The Nineteenth Century Killer Who Terrorized the Australian Outback
John Lynch (1813 – 1842) was trouble from early on. Born in Cavan, Ireland, he notched up his first criminal conviction at age fifteen, when he obtained property by false pretenses. Two years later, in 1830, he was sentenced to penal transportation to Australia. In 1832, Lynch’s ship reached Australia, and he was sent to the village of Berrima in New South Wales, about 75 miles from Sydney. Assigned to toil as a convict laborer on farms, Lynch soon tired of that. So he fled and joined a gang of bushrangers – Australian bandits who hid from authorities in the bush and the Outback. In 1835, Lynch and two others were tried for the murder of a man who had given evidence against their gang.
The jury convicted and sentenced Lynch’s comrades to hang. Inexplicably, however, despite the fact that he had confessed to the murder, the jurors acquitted him. That was unfortunate: Lynch went on to become a scary Outback stalker and Australia’s most notorious serial killer. He was unusual among serial killers, in that his preferred murder weapon was an ax. His homicidal spree began soon after his acquittal in 1835, when he stole eight cattle from a farm and set out to sell them in Sydney. En route, he encountered a man with an Aboriginal boy driving a bigger herd of cattle, loaded with wheat. So Lynch gained their trust, camped with them, then slew both with a tomahawk. He then continued on to Sydney with their goods.
