Fatal Encounter with a Desperado at Dubb…

Rare c.19th hand coloured engraving depicting the attempted capture by Dubbo police of a man name Gibson a known horse stealer in 1878.

FATAL ENCOUNTER WITH A DESPERATE HORSE-STEALER AT DUBBO, N.S.W.

It is not often that capture is resisted, even by an armed man, when the fugitive is pursued by three of the police; and perhaps this is one reason why, in the sad case which recently occurred at Dubbo, New South Wales, they seem not to have anticipated any serious resistance. Senior-Sergeant Wallings, with Constables Walsh and Souter, having heard that a desperate horse-stealer was concealed in a house near Dubbo, surrounded it. Walsh saw a man coming out of the back of the house with a revolving rifle in his hand. Souter thereupon tried to intercept him, and fired from his revolver three shots over his head to frighten him, motioning at the same time to Wallings and Walsh to ride round into a paddock and prevent his getting into the scrub.

This they did, and, being armed with revolvers, Wallings fired over the man’s head, as Souter had done. Thereupon the fellow stopped, and, turning round, dropped on his knees and pointed his rifle at Wallings, telling him to go back or he would shoot him. Wallings and Walsh still came on, Wallings in front, calling out, “Stand, in the Queen’s name; you are my prisoner and I arrest you.” Hereupon the man fired, and, being close to the sergeant, shot him through the heart, Wallings’s horse breaking away as he fell to the ground.

Walsh and the murderer then fired at each other simultaneously. Walsh missed, but the other’s bullet hit his horse’s ear, making him plunge so that Walsh was for the time helpless, and the villain then made good his escape into the scrub. Wallings was quite dead when picked up. His loss is much regretted, for he was a most efficient officer. Only forty years of age, he had spent twenty-three years in the New South Wales police force. He leaves a wife and eight children, not altogether unprovided for.

The murderer was hotly pursued and taken, after a fierce resistance. He has since died of his wounds, and thus escaped the gallows. He turns out to be a man named Gibson, one of a gang of horse-stealers who have long infested the district.

From the original edition of the Illustrated Australian News.

Collections:
University Queensland: Identifier 991000982479703131
State Library Victoria: PCINF IAN 04-09-76 P.133
National Library Australia: Bib ID 2495305
State Library New South Wales: CALL NUMBERS F079/55, TN380
Royal Geographic Society SA: RGS Special Coll. 079.94 I29d

References:
Syme, E. & D, Illustrated Australian News. ISSN 2208-5386.