For too long, John (Jack) Peisley has been left hanging in one word: "Bushranger".
That word is not wrong, but by itself, it is too easy. It lets the colony, the courts, the newspapers, the landholders and the men of standing all walk away clean.
Book One was written because the story would not sit quietly.
This is not asking you to excuse murder.
William Benyon was dead. That cannot be softened.
The question is was John hanged for Murder or was it to keep him quiet about the corruption in the bureaucracy in the Colony.
Book One takes the reader into the cell, onto the bush tracks, through the family hurt, and finally to the gallows.
You will enter:
- The Peisley family, before the legend, hardened around Jack.
- Coombing Park, the Abercrombie's, the goldfields, Fogg's Shanty and Bigga.
- Cockatoo Island Prison, its inhumane conditions, the escape attempt, and the sacking of the officials.
- Police pursuit, sly grog houses, courtrooms, gaol cells and the final morning.
Read it if you are prepared to be unsettled.