64 Facts About Jimmy Governor

Jimmy Governor's actions initiated a cycle of violence in which nine people were killed.

Governor and his brother Joe were on the run from police for fourteen weeks before Jimmy was captured and Joe was killed by authorities.

Underwood was captured soon afterwards, but the Jimmy Governor brothers took to the bush.

In October 1900, Jimmy Governor was wounded and, a fortnight later, captured near Wingham.

Jimmy Governor was tried for murder and hanged at Darlinghurst Gaol in January 1901.

Jimmy Governor was born in about 1875 on the Talbragar River near Denison Town, Colony of New South Wales, the son of Tommy Governor, an Aboriginal man, and Annie Fitzgerald.

Jimmy Governor was the eldest of eight children, with four brothers and three sisters.

Jimmy Governor's father, originally from the Namoi River region, was a hard-working and intelligent man who had arrived in the Mudgee region in the 1850s.

Jimmy Governor's mother had been raised northeast of Mendooran and was the daughter of Jack Fitzgerald, a white Irish stockman, and an Aboriginal mother named Polly, who worked as a house servant.

Jimmy Governor was tried and convicted on a charge of malicious wounding in the Singleton Quarter Sessions, and was sentenced to three months' imprisonment with hard labour in Maitland Gaol.

Schooling for the eight Jimmy Governor children was irregular owing to the family's circumstances.

Jimmy Governor was described as a "smart, athletic and cheerful native" and Joe as "rather sullen and morose".

In 1890, at age 15, Jimmy Governor was lopping trees on properties in the Dunedoo district.

At his trial Jimmy Governor later stated, "I was never a loafer like some blackfellows", before adding: "I always worked, and paid for what I got, and I reckon I am as good as a white man".

Jimmy Governor had met John Mawbey of 'Breelong West' when he was breaking horses in the Gilgandra district.

Jimmy Governor made contact with Mawbey, who offered him a fencing contract to commence in January 1900.

Jimmy Governor was contracted to construct three miles of fencing, a job that would take about a year.

The Governors made their camp further up the creek, about three miles from the Mawbey home and near where Jimmy would be working.

Jimmy Governor had complained that Mrs Mawbey had overcharged him for rations when she compiled the bill.

Jimmy Governor was extremely agitated, accusing Ethel and his brother Joe of being "sweet on each other".

At least two of the men carried weapons: Underwood carried a rifle and a tomahawk and Jimmy Governor carried a boondi.

Jimmy Governor asked him for a bag of flour and a bag of sugar, to which Mawbey replied that he would provide them some time the following day.

The group then walked to the Mawbey house in order for Jimmy Governor to confront Mrs Mawbey.

Jimmy Governor's attack set off a series of chaotic and murderous events.

Jimmy Governor set off in pursuit; he caught up with Kerz and Grace, killing the former and mortally wounding the latter with blows from the tomahawk and the boondi.

Jimmy Governor caught up with her and hit her with repeated blows from his boondi, leaving her head "completely crushed in".

Near sunrise Jimmy Governor killed Porter's dog with a boondi to stop its barking and the group stopped and made a fire.

Jimmy Governor was taken back to the Mawbey property and locked in a room in the old inn.

Ison had not heard of the murders and when Jimmy Governor "asked for some tucker" he obliged.

Jimmy Governor was taken to the lock-up at Leadville and guarded by civilians.

Ethel gave evidence but Porter and Peter Jimmy Governor were withdrawn as witnesses, as it was decided they did not understand the concept of an oath.

Jimmy Governor managed to get inside, but the Governors broke several windows and eventually gained entry to the house.

The murder of McKay was the first instance of Jimmy Governor seeking vengeance for a perceived past grievance.

Jimmy Governor had spoken of his intentions to Ethel, who later gave police a list of fifteen potential victims for Jimmy's retribution.

Now, as a notorious murderer on the run, with the initial police response in relative disarray, Jimmy Governor systematically sought out victims to settle old scores.

Jimmy Governor broke the rifle stock by using it to beat James to death.

Jimmy Governor staggered from the kitchen after her assailants had left and found Michael O'Brien, who walked to a neighbouring selection to send a rider to alert police in Merriwa.

Years beforehand, during a cricket match being played at Wollar, "Jimmy Governor made a pest of himself" and O'Brien "gave him a ducking in the creek to quieten him down a bit".

Jimmy Governor believed Fitzpatrick had poisoned his dogs years beforehand, so his was another score to settle.

Jimmy Governor approached the house and called for Fitzpatrick, who came out with his rifle ready.

Jimmy Governor rushed at him with an axe and struck him twice on the head.

Jimmy Governor fired a shot at the murderers and then ran to Wollar for help.

Jimmy Governor had frequently been in Coolah and it was feared he would "visit persons with whom he has quarrelled".

At about 140 yards from the house, as Jimmy Governor stopped to look back, Byers took a shot through a crack in the wall.

Jimmy Governor fell and rolled over; the bullet had hit his mouth and passed through his cheek, knocking out four of his teeth.

Jimmy Governor raised himself, stumbled and fell again, but eventually he and his brother escaped into the surrounding forest.

Joe Governor was on the opposite bank and Jimmy was in the riverbed when Young and the tracker started firing at them.

Joe was travelling in the same direction, but he kept moving whereas Jimmy Governor remained in the district around Bobin.

Jimmy Governor was in a weakened state, barely able to eat due to the wound in his mouth; in his own words, after being shot he had "nothing to eat for 14 days but honey and water".

Jimmy Governor had a Winchester rifle, but only two bullets.

Just on daylight Jimmy Governor stood up, fifty yards higher up the creek than expected and only 20 yards from where one of the party, Tom Green, was stationed.

When Green called out "surrender", Jimmy Governor grabbed his rifle and started running up the creek, with Green and Wallace in pursuit and firing with breechloading shotguns.

Jimmy Governor laid "as if insensible" for over an hour, after which he began to move.

Wallace returned to Bobin to get a spring-cart while the others carried their prisoner to the road, and Jimmy Governor was taken by cart to Wingham.

Jimmy Governor's captors had fired at him with slugs and shot, so his wounds on this occasion were mainly superficial.

Evidence at the hearing was mainly concerned with formal identification of the prisoner and accounts of admissions by Jimmy Governor of having committed the crimes at Breelong.

Electra arrived in Sydney on the following evening and Jimmy Governor was taken to Darlinghurst Gaol.

Joe Jimmy Governor jumped up and Wilkinson fired, but "the cartridge hung fire" and the bullet missed.

Jimmy Governor was arraigned before Judge Owen at the Sydney Central Criminal Court in Darlinghurst on 22 November 1900, charged with the murder of Ellen Kerz.

Jimmy Governor was defended by Francis S Boyce, who immediately moved for the acquittal of the prisoner based on the fact that he was a declared outlaw and hence "the accused is not able to plead and defend himself against the indictment".

Jimmy Governor "grasped the iron railings of the dock as he stood and shook his head"; after drinking water from a pannikin handed to him by an attendant constable, he "said in a weak voice, 'No, nothing'".

Jimmy Governor was hanged on the morning of 18 January 1901 at Darlinghurst Gaol.

Jimmy Governor visited her husband in prison on a number of occasions prior to his execution.

The life and crimes of Jimmy Governor was the basis for Frank Clune's book Jimmy Governor and Thomas Keneally's 1972 novel The Chant of Jimmie Blacksmith, which was filmed by Fred Schepisi in 1978.