Thomas John Augustus Griffin

Thomas John Griffin (27 July 1832 – 1 June 1868) was a senior Queensland police officer who was executed in June 1868, after being found guilty of the double murder of two police officers, troopers John Power and Patrick Cahill, who were on duty and under Griffin's protection and authority. Less than a month before he carried out his crimes, Griffin had been police magistrate and gold commissioner at Clermont in Central Queensland.

In early October 1867 Griffin was transferred to the position of Assistant Gold Commissioner at Rockhampton. The murders were committed on 30 October 1867 on the banks of the Mackenzie River while Griffin and the two troopers were escorting a transfer of money from Rockhampton to Clermont. Griffin murdered the troopers to cover-up his theft of the escort money, which he hid near Rockhampton prior to the discovery of the bodies of his victims. He was tried for the murders, found guilty and sentenced to hang, though he maintained his innocence throughout the process. In the final weeks before his execution, Griffin attempted to negotiate an escape by revealing the location of the stolen money to one of his gaolers, in the process admitting his involvement in the deaths of Power and Cahill. Griffin was executed on 1 June 1868, the first hanging carried out at Rockhampton Gaol.

In a notorious case of grave robbery, less than a week after he was executed Griffin's grave-site was excavated during the night, his coffin was opened and his head stolen. The perpetrators were not publicly revealed until the early decades of the twentieth century, when it was disclosed that Griffin's skull had been kept for many years in the surgery of a prominent Rockhampton medical practitioner.

Biography

Early life

Thomas John Griffin was born on 27 July 1832 in Ireland, the son of John Loftus Griffin and Anne (née Thompson). His birthplace has been variously recorded as Banbridge in County Down, County Antrim and County Sligo. Griffin's father was a County Inspector of Police. Another version of Griffin's origins states that he was "the illegitimate son of an English officer" in Dublin and his mother was "a lady's maid, or some superior servant", and that he received his early education at a Dublin model school.

As a young man Griffin was described as "wild and flighty", considered to be "good-natured, but exceedingly vain, boastful, and given to 'white lies'". After his father's death the family suffered from reduced circumstances, "in consequence of a lawsuit between the family and an uncle of his". In about 1849, when he was aged seventeen or eighteen, Griffin joined the Royal Irish Constabulary and was placed as a clerk in the Commandant's office in Dublin. Griffin later advanced to the rank of adjutant and by the end of his service was awarded two Turkish and Crimean medals. Griffin departed from Liverpool in early December 1856 aboard the clipper ship, Champion of the Seas, arriving in Melbourne in early March 1857. During the voyage to Australia Griffin became acquainted with Harriett Klisser, a widow aged 42 years. Mrs. Klisser was travelling with her two adult sons, William and George Jarratt, and William's wife. After they were married they went into business together, but Griffin "soon squandered nearly all her little hoard". English law held that when a woman was married, she became, in a sense, her husband's property. This common law doctrine was known as coverture, and allowed a married woman's legal identity to be subsumed in her husband's. The presumption of coverture was maintained on the condition that the man continued to provide for the sustenance of the woman.

Griffin deserted his wife and went to Tasmania "and got persons there to circulate reports of his own death" in an effort to circumvent the requirement to maintain support of his wife.

Early police career

In Sydney in May 1858 Griffin joined the New South Wales police. In late 1858 Griffin was appointed to Rockhampton as an Acting Sergeant. In February 1859 he was appointed Chief Constable at Rockhampton, with the additional responsibilities of Inspector of Slaughter Houses, Inspector of Weights and Measures and Bailiff of the Court of Requests. In March 1859 Griffin was appointed as the Inspector of Distilleries for the District of Rockhampton. In December 1859 the Letters Patent formally proclaiming the separation of the colony of Queensland from New South Wales were published. By this process the employment of all colonial officers, both civil and military, within the territory of the colony of Queensland, were transferred to the new colony.

In November 1860 Griffin was transferred as Chief Constable from Rockhampton to Brisbane. In February 1861 he was appointed to the additional role of Ranger of Crown Lands for the police district of Brisbane. In February 1862 Griffin was appointed Acting Clerk of Petty Sessions in Brisbane and on in January 1863 he was formally appointed to the position.

In Brisbane Griffin made efforts "to ingratiate himself with people of position and authority". He gained prominence in Brisbane society and became "a regular attendant at Government House festivities". Throughout this period Griffin consistently represented himself as a single man. The historian and journalist John Bird, in his history of Rockhampton published in 1904, states that in Brisbane Griffin "paid great attention to a young society lady, sister of a man who held a high position in the Ministry". Bird asserts that the minister assisted in advancing Griffin's career after Griffin alluded to a desire to marry the minister's sister, but professed a belief that he was unable to marry until he was working in a higher-paying position. The discovery of gold in the Peak Downs region, inland from Rockhampton, had begun to be reported in the colonial press in November 1861. By 1863 the gold-fields "held a considerable population". The township of Clermont had been established on low-lying ground adjoining a large billabong near the confluence of Sandy and Wolfang creeks, with another township named Copperfield located nearby.

The local magistrate and landholder, Oscar de Satgé, described Griffin as an energetic man who, soon after his arrival, "arrogated to himself a good deal more than even the full powers of his various appointments". Griffin was assisted in his official duties by the Clerk of Petty Sessions, William Cave, who de Satgé described as "a plodding but timid officer... who could do little to check Griffin's overbearing will".

During his four years' residence at Clermont Griffin became widely known in the district. In general he had a "very suave and attractive manner", though aspects of his character tended to have a polarising effect. To those he considered to be socially inferior, Griffin tended to be overbearing "and was by no means well liked". To his friends "he was usually courteous to a degree, but at times he was somewhat brusque". The historian and journalist John Bird rated "ostentation and vanity, with a fondness for display" as the dominant traits of Griffin's character. During his tenure at Clermont Griffin was also known to be a gambler. He was a frequent visitor "to a house in Clermont where heavy gambling was carried on in a room isolated from other parts of the house".

During Griffin's tenure as Gold Commissioner and Police Magistrate at Clermont, his wife in Melbourne discovered that her husband was alive. Without support Harriet Griffin had been having a difficult time. In September 1864 she had been listed as a "new insolvent", citing "want of employment for herself or family, and pressure of a judgement creditor". Her liabilities were recorded as £28.13s.5d, against her assets which were valued at one pound. Harriett was living at Emerald Hill at that time and was recorded as a widow. At some stage after that, Harriett saw a newspaper article mentioning the name Thomas John Griffin, Gold Commissioner at Clermont in Queensland. She was struck by the similarity in names with that of her supposedly late husband, and her suspicions were aroused. Harriett Griffin consulted a lawyer who ascertained that no-one of her husband's name had died at the time and place that had been represented to her. A letter was subsequently sent to Griffin in Clermont, with the result that he was "compelled to make his wife a substantial quarterly allowance to keep her tongue still". Griffin's frequent absences in Rockhampton "threw a good deal of work and responsibility" on the local Bench of Magistrates.

In July 1867 unsuccessful litigants in a court case at Clermont complained about the conduct of the Police Magistrate, Thomas Griffin, in response to which District Court Judge Innes recommended that they "memorialise the Government" for Griffin's removal. In the Queensland Government Gazette of 3 August 1867 details were published of a series of planned transfers of Police Magistrate positions, including the transfer of Griffin from Clermont to Toowoomba. At about that time, however, local agitation had begun to build for Griffin's removal from Clermont, the leading advocates for which were the local medical practitioner, Dr. Spiridion Candiottis, and S. W. Jacobson, a Copperfield storekeeper and postmaster of that township. In September 1867 Jacobson met with Charles Buzacott, the co-owner and editor of the Clermont newspaper, the Peak Downs Telegram, seeking his advice. Jacobson informed Buzacott that the conduct of the Police Magistrate "had become intolerable" and that "a number of sufferers (including himself) were determined upon bringing about his removal". The postmaster asked Buzacott about the best method of proceeding with that objective, to which the editor advised sending "a temperately worded memorial to the Government". Two resolutions were proposed, both of which were eventually carried.

A farewell dinner, on the occasion of Griffin's departure to Rockhampton, was held on 4 October 1867 in the new billiard room of the Leichhardt Hotel in Clermont. The evening was attended by "thirty-five gentlemen representing the squatting, mining, and commercial interests of Peak Downs". At the conclusion of the meal, toasts and speeches were made. The chairman of the proceedings and Mayor of Clermont, John Winter, in a brief speech remarked that "all must be aware of the many good acts Mr. Griffin had done during his long residence in the district". During his speech in response Griffin expressed his appreciation of "the way in which his name had been received this evening", which he regarded as proof that those present "did not endorse the calumnies which had been recently uttered against him". Several of the subsequent speakers "referred to the late contemptible attack upon Mr. Griffin, and pointed out that many of the statements made by Dr. Candiottis were absolutely false, and others were perversions of the truth". The Clermont escort arrived at their destination on 17 October 1867. Griffin had left Clermont soon after the gold escort and arrived at Rockhampton two days later, on 19 October.

Soon after arriving in Rockhampton, Griffin told Sergeant Julian he intended sending him back with cash to be deposited in the Clermont branch of the Australian Joint Stock Bank (A.J.S. Bank). Griffin's actions in this regard was "purely on his own initiative, and without authoritative warrant".

Troopers Power and Gildea were at the Rocklands camp when they arrived. Power and Cahill were directed to take the horses to Rockhampton to be re-shod and Griffin went across to Mrs. Ottley's residence, leaving Julian and Gildea at the camp. He returned during the afternoon and directed Gildea to go to Rockhampton to collect letters. While Gildea was preparing to depart, Griffin returned to Mrs. Ottley's. Julian, "not liking the look of things", told Gildea to remain in camp until he had spoken to Griffin again. Power collected the money from the bank that afternoon and he and Cahill met Griffin at the Rocklands camp. Griffin told Power he would take care of the money for him so that the trooper could get a good night's sleep. He then took the parcel of cash to Mrs. Ottley's. He met them mid-morning at the Club-house and handed over six rolls of £1 notes (totalling £252), each bound in a handwritten memorandum of the amounts due. While Griffin was in Rockhampton, the escort money was locked in the room that Griffin had been occupying, on the verandah of Mrs. Ottley's residence. By insisting on Griffin re-sealing the packages Power and Cahill "must have thought they had done all that was necessary, never dreaming Griffin would resort to murder".

After delays of nearly a week, the escort left the Rocklands camp on Friday, 1 November 1867, taking the road via Westwood and Gainsford. The party was made up of Assistant Gold Commissioner Griffin and Troopers Power and Cahill and carried about four thousand pounds in notes and coin. Griffin's behaviour during the preceding week, and his insistence on accompanying the escort for part of the way, was in stark contrast to the fact that during the four years of his tenure as Gold Commissioner at Clermont Griffin had travelled with the escort on only one occasion.

Early the next morning, 5 November, Griffin and the two troopers started for the crossing on the Mackenzie River, arriving there later that morning. They established a camp about four hundred yards from Bedford's Hotel (the Bedford Arms Hotel) and afterwards went to the hotel and had breakfast. Later that day Griffin asked the publican, Alfred Bedford, if he had any laudanum (which he had not) and told the publican he intended to return to Rockhampton the following morning. Bedford indicated he would travel back to Rockhampton with Griffin. After he murdered the two men, Griffin extracted the money from its wrappings, which were burnt in the campfire, and rolled the bundles of cash into a blanket before proceeding to the Bedford's hotel. That evening they arrived at Beattie's Hotel at Gainsford. The next day they rode to Westwood, which had a rail connection to Rockhampton. The two men completed the journey by taking the train to Rockhampton, arriving there that night.

On the afternoon of 8 November, news reached Rockhampton of the discovery of the bodies of troopers Power and Cahill, near their camp-site on the Mackenzie River. It was too late to start for the scene that night, but preparations were made by Sub-Inspector Elliott to form a party to travel to the Mackenzie crossing the next morning. Initial reports of the tragedy were that the troopers had been poisoned, after the discovery of several pigs that died after eating what the troopers had vomited. On Saturday morning, 9 November, as the party to investigate the deaths assembled at the train station, the bank manager Thomas Hall remarked to Griffin: "However did those two fellows get the poison; I cannot make it out?". Griffin replied: "They are not poisoned; it's all a trumped-up yarn – a false report; they are shot, and you will see if they are not".

Griffin did not leave on the train with the group of police and bank officers, but told them he would follow them to Westwood by the 11 o'clock train. He then returned to Mrs. Ottley's, retrieved the valise and went to find a spot to hide the stolen cash. The money was hidden in the hollow of a burnt stump, in the bush about twenty yards off the road about half-a-mile from Mrs. Ottley's residence.

At the camp-site the bodies of Power and Cahill had been temporarily buried. The remains were exhumed to enable Dr. Salmond to make a post-mortem examination. Shortly afterwards Dr. Salmond told Sub-Inspector Elliott: "I have found bullet wounds in the heads of these men!". Elliott cautioned the doctor to keep that information to himself for the present time. He then approached Detective Kilfeder and advised him that he intended to arrest Griffin. Kilfeder engaged Griffin in conversation and, at a pre-arranged signal, the policemen seized Griffin by the wrists and handcuffed him. Elliott said: "I arrest you on suspicion of having murdered John Power and Patrick Cahill". Griffin drew a long breath, "which was half a groan", and said quietly: "Well, I could only expect it, as I was the last person known to be in the company of the poor fellows".

The inquiry

The party adjourned to Bedford's Hotel where an inquiry into the murders was commenced, conducted by Henry Abbott, the general manager of the A.J.S. Bank in Queensland, who was the only Justice of the Peace present.

At the inquiry, information was elicited regarding the discovery of the bodies. During Bedford's absence, the hotel was left in the charge of a married couple, John and Mrs. Peterson. Mid-morning on Thursday, 6 November, after Griffin and Bedford had departed for Rockhampton, Mrs. Peterson went across to the camp to retrieve a billy she had lent to the men. She saw one of the men, who appeared to be lying asleep on his blankets. She called out, but receiving no reply, returned to the hotel and told her husband the troopers were asleep in their camp. The next morning John Peterson was out looking for horses and passed by near the camp. He noticed "a bad smell" and went to investigate, when he discovered the two troopers lying dead within a few feet of each other. Mr. Armstrong, who had arrived at the hotel the previous afternoon, rode to the Native Police barracks on the Mackenzie River near 'Wilpend' station and informed Sub-Inspector Uhr, the officer in charge, of the discovery. Acting Sub-Inspector Stokes described the positions of the bodies, lying side-by-side, their heads nine feet apart and their feet six feet apart. Of their revolvers, one was fully loaded and the other had one chamber empty from a recent discharge. In the fire Stokes found charred remains of what appeared to be the covering of the parcels of banknotes. The Rockhampton Bulletin countered with an editorial on 19 November which described the comments published in the Northern Argus as "foolish and slanderous assertions" and accused the newspaper of committing the "grave offence of defending Griffin", thus serving to arrogate "the functions of advocate, judge and jury".

Griffin was placed in the Rockhampton lockup under the charge of Constable McMulken. Griffin was brought before the Bench, made up of the Police Magistrate and two other magistrates (one of whom was Henry Abbott), "charged on suspicion with wilfully murdering John Power and Patrick Cahill, troopers of the Clermont gold escort".

At the conclusion of the depositions and examination of witnesses relating to the initial inquiry, Sub-Inspector Elliott said he "was not in a position to go on with the case" and asked that the prisoner be remanded for a further eight days. This was agreed to and the prisoner was removed from the courtroom. Witnesses continued to be examined in the case over the following two days: Friday, 29 November, and Saturday, 30 November. At the conclusion of the proceedings on 30 November Sub-Inspector Elliott asked for an additional remand of eight days "for the purpose of obtaining further evidence", which was granted.

Additional evidence was presented in the Police Court on Monday, 9 December, and the case for the prosecution concluded on the following day, Tuesday, 10 December. The prisoner was then asked if he had anything to say, in answer to the charge brought against him. Griffin stated in a firm tone of voice: "I have, your Worship, simply to say that I am entirely innocent of the charge which has been preferred against me". He then added: "Had I been allowed the common privileges afforded to suspected felons I should not this day be standing where I am, but under advice I reserve my defence".

The trial

In March 1868 Justice Alfred Lutwyche, accompanied by "an unusually large number of barristers and other legal gentlemen", travelled from Brisbane to Rockhampton aboard the S.S. Leichhardt for the trial of Thomas Griffin. The prisoner was transferred from Brisbane aboard the same steamer.

The trial concluded on Wednesday, 25 March 1868. The summing up of the evidence by Justice Lutwyche occupied four and a half hours. The jury retired at ten minutes past three o'clock in the afternoon. Griffin was temporarily removed to the lockup cell to await the verdict. After an hour the jury returned to the court-room and the foreman announced a verdict of guilty. The prisoner was then asked if he had anything to say as to why sentence of death should not be passed upon him. Griffin rose to his feet, "trembling with excitement for a moment", and in a clear voice "made a long disconnected statement". With the conviction and sentence confirmed, the date of Griffin's execution was fixed for 1 June 1868. In his Rockhampton prison cell, the prisoner had "maintained a careless, nonchalant air"; he ate and slept well and "amused himself by reading novels". During the visits of his friends Griffin "generally appeared affected at first, but he quickly relapsed into a hard and indifferent mood". Griffin was visited by Anglican and Presbyterian clergymen, to whom he continued to maintain his innocence.

About two weeks before his execution, Griffin made an attempt to escape from captivity by promising one of the gaolers the money he had stolen from the escort. The details of Griffin's escape plan and confession to the gaoler (known as a turnkey) was only revealed after his execution. After Griffin had been informed that his death warrant had been signed, the condemned prisoner began an attempt to convince the Assistant Turnkey, Alfred Grant, to help him escape, "holding out to him hopes of receiving the lost money" in return. He did this at various times, with "hints and snatches of conversation", whenever he had the opportunity to speak to Grant alone. Grant "was to endeavour to effect his escape", and if that failed to procure for the prisoner poison or a knife so he could commit suicide. Grant reported Griffin's overtures to the Principal Turnkey, John Lee, and the two gaolers arranged a routine that allowed the prisoner frequent opportunities to speak privately to Grant.

That evening Grant asked Lee to accompany him the location indicated by Griffin's maps. According to Grant's later account, Lee asked: "Should you find it, what do you intend to do with it?". Grant replied that he intended to "take it to the Sheriff and ask him to exempt me from duty till after the execution". The two turnkeys went to the locality that evening but the search was unsuccessful. On the evening of Saturday, 30 May, Grant and Lee returned to continue the search, again without success. Shortly before eight o'clock Hutton entered the cell and pinioned the prisoner's arms to his side. At the foot of the gallows Griffin knelt and engaged in prayers with the clergyman. During this time the hangman stood a few feet from the prisoner with his back to him, "his head turning every now and then impatiently at the length of the prayers". The journalist for the Rockhampton Bulletin commented on Griffin's death: "As he lived so has he died – hard, callous, and impenitent".

Aftermath

After Griffin's execution Lee and Grant made a third unsuccessful attempt to find the money, in the process discovering they had been searching on the wrong road on the previous occasions. On their return Grant remarked to the Gaolkeeper, Edward Sheehy, that he thought he had found out the location of the stolen money, "but I find I have been made a fool of". He then related the particulars of his interactions with Griffin. That evening Sheehy mentioned the matter to the Sheriff, Arthur Halloran, who asked Grant the following morning to show him the pencil sketches the prisoner had made. Halloran told Grant to go out again with somebody well acquainted with the place. During their conversation the Sheriff said, "I am sorry you did not tell me of it before the execution", to which Grant replied: "I cannot vouch for the truth of it now, and to obtain what I have obtained required the greatest secrecy". In July 1868 it was reported that Lee and Grant had been dismissed from their positions, though further details were not known. The report in the Northern Argus commented: "The minds of the community have been in such an excited state since the murder, for the commission of which the authorities are in some measure to blame, by having elected a man of Griffin's stamp to fill a position so onerous and responsible, that nothing connected with the melancholy affair should be kept in the dark". In August 1868 a letter from Alfred Grant, explaining the details from his point of view of Griffin's confession and the discovery of the stolen money, was published in The Queenslander magazine.

Griffin's skull

Decapitation of the corpse

At about the time of Griffin's execution Robert Tucker, an undertaker and the sexton in charge of Rockhampton cemetery, reported a rumour to a member of the Cemetery Board to the effect that "an attempt would be made to raise" Griffin's body. After he was hanged, Griffin's remains were buried in a coffin to a depth of six feet, in the Anglican section of the cemetery. As a precaution against possible exhumation or other disturbance, slabs were put across the grave about two feet below the surface. A day or two after Griffin's burial, a man (name unknown) who had died aboard the Tinonee steamer was taken to the cemetery to be buried. As an extra precaution, the sexton and several of the board members decided to bury the man directly above Griffin's coffin.

On Sunday morning, 7 June, the sexton discovered that the grave had been disturbed. After he reported the incident, two constables were placed on watch to protect the grave. The Cemetery Board met the next day, at the conclusion of which a telegram was sent to the Colonial Secretary seeking permission to open the grave to ascertain the extent of the disturbance. Two days later the editorial in the Northern Argus led with: "We don't see anything very horrible in the fact of Griffin's head having been cut off and carried away – if it was wanted we could very well spare it; we do not regard the act as desecration, neither as criminal, although we do not envy the person who undertook and carried out a very nasty piece of business". The editorial was scathing of the description of Griffin in the Bulletin as a "victim", asking the question, "if Griffin be a victim what are those murdered men to be called whose bones lie whitening in the far bush, whose lives were taken to gratify a lust for gold, yea, and while they were sleeping?". Both editorials were critical of the decision of the sexton, with the approval of two of the cemetery trustees, to place the coffin of the unknown man above "the coffin of a felon". In its issue of the same day, the Rockhampton Bulletin expressed outrage at the reward being not more than would be offered "for a good horse or bullock", describing the offer as "a disgrace to the Government". The writer maintained that "the desecration of the dead is a barbarity" and "it makes not the slightest difference whether it was the head of a saint or a sinner that was robbed from the grave". The article in the Bulletin claimed that the police were "in possession of information which points indubitably to two persons" and maintained "there must have been not less than four persons engaged in lifting the coffin out, besides a man to watch". Two days later the Northern Argus described the "small reward offered by the Government" as being "exactly nineteen pounds, nineteen shillings and eleven pence, three farthings too much", adding that if anyone involved in the affair, who informed against their companions, deserved "to be whipped round the town with a cat's tail".

It was later revealed a Northern Argus journalist was one of those present when the grave robbery took place.

The perpetrators revealed

From the outset speculation was rife that the persons responsible for stealing Griffin's head were men with an interest in medicine and the science of phrenology, who wished to study the shape of the murderer's skull in an attempt to find an explanation for the crime for which he was convicted.

The publication of the July 1918 article prompted former Northern Argus editor and journalist W. H. Leighton Bailey, then living in England, to write to the Morning Bulletin in October 1918. Bailey confirmed Bird's version as being "nearest the truth" in regard to who possessed the head, and named the medical practitioner as Dr. William Callaghan. Bailey's letter also stated that he was present at the cemetery when Griffin's head was taken, together with Robert H. D. White, manager of the Rockhampton branch of the Bank of New South Wales.

In 1922 the Melbourne newspaper The Australasian published an article about the removal of Griffin's head, which described the unnamed perpetrators as "three friends – banker, surgeon, and editor". The anonymous writer of the article claimed to have heard the story from two of the participants, the editor and the banker, when he was "very young". The writer also stated that, "many years after the incident", he saw the skull displayed in a glass cabinet in the banker's drawing room. By that stage the 'banker' was "a staid, elderly member of the Cabinet".

In 1928 The Australasian published another article about the removal of Griffin's head, referencing the 1922 article, and quoting a recent letter from John Bird to the Rockhampton journalist and writer J. Grant Pattison. Bird's letter confirmed Dr. Callaghan's identity as the surgeon. He also named a fourth person who participated in the removal of the head – William Holland, known as 'Old Bill', who was a hospital wardsman. Holland had been a mariner (which explains Bird's 1918 reference to a surgeon and a mariner as the two men who carried out the beheading). Cahill emigrated to Australia in about 1861, after which he held "various positions" in Victoria and New South Wales. In 1865 he met up with John Power in Brisbane and the two young men "formed that close friendship which united their destinies for ever". Cahill was described as being nearly six feet tall, with "lustrous dark-hazel eyes" and dark hair. Cahill was aged 27 years when he was murdered by Thomas John Griffin on 6 November 1867 on the MacKenzie River near Rockhampton. John Francis Power – baptised in February 1841 at Carrick-on-Suir in County Tipperary, the son of Richard and Mary Power. His older brother Pierce, who was ordained as a Roman Catholic priest, had travelled to Australia several months earlier aboard the ill-fated Erin-go-Bragh. John Power was possessed of "some capital". After remaining in Ipswich "for some months", he and another man travelled to north Queensland in search of pastoral land, visiting the Suttor River district (inland from Mackay) and onto the Flinders River region, south of the Gulf of Carpentaria. Due to the sudden change in fortune, "Power found himself obliged to seek some other means of livelihood". At about this time he met up with Patrick Cahill in Brisbane and the two decided to join the Queensland police. The skulls of the murdered troopers were taken to Brisbane after Griffin's trial, but were later returned to Rockhampton to be interred with the bodies. Their bodies were later exhumed and reburied in the Rockhampton cemetery.

Police memorials

The Queensland Police Service residences in the inner Brisbane suburb of Herston are known as the Patrick William Cahill Unit and the John Francis Power Unit, named in Cahill and Power's honour. The residences were officially opened in August 2005 and provide accommodation to officers of the Queensland Police Service and their family members.

In 2008 the story of the Cahill and Power murders was incorporated into a presentation at the Queensland Police Museum in Roma Street, Brisbane.

The Queensland Water Police vessels, P.W. Cahill I and P.W. Cahill II, stationed at the Whitsundays, were named in honour of Patrick William Cahill.

The location where the police troopers John Power and Patrick Cahill were murdered is near the present-day Bedford Weir on the Mackenzie River, 30 kilometres north of Blackwater. Bedford Weir is a popular location for recreational activities. In July 2013, at the instigation of former Blackwater police officer Senior Constable Donna Gilliland, memorial stones were placed at the Bedford Weir and plaques were erected on the graves of Cahill and Power at the South Rockhampton Cemetery. The plans to erect the memorial at the Bedford Weir received a set-back when two trunks of petrified wood, to form part of the memorial and donated by the BHP Mitsubishi Alliance, were stolen by thieves, in an operation that would have required heavy lifting equipment.

Cultural resonance

Episodes in Thomas Griffin's notorious career were the foundation of Katharine King's novel Lost for Gold, first published in three volumes in 1873 by Hurst and Blackett in London. Miss King was the sister of Henry E. King, a member of the Queensland Legislative Assembly from 1870 to 1883.