Well done backcreek.
Here are a couple of links to the newspapers of the time
http://trove.nla.gov.au/ndp/del/article/54503919
https://news.google.com/newspapers?...AIBAJ&sjid=JZUDAAAAIBAJ&pg=4442,1000518&hl=en
They are quite long so I wont post them here.
Here is a summary
16 July 1897
Butler, Frank (age: about 45 / White) - New South Wales - Darlinghurst gaol
murder victim: Lee Millington Weller committed on 31 October 1896 sentenced on 16 June 1897
Butler's procedure was to represent himself as a prospector anxious for a man with some amount of capital to accompany him on a tour in search of the precious metals. Three of his victims had been discovered, and two verdicts of wilful murder were returned against Frank Butler (alias Frank Harwood, alias Richard Ashe) at an inquest at Sydney on 8 December 1896. The body of Lee Weller was decomposed, Weller being dead about five weeks. Death was caused by a gunshot wound at a lonely spot near Glenbrook. Arthur Thomas Osborne Preston met a similar fate at Penrith. A third verdict was returned against Butler on 28 January 1897 in the homicide case of Burgess, who was last seen in Butler's company on 8 August 1896. Butler was not arrested until 2 February 1897, on board the collier Swanhilda, at San Francisco. He was extradited and sent back to Australia on the steamer Mariposa. He arrived at Sydney on 27 April 1897. He stood trial at the Central Criminal Court for the murder of Lee Millington Weller, and was convicted and sentenced to death on 16 June 1897. On that morning Butler attempted to commit suicide with the sharp point of a tobacco tin tag, but he was only slightly injured. Butler was hanged at Darlinghurst gaol, Sydney, at 9 a.m. on 16 July 1897. On the night before his execution, he confessed to all three murders. (The West Australian, Wednesday, 9 December 1896; Friday, 29 January 1897; Thursday, 4 February 1897; Tuesday, 9 February 1897; Monday, 15 February 1897; Wednesday, 7 April 1897; Wednesday, 28 April 1897; Tuesday, 15 June 1897; Thursday, 17 June 1897; Friday, 16 July 1897; Saturday, 17 July 1897; The Brisbane Courier, Saturday, 17 July 1897)
It became known as the Blue Mountains Murders or the Glenbrook Murders. I first became aware of the murders when drinking with an old bloke at the Fortune of War Hotel in The Rocks back in the 80s He told me that Butler had pick up his victims in the pub just after they got off the ship at the Quay and taken them up to Glenbrook looking for gold, got them to start digging hte shaft and then killed them once they got deep enough for a grave. Most prospector would know , with the area around Glenbrook, being sandstone, there is not a lot of gold to be found.
Cheers
Bob
