Mike Munro

Very interesting book about the last bushrangers to roam the Australian bush at the start of the 20th century. Patrick and James Kenniff were a pair of tearaways who roamed the remote Canarvon area of western Queensland stealing cattle and fine horses. It was all a bit of a lark, until a party consisting of a policeman, a station manager and an Aboriginal tracker were sent out to hunt them down. When they caught up with them there was a shootout in which the two white men ended up dead, their bodies later hacked up and burnt. The tracker escaped without actually having witnessed the crime only hearing shots, the Kenniff brothers were blamed for the murder. They were hunted down and charged with murder, both strenuously denying their guilt. Sir Samuel Griffith, one of Australia's most respected judges, shamelessly manipulated the trial to get a guilty verdict. After grave doubts were expressed, Jimmy's sentence was commuted but Patrick was hanged, protesting his innocence to the end. Many believed that their father and/or younger brother actually committed the murders and the two brothers refused to turn them in. Mike Munro, one of Australia's best-known TV presenters, discovered he was actually related to the Kenniffs and set out to uncover their lives and the mystery of the crime, leading to a TV show being made which visited the site and performed an archaeological investigation. This a great book about Australia's wild outback during the transition from colony to nation, and the harsh lives of the people who inhabited it. It was obviously an emotional journey for Munro and he conveys this very well. A fascinating read for anyone interested in the Australian bush, crime and unsolved mysteries.… (más)