Captured: Portraits of Crime 1870-1930 - Flipbook - Page 33
In 1843 Plummer was granted a ticket of leave. Shortly after, however, he was
convicted of larceny, sent to Berrima Gaol for seven years and had his ticket of
leave revoked. In 1862, he was convicted of stealing and selling a horse, saddle and
bridle, and served eighteen months in Bathurst Gaol where he was allocated work
outside the prison walls. A good character reference submitted from his most recent
employer, Mr Piper, and the support of the gaol chaplain, enabled Plummer to obtain
a pardon in December 1863. But less than six months later he was convicted of
larceny after stealing from a drinking acquaintance at the Bathurst Royal Hotel.
Plummer was sentenced to five years hard labour at Darlinghurst Gaol and was
transferred in May 1864 to the infamous Biloela Gaol (Cockatoo Island).
In May 1868 Plummer was granted a remission of sentence due to good conduct.
He was discharged from Biloela Gaol on 11 June 1868 and issued with a certificate of
freedom. Plummer’s liberty, however, came to an end in October 1869 at Wagga Wagga.
He was found guilty of stealing from Thomas Grace at the Exchange Hotel. Plummer had
followed Grace to the water closet and closed the door. A 10 year old boy, Simon Sam
Ling, peered through a crack in the wall and saw Plummer cut open the trouser pocket
of the drunken Grace and steal his money. The boy quickly ran for help and Plummer
was arrested. Sentenced to six months in Wagga Wagga Gaol, Plummer also spent three
days in solitary confinement for insubordinate language.
From 1871 to 1873 Plummer was repeatedly convicted of larceny and served a
number of gaol sentences at Wagga Wagga. These offences involved stealing swags, as
did his conviction at Gundagai in 1875. Henrietta Johnson —‘a crazy-looking woman’
of no fixed address who Plummer had treated to a drink — trusted the old man to carry
her swag. Instead of helping her, Plummer stole the swag, and was sentenced to three
months gaol.
In February 1876, Plummer — alias John Carter — appeared in court and was
sentenced to one month hard labour at Albury Gaol for stealing clothing and a
mailbag. He had just been released from a fourteen day sentence for stealing from a
man who was drunk. In October 1878, Plummer was convicted of larceny at Wagga Wagga
Court and given a two year sentence at Darlinghurst Gaol.
On 12 July 1887 Plummer was released from Parramatta Gaol, more than fifty
years after he had first arrived in Sydney as a convict transportee. Thieving was a
lifetime habit for Plummer, but he never used violence or physical force on his
victims. It would seem that in his later years, he simply stole to survive.
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