1. ‘Mad’ Dan Morgan: The Unstable Australian Bushranger who held up landlords and helped their employees.
“Bushrangers” were the highway robbers of the Australian outback and Mad Dan Morgan was one of the most notorious. In 1860, Morgan absconding from a ticket of leave after being released early from a twelve-year sentence for highway robbery. He headed into the bush and began work as a station hand. However, Morgan just couldn’t stick at honest work. In August 1860, he stole a horse from his employers and escaped into western New South Wales where he began his criminal career in earnest, robbing bush stations and coaches.
By 1864, Morgan had a £1000 price on his head for the murders of Henry Baylis, a police magistrate, police Sergeant, David Maginnity and overseer John Mclean. However, Morgan‘s victims were usually exploitative landowners. Morgan delighted in forcing them to make amends to their workers. However, he was also erratic and unstable, and just as likely to kill his victims on a whim as he was to toy with them. It was this behavior that earned him the name “Mad Dan”. Mad Dan‘s reign of terror ended in 1865 when he was shot from behind while fleeing a botched robbery at the Peechelba Station near Wangaratta, Victoria. After his death, ghoulish souvenir hunters harvested his characteristic long black locks and beard.
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