Maungatapu Murders

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Case Details

Crime: Murder (Serial robbery-murders on goldfields road)
Location: Maungatapu, Nelson/Marlborough, New Zealand
Date: 1866-06
Victim(s): Four gold miners (names vary in historical records)
Perpetrator(s): Richard Burgess, Philip Levy, Thomas Kelly, Joseph Sullivan (turned informant)
Motive: Highway robbery — targeting gold miners travelling between Nelson and the West Coast goldfields
Verdict: Burgess, Levy and Kelly convicted and hanged 1866. Sullivan turned Queen's evidence and was spared.
Sentence: Death by hanging (Burgess, Levy, Kelly). Sullivan received immunity.
Evidence: Bodies discovered buried near Maungatapu track, Sullivan's confession and testimony
Episodes: 0
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In June 1866, a gang led by Richard Burgess ambushed and killed four gold miners on the isolated track over the Maungatapu Range between Nelson and the West Coast goldfields. The gang — Burgess, Philip Levy, Thomas Kelly, and Joseph Sullivan — robbed their victims and buried the bodies. Sullivan turned Queen's evidence against his accomplices, providing testimony that led to their conviction. Burgess, Levy, and Kelly were hanged in Nelson in 1866. The case is one of New Zealand's earliest and most notorious criminal episodes.

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