The 'Burgess gang' murdered and thieved their way around the South Island during the 1860s. Their most notorious crime was five killings over two days in June 1866, on the Maungatapu track near Nelson.
Richard Burgess, the gang's ringleader, originally known as Richard Hill, had been transported from London to Melbourne for theft at the age of 16, arriving in 1847
For a few short months the Burgess gang embarked upon a crime spree along the west coast of the South Island that would culminate in the murder of five men on the Maungatapu Track.
Joseph Sullivan claimed to have acted solely as a lookout for the gang, and informed the police about the killing of James Battle, incriminating the others
Depositions against the gang began on 2 August 1866 and attracted great excitement. It was only now that it was revealed that Sullivan had informed on the others.
When Joseph Sullivan returned to Hokitika to give evidence about the robbery of the Hokitika police camp and the murder of George Dobson, a mob called for him to be lynched
While attending Christchurch Girls' High School, Pauline Parker met Juliet Hulme and formed the
friendship that was to radically change the course of both their lives. In 1954 the pair were convicted of murder in a sensational case, later dramatised in Peter Jackson's film Heavenly creatures.
The Te Whakatohea chief, Mokomoko was one of five Maori executed on May 17 for being implicated in the murder of the missionary Carl Volkner at Opotiki in 1865. The government punished Te Whakatohea further for Volkner's death by confiscating of much of Te Whakatohea 's land.
