Love, murder and execution in Auckland
The latest Times Past column by Jonathan Smyth is about a man with family links to Cavan who attempted to recapture his former fiancée by force.
In 1886, the return of a jilted lover to the Great Barrier Island, New Zealand, to reclaim the lady he had lost would spiral into something terrible. The event set the scene for a murder most cruel and the follow-up trial, when concluded, would result in the execution of the two convicted of unlawful killing. The murder victim was the woman's father.
John Caffrey had a notion of Elizabeth Ann Taylor, and being smitten with each other, they were engaged to be married. Around 1880, Elizabeth broke off the engagement, suspecting Caffrey’s feelings were for a man, and not her, and because of her father’s advice, she may have reached her decision to end things. Caffrey blamed the girl’s father Robert ‘Tusky’ Taylor, nicknamed so because of his large wisdom teeth. The man whom Caffrey was seeing may have been Harry Penn.
In the intervening years, Elizabeth married a new beau by the name of Frederick Seymour with whom she would have a child.
John Caffrey was of Irish extraction and had family links to Cavan. The suggested topic for this week’s column is from Seán MacGiolla Chomghaill who is currently living in New Zealand.
Kidnap
Her former boyfriend became infuriated and formulated a barbaric plan to take her back. Anyhow, he got his opportunity in June 1886 when word came that she was at her parents’ home on the Great Barrier Island, visiting with her newborn baby.
John Caffrey and his friend Harry Penn and another woman sometimes going by the name Lizzie Graham, came along. Penn had been married with a family but had left them for Lizzie. At one stage during the botched kidnap attempt, Caffrey instructed Penn to kill Lizzie whom he thought was a liability. Lizzie lived and Penn did not harm her.
Caffrey’s plan, if successful, would entail himself, Elizabeth, Penn, and Lizzie sailing to South America. Although his scheme was delusional, John reassured his accomplices that Elizabeth was ready to leave her family.
Ballyjamesduff origins
Born in 1848, John Caffrey’s parents were John Caffrey Snr and Elizabeth Hamilton. His father came from Ballyjamesduff and was a son of Michael Caffrey and Margaret Caffrey née Clark.
In 1848, John Snr and Elizabeth got married in Auckland, New Zealand. John’s siblings were Joseph and Maria Caffrey. Sadly, Maria died in childhood and, when John was aged four fours, his father died under tragic circumstances, leaving the children’s mother to bring up the family alone.
Murder
Caffrey stole the grandly named vessel called the Sovereign of the Seas and, accompanied by Penn and the 19-year-old Lizzie, they rowed to the island in a smaller boat. At Tyrphenia Harbour they sought out Elizabeth's father, ‘Tusky’ Taylor. Penn called to his home and said he was looking for butter.
Caffrey then appeared in the doorway and Penn grabbed and held Taylor. Caffrey stepped forward and fired a shot, which missed its target. Next, Caffrey fired repeatedly, three shots rang out, one of the bullets hitting the left temple and passing straight through Taylor’s head, killing him.
Meanwhile, his terrified daughter managed to hide amongst bushes, holding back fear and revulsion, she remained calm, until the uninvited party departed again by boat, returning to the Sovereign of the Seas, and sailing away.
Ric Carylon writing for Dispatches noted Caffrey’s physical description as being ‘muscular, of medium height, rather stoutly built, rugged, with a sandy complexion. His hair was a light brown colour, and he usually sported a scraggy goatee beard and moustache' and having ‘a star tattooed on his right forearm and an anchor on his left'.
The police arranged to sail by steamer to catch Caffrey who was still cruising at sea, according to the Timaru Herald. The lawmen acted cautiously knowing the killers to possess weapons.
It emerged that Caffrey, a familiar trader on the island, had ‘given way to drink’ during his murderous visit to the Great Barrier. Details emerged that they had threatened poor Mrs Taylor who tried to ‘flee'. Pressed further she told the attackers that her daughter had gone back to Seymour’s home.
Caffrey attempted sailing for Seymour’s, but the wind kept him from reaching the other side of the island. Two months earlier, Caffrey reportedly said that ‘he’d put a head’ on Mr Taylor, indicating a premeditation to kill.
The late Mr Taylor was one of the island’s most respectable residents, noted the newspapers. At the trial, Caffrey and Penn put the blame on each other for the killing of ‘Tusky’ Taylor. Meanwhile Lizzie Graham gave evidence that sealed the men’s fate. They court found them guilty and sentenced each to die at the gallows on February 21, 1887. They would remain at Mt Eden Prison until the appointed time of execution.
End game
Caffrey and Penn kissed each other before being eternally parted. The time was 8am when the trapdoor beneath Penn rattled, then opened. Caffrey listened as he waited his turn. Mr Levers, the ominously named hangman, oversaw proceedings.
According to media sources, Lever did not retrieve the bodies from the gallows until one hour had passed. The authorities interred their remains at Waikumete Cemetery, where columnist Michael Gray noted, a tree now grows beside the graves.
Caffrey’s plan had been to take the woman he once loved to South America, taking by force, with little regard for her or her family. His scheme led him to the gallows instead.
Was it not Shakespeare who said, ‘love is a wonderful, terrible thing.’
Final thoughts
Before execution, as the prisoners languished, a letter arrived from the widow of the man they had murdered, Esther Taylor. The letter read:
‘To John Caffrey and Harry Penn. I am told by the Rev. Mr Hill that you have asked me to forgive you before you die. You have asked a hard thing, for the wrong you have done me is very great; but as I hope my dear husband may have received forgiveness, I now freely forgive you to the best of my power, and pray that you may receive pardon from Him from whom we all hope to receive forgiveness and mercy.'
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