Terrifying Facts About John Lynch, The Worst Serial Killer In Australian History

John Lynch, also known by his pseudonym, John Dunleavy, was one of several well-known Australian serial killers. He went down in history as the Berrima Axe Murderer, due his weapon of choice - a tomahawk. Few serial killers are axe murderers, as it requires that they get very close to the victim to deliver the final blow. However, Lynch had the habit of sneaking up on his targets from behind, giving them little chance to fight back. 

Lynch was born in Ireland in 1813. In the early 1830s, he was found guilty of a crime and sent to Australia as punishment. At the time, Australia was like a penal colony where convicts were sent to do hard labor. There, Lynch eventually joined the ranks of Bushrangers, who were the criminals and murderers prowling around Australia's outback. He was found guilty of serial murder in 1841 and was hung on April 22, 1842. 

In 1835, Lynch and several other men were put on trial for the murder of Thomas Smith. Smith had apparently witnessed the men committing a number of crimes and told law enforcement about them. He was found dead shortly thereafter, made to be an "example" of people who snitched. Lynch and his criminal gang admitted to the murders. Despite his confession, Lynch was somehow acquitted of the crime. However, his two cohorts were sentenced to death and hung. 

John Lynch apparently carried his tomahawk with him everywhere. Although a gun would have been a safer weapon to have on hand in the Australian outback, Lynch carried an axe. He used the same tomahawk to kill all nine of his known victims, as well as any others that he wasn't charged with murdering. This earned him the nickname, "Berrima Axe Murderer."

On February 19, 1841, a man noticed that a dingo was madly digging at some shrubs near the road. Upon closer inspection, he found the dead body of Kearns Landregan, who was last seen alive with John Lynch (though he was known in the area as John Dunleavy). Landregan had been murdered and beaten to death from behind. Lynch was brought in and questioned, found with Landregan's hat, and then charged with Landregan's murder. The rest of his crimes unraveled from there. 

The patriarch of the Mulligan family was a known fencer of stolen goods. Lynch tried to sell him cattle and other goods at certain points throughout his Australian crime spree, but the two had a falling out. Lynch believed that John Mulligan owed him money, so he went and confronted the man. When Mulligan refused to pay, Lynch killed him and his entire family - Mulligan's wife, Bridget, and their two children, John and Mary. Before Lynch killed Mary, he raped her. Then, he beat them all with his tomahawk before dragging their bodies into a pile and setting them on fire. 

Afterwards, Lynch claimed the Mulligan ranch as his own property. He wrote to the debt holder, claiming that Mulligan sold it to him (presenting himself as John Dunleavy). He stated in a letter that he would be making payments on the property now. This ruse worked for about six months until people grew suspicious of Lynch. 

Although John Lynch was born in Ireland, he spent part of his adult life in Australia. Lynch was convicted of the crime of "false pretenses" and sentenced to seven years of hard labor in Australia when he was 17 years old. He arrived in the land down under in 1832 and began working as a farmhand as part of his sentence. 

The Frazers, a father and son duo, were last seen alive was on August 14, 1841. They were traveling with Lynch when they contacted Samuel Bawtree, the man who had hired them to haul goods through the outback. Shortly afterward, they were never seen or heard from again. Lynch had apparently lured the son into the woods and bashed his head in, then did the same to the father. He hid their bodies, as well as their cart, and took off with the cattle and goods the Frazers had been transporting. 

After Lynch's arrest, he told law enforcement that God had been watching him the entire time that he was committing crimes and that God approved of the murders. On the night before he was executed, Lynch requested that a priest and a local magistrate come to his jail cell. There, he told both of them everything that he had done. 

After serving his seven-year sentence in Australia, the first thing that Lynch did was steal some cattle. He tried to sell them for quick money, but turned down what he felt wasn't a fair price. He decided to take the livestock to Sydney in hopes of securing a more favorable sale.

On the way there, he ran into a man named Edmund Ireland, who was traveling with a young Aboriginal boy. They had a wagonload of goods to sell and were also heading to Sydney. At one point during the journey, Lynch distracted them and killed the boy by smashing the back of his head in with a tomahawk. Later, Ireland shared a similar fate. Lynch hid both of their bodies in some brush and stole their wagon. 

Lynch was charged with the deaths of nine people. He had killed Edmund Ireland, Ireland's traveling companion (the unnamed Aboriginal boy), both of the Frazers, and the Mulligan family. His last victim, Kearns Landregan, was his undoing, as Lynch uncharacteristically left clues in his wake. However, when Lynch gave his confession right before his execution by hanging, he stated that he killed ten people. 

Lynch was supposed to serve as a farmhand in Australia to pay for his crimes in Britain. However, shortly after he arrived, he joined a gang of bushrangers. Bushrangers were criminals who wandered the Australian outback during the 18th and 19th centuries. They usually committed petty crimes and preyed on miners, Aboriginal people, farmers, ranchers, settlers, and just about anyone else who crossed their paths. 

Because of his murdering spree, Lynch is considered one of the most brutal bushrangers. He didn't always resort to cutting down people with his axe - Lynch also had a penchant for stealing valuable goods and fencing them.