, receiving a sentence of transportation for seven years. Lynch and his father were transported to the colony of New South Wales aboard the Dunvegan Castle, which departed from Dublin on 1 July 1832 and arrived at Sydney on 16 October.

Lynch's father, Owen Lynch, died on 26 February 1834 in the Gaol Hospital at Sydney, aged about 58 years.

The murders

The 'Oldbury Farm' murder

In about January 1836 George Barton, the overseer of ‘Oldbury Farm’, was waylaid on a district road "by ruffians, supposed to be bushrangers", who robbed him, tied him to a fence and whipped him. It was suspected that the perpetrators were a gang of bushrangers operating in the area led by John Wales (alias Watt). In mid-February 1836 Watt was captured, along with another gang member Timothy Pickering, after a shoot-out with the police on the Cowpasture River, during which a third gang member (John Carpenter) was killed. In early May Watt and Pickering were tried for an armed robbery committed previous to their apprehension, found guilty and sentenced to hang. The sentence was carried out eight days later when both men were hanged. The status of George Barton, the overseer, changed in February 1836 when he became the master of ‘Oldbury Farm’ after marrying Charlotte Atkinson, widow of James Atkinson (who had died in April 1834).

On Friday, 12 August 1836, two of Barton's assigned convicts, John Lynch and John Williamson, were tried in the Sydney Supreme Court before Justice Burton for the “wilful murder” of Thomas Smith (or Smyth), another of Barton's assigned servants. Smith had been murdered on 4 March 1836; his body was discovered after several days in the hollow of a fallen tree about a mile from the convict huts at ‘Oldbury Farm’. Two heavy pieces of wood “clotted with blood and human hair” were found nearby. Barton's overseer gave evidence that, prior to his murder, Smith had been held in the Bong Bong watch-house in order to be examined by the district magistrates on a charge of having lost or stolen a saddle and bridle belonging to his master. The overseer had turned up at several court days in order to prosecute the case but on each occasion the magistrates failed to attend, after which it was decided to release Smith, in consideration of the punishment he had already undergone and the inconvenience of the loss of his services. Smith returned to his hut after his release and was found to be missing the next morning, with his body being discovered several days later.

The case against Lynch and Williamson rested primarily on the testimony of Michael Hoy, another convict at ‘Oldbury Farm’, who lived in the same hut as Smith, Lynch and Williamson. Hoy claimed that Lynch and Williamson had lured Smith from the hut the evening of his disappearance. Hoy maintained the motive for the murder was a suspicion that Smith had provided information that Lynch was one of those involved in the previous robbery and assault of Barton (this being the purported reason Smith was released). After the discovery of Smith's body, Hoy asserted he had had a conversation with Lynch, in the presence of Williamson, when Lynch was supposed to have said “that the master had come to the knowledge that he (Lynch) was one of the men that assisted Watts to flog him about three months before, which he could not have done if Smith had not told him something about it, and therefore he was glad he (Lynch) had put him out of the way”. When Hoy was cross-examined by the prisoners it was elicited that as a consequence of "some dealing in cattle" between Hoy and Smith, Hoy himself may have had reason to murder Smith. At the very least Hoy's testimony was significantly discredited. Barton, the master, was called to the stand, but his evidence "was rejected in consequence of his appearing 'to have dined'". In summing up the judge explained to the jury that, with the absence of corroborative evidence, the case rested solely on the credibility of the witness Hoy, which he considered to be “a person tainted with crime, and therefore liable to suspicion”. The jury returned a verdict of not guilty for both men.

At the conclusion of the trial the Crown Solicitor claimed that other charges were pending, and Lynch and Williamson were remanded until further information could be filed against them. Both men were sent to Hyde Park Barracks “to be disposed of there”, with the Attorney General suggesting they should be sent to the Bong Bong magistrates “to be dealt with summarily for certain acts of misconduct”.

Convict gang

The period of John Lynch's life between the August 1836 trial and his reappearance in the Berrima district in the second half of 1841 was summarised by the Berrima correspondent to the Sydney Herald after the murderer's arrest in February 1842: "He has been a long time in irons in different parts, and he is now a runaway". For at least part of that time Lynch was part of a convict stockade gang in Newcastle. On the night of 27 June 1839 at Newcastle, Lynch received a stab wound after being attacked (as he claimed) by three other inmates of his hut. According to a story he concocted, he was attacked by Thomas Barry, Thomas Bolson and Charles Wilson in retribution for a complaint he had made about the three men making straw hats and bartering them to the stockade cook in exchange for extra rations. Lynch maintained he was sleeping when the three covered his head with a blanket, and Bolson and Wilson held him while Barry stabbed him in the chest and side. The three convicts were convicted in August 1839 in the Supreme Court in Sydney and sentenced to death. In September 1839 the sentences of death passed upon the three men was commuted to transportation to a penal settlement. Lynch's confession immediately prior to his execution in April 1842 included an admission that, when at Newcastle in an iron-gang, he was instrumental in having three men transported from the colony for stabbing him, for which crime they were innocent as the wounds were self-inflicted as revenge against the men.

In his confession Lynch claimed that his "life" sentence, as listed in the convict indents, was an error and "that his proper sentence was seven years". Sometime after serving seven years he claimed to have "applied at Hyde Park Barracks for his freedom, and was kept for about a fortnight without getting any satisfactory answer, when he departed without it, and came to the Berrima district, where he had been formerly assigned". However, the most likely explanation for Lynch's re-appearance in the Berrima district is that he absconded from captivity. He firstly proceeded to John Mulligan's farm at Wombat Brush, southwest of Berrima about ten miles along the old Goulburn road. He had a relationship of long-standing with Mulligan, an emancipated convict, who had previously acted as a ‘fence’ when Lynch had committed robberies in the district. Lynch hoped to obtain his share of the proceeds of property he had previously left with Mulligan, though his former associate was not forthcoming. At ‘Oldbury’ Lynch stole eight bullocks from a paddock and began to drive them towards Sydney, with the intention of selling them. When he got to the Razorback Range, between Stonequarry and Camden, he met with a carrier named Edmund Ireland (a ticket-of-leave holder) and his helper, an Aboriginal boy. Ireland was in charge of a dray, "laden with produce", and its team of bullocks, which were owned by the pastoralist, Thomas Cowper. At this point, according to Lynch's later confession, "he began to form the plan of destroying the men, and possessing himself of the dray and property". The following morning Lynch firstly killed the boy, and then Ireland, each of them by the blow of a tomahawk on the back of the head. He dragged the bodies about a hundred yards into the bush and put them in a rocky cleft and covered the bodies with stones.

Lynch remained at the Razorback campsite for a couple of days, where he was joined by two other teams driven by men named Lee and Leggs. The three teams then made their way towards Sydney. At Dog Trap Road, leading towards Parramatta, Lynch departed from the two carriers, and continued towards Sydney. Accepting this explanation Cowper then proceeded on to Sydney to await the arrival of his dray. After his departure Lynch contrived to arrive in Sydney sooner than his expected appearance, which he did by driving the team night and day. When he arrived at his destination Lynch met a man whom he described as being “half drunk”, whom he paid to "carry the things about to sell". They camped for the night at Bargo Brush. Later they were joined at the camp by two men and a woman travelling in a cart. During the night, as Lynch lay under the dray and the others were dozing around the fire, a police constable on horseback arrived and “made particular enquiries for Mr. Cowper’s dray, describing it very minutely, and related the whole circumstance of the men being missing, &c.” Lynch (as described in his confession) “lay listening and trembling with fear” until he heard one of the Frasers say “they had not seen such a dray”, after which the constable departed towards Berrima. This incident caused the murderer to contemplate abandoning Cowper's dray and to “destroy the two Frazers, and possess himself of the dray in their charge”. As these thoughts “were running in his head” Lynch claimed he “prayed to the Almighty to assist me!” In the morning Lynch, while pretending he was retrieving his bullocks, instead drove them away into the bush. By this time the cart had left and Lynch told the Frasers he could not find his team and was certain they were making their way home towards Berrima. He parked the stolen dray in the bush, transferred his few possessions on the Frasers’ dray and accompanied them as they set off along the road. When Lynch arrived on 18 August 1841 he again asserted that Mulligan owed him money, making a claim for £30, but being offered only £9. Lynch then went to Gray's Black Horse Inn, about three miles from Mulligan's, to purchase two bottles of rum. On his return with the rum he “treated the whole family, taking care not to drink much himself”. He threw some bushes over the body and returned to the hut, telling them that John had taken Lynch's horses “into the bush-paddock”. He remarked during his confession: "I never seen anything like it – they burned as if they were so many bags of fat". The next morning he gathered the remains and buried them in another part of the farm and then burned most of the clothing he found in the hut. He also wrote several letters, as though from Mulligan, to those about Berrima to whom he knew the deceased farmer was indebted, stating he (Mulligan) had left the farm. Lynch then proceeded to the residence of the owner of the farm, William Smith of the Angel Inn near Parramatta on the Liverpool road. Calling himself Dunleavy, he repeated the story that Mulligan had left the farm at Wombat Brush and obtained a transfer of the lease into his name, but at an increased rental. Lynch next proceeded to Appin where he engaged Terrence Barnett and his wife Catherine to work as a labourer and house-keeper, and brought them to the farm at Wombat Brush. The Barnett's had previously known Lynch under his real name, but were told to refer to him as Dunleavy. Lynch claimed in his confession that “his reason for engaging these people was, he knew them to be great simpletons, and that he would be perfectly safe with them”.

By December 1841 the colonial authorities were certain that the carriers, Edmund Ireland and the unnamed Aboriginal boy, as well as William Fraser, junior and senior, had been murdered (even though no bodies had been found). By then Cowper's dray had been found “secreted in the bush”. A reward of twenty-five pounds was offered to any free person (or a conditional pardon in the case of a prisoner of the Crown) who may provide information leading to the conviction “of the party or parties by whom the drays may have been robbed, and any of the parties in charge of them murdered”.

After Lynch's arrest, Mulligan's neighbour named Gordon reported his meeting with the prisoner, who had been attending a fire at Mulligan's farm. The Police Magistrate and several policemen attended the location of the fire, pointed out by Gordon. After digging up a “considerable quantity of potatoes” they found several human bones and a tooth “apparently that of a young female”. When Lynch was informed of the discovery, he replied “that no one could swear they were Mulligan’s bones, or even that they were the bones of a white man”.

The Berrima Courthouse (built in 1838) where John Lynch was tried and sentenced to death in March 1842.

John Lynch, alias John Dunleavy, was tried in the Berrima Circuit Court on Monday, 21 March 1842, before a jury and Justice Dowling. Lynch was charged with the wilful murder of Kearns Landregan, to which he pleaded not guilty. From the outset the prisoner, addressing the judge, “expressed a hope that His Honor would allow him to have a full and fair trial, as there had been a general prejudice created against him by the numerous crimes laid to his charge”. Dowling replied that "the respectability of the Jury was ample security that the prisoner would have justice done him". A range of witnesses gave evidence in a trial that lasted twelve hours, during which the court was crowded, with many who attended having travelled "upwards of thirty miles". It was reported that "a considerable number of females were present during the whole day". The prisoner cross-examined most of the witnesses, endeavouring to cast doubt on their testimony; it was reported that Lynch "questioned the witnesses with a degree of ability far beyond the expectations of those who saw him". At ten o’clock in the evening, after retiring for a few minutes, the jury returned a verdict of guilty against the prisoner.

George Barton, who had been the master at ‘Oldbury Farm’ in 1836 at the time of Lynch's indictment for the murder of Thomas Smith, had been the subject of disparaging newspaper comments when the full scope of Lynch's crimes was revealed in March 1842. An editorial in the Sydney Herald claimed that Lynch had been acquitted of Smith's murder “through the drunkenness of a principal witness”. This was a reference to Barton's testimony at the 1836 trial being rejected by Justice Burton for having appeared in court in a drunken state, for which appearance Barton received a fine. In a letter to the editors of the Sydney Herald two days before Lynch was to hang, Barton denied he had been drunk, claiming to have been exhausted from the journey to Sydney and “in a very weak state of health”. He also challenged the statement that he was “the principal witness”, claiming his evidence was “very immaterial” to the case. Barton enclosed copies of affidavits with his letter (also published) from several doctors and other witnesses to his condition, which had been submitted to Justice Burton through Barton's barrister to request remission of the fine (to which Burton had responded that “he has seen no cause for changing his opinion”).

Confession and execution

In mid-April Matthew Ashe of the Sheriff's Office in Sydney travelled to Berrima to supervise the execution of Lynch and Patrick Kleighran (or Clearahan), who had been convicted on a separate murder charge. As the gallows was fitted to hang only one person, it was planned to hang the criminals one after the other, one hour apart.

After his apprehension and throughout his trial Lynch had maintained his innocence and had “expressed a determination of not making a public confession of his crimes”. However, on the day before he was to hang, the prisoner made a full confession to Rev. Summers, who had been attending him, and afterwards "freely confessed" to the Police Magistrate George Bowen. Extensive details of his confession were published after his execution.

John Lynch was executed by hanging on the temporary gallows at the back of the new Berrima Gaol on Friday morning, 22 April 1842. Lynch's demeanour on the scaffold was described as one who "betrayed not the least fear of death". It was noted that, though his lips moved, "it seemed more from mechanical agency than from any inward feeling of repentance and contrition for his previous dreadful life".

In 2019 the Berrima District Historical and Family History Society installed a plaque in the graveyard of All Saints Anglican church at Sutton Forest to mark the graves of six of the local victims of John Lynch (Thomas Smith, John and Bridget Mulligan, Bridget's two children John and Mary, and Kearns Landregan). The plaque was unveiled on 8 September 2019.

The victims

Thomas Smith (or Smyth) – a convict ploughman, assigned to James Atkinson at ‘Oldbury Farm’ (probably in the late 1820s); participated in a Sutton Forest Ploughing Match in June 1829; murdered by Lynch (probably in association with John Williamson) on 4 March 1836 at 'Oldbury Farm'. An Aboriginal boy – identified only as “an aboriginal native” or “a black boy”, he was Edmund Ireland's offsider in his work as a carrier driving a bullock team for Thomas Cowper; murdered by Lynch in late July or early August 1841 in the vicinity of the Razorback Range. Edmund Ireland – born in about 1796 at Reigate, county Surrey (south of London); occupation: "farmersman & shepherd"; tried and convicted of highway robbery at the Surrey Assizes at Guildford on 17 July 1826 and sentenced to transportation for life; transported aboard the Champion, departed in May 1827 and arrived at Sydney in October; in November 1838 Ireland was granted a ticket-of-leave by the Braidwood Bench of Magistrates; worked as a carrier driving a bullock team for Thomas Cowper; murdered by Lynch, aged 45 years, in late July or early August 1841 in the vicinity of the Razorback Range. William Fraser – born in about 1821, the son of William Fraser; from the Illawarra region; murdered by Lynch on 16 August 1841 at Cordeaux's Flat, near Berrima, aged about 20 years. William Fraser – born in about 1791; from the Illawarra region; murdered by Lynch on 16 August 1841 at Cordeaux's Flat, near Berrima, aged about 50 years. received his Certificate of Freedom in January 1832; murdered at his farm by Lynch, aged about 61 years. Bridget Macnamara – born in about 1791; described as Mulligan's "reputed wife"; murdered by Lynch, aged about 50 years. Mary Macnamara – born in 1828, daughter of Bridget Macnamara; raped and murdered by Lynch, aged 13 years. Kearns Landregan – born in 1815 in Ireland; his older brother Patrick was convicted of manslaughter at Tipperary, transported for life to New South Wales aboard the Blenheim, arriving in November 1834; Kearns Landregan married Mary (surname not known) and the couple immigrated to New South Wales in about 1839; in service at Raymond Terrace and then George Harpur's farm at Stonequarry; in late 1841 Landregan left his wife at Harpur's (in Mary Landregan's words) “to do the best for us; I stopped there in hopes he would get another place and come back”; worked for several months in the service of Bryan McMahon, innkeeper at Berrima, and left on 15 February 1842 to visit his brother at Stonequarry; murdered by Lynch on 20 February 1842 near Berrima, aged 27 years.