Thomas Johnson (murderer)

Thomas William Johnson
Thomas Johnson, photographed in December 1939.
Born	1898 Australia
Died	23 January 1939(1939-01-23) (aged 40) HM Prison Pentridge, Coburg, Victoria
Cause of death	Execution by hanging
Occupation	Itinerate labourer
Criminal status	Executed
Conviction(s)	Murder
Criminal penalty	Death

Thomas William Johnson (1898 - 23 January 1939), was convicted of a double murder in Dunolly, Victoria. He confessed to two killings before being executed at Pentridge Prison, Victoria in 1939. Johnson was the fourth of eleven people to be hanged at Pentridge Prison after the closure of Melbourne Gaol in 1929.

The murders[]

By 1938, the old Windsor Castle Hotel (delicensed in 1912), Dunolly, Victoria was a derelict building on the outskirts of town. It was used a boarding house for pensioners and prospectors down on their luck. In October 1938 there were five men living at the residence.

The two murdered men were

• Robert McCourt Gray 73, pensioner and prospector
• Charles Adam Bunney 50, pensioner and returned serviceman.

Johnson surrendered himself to police by walking into the Dandenong Police Station on Friday 7 October 1938 and giving a statement.^[1]

Johnson's statement. -.

• I am a labourer and I have no fixed place of address. About 3 p.m. at my abode, on Monday, October 3, 1938, I was sleeping on the bottom floor of the delicensed Windsor Castle Hotel, Dunolly, and a man named Gray was on the top floor hammering and making a loud noise. My axe was in the room where I was and I took it upstairs and hit Gray on the head with it and he fell on the floor. Another man named Charles Bunney then came in the room that we were in and looked at Gray, and he did not speak .I then hit Bunney with the axe on the head. I think that I hit Bunney twice and Gray twice with the axe. I then locked Gray's door with a small padlock and key. I then went outside and threw the key away. I stayed at the delicensed hotel for two nights afterward and I left on Wednesday, October 5, and walked to Maryborough. I took a ride in a transport truck from Maryborough to Melbourne on Thursday, October 6. I stayed in Melbourne on Thursday night, and walked out to Dandenong on Friday, the seventh. I knew that I had killed both of the men with the axe, my only excuse is that Gray was making a noise upstairs when I was trying to have a sleep. I did not want Bunney to be a witness and that was the reason that I killed him. I was sober when I killed both men. I often get into a bad temper and I was in a bad temper when I killed Gray. I did not see anyone else in the house when I killed the two men. I make this statement with my own free will and I was cautioned by Constable Kirkham at Dandenong police station that the statement may be used in evidence before I made the statement.^[2]

Trial[]

The trial was held in the Ballarat Supreme Court. The jury took six hours to deliver a guilty verdict. The judge sentenced him to death for the murders. Johnson was hanged and buried at Pentridge Prison, Coburg, on 23 January 1939. Asked by the Sheriff in the condemned cell whether he had anything to say, Johnson shook his head and indicated that he wanted execution to proceed.

References[]