A sensation overtook the northern port city of Townsville in March
1887. Public interest was focussed on
the local Police Court where John Harrison and Ellen Thompson were accused of
murdering William Thompson, the woman’s husband, six months earlier.
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| Mossman River ca. 1892 |
William “Billy”
Thompson owned a sugar plantation on the Mosman River where he lived with his
wife. Harrison was staying on a nearby property.
John Harrison and Ellen Thompson, under committal for
trial for the murder of the latter's husband at Port Douglas, were brought down
under escort to Townsville on 6th instant.
There were (says the Bulletin) quite a number on the
wharf were surprised at the great disparity in the age of the two prisoners,
Harrison, who is a married man, a deserter from H.M.S. Myrmidon, being about
30, and Mrs. Thompson about 50. Both appeared to be quite unconcerned and, in
fact, the female prisoner appeared to be more pleased than otherwise with the
evident sensation she created.[1]
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| Ellen Thompson |
The deceased was originally thought to have committed suicide but suspicions
were raised by neighbours and acquaintances who were aware of the situation of
the trio. Thompson was much older than his wife. She in turn, at fifty years
old, was twenty years Harrison’s senior.
The affair between Ellen Thompson and
Harrison was well-known and openly flaunted in front of old Mr.
Thompson. Several witnesses told of Billy Thompson’s repeated requests that
Harrison leave. At the trial a witness recalled one such occasion.
A week before witness went to Thompson's place, with
Harrison and Patrick Moran; when there Thompson said to Harrison, "I
thought that you were gone;" Harrison said, "Not yet, Billy;"
Thompson spoke in an angry tone, but Harrison was more mild; Thompson said,
"If you are not gone I will shoot you," and Harrison went up to Thompson
and said, "Look here Billy, you needn't think I'm frightened of you; I've
made away with many better men than you;" Thompson said, "You —, you ought to be ashamed
of yourself to come here annoying an old man like me." [2]
After Billy Thompson’s death, Harrison and the widow Thompson were
living openly together in his house. The wife of a Chinese cook who lived
nearby testified that she has asked
Ellen Thompson if Harrison had killed her husband.
Jane Le On, married woman, wife of Le Ou, a cook, deposed
that in October last she lived on the Mosman River, within 100 yards of
Thompson's place; since Thompson's death the prisoners had lived in Thompson's
house; witness had her meals there for eight weeks; on one occasion witness and
Mrs. Thompson were talking, when witness said, "Do you think that Harrison
killed your husband?" Harrison
was living in the same house with her then; she said, "Yes, I think he
would do anything for money, don't you think so?" witness said
"Yes," and said, "Do you think he did it by himself?" she
said that she thought a kanaka helped him.[3]
The most damning testimony came from a prisoner who shared a cell with
Harrison in Townsville Gaol. He recounted how Harrison had told him the he had
murdered Billy Thompson at Ellen’s urging to get possession of the sugar
plantation.
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| Townsville Gaol ca.1885 |
Henry Oubridge, a clerk, deposed that he was lately in Townsville
Gaol, serving a sentence of three months; one night prisoner asked witness to
draw his blanket down to the corner where he was lying; witness did so, and
prisoner then said, " What do you think of my case?" witness said,
"I know nothing about it;" he knew that Harrison was charged with
murder, but did not know the facts of the case.
Prisoner said,
"Between you and I, I knocked old Thompson over; we tried to poison him
twice, but it took no effect; I had a row with old Thompson, and packed up my
swag and went away; after about two hours I came back, and then Mrs. Thompson
encouraged me and tempted me to do away with the old man; I fired at him
without effect, he was then lying down on the ground, and turned round to Mrs.
Thompson and said to her, "You are sending me to my death;" she
mocked and laughed at him, and said,
"Jack, go at him again;" prisoner then said " I sent a bullet
right through his head;"
Witness then asked him why he should do such a thing as
that; he said, "There was sugar hanging to it; ... I don't care for her, it’s
the sugar I want."[4]
There were several dramatic scenes during the trial most involving
Ellen Thompson, particularly when her dead husband’s exhumed head was presented
as evidence.
The accused was remanded till Wednesday to allow of the
body being exhumed, and on being examined a bullet was found embedded in the
skull. The discovery caused intense excitement, and the Court was crowded when
the hearing of the case was proceeded with.
The proceedings of the Court were suddenly brought to a
close by the violence of the female prisoner, who screamed hysterically when
her dead husband's skull with the bullet embedded in it was produced in court.
She appeared to be in a dreadful state of mind, but the male prisoner was
stolid and unconcerned.[5]
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| Planting Sugar Cane in the Mossman District |
The trial concluded with jury bringing in a guilty verdict against both
prisoners. Harrison remained silent but Ellen Thompson gave a long and rambling
speech which caused a sensation in the crowded courtroom.
In reply to the usual question as to whether she had
anything to say why the sentence of the Court should not be passed upon her,
she exclaimed, with raised voice, accompanying her utterances with excited and
vigorous gesture:
"Yes, I have a lot to say, and I would have said a
lot before, but the police wouldn’t let me. I consider this a very unjust
Court. I was completely ruined by losing my husband. I would not encourage
murder for a thousand pounds." She went on to say that in her early life
she had struggled hard for a living, and after thirty years in the colony she
had gone on the Mossman with "old Billy Thompson," a poor, miserable
old man.
She had worked hard for him. "I'm a brick, every
inch of me!" she loudly and excitedly exclaimed. She said the old man was
not fit to be a husband for a black gin, but he was so jealous of everybody
that she could scarcely live. Everybody knew she was a credit to North
Queensland, and when she was gone it would be found that she did not murder
"Billy Thompson."
Every word said against her was false. "Here I
am," she said," "penniless and miserable-not a shilling in my
pocket, and the farm gone." If she had wanted to get rid of old Billy
Thompson she could have "chucked" him into the river to the
alligators long before. She then prayed for vengeance upon her enemies, and
asked "why shouldn't a poor unfortunate miserable woman have a
chance?"
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| Townsville Courthouse |
For about three quarters of an hour the prisoner poured
forth a torrent of words, sometimes with a touch of rugged eloquence, sometimes
with a grotesqueness which, notwithstanding the solemn nature of the occasion,
made many spectators smile. The speech, which was disconnected and rather contradictory,
was interrupted occasionally towards its close by the prisoner sitting down for
a moment and then starting up and beginning afresh. The crowd hung attentively
on every word, one or two members of the jury being apparently very much
affected, and his Honour sat out the oration in perfect silence, every
opportunity being afforded the prisoner of saying all she wished. When sentence
of death had been passed she thanked the judge.[6]
The condemned couple were later take by steamer to Brisbane and were
executed at Boggo Road Gaol. In the
manner of the time, the last moments of the couple were reported in detail in
the press. Ellen Thompson was the first to mount the scaffold.
She bore up bravely to the last, and even when standing
on the scaffold her fortitude was remarkable. Attended by Father Fouhy, she
stepped on to the drop, and her voice was unshaken as she said, "Good-bye
everybody; I forgive everybody from the bottom of my heart for anything they
have wronged me in this world. I never shot my husband, and I am dying like an
angel."
Only once, within a few seconds of the fatal moment, was
there a perceptible quiver in the unhappy creature's voice, when with almost
her dying breath she murmured, "Oh, my poor children; take care of my children
will you, Father". The next instant her body was swinging in mid air.[7]
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| The Scaffold at Boggo Road Gaol |
Harrison made no pretension to innocence in his last
moments.
Harrison is said to have been a soldier in the British
army. To Archdeacon Dawes, who was with him during his last hours, and with
whose ministrations he appeared deeply impressed, he stated that both he and
the woman were implicated in the death of Thompson, but that although he did
fire the shots which killed him it was done in self-defence.
When standing on the scaffold he spoke not a word, and in
the expression of his features could be traced not the slightest evidence of
fear or nervous excitement.[8]
Ellen Thompson was the last woman
executed in Queensland.
©
K. C. Sbeghen, 2012.
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