Burgess Gang
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The Burgess Gang was a four-man crime gang active on South Island, New Zealand, from 1862 - 1866. They were responsible for the 1866 Maungatapu murders, in which they robbed and murdered five people along the Maungatapu track in two separate incidents.
History edit
The gang was formed in 1862 by thieves Richard Burgess and Thomas Kelly, who planned to take advantage of the ongoing Otago Gold Rush by ambushing and robbing prospectors on their way to cash in their gold. They were soon caught and jailed for 3.5 years. Upon their release they transferred to Hokitika, where they met up with an old associate of Burgess named Philip Levy and formed a partnership with him and a fourth man, Joseph Sullivan.
The four soon began robbing prospectors together, with Burgess stealing some guns from the local police camp and burying them on the beach before "finding" them later in front of witnesses. Unable to prove the gang were responsible, the police forced them to leave town by releasing details of Burgess' previous crimes to the press. The gang moved to Greymouth, where they planned to rob a gold buyer named Edward Fox. They instead ambushed and killed a surveyor named George Dobson on 28 May 1866, who they mistook for Fox. The real Fox was able to avoid robbery thanks to an armed escort of police officers and the gang fled before they could be linked to Dobson's murder.
Maungatapu Murders edit
The gang moved to Nelson, a small town only accessible by the Maungatapu track. They initially planned to rob a number of banks in town, but were forced to abandon the plan due to large police presence. Instead, they decided to rob prospectors travelling along the isolated track.
On 10 June 1866, Philip Levy received a tip that four wealthy prospectors - Felix Mathieu, James Dudley, John Kempthorne and James du Pontius - would soon be travelling along the Maungatapu track carrying £320 worth of money and gold in three days' time. The gang set out to ambush the prospectors on 12 June. Along the way they passed a man named James Battle and, concerned that he could place them near the scene of the crime, decided to kill him. He was pulled from his horse, robbed of the £3 he was carrying, strangled to death and buried in a shallow grave.
The following day, the Mathieu party were ambushed by the gang along their route. They immediately surrendered and were bound and moved off the track while the gang robbed them of the £320. The gang then decided to kill them. James Dudley was the first to die, strangled to death. John Kempthorne and James du Pontius were both shot, and Felix Mathieu was shot and stabbed to death. The gang then moved du Pontius's body some way off to make it look like he had killed the others and then himself. The party's packhorse was led to a nearby gully and shot.
Capture edit
What the gang did not realize was that the Mathieu party had been planning to meet up with an acquaintance named Henry Moller. When several days passed and they had not arrived, Moller informed the police of their disappearence. Another acquaintance, George Jervis, remembered the gang had stayed in a hut near his property for a few days before leaving in the direction of the Maungatapu track the day before the presumed murders. Several witnesses also remembered that the four men had arrived in Nelson with almost no money but had returned the day after the disappearence with a large amount of money that they spent on drinking and gambling.
All four men were arrested on suspicion of murder on 19 June. However, there was little evidence to prove that they were guilty as the bodies had not yet been found. The police decided to offer a £200 reward and a pardon to any member of the gang who would give them information on the fate of the Mathieu party. This soon paid off, as Sullivan agreed to the bargain and produced a written statement describing how Burgess, Kelly and Levy had robbed and killed the party while Sullivan acted as a lookout. Sullivan's statement also implicated the gang in the murders of James Battle and George Dobson. The information given by Sullivan allowed police to locate the bodies of all five Maungatapu victims.
Sullivan was pardoned for his role in the Mathieu party murders and was the star witness against the other three at their trial for the murders of Kempthorne, du Pontius, Mathieu and Dudley (they were never charged with the murders of Battle or Dobson). Burgess, defending himself, produced a counter-statement claiming that he and Sullivan had committed the murders while Kelly and Levy went on ahead. However, Kelly and Levy had taken 22 hours longer to complete their journey than they should have, which they could not explain. Levy had also previously told police that he was with the other three the whole time before changing his story after being informed of what Burgess and Kelly were claiming. Ultimately, Burgess, Kelly and Levy were all found guilty and sentenced to death.
Following the trial, Joseph Sullivan was charged with the murder of James Battle, not covered in his amnesty agreement. Despite his protests that his agreement meant he should be pardoned, he was sentenced to death for the crime. His sentence was later commuted to life imprisonment due to fears that police informants would be too afraid to come forward. Burgess, Kelly and Levy were hanged at a specially constructed gallows on 5 October 1866, while Sullivan served seven years in prison before being pardoned and ordered to leave New Zealand for the rest of his life.