Dennis Alcoloret

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Maureen Withey on 14th October 2022

TUESDAY 19.-The trial of William Wilkes and Angus Fergusson for the murder of Dennis Alcoloret, a servant of Mr. Roberts, at his salt works on Brune island in October 1827, commenced this day. William Wilkes was found guilty, and was sentenced to be hanged this morning at 8 o'clock, Angus Fergusson was acquitted. Hobart Town Courier, 23 Jan 1830.

343

Maureen Withey on 14th October 2022

From what we can learn of the Bruné Island murder case, for which Wilks suffered death on Saturday last, it appears that all the parties concerned including the murdered man, were servants of Mr. Roberts, who at that period (more than two years ago) had an establishment for the manufactory, of salt and soap upon Brune Island, near the water's edge. The party had been engaged in playing cards, in the men's hut, when, according to the story told by the accomplice, a quarrel having arisen between Dennis Alcoloret, the murdered man, and Wilks, the latter struck the other with an axe, and afterwards, in the rear of the premises, completed the murder. Ferguson, it appears and the King's evidence, Ayton, were present at the beginning of the fray, and immediately after the murder was committed, Wilks possessed himself with some loaded fire-arms that were in tile hut, compelled the two others by intimidation, to have a hand in the horrid deed, by dragging Dennis Alcoloret's body, in which life was not yet extinct, and placing it under the furnace, where it was presently consumed by fire! But the eye of Providence was observing their proceedings, and although the spot is so secluded, a person, named Stephen Gould, happened to visit it in his boat, and to endeavour to put in, for the purpose of lighting his pipe, but was peremptorily refused permission to land. Now, this of itself was nothing, but coupling it with the extraordinary smell of burnt flesh that he describes - with the unusual circumstance of not being allowed to land at a place where strangers were generally received with a welcome, and with its having happened on the precise day when the murder was stated by the accomplice to have been perpetrated, it had considerable weight in fixing guilt upon one or more of the parties, and in confirming the story told by Ayton. Wilks continued most hardened to the last moment of his existence, and repeatedly asserted his innocence, but neither his deportment nor anything else at all confirmed his words. After he left the Court, under the awful sentence of the law, and with barely forty hours to live, his language and manner were indecorous in the extreme; nor was he in a much better frame of mind, as he ascended the gallows steps, using expressions that showed but too, clearly, the callous state of his mind. Colonial Times, 29 Jan 1830.

Dennis Alcoloret was Aged 24 when indicted for stealing 6 pairs of boots, value 30s., the goods of William Patterson, a shoemaker, privately in his shop. He said he was buying them for his wife, so presumably he was married. Jul7 1821-31/8/1828 Dennis received 150 lashes, not all at once, for being absent without leave or drunk or out after hours or neglect of duty. Dennis was murdered by William Wilkes who was executed on 23/1/1830.