Scobie & Bentley
The miners' views about pub owners were reinforced by the death of an unfortunate miner called Scobie. On 6 October, Scobie dug up some gold. He apparently took it to James Bentley's Eureka Hotel, met with a gold buyer, sold his gold, and proceeded to hand some of his money over to Bentley in return for what appears to be rather a vast amount of alcohol.
At some stage, Scobie must have left the pub, possibly he was shunted out with all the other boozers at closing time. In the very early morning of 7 October, Scobie was back at the Eureka banging on doors and windows with a mate. Almost unbelievably, he reckoned he wasn't yet drunk enough, and apparently wanted entry to spend more of his gold money.
Bentley and at least some of his staff were still about, presumably cleaning up. What happened next is still unknown, unless one believes the crap spouted by the two very dodgy witnesses who came forward for a half share each of the £500 reward offered later by Governor Hotham. Obviously, we don't.
However, a short time later, some 70 or so metres from the Eureka, Bentley and a couple of his staff were found standing around a corpse, which proved to be the flesh, blood and bone which had once housed Scobie. The "mate" he had been carrying on with at the Eureka appears to have walked off the pages of history. He didn't come forward for Hotham's reward. We also haven't been able to find any reference to Scobie's gold money, or what was left after a very hard day's drinking. Which, we have to say, seems more than a little strange.
Lex, has read a stream of crime novels, and seen heaps of TV shows in which a person is found standing over a corpse with what proves to be the murder weapon. It's always assumed they're guilty. Hopefully they're found innocent before they're hanged, shot, poisoned, gassed, zapped, stoned, have their heads cut off with a large curved sword, or some other foul means of killing a person who might have been proved to be innocent if proper investigations and trials had occurred.
In this case, Scobie was found with a spade in his hands. And Scobie had quite a few bash marks on head and body. However, the doctor who saw to Scobie's corpse reckoned none of the serious bashing marks could have been carried out by such a spade. But, we're getting ahead of ourselves.
At the subsequent coronial inquest, Bentley and his staff were found to have had no involvement in Scobie's murder. But the miners reckoned, probably rightly, that the magistrate sitting as coroner had connections to Scobie. Whether these connections involved corruption is unknown, but widely suspected. Important here is not the actual truth, but the miners' truth. And they were steadfastly convinced Bentley had bought his way out of a problem.
At some stage, Scobie must have left the pub, possibly he was shunted out with all the other boozers at closing time. In the very early morning of 7 October, Scobie was back at the Eureka banging on doors and windows with a mate. Almost unbelievably, he reckoned he wasn't yet drunk enough, and apparently wanted entry to spend more of his gold money.
Bentley and at least some of his staff were still about, presumably cleaning up. What happened next is still unknown, unless one believes the crap spouted by the two very dodgy witnesses who came forward for a half share each of the £500 reward offered later by Governor Hotham. Obviously, we don't.
However, a short time later, some 70 or so metres from the Eureka, Bentley and a couple of his staff were found standing around a corpse, which proved to be the flesh, blood and bone which had once housed Scobie. The "mate" he had been carrying on with at the Eureka appears to have walked off the pages of history. He didn't come forward for Hotham's reward. We also haven't been able to find any reference to Scobie's gold money, or what was left after a very hard day's drinking. Which, we have to say, seems more than a little strange.
Lex, has read a stream of crime novels, and seen heaps of TV shows in which a person is found standing over a corpse with what proves to be the murder weapon. It's always assumed they're guilty. Hopefully they're found innocent before they're hanged, shot, poisoned, gassed, zapped, stoned, have their heads cut off with a large curved sword, or some other foul means of killing a person who might have been proved to be innocent if proper investigations and trials had occurred.
In this case, Scobie was found with a spade in his hands. And Scobie had quite a few bash marks on head and body. However, the doctor who saw to Scobie's corpse reckoned none of the serious bashing marks could have been carried out by such a spade. But, we're getting ahead of ourselves.
At the subsequent coronial inquest, Bentley and his staff were found to have had no involvement in Scobie's murder. But the miners reckoned, probably rightly, that the magistrate sitting as coroner had connections to Scobie. Whether these connections involved corruption is unknown, but widely suspected. Important here is not the actual truth, but the miners' truth. And they were steadfastly convinced Bentley had bought his way out of a problem.