Sam Poo

Sam Poo
A newspaper artist's impression of Sam Poo, created circa 1936 (more than 70 years after his death).
Died	19 December 1865 Bathurst, New South Wales
Cause of death	Execution by hanging
Other names	Cranky Sam
Conviction(s)	Shooting with intent to kill Wilful murder
Criminal penalty	Death sentence

Sam Poo (died 19 December 1865) was a Chinese

Poo was tried two times after his arrest. The first time on 10 April, he was tried for shooting with intent to kill at

Sam Poo was not his real name, as a Chinese equivalent for it does not exist. Robert Macklin suggests that it is either a derogatory nickname created by white settlers and used by the police or a slang rendering of similar syllables. Macklin also describes the first theory as the more likely one.^[1] Several newspaper articles in 1930s and 1940s have referred to a Chinese man who killed Constable Ward as "Li Hang Chiak", but none of the articles mention Sam Poo as Chiak's alternative name.^[a] He was also nicknamed "Cranky Sam" and "Phantom Chinaman".^[6][7]

Sam Poo was a Chinese emigrant to Australia during the

He was armed with a shotgun and a pistol, and he would lie at a hideaway on the Gulgong–Mudgee road where he'd wait for pedestrians whom he threatened and demanded all their valuables. His victims were mostly Chinese but he also targeted white settlers.^[9][10] Several days prior to the killing of John Ward, Poo allegedly threatened a Mudgee woman, Elizabeth Golding, after speaking with her daughter. According to Golding, Poo said to her "if I cannot have my will of the girl, I will of you".^[11]

Murder of John Ward and manhunt

On 2 February 1865, Poo robbed a hut of a shepherd who was in the employment of farmer James Plunkett and later that day he threatened to shoot two stockmen if they didn't inform him of the topography of the locality. After these two events, locals sent for the police stationed at Denison Town who arrived at midnight. The next morning, Plunkett, Mr. S. E. Plumb, and the police set out to scour the bush for Poo but they were unsuccessful. When they returned at around midday, they found out that Poo had just visited a shepherd's hut a quarter of a mile from the head station. After receiving directions from the shepherd's wife, they proceeded their search towards Mudgee but they were again unsuccessful. At around 5 pm, they met two travellers who said that a bushranger addressed them in a threatening manner about 4 miles (6.4 kilometres) up the road. Travellers described him as a Chinaman with a revolver in the belt and gun on the shoulder. After riding 9 miles up the road, Plunkett and police officer Constable Todd found policeman John Ward heavily injured.^[10][12]

At 10 am on 3 February 1865,

Trials and execution

On 10 April, Poo was indicted on shooting at Henry Hughes with intent to kill. He did not answer the charge, remaining mute. The jury was then empanelled to try whether he was wilfully mute or unhappily so. After hearing of several witnesses, the jury retired for half an hour and brought a verdict of dumbness by malice. The judge decided that this was equivalent to plea of not guilty and another jury was empanelled. Crown prosecutor Edward Butler presented the case, the policemen involved in Poo's capture were heard as witnesses and the victim Hughes was also heard. In his testimony, Hughes said that Poo's shot hit the rim of his hat. After the hearings and presentation of evidence, the jury retired for a few minutes and returned a verdict of wounding with an intent to kill. Poo, being very weak and emaciated, was remanded for sentence.^[15]

Poo was tried for the murder of John Ward on 10 October 1865 at Bathurst Court House. He was charged with wilful murder and he was defended by court-appointed

ballistic evidence that Poo's weapon fired the fatal shot was presented, and that Poo was too mentally weakened to stand a trial. Macklin concludes that what happened to Poo was "legal lynching".^[19]

On 19 December 1865, Poo was hanged at the Bathurst Gaol. Three Chinese prisoners were brought to watch the hanging alongside a dozen civilians who had gathered. According to Sydney Mail, Poo "appeared to be perfectly unconscious of his fate"[17] and was clapping his hands at the door of his cell until his arms were pinioned by the executioners. He was then led to the gallows without speaking a word or raising his head.^[17] A different story of his execution is given in Great Bushrangers and Outlaws, a book about the history of bushranging published in 1974, which portrays Poo in a positive manner. In this version, Poo has last words, those being a request to a hospital warder that "he [does] not wish to see or speak to any of his countrymen".^[20]

Legacy

In historical accounts

Historian

Chinaman". Next account of Poo is given by Robert Travers in his 1973 book Rogues' March: A Chronicle of Colonial Crime in Australia. In contrast to White's account, Travers depicts Poo as a moral avenger and as a traditional outlaw hero. Travers omits Poo's alleged threat to Elizabeth Golding and her daughter.^[21]

In popular culture

Sam Poo was raised from obscurity when he was fictionalised as Lam Yut Soon in David Martin's novel The Hero of Too (1965).^[22]

His life was dramatised for radio in The Shadow of Sam Poo (1930) and episodes of Outlawry Under the Gums (1933).

Since then,

children's novel about Poo in 2003,^[24] and in 2014 Robert Macklin and Chinese-born film producer Cindy Jia Li teamed up to create Aodaliya Gold, a movie about Poo and in the same year the trailer for the movie was released.^[25] In 2015, film companies from Canberra, JIA Films and SilverSun Pictures partnered with Yuezhong Pictures from China to create Aodaliya Gold with the budget of $15 million.^[26] Sam Poo appears in two paintings by Mudgee artist, Michael Bourke in an exhibition 'A Brief History of Mudgee' held at Mudgee Arts Precinct

in April 2022. [27]

Notes

1. ^ See:^{[2][3][4][5][6]}

References

Footnotes