Constable, Killer, and Scoundrel: The Stained Legacy of Australian Gold Commissioner Thomas Griffin
After squandering his wife's assets and faking his own death to escape the consequences, Thomas Griffin returned to Australia and became a police magistrate and gold commissioner
Background
In the spring of 1851, just a few years after the start of the California Gold Rush, prospectors struck gold just outside of the city of Orange in southeast Australia.
Before long, the wild frontiers of Australia had been overtaken by so-called “diggers” in search of fame and fortune.
The gold rush built Australia as we know it today. For over sixty years, the British Empire had terrorized local aboriginals while using the outback to house “penal colonies” of convicts deemed too dangerous or undesirable to remain in Britain and Ireland.
However, after explorers discovered gold, Australia suddenly became a point of interest for adventurers from around the globe—including Britain and Ireland. Over the following twenty years, Australia’s population tripled. These immigrants helped reshape the convict colonies into real cities with modern infrastructure and social policies.
Just like in California, though, there was a dark side to the population boom triggered by the gold rush. The same greed that brought miners to the goldfields drove the unlucky among their numbers to resort to vice, theft, and in some cases, even murder.
One such unscrupulous gold hunter was Thomas John Griffin.
Thomas Griffin
Thomas John Griffin was born in July of 1832, the son of an English policeman and an Irish maid.
In spite of a wild and unruly childhood, upon reaching adulthood, Griffin chose to follow in his father’s footsteps and join the Royal English Constabulary, an English police force stationed in Ireland.
A few years later, conflict between the Russian and Ottoman Empires developed into the conflict now known as the Crimean War. Britain joined in the fight on the side of the Turks, and Griffin chose to enlist.
Although he entered the British Army as a lowly assistant storekeeper, by the end of his service, Griffin had advanced to the rank of adjutant and been awarded two Turkish medals.
As a police volunteer in the war, Griffin was also rewarded with free travel to Australia, which he accepted in 1856.
Arrival in Australia and Marriage
During the three-month voyage from Liverpool to Melbourne, the twenty-four-year-old Griffin became acquainted with Harriet Klisser, a widow who was nearly twice his age.
Klisser had been married three times prior to meeting Griffin and had two sons who accompanied her on the voyage. She was also considerably wealthy, thanks to her previous marriages.
Not long after their arrival in Melbourne, Griffin became her fourth.
But Griffin and Klisser didn’t just marry—they also went into business together. And, before long, Griffin squandered the majority of Klisser’s wealth through a series of reckless and unwise business decisions.
The resulting arguments led the couple to separate, with Griffin taking half of what little now remained of Klisser’s resources with him.
Under English common law, Griffin was legally entitled to Klisser’s property under the assumption that he would provide for her. Griffin was unwilling to continue supporting Klisser following their separation—or to give up the sizable sum of money he had claimed from their marriage.
His solution to this problem was to desert Klisser and flee to Tasmania, where he had associates circulate reports of his death.
Eventually, this news made its way back to Klisser and her sons, and the requests for support stopped.
Police Career
By 1858, Griffin had returned to Australia, where he took up a post working as a police officer in the state of New South Wales.
Later that year, newspaper reports began circulating about the discovery of a new goldfield outside of the town of Rockhampton, in the north of New South Wales. The skyrocketing population in the region demanded an expansion of Rockhampton’s police force, and Griffin was soon assigned to the post.
A few years later, in 1863, Griffin was reassigned to the district of Peak Downs, another fledging goldfield. Although he resettled in the town of Clermont, he maintained connections to Rockhampton and traveled between the two consistently.
Notably, Griffin (who publicly represented himself as an unmarried man) had developed an intimate relationship with twenty-two-year-old Elizabeth Ottley, the daughter of a wealthy widow living on the outskirts of Rockhampton.
During his four-year stay in Clermont, Griffin earned himself a mixed reputation. He was regarded as suave, charismatic, and courteous among his friends and colleagues.
However, others described him as vain, overbearing, and overly obsessed with power, social stature, and authority. He was also known to be a frequent gambler.
It was during this time that Klisser discovered her husband was still alive. The separation—and Griffin’s abandonment of her—had proven an enormous financial strain, and she was listed as insolvent.
After seeing a newspaper article mention a man with the same name as her supposedly late husband, Klisser consulted a lawyer.
Griffin was subsequently required to pay Klisser a quarterly allowance in exchange for her silence on the matter of their marriage.
The Gold Escort
Griffins’s frequent travel between Clermont and Rockhampton—which were 240 miles apart from each other—quickly became a strain on his work in Clermont. Residents and associates began to complain that he was neglecting his duties, and offloading his work onto his colleagues.
It was also rumored that he was falling into increasing debt.
Demand for Griffin’s removal from his post as Clermont Police Magistrate grew until it was finally announced that he would be transferred back to Rockhampton to serve as Assistant Gold Commissioner.
Upon his return to Rockhampton, Griffin was almost immediately confronted by a group of Chinese miners, who claimed that a sum of money and gold they had entrusted to Griffin for transfer from Clermont to Rockhampton never arrived.
A harried Griffin went to Sergeant James Julian, head of a troop that had recently escorted a shipment of gold from Clermont to Rockhampton.
Griffin told Julian that he wished to accompany Julian and his two troopers, Patrick Cahill and John Francis Power, back to Clermont, along with a large sum of cash to be deposited in a Clermont bank.
Griffin described his plan to Julian as “purely on his own initiative”—eg, not acting in his official capacity as Gold Commissioner.
After several false starts and stops, Griffin, Julian, Cahill, and Power finally departed from Rockhampton in earnest.
But, by the end of the first day of their journey, Julian had become so suspicious of Griffin’s odd behavior and the bitter taste of the tea he had served them that morning that he decided to leave Griffin and return the money to the Rockhampton bank.
Griffin was furious, and immediately had Julian suspended from his duties.
He then informed the Chinese miners that he would have their money the next day, and began preparations to leave town again with Power, Cahill, and the cash in tow.
The cash had been entrusted to Power by the bank, and bound in sealed packages to ensure that none of the escort tampered with the money on the road. But before they went their separate ways that night, Griffin leveraged his position of authority to convince Power to let him guard the money that night.
The Murders
Early the following morning, Griffin met the Chinese miners and handed over their money—approximately 252 GBP (about 23,500 GBP today, when adjusted for inflation).
The following day, October 31, 1867, the gold escort left Rockhampton. Power was immediately put off by the appearance of the parcel, which was now sealed in a different covering than the one he had received from the bank.
Despite Power’s protests, Griffin insisted that everything was alright, and the trio soon departed for Clermont.
On November 5, Griffin and the two troopers arrived at Mackenzie River, not far from their final destination. They made camp outside the nearby Bedford Hotel for the night as they prepared for the river crossing.
The publican of the hotel, Alfred Bedford, later reported that that afternoon, Griffin came to him looking for laudanum—an opium tincture that was historically used as a pain medication, cough suppressant, and, in large enough doses, as a powerful poison.
Bedford didn’t have the laudanum—but he did agree to travel back to Rockhampton with Griffin the following morning.
The troopers shared a couple of bottles of beer in the inn that night before retiring to their camp. Griffin left not long after, with a pint bottle of brandy in tow.
Around three o’clock in the morning, Bedford was woken by two gunshots.
Griffin arrived back at the hotel shortly after, claiming that he had lost his way back to the camp, and fired a shot to alert the troopers.
A couple of hours later, Griffin and Bedford left for Rockhampton, leaving Power and Cahill behind to finish the journey to Clermont.
Unbeknownst to Bedford, Griffin was carrying the stolen banknotes in his saddlebags—and Power and Cahill would never arrive in Clermont.
On November 6, the bodies of troopers Power and Cahill were discovered by Mr. and Mrs. Peterson, who had been entrusted with the care of the inn in Bedford’s absence.
Investigation and Arrest
Medical examiners found that both men had been heavily sedated with poisoned alcohol and shot in the back of the head.
Investigators also found the bank’s paper coverings, which Griffin had attempted to burn in the campfire to hide his theft of the remaining cash.
Conviction and Execution
Despite some press controversy—fed by Griffin’s outraged friends and colleagues—all signs and evidence pointed towards his guilt.
It likely didn’t help his case that, although Griffin never confessed, he also didn’t put up much of a defense. He reportedly complained after his arrest that he “could only expect it,” as he was “the last person known to be in the company of the poor fellows.”
On the 1st of June, 1868, Griffin was hung in the Rockhampton Jail, making him the first of eight people to be executed in Rockhampton.
Spectators collected various grisly souvenirs from the execution, including his clothes, shaved beard, service medals, and the revolver he used to shoot Cahill and Power.
Following multiple failed attempts to locate the stolen cash, it was eventually found by a local bank manager. Griffin had hidden it inside a half-burnt stump, less than a mile from the Ottley residence.
Sources:
Morrison, A.A. “Thomas John Augustus Griffin (1832–1868)” Australian Dictionary of Biography, v. 4, 1972, Online 2006, https://adb.anu.edu.au/biography/griffin-thomas-john-augustus-3670
J. Lisa. “FROM the VAULT – Gold and Greed Part 3: the murder of Constables Power and Cahill in 1867.” my Police Museum, 5 November 2020, https://mypolice.qld.gov.au/museum/2020/11/05/from-the-vault-gold-and-greed-part-3-the-murder-of-constables-power-and-cahill-in-1867/
J. Lisa. “FROM the VAULT – Gold and Greed Part 2: the murder of Constables Power and Cahill in 1867.” my Police Museum, 2 November 2020, https://mypolice.qld.gov.au/museum/2020/11/02/from-the-vault-gold-and-greed-part-2-the-murder-of-constables-power-and-cahill-in-1867/
J. Lisa. “FROM the VAULT – Gold and Greed Part 1: the murder of Constables Power and Cahill in 1867.” my Police Museum, 2 November 2020, https://mypolice.qld.gov.au/museum/2020/11/02/from-the-vault-gold-and-greed-part-1-the-murder-of-constables-power-and-cahill-in-1867/