The Notorious Axe Murderer of Berrima
The latest version of historian Jonathan Smyth's popular Times Past column tells the riveting story of the Berrima axe murderer, who killed 10 people in Australia, and is said to have come from Bailieborough...
Before the term serial killer came into use, one of Australia’s most notorious 19th century murderers brought fear to Berrima, Australia, a village with a population of 300 people.
John Dunleavy (not his actual name) killed repeatedly at every opportunity when financial gain presented itself. Like all sociopaths, he easily befriended his victims. His weapon of choice was a tomahawk axe, which led the newspapers to dub him, ‘the Berrima axe murderer’.
I would like to say thank you to Carl Morgan who suggested this topic and to mention Leslie McKeague, who supplied additional information.
False name
In 1841, a man calling himself John Dunleavy arrived in Berrima. Within a short space of time, he came to own a farm that he claimed he had bought from the Mulligan family. The Mulligans appeared to have left Berrima without saying goodbye to the neighbours, but apparently being under investigation for illegally selling ‘grog’ and wishing to escape the law, this seemed a logical enough explanation. In hindsight, however, none of the locals had either seen, or heard the Mulligans depart Berrima. They had just evaporated. We will return to the Mulligans in a moment.
Then on the morning of February 19, 1842, the body of a farm labourer named Terence Landregan was found by Hugh Tinney who, when driving cattle to market, saw a dingo pawing in the undergrowth. Landregan’s skull had been split open by an axe.
John Dunleavy, an Irishman of low stature, was the last person to have been seen in Landregan’s company and the police soon discovered that Dunleavy’s cartwheels matched the cart tracks found at the scene of the crime. One of the cartwheels was seized and therefore left a distinctive mark on the ground.
Dunleavy was arrested by the police when they discovered him wearing Landregan’s hat and his shirt was bloodstained. They learned that the arrested man was using an alias; his real name was in fact John Lynch. As Carl Morgan pointed out, Lynch, alias Dunleavy, had stayed ‘away ahead of the posse, until he ran out of road’.
Transportation
According to ‘The World Encyclopaedia of Serial Killers: volume one’ by Susan Hall, John Lynch was born in County Cavan on November 26, 1813. It is believed that he came from an area between Bailieborough and Killinkere. John’s father was Catholic, and his mother is said to have been Protestant.
When he was aged 19 years, he got into trouble with the law and was sentenced for transportation to a penal colony in New South Wales, Australia. It must have been heart-breaking for his parents when their young son sailed from Dublin on the Dunvegan Castle II. He arrived at Port Jackson on October 16, 1832. John was sent to work as a ‘convict labourer’ on farms around Berrima village.
Not before long, he got involved with a gang of ‘bushrangers’ (thieves) and went ‘on the rob’. Lynch and two of his gangmates were charged with the murder of Tom Smythe who had given evidence against the gang. He was acquitted, but the other two were convicted.
The straight and narrow path would never be Lynch’s road and, having evaded prison, he stole eight bullocks from T.B. Humphrey, whom he had previously worked for and set out for Sydney City to find a purchaser.
Somewhere along the route he met a man called Edmund Ireland, with his helper, an aboriginal boy, who were driving ‘a bullock team’ laden with wheat, meat, and other farm produce. Lynch killed the boy and then Ireland by striking them on the back of the head with a tomahawk axe. He took the stolen bullocks to Sydney.
On his way back from Sydney, Lynch met a Mr Frazer and his son who were driving cattle and asked to join them. His mind quickly turned to malevolence. He would take the animals, but first, the Frazers would have to die. That night, the men chose a spot at Cordeaux Flat to setup camp. On the following morning, after a peaceful rest, Lynch got up, fetched the axe, killed the two men, buried them and moved on.
John Mulligan of Berrima owed Lynch an outstanding debt of £30, for goods purchased; Lynch had stolen these goods earlier before pawning them off to Mulligan. In need of money, he visited Mulligan. However, it was not to be a friendly fireside chat. Lynch despatched all four members of the Mulligan family in a ruthless manner.
John and Bridget Mulligan lived on a remote farm with two children, from Bridget’s previous marriage, named Johnny aged 16 and Mary Macnamara aged 14. Lynch in his later confession, recalled how he carried out each murder.
Firstly, Johnny Macnamara went to cut some wood and Lynch volunteered help and followed the boy into the woods. He then killed the boy with his axe. When the body was hidden, he returned to the Mulligan homestead and told the parents that Johnny had gone after some wild horses.
Sometime later, the boy’s mother became anxious and she went out to search for her son. Lynch, pretending to help, followed her. The woman found her son’s body and she too was killed in the same manner. The killer then went back to house, sneaked in and used the axe on John Mulligan.
The last member of the family, 14-year-old, Bridget, stood trembling in the kitchen, holding a knife. But she was no match for the dangerous man before her, who grabbed the knife, then brutally assaulted, and murdered the girl. He burned the four bodies. Afterwards, Lynch contacted the landowner to say that the Mulligans had sold him the lease for the farm for £700, which the owner accepted as fact.
However, the discovery of Terence Landregan’s remains, as already mentioned, placed Lynch in the frame for murder and Landregan’s belt was found at Lynch’s newly acquired home.
John Lynch, ‘alias John Dunleavy’ was found guilty of the murder of Landregan at Berrima Court House on March 21, 1842, and was sentenced to death by Chief Justice, Sir James Dowling. But before he was hanged on April 22, 1842, Lynch compiled a confession of all the murders he had committed. The crimes in his confession when investigated by the police, proved to be chillingly accurate. In total, he admitted to 10 murders.
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