The Mammoth Book of Bizarre Crimes Read Online Free PDF Page B

authorities went to great lengths to prevent his head being taken as a trophy. That they failed said a great deal about the lawlessness of the 1860s.
    Thomas Griffin took advantage of a free passage offered to former soldiers to start a new life in Australia in 1856. With his new wife he set up a boarding house in Melbourne but, wanting some more excitement in his life, he joined the police and rapidly rose through the ranks.
    By 1867, at the height of the gold rush, he was Gold Commissioner at Rockhampton. His job was to buy the precious metal from the miners. On 27 October, he set out with an armed escort to carry notes and coins worth £4,000 across the Mackenzie River to Claremont. Troopers John Power and Patrick Cahill guarded the ten canvas bags containing the money.
    When they reached the river crossing on their 200-mile journey, Griffin decided to return to Rockhampton, leaving the two troopers to continue without him. Soon after he arrived back at Rockhampton he called at the police office asking if it was true that the gold escort had been killed. Indeed, the dramatic news had just been received that Power and Cahill had been found dead in the bush and the money gone.
    Griffin was very forthright in his theories about what had happened. In response to reports that the troopers had been poisoned, he said it was a false report, “. . . they are shot, you’ll see if they aren’t.” A small group of men, including a doctor, decided to visit the scene. Griffin volunteered to drive the trap but handled it so dangerously that the doctor asked him to step down before they were all killed.
    Once they reached the scene of the crime, it became clear that the troopers had been shot, bearing out Griffin’s prophecy. The suspicion that had settled on him intensified as a result of a round of drinks he had bought at a tavern in Rockhampton, paid for with a one pound note. The note was part of theconsignment that had been stolen and, unbeknown to Griffin, its number recorded.
    Griffin was arrested on suspicion of murder and, despite the circumstantial nature of the evidence, was found guilty at his trial in Rockhampton. While in the condemned cell he tried to persuade his jailors to help him escape and made references to the whereabouts of the stolen money. No deals were done and he faced the hangman with the words, “Go on. I am ready.”
    In an extraordinary sequel to Griffin’s career, first as law enforcer and then as law breaker, there were fears that an attempt would be made to remove his head from his corpse. To prevent this, the authorities arranged that another body would be buried on top of his in the same grave. Despite this precaution, his head was removed and the skull displayed as a grisly trophy in the surgery of the doctor who had complained about his driving.
    Par Avion
    A farm labourer hunting wild fowl in the Essex mud flats in the UK on 21 October 1949 discovered a headless torso in the water. The grisly remains were clad in a silk shirt and underpants wrapped up in a parcel with grey felt and rope. There was evidence of stab wounds in the chest and the lower limbs appeared to have been severed using a sharp knife and saw.
    The remains were identified by fingerprints held on file at Scotland Yard. The dead man was Stanley Setty, a car dealer and black marketeer who had a conviction for fraud. He was last seen on 4 October – a day when he had made several car deals for cash. One of Setty’s associates was Donald Hume, a former serviceman in the Royal Air Force, who held a civilian pilot’s licence.
    The police checked up on Hume’s movements and learned that he had hired a light aircraft from the United Services Flying Club at Elstree on 5 October. He had taken off from the airfield carrying two parcels as freight. Hume was located on 26 October and questioned about the purpose of his flight.
    His explanation was that he had agreed for a payment of £50 to ditch at sea two parcels containing parts of a