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| German immigrant family on their farm, Logan district ca. 1872 |
From the early days of the colony of Queensland, German immigrants settled
along the lower reaches of the Logan River.
There they established farms on the rich river flood plain. Many of their descendants still live in the
area. Their heritage is reflected in the
names of suburbs such as Steiglitz and Bethania.
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| Farm labourers on the Logan River with boatload of baled hay |
On the 5th September, 1865, Michael Heine, one of the German
farmers in the Logan district, saw the body of a man floating in the Logan
River. With the help of another farmer
he pulled the body up onto the bank. The young man’s corpse was quite well
dressed, but bootless. The police were
sent for, the man was presumed drowned, and quickly buried by the river.
... the body was floating
on its back, the arms nearly meeting across the body; I pushed the body towards
the land, and drew it with Mr. Beetham's help on shore; the body had on a
woollen shirt, a kind of grey, with red stripes, a white shirt underneath, and
a pair of trousers, which were also grey, with red stripes ; it had no boots,
hat, pouch or belt on; I saw the police there the day after I found the body ;
after I found the body I put it in a coffin, and buried it about nine or ten
foot from the river.[1]
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| The Susanne Goddefroy |
The corpse remained unidentified until about two weeks later when the German
immigrant ship, the Susanne Goddefroy,
sailed into Moreton Bay from Hamburg. On
board was a young German named Anselme Bode who was to meet his brother
Heinrich who had arrived in the colony the previous year. After working as a
labourer for six months, Heinrich had established himself as a hawker, peddling
his merchandise mainly to the German communities of Queensland. Anselme had brought various goods with him
that his brother had requested. After
arriving at the boarding house where his brother lodged when in Brisbane,
Anselme was told that his brother had travelled to the Logan District to
collect some debts and had not returned as expected. The landlady later testified about the last
time she saw Heinrich Bode.
Sarah Ladling deposed: I live in Elizabeth-street; in
August and September last I lived in Albert-street; I knew a German pedlar
named Heinrich Bode; I had known him about twelve months; since he had arrived
in the colony; he used to stay in my house; I saw him last on a Saturday night,
about the end of August, about nine or ten days before the “Susanne Godeffroy”
arrived; I know Anselme Bode the brother of the alleged deceased; he arrived in
the “Susanne Godeffroy”; Heinrich Bode went away on the Sunday morning very
early; I did not see him go; I got up at 7, or a little after 7 on the Sunday
morning; Heinrich Bode had gone.[2]
Concerned that he could not locate his brother whose return from the
Logan was now overdue, Anselme Bode went to the police. Sub-Inspector Samuel
John Lloyd was soon on the case and immediately connected the missing Heinrich
Bode with the body pulled from the Logan River.
A team which included Dr. William Hobbs and Anselme Bode, was dispatched
with the gruesome task of examining and identifying the body. The exhumation was carried out by Michael
Heine, the same man who performed the burial two weeks earlier. Heine later
testified:
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| Dr. William Hobbs |
The corpse was immediately confirmed as being that of the missing man. The doctor identified a severe head wound. He had not drowned. Suspicion among the locals soon fell on two local small farmers, Rudolph Mornberger and Caspar Schaig. The pedlar was a frequent visitor to the district and several of the German farmers recalled that Mornberger had been lately wearing a purse on his belt identical to that of the murdered man. Mornberger and Schaig lived together in a two-room hut near the river but had left the area a few days earlier to work on the construction of the railway line west of Toowoomba. Sub-Inspector Lloyd soon caught up with the suspects. Amazingly Mornberger was not only wearing Bode’s pouch but his boots which were obviously much too large for him.
The prisoners were apprehended on the 3rd October,
fourteen miles beyond Toowoomba, on the Dalby line. Schaig, when he saw the
police coming, threw down his tools and was making off, when Sergeant Buckley
arrested him. In their hut Mr. Lloyd found a pair of boots nearly new,
Mornberger said they were his and he was understood to state he bought them at
a particular shop in Brisbane. The Logan ferryman, without being able to swear
positively, believed they were the pair Bode had on the 27th August; and they
were three inches too long for Mornberger. On the same prisoner a pouch was
found, and Hoeman identified it at once as Bode's. On Mornberger's hat there
was a spot of blood.[4]
After bringing the prisoners back to Brisbane, Inspector Lloyd lost no
time in making his way to the Logan. A thorough inspection of the hut revealed
further condemning evidence including a heavy maul which was consistent with
the size of the fatal wound on the victim’s skull.
Inspector Lloyd, of the detective police, accompanied by
a constable, and a German who knew the hawker, then went out to the Logan. He
examined the hut occupied by the farmers, and found there a maul covered with
blood, and some human hair sticking to it. In a box in the hut he also discovered
a bed-tick[5]
stained with blood. Ashes appeared to have been strewed on different parts of
the floor, and the spots smelt strongly of putrid blood. In the bed-tick were
concealed a hat and belt, which were identified as belonging to the pedlar.[6]
Amazingly the perpetrators of the homicide had made very little effort
to remove traces of the crime. Whether
this was due to a lack of intelligence or an arrogant disregard for human life
was never to emerge.
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| Judge Alfred James Lutwyche ca. 1859 |
Rudolph Mornberger and Caspar Schaig stood indicted for
that, on the 27th August last, at the Logan River, they feloniously, wilfully,
and of their malice aforethought, did kill and murder one Heinrich Bode.[7]
The trial in the Supreme Court lasted two days. Many witnesses were called and much material evidence shown to the court. No witnesses appeared in defence of the accused. The only defence offered by the prisoners was a bizarre statement made by Mornberger blaming his mate Schaig.
One of the two men (Rudolph Mornberger and Caspar Schaig)
committed for trial on the charge of having, in August last, murdered a pedlar
named Bode, at the Logan River, has made a written statement accusing his
fellow prisoner of having committed the murder.
Rudolph Mornberger states that late on a Sunday night
Bode came to his hut and had tea. He asked if Schaig, who was absent at the
time, had any money; to which question an indefinite answer was returned.
Shortly afterwards, Bode went to bed in the inner room of the hut, on some bags
with which Mornberger accommodated him. Mornberger and Schaig slept in the
other room.
Early in the morning, Mornberger (we quote his own
expression) was awoke by God, and told to look in the inner room. He did so,
and saw Schaig in the act of striking Bode with the mallet which was produced,
in the Police-court. After the murder had been done, Mornberger remonstrated
with Schaig, but was informed by the latter person that if he said anything he
would be served in the same way.
He (Mornberger) then went to light a fire, and on his
return the body had disappeared. The coat belonging to the murdered man was
thrown into the river. Of course this statement is taken “cum grano Salis”.[8]
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| Ratcliffe Pring |
Mr. Pring being in court was asked by his HONOR if he had
received instructions to defend the prisoners. Mr. PRING replied that he had
received no instructions, but that as the case was a remarkably difficult one
he would watch it for the prisoners, and be of any assistance he could to the
court.[9]
At the conclusion of the trial Pring struggled to present much in the
way of solid defence, except the usual legal argument and the suggestion that
Mornberger was the more likely perpetrator of the crime. He pointed out that the fact the Schaig (described
during the trial as the less clever of the two accused) had carried on with his
normal routine on the morning following the murder.
Mr. PRING, on behalf of the prisoners, addressed the
jury. In commencing his address he begged them calmly, carefully, and
deliberately to consider the evidence which had been adduced before them during
the last two days, and not to be influenced by any reports which they may have
heard or read concerning the case.
Who struck the fatal blow? Schaig was at Beeton's at
daybreak with the flour bag, and went to work at Wilson's two miles away. He
did not appear flurried at all, and surely that was evidence in his favour that
he did not strike the blow.
Mornberger possessed the articles, Mornberger possessed
the box, and Mornberger owned the hut, Mornberger was the principal man. On
behalf of Schaig the learned counsel felt it his duty to lay those facts before
the jury, and state to them that in this respect they must consider the case of
Mornberger different from that of Schaig. He then concluded his defence.[10]
In his instructions to the jury, the judge reiterated Pring’s point
regarding the likely lack of involvement of Schaig in striking the murderous
blow.
His HONOR summed up, directing the jury that they must be
first satisfied that Bode was dead, and that the dead body was Bode's; and also
directed them as to their coming to a conclusion with regard to who struck the
blow, and it was in Schaig's favour that he had returned the flour bag at the
break of day and gone to his work.
The jury retired, and after an absence of about an hour,
returned a verdict of - Casper Schaig, not guilty. Rudolph Mornberger, guilty.
Casper Schaig was remanded on another charge.[11]
After the speedy return of the verdict of the jury, the obvious
sentence was passed.
Rudolph Mornberger, upon being asked by the clerk of the
court whether he had anything to say why sentence of death should not be passed
upon him, replied that he had not.
His HONOR passed sentence in the following terms: -
Rudolph Mornberger, you have been found guilty by a jury, upon the clearest
possible evidence, considering the nature of that evidence, of the crime of the
murder of Heinrich Bode. Nothing that I can say will, I fear, do you any good;
but I will beg of you, during the short time, the very short time, that you
remain on earth, to avail yourself of the advice and consolation of the
ministers of religion who will no doubt attend on you. The murder was most
cruel, and committed upon one of your own countrymen, under your own roof. I
can hold out no hope of mercy, and the sentence of the law is, that you be
taken from this court to the place from whence you came, and from that place
you be taken to Her Majesty's gaol at Brisbane, and there, and at such time as
his Excellency the Governor, with, the advice of his Executive Council, shall
appoint, be hanged by the neck till you are dead; and may God have mercy on
your soul.[12]
Mornberger was executed inside Brisbane Gaol exactly three weeks later.
As was the custom of the time, the hanging was described in detail in the
newspapers.
THE EXECUTION OF MORNBERGER.
Rudolph Mornberger, who was convicted of the murder of
Heinrich Bode, at the Logan River, on the 27th August, was hung yesterday
morning within the precincts of the Gaol. This case from first to last has
excited a great deal of interest.
The hut where Bode was murdered was occupied by
Mornberger and Schaig jointly, but the jury guided by certain facts, came to
the conclusion that Mornberger committed the murder. The demeanour of the
prisoner since he was informed that the sentence of death would be carried out,
contrasted strikingly with what it was previously.
Until all hope of escape was passed, he maintained Schaig
made him commit the murder; but since the Revs. Schirmeister and Hausmann, of
the Lutheran Church, have been attending on him he has confessed that he
himself planned and executed the murder; and he asserted that Schaig assisted
him. On Tuesday night, Mornberger expressed a wish to speak to Schaig, who,
however, refused to see him.
Punctually at 8 o'clock, the appointed hour, Mornberger
was conducted from his cell to the scaffold. He was accompanied by the
clergymen, and knelt down at the foot of the gallows with them to pray, and one
of the ministers then ascended the scaffold with him. Mornberger betrayed no
symptoms of fear or emotion.
He seemed to be quite composed and prepared to meet his
doom. He admitted the justice of the sentence, expressed sorrow for his crime,
and was confident of obtaining mercy in the world to come. The rope having been
adjusted by the hangman, the signal was given, the drop fell, and Mornberger
died without a struggle. After hanging the allotted time, the body was cut down
and buried in the usual place.[13]
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| The Gallows inside Brisbane Gaol |
The reporter from the Brisbane Courier was appalled at the nonchalance
of the hangman.
There were about twenty persons besides the officials
present at the execution, and a considerable crowd collected outside the
entrance to the gaol, in the vain hope of obtaining admission. We may observe
that the ceremony, which was disgusting in itself, was rendered more so by the
cool and off-hand way in which the hangman performed his duty. It is scarcely
an exaggeration to say that he did not appear to consider that the task he had
to perform was in the least degree an unpleasant one.[14]
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| The Queenslander 18.1.1873 |
A FEW days ago, our readers were informed, through the
medium of a short paragraph, that one Gaspar Schaig, a German, was accidentally
killed in the new Cemetery, at Maryborough, on the 7th instant, by the fall of
a tree. He had been "grubbing" the day before; and it was on his
return to work in the morning, and, apparently, before he had resumed
operations that the accident occurred. We have been informed by the Inspector
of Police that the deceased was the survivor of the two men who, some eight
years ago, were arraigned for the murder of a German pedlar, on the Logan.
Mornberger, it may be remembered, was convicted and hanged, but Schaig, his
mate, managed to cheat the gallows.[15]
Postscript
An unasked question:
Heinrich Bode was a well-known visitor to the German community along
the Logan, and yet his body supposedly remained unidentified for two weeks
until his brother went to the police.
One of the men who pulled the corpse from the river was the famer
Beetham, who knew Bode and gave evidence at the trial that he had talked to him
the day he was murdered.
Did the locals suspect Mornberger and his mate right away but were
reluctant to go to the police for some reason?
This question never arose during the investigation and trial.
[1]
The Brisbane Courier 21.11.1865
[2]
The Brisbane Courier 21.11.1865
[4] The
Brisbane Courier 2.10.1865
[5] The case or cover containing feathers, flocks, or the
like, forming a mattress or pillow; also, from 16th c., applied to the strong
hard linen or cotton material used for making such cases.(OED)
[6] The
Brisbane Courier 29.9.1865
[7]
The Brisbane Courier 21.11.1865
[8]
With a grain of salt (Latin)
[9]
The Brisbane Courier 21.11.1865
[10]
The Brisbane Courier 23.11.1865
[11] The Brisbane Courier 23.11.1865
[12]
The Brisbane Courier 23.11.1865
[13]
The Brisbane Courier 14.12.1865
[14]
The Brisbane Courier 14.12.1865
[15]
The Brisbane Courier 16.1.1873
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