The discovery of her husband’s body initially appeared to be a tragic suicide, but a shocking forensic finding turned the case into one of the most controversial murder trials in Australian history. It ended with Ellen Thompson becoming the first and only woman in Queensland ever sentenced to hang. Ellen Lynch was born in Mallow, County Cork, Ireland, in 1846, during the Great Famine. Following the death of her father, her mother, Mary Lynch, decided to leave Ireland.
On April 6, 1858, she boarded the ship Joshua with her two daughters and sailed to the Australian colony of New South Wales, where she was reunited with her sister in the town of Goulburn, about 120 miles southwest of Sydney. The two girls did not attend school, as education was not yet compulsory. Instead, Ellen found employment and worked hard to help her mother, who was often told she had raised two very respectable daughters. While still a teenager, Ellen married William Woods, and over the next few years gave birth to five children: three girls and two boys.
Their firstborn, a daughter named Victoria, died of scarlet fever on August 22, 1867, at just four years old. Life in rural 19th-century Australia was difficult, with demanding farm labor, limited access to doctors, and isolation from larger communities. The situation became desperate when William Woods died on May 20, 1871, after nine years of marriage, leaving Ellen to provide for her children alone. Seeking financial security, she journeyed to Cooktown in Far North Queensland, where gold discoveries promised new opportunities.
It was a rough place where few women had traveled, and Ellen assisted in nursing sick miners suffering from respiratory issues and insect-borne infections while working hard to support herself and her children. In 1877, the settlement of Port Douglas emerged as a key gateway to the goldfields of the Hodgkinson River. Among the first to secure land was William “Billy” Thompson, a diligent but demanding and uncompromising man. In 1878, Ellen accepted a position as his housekeeper.
He was 24 years her senior, but despite his rigid attitudes, they got along. In 1880, Ellen gave birth to a daughter named Helen, fathered by Thompson. For a time, having a child of his own seemed to soften his behavior. Because Helen was illegitimate, a strong social stigma at the time, Thompson asked Ellen to marry him, and she accepted, hoping to provide a more stable life for her family.
The marriage quickly soured and became violent. Authorities intervened on several occasions to protect Ellen and her children. One child was removed due to concerns about living conditions, another was relocated following verbal abuse, and a third left the house after Thompson threw a kerosene lamp at her when she objected to his proposal that she marry his brother, who was already in his fifties. When Ellen tried to intervene, he held a knife at her.
Thompson also held strong prejudices against the couple’s Chinese neighbors, and his harsh words fueled further tension. Ellen eventually moved into a separate establishment but remained married, aware that she would inherit her husband’s property upon his death. To keep the farm prosperous, she began working in the sugarcane fields. It was during these days that she met John Harrison, a former Royal Marine from County Durham in northeast England.
Born in 1859, he was considerably younger than Ellen, and the two got on well. Shortly after they met, rumors began to circulate that they were involved in an improper relationship. Thompson became increasingly suspicious of the attention Harrison paid his wife and confronted him, shouting, “Jack, why do you come here hawking the old woman about the place like this every day? ” The confrontation did not deter Harrison, and the rumors continued.
Thompson eventually challenged him to a duel, calling out that “the best man should keep the old woman. ” Most people dismissed these outbursts as the ramblings of a grumpy old man, though some expressed concern about Thompson’s state of mind. On October 22, 1886, Thompson was discovered on the floor of his house next to his gun, with a bullet wound to his head. He was still alive but unable to speak, and he died later that night.
Because Thompson was known as a volatile character and some had worried about his mental health, his death seemed consistent with suicide. In a statement dictated to police, since she was illiterate, Ellen said she believed her husband had not been well for some time and had taken his own life. The police initially believed the suicide theory, but a choice of words left lingering questions. In the weeks that followed, Ellen ran the farm with the assistance of a newly employed worker: John Harrison.
They were seen together frequently, and the community began gossiping again. After hearing that the widow was being talked about in such a manner, the authorities decided to keep a watchful eye on both Mrs. Thompson and Harrison. Suspicion grew as several factors cast doubt on the suicide explanation.
Thompson’s brother adamantly believed that William’s scheduled business appointments in Port Douglas the day after his death contradicted the idea of suicide. Some locals in Port Douglas, though they accepted that William was a volatile character, found it hard to believe he had taken his own life. On January 6, 1887, Ellen Thompson and John Harrison were arrested on board the steamer Glanworth during their voyage back to Port Douglas from Townsville, where they had apparently been to see a lawyer. Both denied any part in William Thompson’s death.
Authorities then decided to exhume the body. Surgeons examined the skull and reached a disturbing conclusion: Thompson had been shot not once, but twice. This finding directly challenged the assumption of a single self-inflicted gunshot. Ellen Thompson and John Harrison were charged with murder.
The trial took place in Townsville on May 3, 1887, and both pleaded not guilty. Ellen steadfastly claimed she had no hand in her husband’s death and insisted she was wrongly accused. The prosecution alleged that Ellen and Harrison had conspired to kill Thompson for financial gain. The defense countered that most of William Thompson’s estate had not been left to his wife but to his brother.
Inside the courtroom, Ellen faced accusations that she was a loose woman, and her character was smeared to paint her as morally suspect. John Harrison was portrayed as her latest romantic interest, and the press cast Ellen as a scarlet woman. A staggering 197 depositions were presented on behalf of the crown, a formidable array of evidence that stacked the odds against the defendants. There were also unsettling suggestions that some witnesses may have been influenced by financial incentives to help secure a conviction, raising questions about the integrity of the case.
After three days, the jury returned a guilty verdict, and Ellen Thompson became the first and only woman in Queensland history to be sentenced to hang. The judgment sent shockwaves through Queensland and the whole of Australia. When given the chance to speak, Ellen gave a passionate denial of any involvement in her husband’s murder. She accused witnesses of lying, suggested her husband had been suicidal, and insinuated that their Chinese neighbors may have played a sinister role in his death.
As the execution date approached, Ellen arranged for a prison officer to write heartfelt letters on her behalf to the Queensland Governor, pleading for mercy. She swore by her husband’s memory that she was innocent. John Harrison, on the other hand, allegedly made a stunning confession to a jailer the night before his execution. In harsh tones, he admitted that he had killed William Thompson.
He described failed attempts to poison him and a violent altercation that ended with the fatal gunshots, claiming all the while he had been encouraged by Ellen to kill her husband. He also said he had never truly cared for Ellen and had only been interested in the farm and the sugarcane. On June 13, 1887, Ellen Thompson and John Harrison were led to the gallows at Boggo Road jail. In her final moments, Ellen held fast to her claim of innocence, saying, “I am innocent,” and then, standing on the brink of her own mortality, spoke her last words: “I die like a wounded angel.
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