Author: Wayne Martin    Publisher: Canterbury University Press

A narrative history of the Burgess Gang and their greatest crime In the winter of 1866 New Zealand’s most notoriousbushranger, Richard Burgess, knelt at a small desk in his Nelson prison cell, took up his quill pen and began to write. His life, he knew, was beyond salvation but words were the last weapon at his disposal to consign his mortal enemy, gang turncoat Joseph Sullivan, to the gallows. The blood-soaked confession that followed was described by Mark Twain as ‘without its peer in the literature of murder’. Five bodies had been recovered from Maungatapu Mountain in the upper South Island, and another from the West Coast. But who had done the killing,and how many other victims were there? What had brought the ruthless Burgess Gang to this point? Drawing on a wealth of primary sources, including little-known original accounts by Sullivan, ‘Murder on the Maungatapu’ tells the fascinating full story of a dark episode in this country’s history. This is a superbly written tale of blood and gold, ofbetrayal and vengeance, and it draws some startlingconclusions about New Zealand’s crime of thenineteenth century.

Bind: paperback

Pages: 320

Dimensions: 150 x 225 mm

Publication Date: 24-06-2016

Availability Date: 24-06-2016

Tags: History   New Zealand