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.