Thomas John Griffin (27 July 1832 – 1 June 1868) was a senior Queensland police officer who was executed in June 1868, after being found guilty of the double murder of two police officers, troopers John Power and Patrick Cahill, who were on duty and under Griffin's protection and authority. Less than a month before he carried out his crimes, Griffin had been police magistrate and gold commissioner at Clermont in Central Queensland.
In early October 1867 Griffin was transferred to the position of Assistant Gold Commissioner at Rockhampton. The murders were committed on 30 October 1867 on the banks of the Mackenzie River while Griffin and the two troopers were escorting a transfer of money from Rockhampton to Clermont. Griffin murdered the troopers to cover-up his theft of the escort money, which he hid near Rockhampton prior to the discovery of the bodies of his victims. He was tried for the murders, found guilty and sentenced to hang, though he maintained his innocence throughout the process. In the final weeks before his execution, Griffin attempted to negotiate an escape by revealing the location of the stolen money to one of his gaolers, in the process admitting his involvement in the deaths of Power and Cahill. Griffin was executed on 1 June 1868, the first hanging carried out at Rockhampton Gaol.
In a notorious case of grave robbery, less than a week after he was executed Griffin's grave-site was excavated during the night, his coffin was opened and his head stolen. The perpetrators were not publicly revealed until the early decades of the twentieth century, when it was disclosed that Griffin's skull had been kept for many years in the surgery of a prominent Rockhampton medical practitioner.
Biography
Early life
Thomas John Griffin was born on 27 July 1832 in Ireland, the son of John Loftus Griffin and Anne (née Thompson).A. A. Morrison (1972), 'Griffin, Thomas John Augustus (1832–1868)', Australian Dictionary of Biography (Volume 4); retrieved 6 March 2023.Thomas John Griffin, Civil Servants 1851-1867, page 131 (PDF page: 131), Digital Image ID: DR124413, Queensland Government website; accessed 9 March 2023. His birthplace has been variously recorded as Banbridge in County Down, County Antrim and County Sligo. Griffin's father was a County Inspector of Police.Griffin, Rockhampton Bulletin and Central Queensland Advertiser, 2 June 1868, page 2. Another version of Griffin's origins states that he was "the illegitimate son of an English officer" in Dublin and his mother was "a lady's maid, or some superior servant", and that he received his early education at a Dublin model school.J. T. S. Bird (1904), page 263-264.
As a young man Griffin was described as "wild and flighty", considered to be "good-natured, but exceedingly vain, boastful, and given to 'white lies'". After his father's death the family suffered from reduced circumstances, "in consequence of a lawsuit between the family and an uncle of his". In about 1849, when he was aged seventeen or eighteen, Griffin joined the Royal Irish Constabulary and was placed as a clerk in the Commandant's office in Dublin.
After the outbreak of the Crimean War in late 1853 Griffin volunteered for service in the British Army, being assigned initially as an assistant storekeeper in the commissariat department. In 1855 he joined the Turkish Contingent, holding a commission as a cornet. The Turkish Contingent, also known as the Anglo-Turkish Contingent, was a detachment of Turkish Army infantry, artillery and cavalry regiments placed under the command of commissioned British officers.Chris Flaherty (2021), Turkish Army Crimean War Uniforms – Volume 2, 'Chapter 4: Anglo-Turkish Contingent', N.P.: Soldiershop Publishing (). Griffin later advanced to the rank of adjutant and by the end of his service was awarded two Turkish and Crimean medals.
Immigration and marriage
When his service in Crimea was finished, Griffin accepted an offer of free travel to Australia, made available to police volunteers who had served in the war.J. T. S. Bird (1904), page 264. Griffin departed from Liverpool in early December 1856 aboard the clipper ship, Champion of the Seas, arriving in Melbourne in early March 1857.Public Record Office Victoria, Inward Overseas Passenger Lists (British Ports), Microfiche Copy of VPRS 947; Series: VPRS 7666.Shipping Intelligence, The Argus (Melbourne), 4 March 1857, page 4. During the voyage to Australia Griffin became acquainted with Harriett Klisser, a widow aged 42 years. Mrs. Klisser was travelling with her two adult sons, William and George Jarratt, and William's wife. Harriett Klisser (née Farrow) was born in 1814 in county Sussex. She had been married three times prior to meeting Griffin, with the two sons who accompanied her to Australia from her first marriage. Her third marriage was to Mark Klisser. Mrs. Klisser was described as a wealthy widow, possessing resources of "several hundred pounds".
Thomas John Griffin and Harriett Klisser were married on 29 April 1857 in the Melbourne suburb of Essendon.Victorian marriage registration: Thomas John Griffin & Harriett Klisser, Reg. No.: 3027/1857. After they were married they went into business together, but Griffin "soon squandered nearly all her little hoard". The couple argued "and a separation was the consequence, the woman giving the man who ruined her half of what money was left". According to social and legal conventions of the time, "marriage virtually turned legal control of a woman's property permanently over to her husband".Leonare Davidoff & Catherine Hall (2013), '6. The Hidden Investment: Women and the Enterprise' (in) Family Fortunes: Men and Women of the English Middle Class 1780-1850, United Kingdom: Taylor & Francis, page 276 (). English law held that when a woman was married, she became, in a sense, her husband's property. This common law doctrine was known as coverture, and allowed a married woman's legal identity to be subsumed in her husband's. The presumption of coverture was maintained on the condition that the man continued to provide for the sustenance of the woman.Laws Relating to the Property of Married Women, Empire (Sydney), 27 August 1856, page 6; reprinted from Daily News, 19 May 1856); Husband's and Wives, South Australian Register (Adelaide), 25 August 1856, page 2.
Griffin deserted his wife and went to Tasmania "and got persons there to circulate reports of his own death" in an effort to circumvent the requirement to maintain support of his wife.Clermont Gold Escort Murder Recalled by Man Who was Summoned as Juror, Evening News (Rockhampton), 4 February 1930, page 14.
Early police career
In Sydney in May 1858 Griffin joined the New South Wales police. He was initially taken into the constabulary office as a clerk.
From late-July 1858 newspaper reports began to be published regarding the discovery of a "rich gold-field" on the Fitzroy River near Canoona, 31 miles (50 km) north-west of Rockhampton (at that time within the Northern District of New South Wales).Examples include: Discovery of a Rich Gold-Field in the Northern District, Sydney Morning Herald, 27 July 1858, page 5; Our Gold-Fields: The Canoona Gold-Fields, Sydney Morning Herald, 31 August 1858, page 5. In late 1858 Griffin was appointed to Rockhampton as an Acting Sergeant.Dr. Lorna McDonald (1981), Rockhampton: A History of City and District, University of Queensland Press (). In February 1859 he was appointed Chief Constable at Rockhampton, with the additional responsibilities of Inspector of Slaughter Houses, Inspector of Weights and Measures and Bailiff of the Court of Requests.Rockhampton. Court of Petty Sessions, New South Wales Government Gazette (Sydney), 22 February 1859 (Issue No. 30), page 427. In March 1859 Griffin was appointed as the Inspector of Distilleries for the District of Rockhampton.Notice is hereby given, ..., New South Wales Government Gazette (Sydney), 15 March 1859 (Issue No. 44), page 632. In December 1859 the Letters Patent formally proclaiming the separation of the colony of Queensland from New South Wales were published. By this process the employment of all colonial officers, both civil and military, within the territory of the colony of Queensland, were transferred to the new colony.Proclamation, New South Wales Government Gazette (Sydney), 1 December 1859 (Issue No. 244), page 2639.
In November 1860 Griffin was transferred as Chief Constable from Rockhampton to Brisbane.Chief Constable, Brisbane, Moreton Bay Courier (Brisbane), 17 November 1860, page 3. In February 1861 he was appointed to the additional role of Ranger of Crown Lands for the police district of Brisbane.Official Notifications, The North Australian, Ipswich and General Advertiser, 5 February 1861, page 3. In February 1862 Griffin was appointed Acting Clerk of Petty Sessions in Brisbane and on in January 1863 he was formally appointed to the position.Appointments, The Courier (Brisbane), 17 February 1862, page 2.
In Brisbane Griffin made efforts "to ingratiate himself with people of position and authority".J. T. S. Bird (1904), page 265. He gained prominence in Brisbane society and became "a regular attendant at Government House festivities".W. R. O. Hill (1907), page 127. Throughout this period Griffin consistently represented himself as a single man. The historian and journalist John Bird, in his history of Rockhampton published in 1904, states that in Brisbane Griffin "paid great attention to a young society lady, sister of a man who held a high position in the Ministry". Bird asserts that the minister assisted in advancing Griffin's career after Griffin alluded to a desire to marry the minister's sister, but professed a belief that he was unable to marry until he was working in a higher-paying position.
Appointment to Clermont
In October 1863 Griffin was appointed as the Police Magistrate for the district of Peak Downs, with the additional role of Commissioner for the Peak Downs gold-fields, as well as Inspector of Police and Commissioner of Crown Lands.The Gazette, The Courier (Brisbane), 15 October 1863, page 2.De Satgé (1901), page 179. The discovery of gold in the Peak Downs region, inland from Rockhampton, had begun to be reported in the colonial press in November 1861.Rockhampton, The Courier (Brisbane), 23 November 1861, page 3. By 1863 the gold-fields "held a considerable population". The township of Clermont had been established on low-lying ground adjoining a large billabong near the confluence of Sandy and Wolfang creeks, with another township named Copperfield located nearby.The Fearful Clermont Flood, Maitland Mercury and Hunter River Advertiser, 24 February 1870, page 3.
The local magistrate and landholder, Oscar de Satgé, described Griffin as an energetic man who, soon after his arrival, "arrogated to himself a good deal more than even the full powers of his various appointments". Griffin was assisted in his official duties by the Clerk of Petty Sessions, William Cave, who de Satgé described as "a plodding but timid officer... who could do little to check Griffin's overbearing will".De Satgé (1901), page 180.
During his four years' residence at Clermont Griffin became widely known in the district. In general he had a "very suave and attractive manner", though aspects of his character tended to have a polarising effect. To those he considered to be socially inferior, Griffin tended to be overbearing "and was by no means well liked". To his friends "he was usually courteous to a degree, but at times he was somewhat brusque". The historian and journalist John Bird rated "ostentation and vanity, with a fondness for display" as the dominant traits of Griffin's character. During his tenure at Clermont Griffin was also known to be a gambler. He was a frequent visitor "to a house in Clermont where heavy gambling was carried on in a room isolated from other parts of the house".J. T. S. Bird (1904), page 266.